Stability Setup Virus TI Polar WindowsXP SP3 Cubase6.5 Intel Core2Duo Gigabyte Mainboard

    Some expirience from my site (no expert at all, but some expirience with musicmaking since 20 years..)..


    My Setup:


    - Core2Duo Intel
    - Mainboard Gigabyte ES45-DS3
    http://www.gigabyte.de/product…uct-page.aspx?pid=2842#ov
    - Windows XP SP3, all patches (Mai2012)
    - Cubase6.5
    - USB Extension PCI Card to connect Virus via USB/PCI Bus and NOT using the onboard USB Interfaces.
    http://www.conrad.de/ce/de/pro…otionareaSearchDetail=005


    When first installing Virus Installer on my system and using onboard USB Interface(s) i had trouble with stability.
    Sometimes bluescreen, sometimes PC "freezes", sometimes Virus "freezes" - unuseable.


    I fixed it with the following actions:
    - tried all usb interfaces my mainboard has without success in stability. Then bought a PCI Card with additional USB Interfaces so the virus has its really own USB Bus via PCI and that did it...
    - disconnected all not needed PCI Cards / USB devices from the system (incl. a RME DigiPAD PCI Soundcard, which i dont need anymore when virus does the job as soundcard)



    So, for the moment everything is fine...

    My conclusion is - there is "something" going wrong on my setup.
    I simply dont want to waste weeks on "finding out what this could be".


    Anyway - one "problem source" seems to be found:
    I have also a RME PCI Card, as i disabled it and ONLY use Virus as "soundcard" it does not hang so often - but still not "stable" as i would like it to be, but i am on the way.. :)


    There is at the moment a imac 21" for 999€, maybe i will go for it. 8o

    Zitat von Chris

    i am using as audio card an RME UCX
    forget imac and go get an external RME audio interface :thumbup:


    why not stay with pure virus as soundcard (not recording very often audio, maybe some guitar tracks time by time) and sell my old RME PCI Card on eboy? :thumbup:
    I dont care about the money for the iMac, simply dont want to invest time in "rocket-science-how-to-waste-life-in-pimping-your-pc-till-it-works-sometimes-fine", simply want to do some music..

    I'm using the Windows 8 *beta* with the unsupported Reaper DAW and the Virus works just fine for me.
    I'm not trying to gloat or anything; just pointing out, like some others have, that moving to Mac isn't necessarily the answer to your problem here.
    Apple likes to claim that everything "just works", yet they still have a support department.


    I'm not saying *not* to get a Mac, but are you familiar with using Macs? If you are not, are you going to want to learn to troubleshoot a Mac?
    Because sooner or later, whatever system you have, you're bound to run into some issue with any computer. That's the nature of technology.
    Whether Apple or Windows or LInux is better - I'm going to stay away from that debate.


    I will say, if you're using Windows XP, your system most likely doesn't owe you anything at this point; Microsoft doesn't even support XP anymore, as it's extremely old.
    You didn't mention the processor you have, but I'm sure you could make use of a new system if you're still running XP; much has changed in the past decade.
    Whether you need one to get the Virus and Ableton to work properly, is debatable, but if you want to buy a new system, who am I to talk you out of it?
    I'm planning on buying one myself, even though my current system, at around 4-5 years old, still handles everything I throw at it, and I throw a lot at it.


    In the interest of potentially being helpful:


    When you say XP freezes, does it blue screen? If so, what is the error message? Most likely it'll complain about some .dll or driver or something.
    When you say the Virus hangs, is that in combination with XP hanging, or is it by itself and XP continues to work?


    Do these issues only happen when the Virus is connected? Do they only happen when using Ableton? Do they only happen when using Ableton with the Virus?


    Do they happen immediately? Does it take a while to happen, but once it has happened, occur quickly again afterward?
    Is your computer clean? Perhaps it is overheating. Though your "no audiotrax" comment makes me doubt you're doing anything intensive when this occurs, so that's probably not the issue.


    Do you have a lot of devices connected to your system? Possibly you're having a power supply issue.


    Another possiblity (maybe, I don't know Ableton) - maybe you're pointing Ableton to the wrong software/plugin for the Virus?


    Do you notice the Virus connecting/reconnecting a lot? Maybe you have a bad usb cable or the port is dirty or something?
    At my workplace, we got a batch of computers with improperly grounded front panels, and touching metal parts would cause the systems to reset - have you tried using a different usb port and/or cable?


    Also, unrelated to troubleshooting: I don't know what kind of licensing scheme Ableton has, but if you go with a Mac, you may want to check that you're authorized to use the Mac version of Ableton.
    Though if you're willing to splurge on a Mac, I suppose buying another copy of Ableton wouldn't be an issue to you anyway.


    Edit: And one more thing - if you haven't posted anything in Access' tech support forums, you may want to consider doing so.
    Access should at least have some familiarity with any issues in Ableton for the different operating systems.
    For all I know, Virus with Mac version of Ableton is impossible to use - or it could work better than any other combination.
    Also, I only noticed you mentioned Ableton before - all in all, the same goes with Cubase as for Ableton, feel free to substitute one for the other throughout my post.
    I was going to point out that your title suggests you're using a demo, but I assume at least Ableton was not a demo.

