XPS M1730's are completely unusable for music production software [Please try test]

No, I'm not just trying to run at 1.5 and being all sad it doesn't work.

Remember, the red spikes? The 23,000us spikes? The consistent yellow spikes every other bar?

It interrupts the audio no matter what setting I use.

 

Do you work for Dell?

Please show your DPC lat screenies, and be honest.

 

To be fair I have seen this problem on more than 2 forums, so its not just the OP

As for it not being high end - if you can point me in the direction of a laptop with a 2.66G cpu, 4Gb ram, 250G ssd and 13" screen for £1300 or less I would happily accept the sxps isn't a good deal. I looked at the precision and latitude but they were way more expensive. The whole dell site confuses me anyway lol! What would you suggest?

 

Why would that mean he works for Dell??

Honestly, there have been some good suggestions in here but you are only replying to the ones who want to compare. And in the end, sorry to say, but if you wanted a workstation laptop, you should have bought a workstation laptop, not a gaming laptop

I'm sure with some research in some of your music production forums/websites, there must be some laptops that are adequate for your line of work.

 

Besides the DPC Latency problems, how is this not a workstation in every way?

 

I normally get a few red bars in windows. As soon as I set the CPU to max performance mode via RMclock, any red just sweeps away.

 

Agreed. This whole issue has been around for a couple of years now (if not longer judging by google searches).

Even with the DPC latency issue/spikes, I have NO problems using the M1730 for gaming, listening to music, office tasks... plain everyday computing needs. Am I composing musical scores on the thing? No. If I needed to do that, as others have already suggested - I would be looking at a desktop rig and not a portable. Just my opinion.

 

Yeh - with those kind of results I'd expect it to be badly affected. Just suggesting that you can get perfectly usable results with yellow DPC levels at usable latencies.

 

Well, for starters, you can't even GET to the XPS1730 on the Dell website until you click "Gaming Laptops"....

I'm not saying it's not a decent laptop, but... my idea of a workstation computer is... a computer designed to work on, not game on. For purely work purposes, I would have looked at Dell's Vostro and Latitude line... or a Lenovo Thinkpad. Those are much more geared as "workstation" notebooks.

 

Also, this may or may not be useful, but I found it after a quick search... you've probably seen it though.

http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=80949&page=5

Something about switching IDE to AHCI in bios... it's worth a try.

 

I was going to point out the difference between us and ms last night and how 1000 us does NOT equal a full second. I figured that we had given him enough to do in terms of documenting his system for us so that we could offer some meaningful help.

And no word on whether or not he's engaged with the makers of the sound hardware andediting software to see if they have any advice for him.

I also notice that in the documentation for the dpclat tool that the maker advises that running it on Vista will give varied and unreliable results. 'They promised' that a fix would be forthcoming but no word on whether or not their version 1.1.0 has that fix.

But todays cracks "Do you work for Dell?" along with 'Be Honest" are way out of line and reinforces my notion that he's more interested in complaining than solving.

 

Kind of the notion I've been getting as well from this thread...

 

Read my "solution" on page 4. It's workable, but it feels wrong. Suspending kernel threads... scary stuff.

 

XP isn't the best platform for real-time work.

Have you considered going to server 2003/2008 as your desktop? Those platforms are designed for near-real-time work, more so than the desktop variants.

 

"Server 2003" is totally irrelevant for this issue and does not have lower latencies. Again, here's a picture of XP, which is already perfection, so Server 2003 does nothing except not work with any soundcards and have no drivers provided by companies like RME.

 

I don't know why my latency is low, I haven't the time to look through the driver stack and see which drivers are allocating DPC's for ISR's and then placing code into the DPC object....As long as it's low - i'm happy.

It's known that Windows 7 has a new kernel scheduling algorithm (or parts at least), google "russinovich windows 7" to find the channel 9 going deep interviews.

n.m - I found them: http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Going+Deep/Mark-Russinovich-Inside-Windows-7/

It's also known that Windows 7 has a new user mode scheduler as well.

These things alter the way windows behaves, and until I personally spend time rebuilding all my drivers for windows 7 using the Win7 DDK, and doing some serious reading, I wouldn't be able to comment with any authority on that at all. And I'm not going to do that for RC and then re-do it for release - it's too much work.

Bublze,

I know the following with 100% certainty:

Changing hardware configurations will not help you fix this (unless one piece has a fault).

Unless you have a faulty piece of hardware in your system, then this is a driver issue - I absolutely guarantee it.

