Dell Latitude DPC Latency Issues

Thanks for the tips John. I've updated the Matrix storage driver to the latest one and downgraded and reupgraded the firmware in the DVD and I've disabled everything I can in the BIOS. Any other suggestions?

Steve

 

I fear that you are going to have to dig into the processes: Someone use xperf to try to understand what was happening. It is also possible that one of the SysInternals process tools may reveal some useful information.

John

 

Actually, if you want to do low lat recordings, invest in a good soundcard. ASIO4ALL has always been a workaround and should NOT be used if you want to do hq recording or producing. I don't know of any laptop which can do this without external hardware, internal souncards are simply not up for the job. I use Cubase 4 with loads and loads of FX and instruments running at 6ms with an e-mu 1616m PCMCIA card without issues on the same laptop.
If your demands are high you should be prepared to invest in decent hardware for the task.

 

Well, I don't even do any recording (yet). I am a 90% MIDI guy with no external hardware. Note what I am saying over here:

You still think this is just a soundcard issue?

And btw, Dell-Bill got back to me when I whined about this issue in the other E6400 thread saying that he'll help me if we take the issue to PM. I PM'ed him and he did get back to me, although just to say something along the lines of 'we will now use DPC latency checker in all our future testing. we know this information is of no help to you, we are sorry.'

And I would have bought an external soundcard and shut up about it, but this laptop has a smart-card reader (bought it refurbished from ebay), and I don't believe in external USB soundcards.

 

I never said it is just a soundcard issue. However, don't expect those latencies with running ASIO4ALL drivers, like i said they are just a work-around for people without a soundcard that actually support ASIO and the latency values you mention. There is a reason why good soundcards are expensive you know.
What does the smartcard have to do with it? You mean the slot on the left, right? Because there's also a PCMCIA (cardbus) slot on the right and a PCI-express on the left. Both for which you could get excellent soundcards, and FW but i never really chose that option since it has way lower bandwith than PCMCIA.
From you saying you're a 90% MIDI with no external hardware i'm assuming you're running Vst's and Vsti's? All the more reason to get a better souncard, the internal one simply does NOT offer 3ms latency.

 

Thanks for this John. I got hold of the xperf for Windows 7 and ran it. The culprit is ndis.sys, and more specifically ndisMTimerObjectDPC. Jusr doing some research into this now.

Eesh!
<moan>Just brought this Dell Vostro 1220 before xmas. Super high spec as I (foolishly) thought it would be good for doing music on. Lovely laptop, great keyboard, good screen but completely useless unless I can run my music software on it (Native Instruments, Ableton etc)</moan>

 

I think I've tracked my problem down to the BIOS. I installed Windows XP on the laptop and before I installed any drivers I run the DPC Latency test and it shows the same problem: spikes every 4 seconds. I've checked on the Dell site and there isnt a BIOS update for my laptop and I can't find any previous versions of the BIOS either.

So two questions. 1. Does anyone know if I can install an OEM BIOS (ie amibios or phoenix) and 2. has anyone had any experience of getting a refund from dell for this issue?

Cheers

Steve

 

Yes, the BIOS seems to be stuck at A03. Are you in a position to try different HDD access modes (I assume that the 1220 BIOS offers some choice)?

John

 

Hi John.

It has 3 choices: Disabled, ATA and AHCI.

Windows 7 is installed on AHCI. I split the primary partition and installed XP on the laptop in ATA mode. (it currently dual-boots, XP when I set it to ATA and Win7 when I change it to AHCI). On both Windows 7 and XP the DPC spike still happens every 4 seconds . I assume by this that the spikes are independent of the hard drive mode, altho I may wipe the whole drive and try ATA mode without it being dual boot.

 

There may be enough guidance in this thread to enable you to switch to ADA without reinstallation of Windows. Or the Windows 7 repair disk may be able to fix things if you change HDD access modes.

However, if you are getting that spike with both modes then changing to ATA is unlikely to be the fix. Can you try progressively disabling the hardware in the BIOS to see if that has any effect?

John