Windows XP / 2000 & ACPI

[jamyna]

I would like to ask a question to anyone using XP or win2000 to make music: Have you disabled ACPI? Because according to these:

service.steinberg.net/kno...erformance

www.musicxp.net/hardware_tips.htm

.....it should be done, and I've done it on my PC from within Windows. I have also tweaked a few other things like setting the system priorities to background tasks, and messed around with IRQ's until I got my soundcard to a low IRQ value (its on 5 now) - I was told this would improve audio performance??

Does anyone have any thoughts/comments on the issue of optimization?

[c s]

yes turning off all power management (bios, windows) is always recommended - it usually does more bad than good... a lower irq number is better - hmm i haven't heard of that hint yet ?! i only heard that you should use an unshared irq. but i never really had problems with that, it shouldn't be too important with today's powerful machines.

but in xp (in contrast to 2000 where everything's fine) i can't use any audio programs at all, and it seems i'm not the only one.

[jamyna]

So are you unable to run Reaktor in XP?
I am using them but it has crashed before. Maybe Win2000 is the better option?

I think ACPI is what assigns your IRQ's automatically, sometimes leading to shared IRQ's -thats what happened here anyway.

[c s]

it's not that important for me because xp is not meant for music here but yes, all audio apps (absynth, reaktor, traktor) make the cpu-meter go up to 100% - even before the engine is started. fm7 worked first but then it slowed down as well. luckily i don't have to trace the error as everything's fine in w2k...

[amble]

i have no problems running Reaktor in WinMX. around 5 percent cpu usage normally. could be because i'm using it standalone though.

[c s]

you mean windows me ? yes it worked fine under 98se also but the whole os was not nearly as stable as w2k or xp.

[amble]

sorry i meant XP of course. one can get pretty mixed up with all these abrevs. Hail Hinkel.:!

[deccard]

using low irq numbers was an issue on older boards. i think 2 years ago. had something to do with pci-busmaster but they changed that.
acpi is the powermanagement. like turning harddrives down after some time etc...
don´t know if it interferes with audio on a desktop pc but should turned off on laptops.

[FORMAT]

As far as XP is concerned, Live is running excellently on it, even without tweaking, and Logic appeared to be flying on the Sony Vaio notebook I just tried as well. I know CS is very proficient at setting up notebooks and if even he can't work it, who could? But I still wonder why I had such a great result even without tweaking, is it to do with Ã*nstalling additional audio hardward (I used the internal one on the Sony.)

FORMAT