Using pieces of software like Powermizer or stuff to lock your CPU speed will only "f *** up" your system - software like this that interferes with the "normal" operation of things - by and large - just f*** s it up.

Rather than suspending the kernel thread - you are much better off turning off AHCI in the bios, and reconfiguring the machine so that it's removed, otherwise, all AHCI driver IRPs will continue to be pumped from the hardware through the HAL at the suspended driver in the stack - it's like firing continuous rounds at bulletproof glass - they don't go through - but you keep firing them.....I'm sure it won't help matters at all.

If I were you I would TURN OFF the WIFI and BLUETOOTH in the BIOS, rebuild the machine from scratch with the Windows 7 RC, install the chipset driver, audio driver, and all windows updates, and NOTHING MORE. Then run DPC Latency and tell us what that achieves.

P.S.
Everyone on this thread is really trying to help you here with your driver issue, it seems all you want to do is pick holes and argue with them, which is a shame.

p.p.s BatBoy Crash dumps are where it's at

 

No I don't work for Dell, never have done and probably never will.

There would be no point posting my DPC latency screenshot because I don't have an XPS. As can be seen in my signature, I own a Dell Latitude D610 and a Dell Latitude D420. Neither of them are designed or set up for music production and that was neither my intention at the time when I bought them.

True, I am merely pointing out that a couple of problems with one model does not necessarily mean that the whole line (including the brand new models) have the same fault. In fact, we have yet to prove that all XPS1730s suffer from this fault.

OK, I'm wrong in saying that it's not a high-end laptop. What I meant to say is that isn't an ultra high-end workstation laptop because you simply can't fit the high-performance components into a 13" machine.

I'm not saying that the SPX13 is a bad deal, it's certainly a very nice machine. I'm merely saying that it is not a workstation laptop and so I can't guarentee that it won't have a high DPC latency. If you want to do professional audio work then you will probably need a 15-17" workstation laptop, which is going to be expensive.

The fact that it's listed under "gaming laptops" is probably has something to do with it.......

 

just to add my 2 cents

i run an xps m1530 for audio production, ran the test and i have heaps of yellow. at uni and cant be bothered uploading image of dpc check, but yea, plenty of yellow and green bars. i have absolutely no problem with recording real time audio, and before you say it, i am not some kid or anything doing less than professional audio recording. if you want to hear stuff ive recorded on my xps, go to www.myspace.com/karisband thats my band and everything was recorded on xps with an external sound card.

just thought id chuck that in with people saying that a yellow bar = no audio production

matt

 

Bubzle,

Have you tried to set the process priority from Task Manager? If you set this DPC latencies tool with High to realtime, you should then notice much improved timing. All you need to do is bring up the Task Manager and go to Processes tab then find your interested task name and right click on it to bring up the drop down menu and point to Set Priority and change the process priority level. Note, please try to not set excessive CPU process with high priority level which would lock up your system. Hope this helps.

 

Bubzle hasn't been back for 3 months, so I don't know if he'll get your message satii0. But thanks for posting.

 

has anyone tried running the test on the 14z? I ordered mine and I was intending to use it for audio editing

 

Thanks a lot for this thread!

I reduced my latency from 432us to 5us(!), by disabling the second non-used Gigabit Ethernet Controller on my desktop computer. And I use it for music producing.. Can't believe it ate that much of the capacity.

 

Yes, I have a Precision M6300.
It is quite expensive having paid $3120.00 for it.

You would expect that it would be usable for audio production since it is labeled as a workstation right?

Its not..

...periodic spikes. RED spikes. Seems to be something with the fan changing speeds. Definitely a BIOS or internal hardware issue as I as running XP down to the bare minimum in terms of running processes.

What a waste of an otherwise perfectly good laptop.
This is going back to Dell pretty soon.
Totally unusable for live DJ-ing. Superb for gaming though.
I was looking for a laptop good for gaming AND audio production.. guess it was too good to be true.

 

I am surprised to hear that a workstation latop isn't usable to audio production.

If it has something to do with changing fan speed then have you tried locking the fan speed and seeing if that makes a difference? I know that's not really an ideal solution, but it would be interesting so what happens.

Otherwise, not sure what else I can suggest. It's a shame it doesn't work as expected.

 

Here's a question:
Does the redspike actually cause issues and interference when you're say. . . mastering a track? Or mixing down a large set of tracks?

Note: I have already been doing this on my laptop for over a year, without fail, so I must ask.