DPC latency issues on Inspiron 1525 - real time media streaming

Hi, everyone. This thread concerns all the current or future owners of an Inspiron 1525 who plan to use this laptop for real time streaming of audio or video data, namely sound or image editing on their laptop.
I would like to do 2 things: post here my experience and findings about this particular model and learn myself from your posts.

My current situation: 1 week new Inspiron 1525, meant to replace my older Inspiron 6400, as the central piece of my music studio. This 1525 laptop is a [email protected], 3 Gb RAM @667, 250 Gb hdd, X3100 video card, used in combination with an Audiofire4 Echo sound card.
I have tried to run both Vista and XP SP3 (or 2) in combination with various music editing programs and sparse pops and cracks are heard, in correlation with spikes shown by the DPC latency checker. In my attempt of improving these latencies, I have come across several hardware components (such as the Dell 1395 wireless card, the Sigma onboard sound card, the 9 cell battery) which would be responsible for these spikes. Nevertheless, the origin of one spike pattern could not related to anything (so far). The images below should be self-explanatory.
Please add your own experience and findings to this thread.
So, all hardware enabled:

While disabling the onboard soundscard:

Disabled wireless and sound card:

Disabled wireless, sound card and physically removing the battery:


So, after all this tweaking, I am left with one single spike that comes regularly, every 33 seconds. Currently, I am looking into the origin of this last problem, without any success so far.
I have contacted Dell tech support and they said they are having a look at the problem, with replacing mobo or a total refund as an possible option.
I hope for a new BIOS update as i suspect the mobo is the faulty component left undiscovered. I have tried all available BIOS versions (8-13) on the Dell website.
Also, it's worth mentioning that RATTV3 does not point to anything else than generic threads like ntkrn (which are supposed to run a lot, I suppose). Other tools recommended by SoundOnSound forum people, like the FanGui program or SpeedStep, do not work in this case, on the contrary, FunGui increases the DPC latencies. I also tried stopping/disabling all the non-vital Windows services, disable all non-vital hardware, etc.
So, let me know what you have found out about your 1525 laptop.

 

bravo maestro!!!

 

I'm not sure if this is the spike that you're talking about, but I'm going to post it anyway. The crackling sound is a known issue arising from the sigmatel driver for the dell inspiron. You should disable the enhancements option to remove the crackling sound. It doesn't matter if you don't have any enhancements ticked, as long as the enhancement option is on, you'll still encounter this crackling sound. (One can do this by right clicking on the volume icon on your taskbar, click playback devices, click on the sigmatel codec for audio output, then click properties, then click the enhancement tab then tick disable all enhancements.) I hope this could help with any audio issues you're having. Please post any improvements if you haven't done this before. Otherwise, just disregard this post.

 

First of all, thanks AchternStyg for your shared experience.

Last week I bought a Dell Inspiron 1525 with 2.4ghz, 4gb ram and 320gb hdd, for work most of the time with Traktor Scratch and Ableton Live.


I start with Traktor and the glitch appears right away, so I run the Dcp Latency checker and there it his, the red spike all the way up every 10 seconds.

First I disable the WLAN card and the latency checker remain stable, without red spikes. So I go to the preferences of Traktor and with the program with almost everything at the maximum specs the Inspiron hold very well all the job.

I go to Ableton Live and the same happens, with WLAN enable, I hear glitchs and with the WLAN disable it works good!

So the big big problem is when I try to listen to a mp3 file in winamp while surfing in the net. The glitch still happens but with a larger interval.

Well, I dont mind to have to turn off WLAN card when I work with Programs like Ableton or Traktor, but the fact that I cant surf in the net while listen to an mp3 without a glitch its driving me crazy.


I hope that Dell gives a special attention to this, because its really strange and there are a lot of people with the same issue.

Its my first laptop and I dont turn Apple because of the price, but maybe its better...

Thanks

 

Well, I dont mind to have to turn off WLAN card when I work with Programs like Ableton or Traktor, but the fact that I cant surf in the net while listen to an mp3 without a glitch its driving me crazy.

