New DAW DPC Latency Issue--Help, Please?!

[perple]

Hello, This is my first post here. I have just built my second computer. To be used with Cakewalk Sonar 8 Producer as a standalone DAW. I know a bit—much more after the last week trying to figure out this problem—but consider myself still a newb with some experience, always striving to learn.

Here's my issue:
The audio and video on my new computer had serious pops, clicks, jerks, stops, hesitations. Running DPC Latency Checker it was showing spikes at 80, 90, and 100 THOUSAND milliseconds (us) spiking WAY into the red. I've disabled/enabled drivers and uninstalled/reinstalled programs to try and isolate the problem and, after finding a tip on a forum, uninstalled EasyTune (a Gigabyte piece of software); some improvement, but still far from right.

Here's an image of DPC Latency Checker running a few minutes after I fire up:

Lows are in the 600 us, spikes are in the 80,000s. (Yikes...)

And this is CPU Usage:

Obviously... something...is spiking every 5 seconds on the beat.

I bought all of the following from Newegg a couple of months ago and over the last 4 weeks assembled. Over the last 10 days realized I have the issues I have and began troubleshooting.

Hardware:
Gigabyte MB GA-MA790X-UD4P rev 1.0 Bios F5
AMD Phenom II 940 quad core processor
Leadtek GeForce WinFast PX6600TD video card (scavenged from a 3-year-old machine)
4GB G.Skill DDR2 1066 PC2 8500 RAM
Corsair CMPSU 650TX
Presonus Firepod driver 2.46 (latest driver) audio interface

Software:
Window XP Pro SP3
Avast home antivirus
(Sonar is uninstalled, not running)

Things I've already tried:
--Contacted Gigabyte today and have not heard back yet.
--Downloaded and updated BIOS from Gigabyte.
--Disabled literally everything in device manager and then enabled as each did not remedy the situation.
--Uninstalled certain programs. Found that uninstalling EasyTune from Gigabyte made a huge difference. Started to uninstall other things, and realized I don't know enough to do this. Have Google-checked on some things, but still uneasy about some things, especially after getting a message that system could crash if I continue!

Weirdly, at times, with no pattern I can discern, after the computer runs for awhile, the red spikes on DPC end--they go away--altho the green spikes continue up into 600-700 and above, obviously not right.

Um, Help?

Thanks in Advance,
Perry

 

[Proximon]

Could you post screen shots of all the tabs of CPU-Z?

 

[Proximon]

http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php

 

[perple]

Here are the screen shots of CPU-Z tabs:

Thanks Proximon for your time and input. I hope these images help...
Perry

 

[Proximon]

You posted the SPD tab twice but missed the memory tab I would like to see that.

We had better have a look at your various temps as well. You can just run HWmonitor and tell me if you see anything suspicious:

HWMonitor
(It's another tiny app)

I have a rule about motherboard disk software. I never install anything from the disk unless I can't get access to the internet. I will slipstream Windows first if my hardware is newer than the version of windows I am using.

Quite often programs designed to make overclocking easy, or tweak motherboard settings, interfere with drivers and such.

Have you disabled all devices in the BIOS you aren't using? Onboard sound? Parallel port? Firewire? Sometimes devices conflict in windows, despite whatever MS tries to say.

Having said all that I think the problem is hardware related.

 

[perple]

CPU-Z memory edited & fixed.

Here's a screenshot of the HW Monitor:

Yup, lots to tweak and consider. I have a whole lot of advice from various places and possible issues to look into, including yours, Proximon, which'll keep me quite busy over the next hours--hopefully NOT days! Please lemme know what you see in the screenshots, especially, obviously, pressing issues regarding temps and all.

One thing I'm looking into is from this link: http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=30162
Any feedback on the wisdom (or not...) of this?

Thanks again!
Perry

 

[Proximon]

Yes slipstreaming is always a good idea if your OS is much older than your hardware.

Idle temps for your CPU around 50C... that's not good. Under load they would likely exceed the 65C safety zone. This COULD cause issues. I'm guessing quiet is a priority for cooling:
One of these, depending on the size of your case:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010110574%2050001903&name=Sunbeam

 

[perple]

First, Thanks again for the input, Proximon. Great utility hardware monitors. Checked out the link and I will buy a new cpu fan.

All is well with my new build! Beyond well. Fanfreakingtastic! I wiped clean and reinstalled windows. But not just any windows, oh no. I was pointed in a direction and spent the last three days reading a couple of (loooooong) threads over at another forum and WOW, what a fix! Check it out:

http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=30162

Being nearly noob, not sure of my terminology, but it's a slippedstreamed version of xp pro and SP3 optimized for audio. Yup! someone (DuX over at Cockos Reaper forums) extensively weeded out the bloats in xp pro and sp3 so that it has only what is needed for a DAW. Other hardware drivers or whatever can simply be added after. This is all legal and legit, apparently, and has to be used with a good product key code from your own xp pro (tho NOT an OEM version. Not sure why.)

There is a whoooole looooot to read, so noobs like me, read and reread and search before you do this. But I am psyched! My DSAW is up and running with my Sonar 8 Producer now and it ROCKS!!

Peace,
Perry

 

[thesleeve]

Hmmm, that trimmed-down version of XP looks very interesting. Just curious, did it make your DPC woes disappear? What is your average DPC latency now that you're running the new OS?