    Hi


    thanks a lot!


    Well, i am very familiar with PCs, especially windows as i work as it administrator :)
    Most problems can be solved, when investing some time in resolving pc issues and choosing the "right" components (mainboard/chipset, RAM, Drivers, Updates etc).
    But i am to old and simply want to do music in my free time, thats why i find it maybe "more effective" to go for a computer system that "may" bring me faster to a stable system,
    and as professional musicians use apple computers, i dont think they only do it because of the design and "cool" factor.
    To me its seems to be cheaper to invest in a mac then in resolving my windows pc issues as the hours invested i can work for my company and make enough money to buy the mac..


    --------------------------------------


    The windows system i use is a Core2Duo Gigabyte PC, i think 2 years young and has more than enough power (3 SATA HDs, quality RAM, latest Chipset Drivers etc).
    As said, works fine - AS LONG AS THE VIRUS IS NOT CONNECTED...


    Last days i did some tracks and worked fine even with virus connected, and the pc did not freeze again since the RME Soundcard was disabled and all un-necessary USB devices have been plugged off, so something was there disturbing the usb bus or whatever.


    Lets see the next days if i can get this running with the existing windows xp PC and an official version of cubase 6.5 Artist, the last days i only tested with a test demo version from steinberg. If i can not solve ALL the issues, i will anyway go for a Mac, so i had once in my life also an apple and when this also does not run for me - well, why not write songs on acoustic guitar and record it for fun on iPad with Garageband, its just a hobby and i am not Michael Jackson. :thumbup:

    Well, it sounds like you may have things working better for you.
    I wish I'd realized you were an administrator; with your comments about not wanting to become a rocket scientist, I was under the impression you might actually benefit from advice I might offer.
    With your background, you shouldn't really need help troubleshooting.


    So far as "professional musicians use apple computers" - I'm sure plenty use non-Apple as well. Apple has done a very good job cultivating that image though.
    It irritates me a little to see people perpetuating the idea that using an Apple product will magically make their life better.
    Certainly Apple provided a better experience than early versions of Windows, and their hardware tended to be better at that time as well.
    Nowadays, PCs and Apples use the same hardware, and Microsoft has actually improved their OS a lot over the years.


    I kind of get the impression you just really want a Mac. Nothing wrong with that, and if you go that route, I hope you enjoy it.
    I think you will find yourself spending time becoming an Apple "rocket scientist" if you do, but sometimes it's nice to use something a little different.
    One thing I'll say about Apple/Linux over Windows... I'd kill for that kind of command line interface or even a decent terminal.

    Well, Apple Mac is not a "must have" to me, but why not, you only live once, so if you want something - GO 4 IT!


    But as i am more interested in doing music then in kissing apple computers, i gave my good old windowsXP PC a last chance.
    I thought this stability issue could come from some trouble in USB bus.
    Sure if first tried all usb busses my (gigabyte mainboard) does have, but still trouble.


    Today i bought a PCI Card with USB Interfaces so that the virus gets an own PCI Bus only for himself.
    And voila - i did music for hours and had NO PROBLEM.


    So lets see how this show goes on... hopefully i can do now what i wanted... some musix... :thumbup:

    Zitat von flabberbob

    I think a lot of people would benefit from knowing what make/model this PCIe expansion card is.

    I certainly would!


    At the moment I'm speccing a new music PC; I want to get a PCIe usb card dedicated solely to the Virus but have also been looking at getting a new PCI soundcard. Initially I was looking at the RME Babyface but I already have alot of phantom powered usb devices (wacom, maschine, kore, midisport) and thought it might put more load on the computer if I added yet another one, so turned my attention to the Multiface 2. Now I'm wondering if I should stick with the original idea rather than having two PCI cards potentially conflicting (could this be a problem?). Any sugggestions?

    http://www.conrad.de/ce/de/pro…otionareaSearchDetail=005


    Thats the USB PCI Card i used, just by random buyed on a shop near to my location. :)
    Maybe it could also be a good idea to use another PCI USB Card which may support USB3.0, but as virus only runs at USB1.1, this card is enough and USB3.0 will not bring any advantage according to virus useage.


    Well i simply think the USB Bus stability is essential for Virus to work stable with your DAW, so if you have a free PCI Slot you know what you can do.
    It may depend on the USB Bus quality of your mainboard, maybe it works fine in some environments without pci extension or if you dont have other USB devices which share the bus with your virus.
    This was my "last try", and if this would not increase useablity i would go for an iMac, but now it seems i have got a system working fine for me - Puh!


    I think USB is a great Interface - IF IT RUNS FINE! If not (for example if you have lots of usb devices) the PCI BUS could give the virus a connection with high speed explicitly for the virus so this "should" not come to conflict with the other usb interfaces / devices on your mainboard.
    But as things are complicated there can go a lot wrong.
    I think its allways a good idea to try different drivers and try to use latest driver versions, even chipsetdriver and update of windows os.