[windows] My S4 Diary: Prepping for and setting up my S4

**Magikhands** · 03-09-2011, 12:12 PM

I wouldn't say lazy, cause having one makes you look more professional for gigs. I'd buy one for that reason alone, except for the cost issue.

I understand you don't have time to run through the whole process with me, but if you could answer one last question....

Every tutorial I've run into is for dual booting Win 7 with another operating system. In these tutorials they say, after you create the partition you need to install the additional OS on the partition. Now, my laptop came with the pre-loaded OS, am I shit out of luck for dual booting double Win7 cause I don't have an install disk? Is there some way around this problem that doesn't involve buying an OS I already own? I have a hard copy of 64bit Vista, but I'd rather stick with Win7 if I can manage it.

*puppy dog eyes*

Cheers mate

-p

**smiTTTen** · 03-09-2011, 03:39 PM

Do you have a recovery disk with your laptop? If not, do you have a recovery partition on your hard disk?

**bucky** · 03-09-2011, 04:19 PM

Figured I'd post here rather than creating a new thread.. I've followed all of the steps in the initial posting. I've installed the beta driver that NI sent me. I've run that script on the NI forums to make sure non essential services are all stopped. I've disabled everything in the startup folder of msconfig. I've disabled hardware in device manager. I have an HP laptop with Vista, 2.1ghz dual amd I believe and 4gb of ram. Prior to all of this I was constantly getting USB Data Errors as soon as an audio "glitch/dropout" would happen. Since I've done all of these things the usb data errors have drastically disappeared but now the buffer underruns skyrocket and I'm still getting a dropout at least once every couple of minutes. When the dropout happens I see the CPU usage skyrocket. This happens when I'm just letting two tracks play. I've found the best setting so far is with 512 sample rate and 4ms latency. I feel like I'm making progress but not quit there yet. Can anyone offer suggestions or something that I may be missing?

**Magikhands** · 03-09-2011, 05:16 PM

Originally Posted by smittten

Do you have a recovery disk with your laptop? If not, do you have a recovery partition on your hard disk?

I have a Toshiba Satellite that I got for Christmas this year, and looking on the Toshiba website it seems very likely that I have such a partition on my hard disk. So, I can install the new stripped Win 7 with a recovery disk? Cause that would be AWESOME!

**IrishBlaggard** · 03-09-2011, 06:00 PM

Originally Posted by bucky

Figured I'd post here rather than creating a new thread.. I've followed all of the steps in the initial posting. I've installed the beta driver that NI sent me. I've run that script on the NI forums to make sure non essential services are all stopped. I've disabled everything in the startup folder of msconfig. I've disabled hardware in device manager. I have an HP laptop with Vista, 2.1ghz dual amd I believe and 4gb of ram. Prior to all of this I was constantly getting USB Data Errors as soon as an audio "glitch/dropout" would happen. Since I've done all of these things the usb data errors have drastically disappeared but now the buffer underruns skyrocket and I'm still getting a dropout at least once every couple of minutes. When the dropout happens I see the CPU usage skyrocket. This happens when I'm just letting two tracks play. I've found the best setting so far is with 512 sample rate and 4ms latency. I feel like I'm making progress but not quit there yet. Can anyone offer suggestions or something that I may be missing?

have you tried a different sound card ?
it should work without issues with another sound card
something is conflicting with the sound card drivers...

have you defragged, id recommend downloading the free full demo of TUNE UP UTILITIES 2011 to clean up your system and then unistall it as it is not needed and it can pull from your CPU.
http://www.tune-up.com/products/tuneup-utilities/

also try
http://www.asio4all.com/

and have you done the windows hotfix ?
http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/...214&kbln=en-us
that should fix some of your problems...

i had the very same issues as you but all is working great now.
so i completely understand your frustration.
but the thing is, i dont know how or why my system is working great now,
I, like you did everything, and i was having massive CPU spikes to the point that everything distorted and froze up, then it would be fine again for another few minutes and then spikes again and again, it did my head in big time...

then i tried a different soundcard (the cheap little numark DJ IO) and it worked great, had no issues with it, i was able to turn back on most features i turned off with out any issues with spikes or even drop outs.

then after a few days i tried the S4 sound card again and it worked perfect, i still have to leave some things off like the batterly thing and a few others but the CPU barely even hits 10% now even with all decks and sample decks and loops and even when im going mad on the FX. it just works.

HOW ? I really wish i could answer that, but i cant put my finger on it,
i think it must of been something to do with the ASIO4ALL drivers the numark sound card uses, i just wish i knew exactly how i got it all working,

try the drivers and if you still cant get the S4 working without the dreaded spikes, id say go buy a cheap sound card something like the Audio DJ 2 or the numark DJ IO, hell it maybe another $100 but its far cheaper than buying a MACBOOK PRO

or try another soundcard if you already own one, or try a mates if you can, or/and even try just using your computers sound card to see if the spikes still occur but you wont be able to cue the headphones but its just to test the CPU load...

i dont know if this will help you or just confuse you even more,
im just stating what worked for me...
im sure you bought the S4 like me to be an all in one unit and dont want to spend more money on another sound card,
you'll get it sorted, that im sure and hopefully with out spending any more money

oh and im also a crappy VISTA user

let us know if you do get it sorted.

i hope you sort it out soon, because when you do, you'll have so much fun

**bucky** · 03-09-2011, 06:07 PM

I'm not even frustrated, I did enough research on the thing to expect these issues (but also enough research to know it's awesome once everything is sorted). The Windows hotfix is the one thing I think I forgot about and will try tonight along with those other utilities you mentioned. I'll report back later tonight! Thanks.

**bucky** · 03-09-2011, 08:24 PM

I just went and bought an audio dj 2 for after work, done messing around.. its just money. lol

**IrishBlaggard** · 03-10-2011, 10:09 AM

Originally Posted by bucky

I just went and bought an audio dj 2 for after work, done messing around.. its just money. lol

and does it work without issues now ?

try the S4 again if it does, ya never know

**bucky** · 03-10-2011, 01:09 PM

Still having dropouts, didn't really make that much of a difference. I tried to run the Windows hotfix and said I didn't need it. I wonder if bumping my system up to 8gb of ram would help? Maybe upgrade to Windows 7 as well. I donno. It's definitely better but nowhere near perfect.

Maybe I'll borrow a friends MBP i7 and see how it fairs and just go down that path. lol