I hope that Dell gives a special attention to this, because its really strange and there are a lot of people with the same issue.

Its my first laptop and I dont turn Apple because of the price, but maybe its better...

Thanks[/QUOTE]

Same thing here...
I get too dissapointed with this. I have this laptop to work with ableton too and i have a m-audio audio card. But even that way sometimes i wanna use the onboard one and i cant! Just if i turn off the WLAN. Its a shame. A lot off problems with dell.

First i would not be able to use my Audio Card (Ozonic firewire) because of the bad chipset of the onboard firewire... and now this.

Maybe apple wouldnt be a bad idea :/

 

Hi,
I cannot garantee, but try disabling the cd-rom.
Then run DPC and compare.
I had a similar problem that was solved like this.
Pls, keep me informed via email if possible. Rds.

 

Hi All,

Like everyone else on this thread, I'm running a 1525 notebook with a firewire card (M-Audio Profire 610). I was running into the same issues noted here using DPC latency checker. I was also receiving the same spikes, but at 15 second intervals. This was causing my Cubase Essential 4 to have major issues - I'd have to reboot Cubase every 10 minutes or so.

I did two things that fixed the issue:
1. I purchased an expresscard firewire card with a Texas Instrument chipset. The one I picked up was from StarTech.com
2. I disabled the Ricoh firewire controller

Problem solved! No more spikes and I have no latency issues.

It seems that the soundcard manufacturers tend to test their drivers on Texas Instrument chipsets (cause that's what Apples use). Changing out the onboard firewire for an add-on card with a TI Chipset solves the issue - but make sure it is a TI Chipset - it is worth paying the extra 10 bucks here...

 

I am having terrible trouble with DPC latency - every minute I get huge red spikes to the top of the chart for 6 ticks. Turning off the wireless card stops this but I want to listen to MP3 and surf - not a big ask?!!

Did anyone get to the bottom of this with Dell?

T8100, 4GB ram, draft n wireless card, x3100 graphics.

 

Hi guys..

Another Inspiron with latency issues in here..

I've only just bought it, it came this Tuesday.. Immediately I noticed strange clicks and pops happening randomly while listening to mp3's.. I googled and in no time, to my horror, found numerour threads on Dell forum about this topic..

It happens ONLY when wireless is installed and/or enabled.. I can even disable the drivers, the cracks are still there.. Once I completely uninstall the network controllers, the cracks magically dissapear..

There is one more situation when everything runs smoothly. Installing Ubuntu 8.10. Tryed it last night, works perfectly, no cracks, nothing..It uses it's own drivers to handle the wireless.. so it is obviously a problem with drivers written for Win..

I have tried disabling drivers, one by one, to see if the DPC latency would change, but nothing.. it reacts only to wireless being uninstalled.. Cracks appear randomly, every minute or two when I'm online.. while being offline it happens exactly every 60sec.. if I enter the Dell Wireless Utility (tried without it, didn't help) the cracks go absolutely mad..

These are the pictures while the Dell Wireless utility window is opened (I am not doing anything while at it, it is only opened), and the after picture when I completely deactivate and deinstall the wireless network..







I have contacted my Dell dealer here in Croatia (where unfortunately we don't have the 21 money back guarantee), and they have really been supportive for the last couple of days, offering me tips and tricks, and forwarding me links that might be able to help me..

The guarantee doesn't include this kind of mallfunctioning, so the only thing to do, if I don't get this thing to work, is to send it back, so that they can order a brand new hdd with pre-installed Windows and drivers (I would have to pay for that). Mine came with only FreeDos, so I did all of the installation on my own. I tried Win XP, SP2 and SP3, Vista (cracks seem less hear-able, but still, they are there!), and finally linux..

I've tried I think every possible tip or trick available out there.. payed my attention to driver instalation order.. nothing helps..

Now I've found an interesting thing about IRQ assignment.. I've looked into my Device Manager and this is the profile I get:



My question is this, has anyone out there tried messing with these settings, and could it be the problem that the wireless is sharing the same IRQ with SATA controller?