Ghosts in the machine... !

Drew_TNBD

Yeah man, I'll post some tingzzz

Bridgehouse

Drew_TNBD said:

Yeah man, I'll post some tingzzz

Wikkid.

frank1985

I had the same problem one time and after much meticulous troubleshooting it turned out
to just be a dodgy usb cable. There may also be interference from your wireless adapter, so maybe try disabling that.

Drew_TNBD

I don't have a wireless adapter. I'm using powerlines. I used to use a netgear ethernet to wifi adapter thing, so no change when switching from that.

I'm running a test now: 1 hard-drive, disconnected my cases front USB ports and the two case fans, and only have my mouse+keyboard+interface plugged in. Gonna sit here for an hour and see whether it happens again. If it doesn't, I'll proceed like that for a bit.

Bridgehouse

Drew_TNBD said:

I don't have a wireless adapter. I'm using powerlines. I used to use a netgear ethernet to wifi adapter thing, so no change when switching from that.

I'm running a test now: 1 hard-drive, disconnected my cases front USB ports and the two case fans, and only have my mouse+keyboard+interface plugged in. Gonna sit here for an hour and see whether it happens again. If it doesn't, I'll proceed like that for a bit.

If you have spares, swap each one out as well - keyboard, mouse, usb cable for the interface etc. etc..

Drew_TNBD

Okay, so just as a frame of reference on OSX last Friday these were the times when I got an audio glitch. I know this because I documented them on the fly when talking to @digitalscream about it:

12:00, 12:20, 13:02, 13:09, 13:36, 14:14

So far from 8:45 till 22:00 I've been playing back the same project as I used on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I have not had a single audio dropout. No CPU spikes either.

Does that mean I've narrowed it down? Difficult to tell. Could a dodgy case fan cause this? Could dodgy front USB ports? Multiple SATA connections? One particular SATA cable I've been using?

Based on past experience I certainly would've expected to have had at least one glitchy audio dropout in this period of time.

I guess the next step is to do these hour long tests a few more times, over the next week. Then after that start to restore things one by one until it occurs again.

PS: The project in question was playing back at 16 samples buffer size. So lower than the 64 I was originally using. That is a 2.30ms roundtrip latency!! That is really impressive!!

Bridgehouse

Exactly as you describe.

1. At least a couple more control tests to check no glitches.

2. Add back a single element at a time until it starts again. Remove the last element and check the glitches come back.

3. Remove/exchange faulty device

My money is still on a USB device - they are actually pretty ropey in reality. It's why apple did FireWire. 

Bridgehouse

Are the front USB ports built into the case and have their own permanent wired connection to the board?

I wonder if the cable is shot with plugging in and out.. those connectors are notoriously cheap and nasty...

Drew_TNBD

Bridgehouse said:

Exactly as you describe.

1. At least a couple more control tests to check no glitches.

2. Add back a single element at a time until it starts again. Remove the last element and check the glitches come back.

3. Remove/exchange faulty device

My money is still on a USB device - they are actually pretty ropey in reality. It's why apple did FireWire. 

That's the thing. I've not really removed ANY usb devices. All I've done is disconnect ports that were not active anyway - front ports had nothing plugged into them, my Helix was plugged into the rear but wasn't turned on.

One thing I forgot to mention is I disconnected a monitor. But I never used to have 2 monitors until a few months ago, so that's not part of this I don't think.

I'm wondering if the front usb ports or the case fans were/are causing some kind of voltage spiking which is making the entire system 'hiccup'

Drew_TNBD

Bridgehouse said:

Are the front USB ports built into the case and have their own permanent wired connection to the board?

I wonder if the cable is shot with plugging in and out.. those connectors are notoriously cheap and nasty...

  Well it's a wired connection to the front of the case. With a connector that goes into the motherboard. I unplugged both ends. So now it is disconnected in totality.

Bridgehouse

Drew_TNBD said:

Bridgehouse said:

Are the front USB ports built into the case and have their own permanent wired connection to the board?

I wonder if the cable is shot with plugging in and out.. those connectors are notoriously cheap and nasty...

