Did anyone solve glitches with a bigger PSU?

[djsynchro]

Hey,

Ever since getting the UAD-1 (and now my second card) I have been getting glitches with Ableton Live.

I have both cards on their own IRQ.
I tweaked audio card buffer size, PCI latency timings, RAM timing, TurboDMA on/off, Nothing really makes a difference. Oh yes, before I had the UAD's my system was pretty much glitch-free, until I would get close to maxing out the CPU of course.

DAW's CPU meter is nowhere near max (I don't use much native stuff anymore now that I have the UAD's)

I was wondering if getting a larger power supply might help, mine is a bit on the small side (and the ratings that they print on are not true ratings)
Did anybody ever solve glitches with doing this? If so I might give it a try.

I want to get a third card but I'd like to get the glitches ironed out first.

Thanks!

 

[imdrecordings]

What are your specs?
We can only help you if we know what you have.
Also:
Email UA first, they'll send you a list of suggestions.

-S-

 

[djsynchro]

Well forget about my specs for now, and I already emailed UA along time ago, they were quite helpful. My sytem is workable, but when a lot of plugs get used it gets a bit glitchy. I still get glitch free renders but it's a pain mixing sometimes.

I simply had this one question: Did anybody ever change their PSU for a larger one and did that solve their glitch problem?

The power supply is something that UA suggested is extremely important, I just had this thing with an atari 2600 video game that had a disttorted picture, but only on SOME games. Guy at the electronics shop said it couldn't be the psu, but I put alrger one on and now it's perfect.

Catch my drift?

 

[Guest]

I always build my own DAW's and I always put 550W or higher in them. I never had glitches or any other problems.
What's your current PSU btw?

 

[Cabbage]

The PSU should be your primary suspect in cases where the whole machine freezes up. If you get glitches, I would say it is a SW issue. I would look into updating BIOS and such.

Petter

 

[bilbobugginz]

Does Event Log say anything in there ?
any warnings/errors in Applications / Systems sections ?

 

[djsynchro]

Wow! So many reactions... thanks guys.
This is my PSU:

I have 2 cards, now with the Neve channelstrip coming out, I'm going for a 3rd, UA told me when I got my 1st card my PSU was a bit on the skimpy side, what do you think?
The other thing is, I have disabled everything (built in audio, SATA, LAN serial & parallel ports) so both UAD's have their own IRQ.

512 samples has alwas been my best size audio buffer, with the UAD I can set it to 265 or 1024 it doesn't make it better or worse. Same with overclocking/running at default specs no better/worse.
PCI latencies, less for the video card (96) most for audio card (248) and more for UAD (128) not better/worse. RAM clock down from 400 to 333 and latencies more aggressive... not better/worse. Turbo DMA on/off not better/worse.

What I'm saying is, with UAD's handling most of the compression/EQing my computer doesn't have to do that much, and my intuition tells me the glitches are not audio buffer underruns. I'm pretty sure I have the latest BIOS but I'll have another look.

System:

DAW: Ableton Live 6.07
WINDOWS TinyXP (stripped XP SP2);
ABIT KV8PRO 3rd eye motherboard (VIA K8T800 Pro chipset)
with 1 Gig (2x 512MB) Kingston RAM
2 Western Digital 7200RPM IDE drives.
video NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200.
M-Audio Delta 44 PCI Soundcard.
Behringer BCF 2000 Midi controller/interface.
2x UAD-1 on their own IRQ.

 

[djsynchro]

PS I don't crash, just glitching.
Do video cards make a difference?

 

[Eric Dahlberg]

350W really isn't enough anyway, you may as well upgrade.

 

[Guest]

Uncle E is right. I don't know if it's going to solve your glitching problems, but you should get a bigger PSU, at least 450W or more.

 

[Geir]

I have the same problem and i have the VIA PT880 Pro/Ultra chip. And it gives me problems not only with the Uad-1 cards but also with some of my hard drives and my tc powercore.

On my old motherboard intel chip i didnt have any problems at all.

First i thought it may be the core 2duo. But after testing my old p4 3.2HT chip with the same result. And not to mention different types of ram and other firewire cards for my 01X. I am thinking that the VIA chip is the one to blame.

I see that others having Via chips are having more problems with hardware compatibility then others having intel chips...

So i guess it's time to pay out the big $ and get pcie cards and a new motherboard :wink:

 

[djsynchro]

Ok I've decided to go for a bigger (520 Watt) anyway PSU since I'll be adding my 3rd card hopefully this week if the Neve strip comes out...

My motherboard is actually one of the UA recommended chipsets let's see if changing the PSU works. In the meantime your suggestions are welcome!

Thanks everybody!

 

[Fundy]

It's not just amount of power, it's the quality of the components how much power per line you can get and how efficient it deals with heat. I found out the hard-way.

 

[Paul Woodlock]

It's not just amount of power, it's the quality of the components how much power per line you can get and how efficient it deals with heat. I found out the hard-way.

Exactly.


My first UAD-1 install years ago was well glitchy. I tried everything aqnd then I swapped the computer's PSU and voila! it was all cured. It wasn't a more powerful PSU just a different one * and presumably better quality.

Never skimp on the PSU

 

[kleinholgi]

I´d also go for quality instead of power only.

In the US there may be other common companies ( heard some good reports on Anatec, a vendor not so common here...).
In Europe I would highly reommend : BeQuiet or Enermax.

 

[djsynchro]

My first UAD-1 install years ago was well glitchy. I tried everything and then I swapped the computer's PSU and voila! it was all cured. It wasn't a more powerful PSU just a different one * and presumably better quality.
Never skimp on the PSU

OK THAT is what i wanted to hear. I've started looking at reviews & stuff, found a high rated really cheap one, but i'm going to get something more expensive, power ripple & stuff like that. Thanks for the brand suggestions, will look into those.

Love this forum!

 

[Guest]

Check http://www.sallandautomatisering.nl
They have a lot of stuff and they are cheap. Sometimes you have to wait a few days though.

Good luck DJ 8)

 

[djsynchro]

Found a really nice PSU, good reviews that all pointed to: stable 12v rails, low voltage ripple.
Installed it....
Still glitching...

At least now I know it's not the PSU

 

[Guest]

Try switching the card into another slot, maybe it will help