NI Audio 2 /8 causes CPU SPikes every 15secs

I can replicate this issue very easily on my fully optimized win 7 32bit machine. I have every non essential service turned off (www.blackviper.com) and no anti virus etc. with an audio 8 or audio 2 connected and trakor running at idle my cpu spikes to 50% every 15 seconds. this is better is I use the old 2.0.15 driver instead of the 3.0.3. This is without doubt the audio sound card as I have tested with other sound cards and don't cause the same spike.

Also tested with traktor 2.03 and latest 2.5.1 same issue.

Has anyone found a way round this? my concern if that lets say you load a track at exactly the same time as the spike happens could cause issues.

Has anyone raised a support call with NI?

win7 32bit sp1 4gb ram
ssd drive
TSP2
audio 8/audio 2
patch for cpu spikes installed from microsoft

 

What other sound cards have you tested? Are they USB w/ at least 2 stereo outs? I saw you posted in the other thread where I described the same issue, but it's something I've totally stopped thinking about. I've recorded probably close to 50 practice mixes since then, and haven't had any audio glitches that would be performance related. The only times I even remember a brief 1, was from quickly scrolling thru efx on the X1 (which is a known bug). Or another instance when I exited full-screen mode, minimized Traktor, then went back into full-screen.

 

Most common problems for CPU spikes are:

Processes shouldn't be the first step in tweaking windows laptops IMO, although you're definitely on the right path with Blackviper.

Boot your computer in BIOS and disable all features that you don't need for Traktor

Disable internal soundcard

Wireless (turn it off and retest)

Internal Modems (are these still part of new laptops)

CD/DVD drive (you'd be surprised)

Type: SystemPropertiesPerformance
In the start bar

Make sure the “Visual Effects” tab is selected

Select "Adjust for best performance"

Click “OK” and “OK”


GFX cards (http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/) You'll need to do some reading to find the correct driver, I swore by this site for my windows laptops (nvidia drivers)

If you need the internal soundcard, make sure to install Asio4all, but I'd recommend to turn off the internal in bios

If these don't fix your problems then you can start to disable unneeded services

 

I'm gonna check out that blackviper site, looks interesting. But I was under the impression that the NI soundcards have these cpu spikes when clearing the buffer every 10-15sec, or something along those lines. When I'm running dpc checker, I see a slight increase at the time of the spikes, but my latency stays well within the safe green zone. I read something too that said the spikes that are seen aren't totally accurate, as to what is happening w/ the cpu. Interesting to see more info on the subject tho.

 

thanks for your previous comments. all your suggestions have previously been done with disabling non traktor items in bios etc. its very easy to replicate. plug in an audio 2 or audio 8 and every 15 secs watch the processor blip to around 40-50% (less on i5s obviously). i am suprised there is not a fix for this. dosnt seem to cause any issues with latency but surely cant be correct.?

 

I kno it's easy to replicate, that's how mine has worked the entire time I've owned it. Mine only spikes to 35-40% tho, after I found the best latency setting for my setup. But again, it's never caused any problems at all playing live music w/ tons of efx, and 3 usb devices connected. If you continue to worry about it, you're just gonna drive yourself crazy. CPU's are made to operate at full-capacity, nonstop!

 

Well that sux then guys, I think you should document every step and send to support, the windows driver is obviously having mayor problems at low latencies.

Best of luck

 

The reason I initially came to this forum was for this very topic, it was my 1st post. But for Windows, this is just how they run. I read all the info I could on it too.

 

Hate to say it but save up for a mac, theres a few niggles for me (FX causes clicks) but I've never had a better setup than my Macbook pro.

I've been through numerous PC laptops btw!

 

why do you assume this is a bug?..or not correct?..just curious...

 

If it is not affecting sound quality then what is the issue?

 

Because audio drivers shouldn't do this

And NI should be trying to perfect what they do.

On a powerful PC this wont cause many issues, but on a less so maybe it will

 

^ That was my initial feeling. It's totally down to the drivers too, cuz even w/o Traktor open when the A2DJ is connected, and computer sitting idle, it's the same exact scenario. I thought it was going to be an issue at 1st, but even on an average CPU (Pentium 2.0ghz dual-core sandy-bridge), I don't ever have audio glitches. But that's running it heavily optimized I will say. I would bet under "ordinary" use, there would prob be issues.

 

Ok firstly, if you are getting the cpu spike without traktor running then you have probably installed an old iso of win 7 32bit then later upgraded to SP1. there was a know issue with the usbsys file and others not being upgraded correctly. microsoft released a patch. i can post it up if you cant find it. this will mean the cpu will spike only when traktor is launched.

secondly, i know it doesnt affect performance on an i series machine but on lower pec it can do. the point is that it shouldnt behave like this and NI need to sort the driver out in my opinion.

 

My laptop is a 2011 model that came w/ Win7-64bit, I didn't do any upgrading. I believe I tried the patch you're talking about, when I 1st noticed the issue, but was unable to get it to install successfully.

 

this is the one which works and dosnt give you an error on install

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2529073

will stop the spike when trakor isnt running.

 

i'm using pretty ancient laptops and they both dont have those issues (at least not audible, i actually didnt check for any spiking since i dont have audio issues).

maybe you should get in contact with NI to find out why you have these spikes.

 

You should check DJ Freshfluke, it would be great if we could nut this out between Windows users and ether get the driver worked on or at least fund out why it's happening

 

Hi there, just to clarify i dont get any audio issues as my laptop is tweaked to the max (I am an I.T engineer who specialising in Software packaging and lucky have access to different gear to test).

My issues is that there shouldnt be a CPU spike 40-50% on my core 2 duo 2.6ghz every 15secs when the machine has traktor open and idle. this is a windows drivver problem and with all the extra load with the later software versions 2.5xx and above these cpu spikes should be ironed out.

i have found i5's spike at around 20-30% every 15 secs which is why no one is complaining as guarenteed if they dont get any pops or crackles then they dont drill down using process monitor, dpc latency etc to see how the system is running. being I.T by trade means i do all the research as the last thing i want is my laptop to crash on my weekly gigs.

Also i found that the later 2.5.1 engine is different to the trusted 2.03 installer. the 2.03 has heavy usage on the usbport.sys and ntkrnlpa.exe whereas the new versions hammer the direct X dxgkrnl.sys. this means any issues with chipset and graphics drivers are going to come out with this version.

anyway enough of my ranting. please NI can we have a stable driver for windows users that dosnt spike the cpu every 15secs when idle and traktor open.....

 

I agree w/ you on this, but I really doubt they would spend the time/money on a fix for Windows. I assume this isn't an issue on Macs, which they may likely cater to.

Another thing is, when Traktor is sitting "idle", it's technically still doing a ton of work to be able to start instantaneous playback and streaming audio. This can be seen, as there's not much of a difference when you look at the cpu/resources of "idle" vs "music playing".

And lastly, I read about the cpu-usage not being accurate for the usb audio driver, but I'm not sure how accurate it was. It was just saying basically that, when the system clears the usb buffer every 15sec, the process monitor will show a cpu spike - that's not technically happening at that moment. Again, not sure about that, but if you look at the Traktor load-meter only, you won't see these spikes at all.