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Re: Think my studio machine is on the way out...

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 11:58 am
by render
wub wrote:No blue screen, just a reboot.

Will try the safe mode thing later today and see if I get the same issues.
Reboots are often caused by wrong CPU/RAM - Voltage/Frequency settings in BIOS! Might want to check that. Check your DDR sticks, whats the voltage and frequency wrote on them, also some motherboards don't like some RAM frequencies, and/or maybe your Motherboard reseted somehow, and the default setting is not the optimal for your RAM and/or CPU.. Reboots are also sometimes caused by loose VGA connection, try re-plugging it into the PCI slot of your motherboard. Also you might want to clean your entire PC from dust, that also could be a cause for your reboots!

That's all I can think of right now,

Merry Christmas, and good luck with your rig!

Re: Think my studio machine is on the way out...

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 12:07 pm
by wub
Doubt it's the volt/freq causing the reboots, as they've only just recently started and rig has been running for abut 8yrs prior without any issues.

Re: Think my studio machine is on the way out...

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 12:30 pm
by render
wub wrote:Doubt it's the volt/freq causing the reboots, as they've only just recently started and rig has been running for abut 8yrs prior without any issues.
render wrote:maybe your Motherboard reseted somehow.

Well I would rather double check my BIOS settings before I do anything else.

Re: Think my studio machine is on the way out...

Posted: Sun Dec 25, 2011 12:40 pm
by wub
render wrote:
wub wrote:Doubt it's the volt/freq causing the reboots, as they've only just recently started and rig has been running for abut 8yrs prior without any issues.
render wrote:maybe your Motherboard reseted somehow.

Well I would rather double check my BIOS settings before I do anything else.
I'll give it a try to test this, but tbh I'm thinking it's either one of the memory sticks or the PSU.

Re: Think my studio machine is on the way out...

Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2011 6:37 pm
by wub
Ok, after a couple of days of tests, it turns out that it was a loose connector from the PSU that was causing it to reboot. I disconnected all the connectors inside to run them through a PSU tester, and since doing that and plugging them all back in, it hasn't reset itself once,

Re: Think my studio machine is on the way out...

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 10:48 am
by nutrician
Im building one of these next- http://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/search/label/CustoMac

It works 100% no fuss as he provides the tools to get it booting up etc...
And if it flops, i still have a fairly decent pc build for general use
@ depone

nice!

im thinking to do the same thing. my imac is getting old and apple hardware is expensive so it sounds like a good alternative. Please let us know if you succeeded.

Re: Think my studio machine is on the way out...

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2012 10:55 am
by Promise One
Depone wrote:Keep us posted! Or post it in the classic studio pics thread...

Yeah MOTU are very good with their hardware interfaces. Highly recommended. An alternative is the Roland FA-101 (http://www.rolandus.com/products/produc ... ductId=702) same amount of ins/outs, but a bit cheaper.
Don't know if its too late now but also look into Echo interfaces:

http://www.echoaudio.com/

Tony Andrews of Funktion One said in his recent Red Bull Academy that these have some of the best AD convertors available for the money. Can't go wrong with a MOTU either.

Re: Think my studio machine is on the way out...

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 10:14 am
by sunny_b_uk
Eridu wrote:i am currently preparing my second pc for just audio production. I wont even let it have wallpapers, thats how serious I am now.
i do this on my quad core, i turn off anything to do with windows aero + use the windows 7 basic theme with an empty desktop and no wallpaper :lol:

Re: Think my studio machine is on the way out...

Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2012 12:10 pm
by VirtualMark
sunny_b_uk wrote:
Eridu wrote:i am currently preparing my second pc for just audio production. I wont even let it have wallpapers, thats how serious I am now.
i do this on my quad core, i turn off anything to do with windows aero + use the windows 7 basic theme with an empty desktop and no wallpaper :lol:

With XP, turning off themes did make a difference, you gained memory and cpu cycles.

With Vista and 7, turning off aero results in a performance decrease in the majority of systems. Its designed to work with 3d acceleration and offloads a lot of the display processing to the graphics card. By disabling aero, you're making your cpu do more work. And with it enabled, you won't see any performance difference with or without wallpaper and themes.

I'm 100% for optimizing Windows, but only where it counts. CPU cycles, hard drive thrashing, latency and memory usage. Memory usage is secondary as i have plenty of ram. As i'm still using 32bit cubase, i can't use more than 2gb anyhow.

CPU - disabling background processes when you're producing will help. Antivirus, startup programs, sidebar widgets, windows updates, even turn off your wifi. And i personally disable system restore, i image my drive with a 3rd party program. Up to you if you do this, it does take up resources.

Hard drive thrashing - disable windows search(indexing), you can still type a program in the start menu, it just doesn't index all the contents of every single file such as the words in a document. Also defrag(should be scheduled in 7) and disable background processes you're not using, virus scans etc.

DPC Latency - disabling hardware on your system that you never use can help if you're having problems. Also getting the latest drivers for things like graphics cards and usb can make a difference.

RAM - disabling services you don't use can help here. But be careful what you disable, if you don't know what it does leave it alone. Again the usual disabling background processes frees up a bit of ram.