The irony is that the performance monitor is a resource hog itself and most of the spikes are as associated with the pull from that. Outside of that, even if there are no applications running there may be services which are doing things including checking for/downloading/installing product updates, performing scans or executing other housekeeping tasks. We all install any software far too rapidly and generally click through the default install options. Saying OK to updates, sending anonymous usage information or agreeing to any option that forces the product to periodically check itself and call home is a bad thing.
Running msconfig from the run box and looking at your startup items will give you an idea of what’s loading up with Windows. These items won’t show up in your Running Applications List but they will show up in the processes or services list.
It’s a total cat and mouse game. My advice to anyone looking to extract max performance from their Windows is system is this: Unless you REALLY need it, don’t install it.
How then, do you explain that the CPU spiking disappears as soon as the NI unit is disconnected from the computer? To me it seems very wrong … without the unit connected my CPU performance reads about 5% max … after reconnecting the NI unit the CPU load would spike to 50%+ (as soon as I engaged the NI drivers) and continue until I physically disconnected it. I’m fairly certain your system would not be spiking without the S4 connected … out of curiosity would you care to test that?
I’ve never seen this behaviour with any other hardware. It seems totally wrong … and unique to NI hardware/drivers. Little wonder the system was prone to dropouts and glitches … the CPU struggling even with the software sitting idle.
This is where some cyclical spiking occurs although the spikes aren’t that high in themselves.
Now with Traktor on but idle:
Same state a minute or so later:
3 track decks playing, 4 samples playing on sample deck:
S4 Disconnected: no cyclical spiking
S4 Connected, Traktor not running: cyclical spiking
S4 Connected, Traktor running: cyclical spiking
It would “seem” (I am not a coder, nor do I play one on TV) that the S4 driver is causing the spike - so surprises there. On my particular system the spiking does not appear to be serious nor is affecting the performance of Traktor. The machine I am using has some quirks of its own outside of Traktor. Right after this this test the machine was working much hard uploading photos to Flickr that running Traktor. It doesn’t make a huge amount of sense but it is what I am seeing.
The bigger issue is that it is unlikely that any two people are running the exact same hardware and software configuration so what might work for me may not for you. With Macs there are a finite number of models on the market, less upgrade options and generally a much more controlled environment to code against.
I would be interested in seeing how other DJ apps consume Windows resources. Has anyone done a true apples-to-apples comparison?
Nice, planing on doing a clean install on my laptop tonight or when i come home from vacation I get some randow pops and clitches, but its been almost 1 year since i formated the computer… Making 2 partitions for windows, but i already got a c drive (50gb) and a d drive 180 gb, can i “take” for exampel 40 gig from the d: drive without deleting the other files and create a new partition?
I think partiotion magic can do it, but do not have a win7 comp version of it:/
Ok, just got my 500gb hard drive…just put it in the laptop, installing first instance of win 7…gonna put 250 on the everyday use version and 250 on the dj version
Don’t think I’ll ever have 250gb of music so I should be save…only pushing 50gigs right now and the applications shouldn’t be more than 10 gigs.
Ill let you know how it goes and thanks for the command line a few pages back, i haven’t checked this thread since I left that comment.
Tech noob here: if I understand this correctly, you have to completely reinstall the window7 OS to make the partitions? I don’t understand how you are supposed to do this. What I do understand though is why most djs get macbook pros [must…not…smash…new…laptop…] >.<
Partitioning is not a Windows concept its common to every operating system. Partitioning divides up the space on the disk and hence will always erase the data.
This whole “get a macbook pro” thing is just an expensive and dare it say it, lazy solution.
I don’t have time to walk you through the entire dual boot install process but there are plenty of tutorials out there.
I get some randow pops and clitches, but its been almost 1 year since i formated the computer… Making 2 partitions for windows, but i already got a c drive (50gb) and a d drive 180 gb, can i “take” for exampel 40 gig from the d: drive without deleting the other files and create a new partition?