V1.5 USB Dropouts

Sparky_101 8:37 AM - 10 July, 2006

Hi,

Firstly, let me just congratulate Rane and Serato on a truly excellent product. I was a FS user before and made the switch to SSL and can honestly say it was the right one.

I do, however, have a problem with the full version on 1.5. This has only just started occurring in the last few days. I am getting USB dropouts quite frequently (at least 3 to 4 per song). I have moved house recently but do not feel I have damaged any of my equipment seeing that I took SSL to a gig in this new town and did not experience any USB dropouts. I have also had it all plugged in previously in this new house and everything has worked fine. It literally was turned on one day and started dropping USB power.

The USB Buffer bar is set fully to the right and I still get dropouts. All other background operations have been disabled (Wireless Networking, Norton etc). My screen updates per second have been dropped down to 10 with no improvement (I have now moved this back up to 50).

I was dragging all my power out of one socket thinking I was putting too much strain on one power socket. I have done this at my old house with no problems at all. However, just to be safe, I took my laptop power from another socket across the room. I have been running SSL V1.5 since it was made a full release and have had no problems with it at all which makes this seem all the more strange.

I am running a DELL Inspiron 600M Laptop (1.4GHz with 512RAM running Windows XP HE). I have an important gig coming up in the next few weeks and need some help to resolve this issue. I have not changed any features or settings on the laptop.

Is there something I could try or would you recommend an upgrade to V1.6.1 and let you know if the problem persists? Or is it just simply that the dirty house that I play has broken it?

Regards

Mark

nik39 12:30 PM - 10 July, 2006

Does this happen already with the first song you play or does it only happen after some songs?

Did you apply any software changes, like MS windows updates or something?

Does this happen with any file? Did you try different formats, wav, ogg, mp3?

I know some question sound like they make no sense, but I have absolutely no clue what the problem could be.

Sparky_101 2:24 PM - 10 July, 2006

In answer to your questions:

It happens from the first song that I load up and happens to every song after that. It happens at irregular intervals - ie: 1min into a song, 3:37mins into a song etc etc

No software changes that I am aware of - as I have not connected to a network since the last gig I had (just over a week ago) where it worked fine, there has been no MS Windows updates and no other software has been added.

It does happen with any file that I load - although I have only tried it with mp3s as this is what I DJ with. Will try it with some WAV files tonight.

Could it just be the fact that the electrics in this particular house have little surges resulting in USB dropouts?

Thanks for your help though Nik - please keep the help coming if you can!

Sam 6:47 AM - 11 July, 2006

It's unlikely that the electrics in your house have anything to do with the problem. USB dropouts can be hard to track down, but we've been experimenting with a tool that Microsoft makes that has helped. In most cases, USB dropouts on PC are caused by driver problems. This tool helps to measure which drivers are taking too long, and causing dropouts.
Info on how it use it is here: www.scratchlive.net

Sparky_101 7:17 AM - 11 July, 2006

Hi Sam - thanks for you help. Will test the RATT tool and upload results later today.

Cheers!

Sparky_101 6:42 PM - 11 July, 2006

Sam,

I have sent 3 tests of reports as requested.

Please let me know if you require any more information.

Best Regards

Mark

Sam 9:55 PM - 11 July, 2006

Hi Mark,

The third test is the most interesting, here is a link to it so that the other support staff can have a look: scratchlive.net

The only driver that stands out is the USB driver. One thing to try is to go to the DELL website and see if there are any updates for the USB driver.

Can you also do another experiment for me - put Scratch LIVE into INT mode on both decks, load up a couple of songs, and DO NOTHING. Do you get any USB dropouts? You normally get 3 or 4 per song, right? So wait about the average song length, and see how many drop outs you get, if any. I want to see how bad the OS is messing with us.

Sparky_101 4:24 PM - 12 July, 2006

Hi Sam,

Loaded songs into both decks into INT mode and let them run without touching the laptop. Ran this a few times and on average, got 4/5 dropouts per song. Have run another RATT test and have sent this information to you. I have not changed the environment since my last experiment except this test was run using INT mode.

Will check the DELL website to look for a USB update, though I do find it funny that it has worked for 7 months previously.

Any suggestions?

Sparky_101 7:46 PM - 13 July, 2006

Hi Sam,

Done a few other things today with no success.

I did a Windows system restore on my laptop to a date that I knew worked back in June. This did not solve the issue.

I also have tried another laptop, an Acer one. I don't think the spec is important to list here, but I installed V1.6.1 on it and took a song and loaded it up into INT mode. It did not have one USB dropout.

This basically means that it is a problem with my laptop and not with the SL1 box nor the software. As mentioned before, I have not installed anything these past few weeks to change the environment of the OS.

I am going to try and remove all of the USB drivers and let Windows re-discover them. Maybe this might fix it?

Any other suggestions?

