URGENT - Regular high CPU load w/ S4 after an hour or two of use

Hey,

Let me start by saying I've read virtually every single post on the internet regarding CPU load and I've done all sorts of tweaks including;

Disabling all devices I don't need
Stopping of all processes I don't need
Fresh installs of Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
Updating drivers & BIOS
Other optimization/tweaks
Tried different USB ports for the Kontrol S4

After vigorous testing I still cannot say for sure what is causing this problem, it has happened on two different Dell laptops with i7 processors.
In Traktor>Settings>Diagnostics I'm getting severe buffer underruns but the latency is fine (under 200), latency checker was showing the network driver to be causing some issues but it wasn't. I have tested on 2.6.8 and 2.10.1.

Traktor runs perfect for between an hour and two hours before the CPU load meter keeps spiking (going in the red) - this has happened the past 5 times I have run Traktor on different setups. It could be a hardware issue but I don't know why it'd run perfectly and then suddenly start spiking after the same duration (1-2 hours) - I can't pinpoint what's causing the issue as there's no indication in task manager or latency checker whilst getting the buffer overruns - I've disabled devices and stopped processes whilst getting the spikes to no avail.

I'm now in a position where I'm going to have to quit my weekly DJ gigs because I can't use Traktor for a period longer than an hour. I bought a new laptop (2014 Dell Inspiron w/ i7) because I thought my old laptop was the issue.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated - I'm going to try a different USB cable and I'm going to find an AC adapter to use as I'm currently running the S4 on USB power.

Thank you

 

The main thing that always gets me is the battery.
Did you disable the battery in the device manager? This is one of the knowledge base suggestions that many people overlook.

Next is Virus software and updates.
Automatic updates disabled?
I use the Windows Defender for AV. Disable when in use if needed.
You obviously have been trying and are probably pulling your hair out, I know this can be hell.
Maybe post screenshot of your task manager and what is running.
Also in your advanced settings, try changing your priority, for what works best, background services or programs.
Another thing that was really eating at Traktor for me was the remix decks having keylock on all slots, I now only turn on what I need which is almost never, but the remix decks keylock used to slowly raise the cpu load, until unusable, simply turning off the keylock on those would instantly lower the load to normal.
The track decks seemed to never really have much impact, although on my older laptop I had to keep the keylock in preferences at Eco mode not the Hi quality setting.

But post your task manager screenshot maybe me or someone else may spot a problem.

 

Sounds like a driver issue. I'd suggest re-creating the issue and then running LatencyMon to see what drivers are causing the highest DPC, and then troubleshoot from there. What sound card are you using to run Traktor ?

 

I've updated all my drivers - the network driver was causing the highest DPC but it was all disabled. It wasn't causing enough issues to make the load in Traktor go in the red. The actual latency of the S4 is very low, under 1000. I'm using the S4 - ASIO driver, I've tried it with S4 driver 3.1.0, 3.0.3 and 3.0.2 with the same outcome though it's having problems a bit earlier now, 30 minutes to an hour in.

 

I had the same issue with my Dell xps 2015, I noticed Traktor was playing fine for about 1-2 hours and then I was getting huge cpu spikes which made me restart the program. I noticed that if you use the Remix decks for either playing samples or drops and you hit play (even if it's a one shot drop) the remix deck is still ACTIVE even it the sample is no longer playing. I figured it out and if you use the Remix deck make sure you un-check the sample you triggered once you used it, because again, even if the sample is no longer playing it IS still active and if you have more than one sample loaded it will spike your CPU (red). My advise is to make sure your Remix decks are "actually" OFF, I figured this out and once I un-checked or stopped the Remix deck my cpu went back to normal.

 

I've never used remix decks but I'll take a look.

UPDATE: I can't use the S4 w/ Traktor on my new Dell Inspiron in any configuration - I've tried different drivers, clean installs of win 8.1 & 10, different versions of Traktor and all tweaks. I'm going to try Windows 7 on it. It's driving me insane.

It appears that the keylock feature may be causing the issue. I managed to play at my gig last night with my old laptop (Windows 7) on 2.6.8 - 2 track decks with keylock off and only 1 FX deck (delay) for 3 hours without any spikes.

This is absolutely shocking - I'd like to know what the problem is!

 

same happened to me - 1-2 hours use and it goes mad. unsure if it was heat-related but removing my (very warm) battery seems to have sorted it so far. fingers crossed

 

Had this aswell solution for me is
running traktor in windowed mode instead of fullscreen and using throttlestop software to lock cpu speed settings at max