VCI vs Traktor freeze and crash

[DJ Coight]

Hi all,

Long time reader/student and fan of DJ Techtools 1st time with an issue. I'm running a Silver VCI100 f/ware V1.2 and Traktor V3.3.2.060. I've been djing for around 10 years and playing instruments for a while longer. I've just done my 1st Club job in the small mining town i live in and with my knowledge and personal drive am trying to take the recidency upon myself which is looking quite promising considering the work i have put into cleaning up the messy and dangerously wired DJ booth. I went in last night and expected my system to lock up and crash as i'd had minor problems with it at home. I'd done a job the week before with my own pa system with plenty of bass and not had a problem.

I'm running a Toshiba laptop with a Pentium 1.73 GHz, 794MHz processor and 2Gig of ram. I've got the VCI100 and and Audio Control 1 sound card. The problem i am experiencing is the VCI will randomly drop out and stop processing controls through to Traktor. Sometimes i can switch the VCI on and off through the Traktor settings and it will continue to run fine again. Other times it will stop working won't reset and mouse and keyboard commands will not work in Traktor then it will freeze the computer, run the song out for around 30 seconds then completely freeze the song like a strong reverb forcing me to switch the laptop off by power.

I'm honestly not sure if this is because of the bass sending to many signals through the jog wheels or whether it is a traktor glitch or what. I have also had the same problem sometimes when i turn traktor onto autopilot. it will play until i turn the autoplay off then freeze up and lose all control causing me to shut down and reboot.

Any help would be appreciated. I've just downloaded the demo of Traktor Pro and am stoked with the effects section and strongly looking at upgrading but would also like to leave the old version with a clean slate!

[DvlsAdvct]

I had a problem kinda like this for a bit. I switched out my USB cables and it fixed it completely.

Also, make sure you shut down all peripherals (anti-virus/spyware) and turn off your wifi/bluetooth.

[Julio]

Yes.. I know it may sounds completely ridiculous... but try NOT to use those thin/cheap USB cables.

[JesC]

my first question is why havent you upgraded to traktor 3.4? it is more stable that 3.3. Plus you can hot swap while you are play you vci just in case it locks up. Try using the a thick usb cable, if the o.g. cable is not cutting it.

[midifidler]

Interesting fact.

3.4 gives that problem on Kaons laptop running XP sp3, 3.3 never crashed once.

3.3 has that problem on my desktop running Vista, badly like once an hour, but 3.4 has never crashed for me.

[DJ Coight]

my first question is why havent you upgraded to traktor 3.4? it is more stable that 3.3. Plus you can hot swap while you are play you vci just in case it locks up. Try using the a thick usb cable, if the o.g. cable is not cutting it.

The reason i haven't upgraded to traktor 3.4 is because i believe i have gremlins in my NI service centre. I've been trying to do that for a while now but the service centre doesnt come up with any updates and i havent been able to track down any other way up upgrading. I was actually supposed to ask about that in my original question but obviously i already had half a page for you guys to decipher and figured i didnt wanna push ya to much for a 1st question ;-).

As for the replies thanks an absolute heap guys i believe cables could be the problem as i swapped a couple around between my hardware and some things didnt work with different cables. The VCI works fine with its original cable but the not with the AK1 cable. I'll be investing in some newbies on Monday.

Any help with the 3.4 upgrade would be appreciated i'm thinking maybe an uninstall and re-install of the service centre is going to be suggested?

[DvlsAdvct]

Try reinstalling the service center. Make sure all the products are registered as needed in the center. If it still doesn't work I'd call NI and yell and yell at them until they do whatever you want :-)

Good luck

[thictool]

I have had the same problem with all versions of Traktor after 3.2 (including TP)

I have discovrered that it is an LED or Midi Out problem exclusive to VCI-100 Widows users. (I dont have a MAC) And many have experienced this with much documentation on the Traktor Forums.

I have been testing out all versions of Traktor (since 3.2) using the VCI.

My test basically consist of me plugging in my VCI and choosing the VCI as both input & output in the midi setup in Traktor with a fully loaded working TKS / TSI. Then I basically press buttons really fast while spinning the Jog consistantly, for about 5-7 minutes. In all of my exepriments (about 30) I have been able to lock up Traktor all 30 times (sreen freezes and says "Traktor Not Responding) requiring me to have to manually turn off the VCI and wait till it refeshes within Traktor. Also when the VCI does refresh, it seems to be much more apt to freeze again without much action.

I have tryed this test on 4 different computers with version 3.3, 3.4 & T Pro all with the same results...

OK now for the interesting part...

I tryed all these tests again while NOT having the MIDI out checked in Traktor MIDI options. And I all the tests I COULD NOT LOCK UP TRAKTOR no matter what I did...

So this seems to be a midi out issue...

I am now trying to figure out if using a Midi translator will cause the same results to see if this is a VCI exclusive issue or not....

[DJ Coight]

Thictool

Thanks for the response. This may be another avenue i will have to look into with this problem. I only just replied to another thread http://www.djtechtools.com/forum/sho...hp?t=59&page=4
As you will read i discovered that my Audio Kontrol 1 had mappings related to the VCI (fully explained in other thread). I have unmapped these controls from the AK1 control setup file and cancelled the midi side of the card. I've just to try it at the club again to see if it crashes on me and if it does i will try putting some foam under the soundcard too see if that helps any.

Yet again thanks for the posts as this is an ongoing problem and i'm working on it myself as much as i can to discover what the hell is going on. My computer knowledge is average so i havent gotten into the in depth stuff too much as i really don't know what i am looking at. My biggest problem is i just cant seem to understand how i never get freezes or problems at home or using my own P.A. setup out in public but at the club it just turns to shit where i really have the opportunity to put my new skills to test and enjoy the crowd reaction. I know the bench in the booth vibrates continuosly so if anything it should freeze up more often than it does. I'm going to try it 1 more time at the club with the AK1 midi disabled and i hope to hell it changes something because its starting to really dissapoint me. As you said in your post about the button pressing and jog wheel spinning i don't believe that is my problem as at the moment i am not doing a great deal of that, and also i have had times where i have played a song and not touched the vci and when i go back to cue my next song the vci has dropped out.

Anyhow enough of the confusing ramble from me. All help is greatly appreciated.

[DJ Coight]

Hey all!

I am currently in somewhat of a happy mood and although i most likely cannot do much about it before my next gig i believe i have found my problem. Since i'm in such a great mood i will start this like a little story...

Here we go...

It all happened just a couple of hours ago as DJ Coight was researching and tweaking some different things trying in vain to resolve his freezing problem. He wanted his soundcard to fire up upon start up so instead of using the general port for his usb wireless card he decided to swap some ports... Low and behold ever 10 F#$king minutes the wireless connection drops out...

After weeks of piss assing around with this crap i believe that either 2 of my ports are half %@%@# or they are very low in carrying capacity for usage. So for now i will try using the soundcard from the port i generally hook my VCI into (yet to try tonight to see if anything shits itself before hand) until i can get out of my little country town and invest in a good quality powered USB hub.

I had actually read somewhere i while back about always running your soundcard from the usb port closest to the power supply but seeing as on that side i have 1 port which i will use now and the other side i have 2 ports i figured that the closest double port would have been the closest wired.

Anyhow yet again thanks for all your help and i will be sure to throw another post up after this weeks gig and testing so you all know how it turned out and of course i will yet again post after i try a powered hub.

Gotta love DJ Techtools... hopefully this will be yet again another successful thread to help someone else out with a problem before they have to do the hard yards themself!