Unexpected DSP Overload - any ideas?

eye-q · Post by **eye-q** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 1:12 pm

Hi! I recently bought a PowerPulsar (SFP 3.1c), I'm using Nuendo 2.0.1 and I work in XTC mode. My PC is an Intel 865 P4 HT at 2.6MHz, I have configurated it as Single-processor PC with HT deactivated from BIOS and I have done all the adjustments referred in the manual of the card. Very often when I load some XTC plugins, I get the error "Unexpected DSP overload" even though the amount of DSP power used by the loaded plugins is minimal. After the message, I get no audio output. When I access the ULLI/ASIO panel from the device manager I have to reenable the latency to make it work again. Sometimes it takes 10-20 attempts to make it work again. Does anyone have any idea...?

R-type · Post by **R-type** » Fri Mar 05, 2004 8:18 pm

I have the same annoying problem. Are you using Minimax?

I find with any big XTC project with more than 1 instance of Minimax I get those error messages.

Max out your DSP without using Minimax at all then save and close the project and try to reload it a few times to test reliability.

eye-q · Post by **eye-q** » Sat Mar 06, 2004 5:51 pm

You might be right. I removed Minimax from all the sessions and the problem stopped. But there are some sessions that use Minimax and work flawlessly and in one session I get the error while loading the Optimaster plugin. On the other hand, Minimax is one of the major reasons I bought this card... Does anyone know a trick to solve this?

Ecogen · Post by **Ecogen** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 6:06 am

I havent used Nuendo. But are you loading up all the vst's and only using some of them? If thats the case load what u need and check the dsp meter as you go along. I am new at this as well, good luck

dland · Post by **dland** » Sun Mar 07, 2004 11:06 am

i see the same behavior with Nuendo2 and MINIMAX. I also see it with Solaris. I hit retry, and I'm usually ok after that point.

--------------
WinXP
Pentium4 2.6GHz (non-HT)
Intel D875PBZ motherboard
1GB RAM
GeForceFX5200
PowerPulsar Z-link
UAD-1
TC Powercore
Nuendo 2

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: dland on 2004-03-07 11:15 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: dland on 2004-03-07 11:16 ]</font>

R-type · Post by **R-type** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 3:22 pm

only use minimax once per project. I know it sucks but that's all I can do to make things work.

This is a bug which I hope Creamware fixes.

zezappa · Post by **zezappa** » Mon Mar 08, 2004 8:28 pm

...strange thing, this happens to me in SFP mode when I load the first instance of Minimax and, as dland has said, I hit retry and no more problem, even loading more Minimax instances in the project.

In XTC mode (with SX2) this has never happened and, r-type, I've tried to load till 6 Minimax with 1 voice (on 2/3 of my 15 dsp) and no problem till now. (knock, knock, knock...)
No problem at all with Solaris. (3 more knocks on wood)

Quifster · Post by **Quifster** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 2:30 am

i have the same problem, but i also found a solution. This problem only arises when you work in 48 khz mode. If you work in 44.1 khz mode you will not experience this problem.

zezappa · Post by **zezappa** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 6:37 am

...still stranger, quifster, I always have been at 44.1 k, it doesn't happen if I change the clk to slave mode, but I stay with it as master. It hasn't meant any problem.

Post by **garyb** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 12:21 pm

stranger still,i've never seen this problem...maybe it has something to do with the size of the device.maybe if the dsps are already loaded in such a way that when there is not a full chip available it causes problems until one reloads the dsps.....

eye-q · Post by **eye-q** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 6:53 pm

I still have the problem in all of my projects (6-7), and working in 44.1 has not changed anything. I don't know if it is caused because of the high speed of the latest chipsets (intel 865-875) because I noticed that users who work with earlier hardware don't seem to have any problem. Maybe it's time to buy a second-hand 286

Post by **garyb** » Tue Mar 09, 2004 8:55 pm

doubt it.i have used 820,850 and 865 chipsets.

R-type · Post by **R-type** » Thu Mar 11, 2004 1:48 am

reloading the dsps crashes XTC for me.

I get the problem in SFP mode too but not as bad. I wish I had the answer beyong limiting my Minimax usage.

Liquid EDGE · Post by **Liquid EDGE** » Mon Apr 05, 2004 4:46 pm

Don't know if this will help. but maybe

i used to have this problem with my pulsar2 and luna card.

for me though it was because i had a pci graphics card installed on my pc, also the irq were shared with other hardware.

once i got a agp graphics card and singled the irq to only the creamware cards the prob disapered.

at0m · Post by **at0m** » Tue Apr 06, 2004 3:55 pm

Never encountered the Unexpected DSP Overload problem like that, untill recently this project starts to complain also. I don't use XTC, and SFP has about 10dsp free...

To track the problem down to one device, I renamed MINIMAX.dev to MINIMAX2.dev so it couldn't be loaded with the project, and no more DSP Overload appeared. Renamed Minimax again, loaded it and there was the error again. Saved the project without Minimax, reloaded it, and loaded Minimax. Runs fine again since... Strange heh.

Recently, talking with Valis about phase compansation, he said the project keeps the offset as set in PhaseFix, unless big changes were made to the project. This would mean SFP remembers the way it lays out modules over chips.

Now the procedure I did with Minimax seemed to reset the location of Minimax, and the problem solved. That's fine by me, now at least I know what to do to fix it, if it happens again and I don't need to keep clicking Yes to reload DSP.

orbita · Post by **orbita** » Sat Apr 24, 2004 7:15 am

yaeh ive found that pressing cancel and then dropping the voices down to 0, reseting the clock and raising the voices also seems to do the trick. I guess this has a similar effect as what you suggest atomic and causes the module to relocate itself.