Sparky_101 7:59 PM - 13 July, 2006

Went into Control Panel --> System --> Device Manager. Went to the USB tree and deleted all references to USB. Sure enough, upon restart, Windows scanned and found new hardware and installed the USB drivers. I plugged in the SL1 box and filled in the new hardware screens.

I even went as far as going into C:\windows\inf and deleting all references to Serato.

I really can't think what is wrong - I'm at my wits end!!

Sparky_101 2:01 PM - 17 July, 2006

Need SSL working now. I'm going to re-build my laptop from scratch and hope this solves the problem.

Will update further when I have finished this.

Sam 5:47 AM - 18 July, 2006

Hi Sparky,

The fact that you are getting dropouts even when Scratch LIVE is sitting idle doing nothing indicates that it is coming from XP, not the Scratch LIVE software or the hardware.

Let us know how the rebuild goes.

Sparky_101 8:01 AM - 18 July, 2006

Spent ages rebuilding the machine! Finally got to a point where I felt happy installing SSL. Installed V1.6.1 and the required driver from Serato.

I have only tested 2 songs (one on each deck) thus far but there has been no dropouts as of yet.

At this moment in time, I believe the re-build to be a success. Will test further tonight to give a definate answer.

Zach S 3:10 PM - 18 July, 2006

Great news..

Sam 11:42 PM - 18 July, 2006

keep us posted Sparky

Dj Dub$ack 2:24 PM - 19 July, 2006

great news sparky...im going to try this also...my SSL has worked perfect for months and months...now all of a sudden im getting an occasional drop out and even when the audio doesn't drop out, i am getting stuttering visuals, which never happened before until recently and now it happens all the time???

Dj KaGeN 4:19 PM - 19 July, 2006

check your needles, check/flip over your control vinyl, have you loaded anything new to your laptop?

Dj Dub$ack 5:50 PM - 19 July, 2006

KaGen...thanks for the reply...i installed Nero Burning software, but have since uninstalled it...i am using cdj's so no needles or vinyl...i read another post about making sure the computer is clean on the inside...like if you have had the computer for a while it could be dusty inside and cause heat problems that could lead to drop outs and freezing up...i am going to remover the casing and vacuum it out real good tonight...im sure mine is dusty on the inside...it did run like a champ but over time it has gotten worse...my laptop is a beast...no probelems so far with that...i am having this problem with my desktop...

Dj KaGeN 6:04 PM - 19 July, 2006

I have found that over time on this board that a few people have simply did a format/relaod of the OS using the bare minimums and not installing extra programs have found that they end up with a solid solution.. If this cna be done without too much trouble I'd suggest it. Be sure the innerds of the desktop are dust free, if this mahcine connects to the internet all the time, I can only think you scooped up a bug... Best of luck.

Dj Dub$ack 7:07 PM - 19 July, 2006

you are probably right about the bug...because it used to work perfectly, and i haven't changed much...i do have a dedicated laptop that runs like a champ...has never seen internet time...my desktop is always online...downloading music...i use...www.mp3search.ru...cheap and they have a great selection...but it has also seen a lot of other downloads and random websites...reasearch for school work and stuff...i think im going to take saturday morning and spend a few hours going through and really cleaning my desktop up, running virus scans and spyware scans and disconnect the internet except for on a need only basis...plus im sure i need to dust and clean out the inside...

thanks for your help KaGen...i will report back if i have any good luck....

nobspangle 7:15 PM - 19 July, 2006

Which version of Nero did you install?
Did you install the image drive and packet writing components?
If it was version 7 that also includes some kind of file indexing tool which looks like a complete resource hog.

Dj Dub$ack 7:55 PM - 19 July, 2006

im not sure about which nero version i installed...it came with the HP lightscribe cd/dvd burner that i bought...but i returned it and i like Roxio better because i know how to use its functions already...so i uninstalled it....actually i deleted it...i probably still need to go in to add/remove programs and really uninstall it...i believe it was version 7...it was the full version of the program and some added features for lightscribe so im sure that program was a hog...

Im not a fan of Nero...when i installed nero it completely changed a lot of my settings as far as watching dvd's and playing music through media player goes...i had to go back in and reconfigure some settings after i deleted Nero...i had to change settings in Roxio back to how they were...i was upset with that...all i wanted it for was to burn lightscribe images...oh well...

Dj KaGeN 8:06 PM - 19 July, 2006

Once installed it never fully leaves.... there will always be some stain left behind.

Sparky_101 7:52 AM - 20 July, 2006

To add further - I have tested SSL on the last two consecutive nights for about 30mins to an hour each and have not had one dropout. My re-build as DJ Kagen put it, of a bare system with only the essentials seems to have worked a treat!

I can offer no explaination as to why my SSL suddenly stopped working and now have full confidence in it again!

Thanks for the continued support - much appreciated!

Zach S 4:15 PM - 20 July, 2006

Great news! This discussion is sorted then.

*resolved*

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