  Well it's a wired connection to the front of the case. With a connector that goes into the motherboard. I unplugged both ends. So now it is disconnected in totality.

If there is a connector in the mainboard socket and it's connected to ports on the front then they are live - regardless of whether anything is actually plugged in - power is constantly supplied to the ports and the sw monitors them all the time so it knows when something is 'plugged in'

A slightly shot cable could be sending out some wacky signal back to the mainboard and causing your CPU spikes. Same with a dodgy monitor, or a shot SATA cable for that matter.. but my bet is still on good old 'ropey as fuck' USB...

Drew_TNBD

Bridgehouse said:

Drew_TNBD said:

Bridgehouse said:

Are the front USB ports built into the case and have their own permanent wired connection to the board?

I wonder if the cable is shot with plugging in and out.. those connectors are notoriously cheap and nasty...

  Well it's a wired connection to the front of the case. With a connector that goes into the motherboard. I unplugged both ends. So now it is disconnected in totality.

If there is a connector in the mainboard socket and it's connected to ports on the front then they are live - regardless of whether anything is actually plugged in - power is constantly supplied to the ports and the sw monitors them all the time so it knows when something is 'plugged in'

A slightly shot cable could be sending out some wacky signal back to the mainboard and causing your CPU spikes. Same with a dodgy monitor, or a shot SATA cable for that matter.. but my bet is still on good old 'ropey as fuck' USB...

Okay, so here is what I'll do.

- Do a few more sessions like this one (By 22:30 it'll be an hour and 45 minutes without any audio drop outs)
- Plug all my hard-drives back in and do a similar test
- Plug my fans back in and do a similar test
- Plug the front USB ports and do a test

Coz that's the order of priorities that I give a shit about. Happy to lose the front usb ports, or switch over to a usb hub which is plugged into the rear ports if it comes to it.

Bridgehouse

Drew_TNBD said:

Okay, so here is what I'll do.

- Do a few more sessions like this one (By 22:30 it'll be an hour and 45 minutes without any audio drop outs)
- Plug all my hard-drives back in and do a similar test
- Plug my fans back in and do a similar test
- Plug the front USB ports and do a test

Coz that's the order of priorities that I give a shit about. Happy to lose the front usb ports, or switch over to a usb hub which is plugged into the rear ports if it comes to it.

Presumably the rear USB ports are on the mainboard? Best place for them. Extra cables just mean more trouble in my experience. And if you get a USB hub then don't skimp.

Bridgehouse

And good luck - hope this solves your drop outs. It would be annoying the shit out of me by now.

I'm so glad I'm using a MBP and Logic Pro X. I ditched PC a long time ago due to interface issues. 

Drew_TNBD

Bridgehouse said:

Drew_TNBD said:

Okay, so here is what I'll do.

- Do a few more sessions like this one (By 22:30 it'll be an hour and 45 minutes without any audio drop outs)
- Plug all my hard-drives back in and do a similar test
- Plug my fans back in and do a similar test
- Plug the front USB ports and do a test

Coz that's the order of priorities that I give a shit about. Happy to lose the front usb ports, or switch over to a usb hub which is plugged into the rear ports if it comes to it.

Presumably the rear USB ports are on the mainboard? Best place for them. Extra cables just mean more trouble in my experience. And if you get a USB hub then don't skimp.

Yep. Directly connected to the mainboard.

Bridgehouse

Fingers crossed for ya, bud.

Drew_TNBD

HAHA! Literally just had an audio dropout!!

Bridgehouse

Drew_TNBD said:

HAHA! Literally just had an audio dropout!!

FFS. With nothing else plugged back in?

Drew_TNBD

Bridgehouse said:

Drew_TNBD said:

HAHA! Literally just had an audio dropout!!

FFS. With nothing else plugged back in?

Yep. It ran solidly for an hour and 40minutes, then I got an audio drop out just as I was about to call it a win. To clarify this was with:

- 1 SSD drive
- 650ti graphics card
- Mouse + keyboard
- Audio interface

Drew_TNBD

I'm toying with the idea of buying another motherboard to test with.