Sorry. Forgot to mention that it has also frozen on me in offline mode as well. Usually when I want to exit the application.....

Hi ldc1129.

Can you please go here and make sure you are doing everything in this article:
www.serato.com

Once you have done this how are you getting on?

What is your USB buffer set to in ITCH?

I have already done everything in the link.

USB setting is at 5ms

What is the make and model of your laptop?

It is an HP Pavilion DV6-1352dx

Can you please try this to test if it helps:


HP notebook PCs have a wireless button or switch, which enables you to easily turn wireless local area network (WLAN) and Bluetooth capabilities on or off. The location of the wireless button or switch varies by model. It may be located on the top of the keyboard, on the side of the computer, or on the front of the computer. You will see a wireless icon on or near the button or switch to help you easily identify it.
To disable Bluetooth using the wireless button, simply press the wireless button or slide the switch. A notification message from HP Wireless Assistant indicating that wireless has been turned off briefly displays in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

I already have the wireless disabled...

Are you using an external drive at all?

No everything is internal. Approx 45gigs used of a 250gig HDD.

????

anyone????

still waiting.....

I ldc1129.
I am sorry, I have been away sick, and didn't see this post till now.

Are you using any other type of audio device or even used one? (Such as an Mbox, or external soundcard or MIDI controller.)

Can you also run the DPC latency checker.
This will produce a report for latency or IRQ conflicts on your system.
Go here: www.thesycon.de

Download then play audio in Scratch Live and run the DPC.exe.

You will be shown a bar graph , GREEN (SAFE) Yellow (Caution) Red (Dropouts).
You will also be given a report of any conflicting hardware or software.
Let me know how you get on and if there are any yellow or red spikes.

No other audio devices being used.

When you say "play audio" do you mean use the offline player or actual mixing??

Sorry, I actually meant ITCH - use ITCH to play audio....
OK, give the DPC latency checker a go, it will hopefully reveal some conflicts that we can adjust.

Ok. Will post up Thursday night as I am away on business.

ok. I don't know how this works. I do not see where I get the report from as there is no option in the program.

I am currently mixing in Itch, surfing the web, typing this info and the highest reading is 531. Only green, no yellow or red. All it says is that this machine can support live streaming.

Now what??

By the way, USB buffer is set to 2 and it will NOT allow me to drop it to 1.....

Ok. It has gone up as far as 702....while multi-tasking.

???

I had an HP laptop (about the same specs as yours) and I just recently gave up on it and bought a macbook with windows 7 on it. The real problem is usb cache size. Anything less than 2 MB just won't cut it with these itch controlers.

Hey guys! New to the forum, just got the VCI-300 and Itch a few months ago. In the studio, I'm using Windows 7 64-bit on a Lenovo S10 quad core 2.66ghz processor, 8gb ram and tb's of hard drive space because i have an IT company that I run multiple off-site back-ups on. So far I have never had one problem with the software. Also use Ableton Live Sute 8 with absolutley no issues and I've been using it on a 64bit OS for several months. As for my mobile set-up, I use an older HP DV6436nr laptop with 4 gb ram and Windows 7 64-bit and have NO issues with the VCI-300 or the Akai-APC40 or Akai MPC25. Guess I'm just lucky. Anyway, just wanted to say that I am so amazed with these products and I can't wait to get my hands on the bridge. If anyone has any tips/advice for me please let me know or if you need any technical help with your desktop/laptops let me know as I'll be more than happy to help my extended dj/producer family.

Thanks for the insight. I will contact HP during the week and look further into that.

There are a few more things we can look at before doing that!

I am wondering if there is a bad driver that HP have made for a laptop part. Can you try and see if the actual hardware manufacturers for the components of your system have new or proper drivers?

and how do you want me to check to see who made each individual part of my laptop???

Seems like a far stretch......

Crack it open, break out a magnifying glass and look around REALLY REALLY slowly and carefuly!! LMAO!!

No seriously, there is a tool from HP on their website that should tell you all the component manufacturer's. I just forget the name and I'm too busy @ work to look it up for you but just go to their site and look for it in the support section.

Ok. Got off the phone with HP and fought out some interesting points...

First, I can not "downgrade" to XP as their is very good chance that I will not find supporting drivers for my new laptop's components so the "easy" fix seems to go out the door.

As far as the current drivers, HP stated that the drivers for their machines are specifically made for them and are usually newer than what I may find (if any) on the manufacturer's website.

Their suggestion was to download the XP emulator for Win7 and see if that will work out. Otherwise, I am really considering dumping Serato. I am no way happy with the support I am receiving for the product. Alot of money invested with no solid results!!

Great!!! I just ran the tool for XP mode and discovered that my laptop does not support "virtualization" to run the XP emulator.....

Strike 2!!

Idc1129.

It looks like there is an internal conflict that is prohibiting full data streaming, and even tho HP say they have the latest drivers there may be a better driver that they haven't got. The component manufacturer will be the first to have the driver before HP as they made the product to begin with. Sometimes there is a gap between this and the laptop manufacturer getting the driver.

Try checking with component manufacturers web sites.
Go here to read about how to get the information for your components:
www.pcnineoneone.com
(Check under 'How To Manually Update Drivers'.)

Not trying to pass the blame here, but all indications are that there is a bottleneck in the data and we're trying to diagnose a tricky situation, sorry that this is taking much longer than normal, it's never a fun experience.

I don't know what to think.....you stated



and the website states....

Note: If you own an OEM computer such as a Dell, Gateway, HP, Compaq or Toshiba, visit their support pages to obtain the latest version of software and drivers for the devices installed on your computer.

If you read further you will see:

It is always a best practice to use a driver provided by the manufacturer of the device rather than use a built-in Windows driver.


There can be a delay with HP and the component creator.

If you don't want to do this we can look elsewhere, but it may take longer.

I already have and find nothing....

I was running vista...upgraded to 7 and now I'm having trouble with music loading, everything freezing and all this other crap...windows 7 just sucks, wish I could've stayed vista.

Dude, they are workin on a windows 7 friendly version but Windows 7 does NOT suck. Maybe right now for Itch it does but all it is, is Vista without the problems and a few other nicer features.

Windows 7 IS fantastic.............BUT NOT FOR SERATO!!!!

Still waiting for an answer............

Dude, windows 7 works great with serato. It's the processors that are the problem and apparently the vci-300 doesn't like the firmware upgrade if everything is already ok. I wouldn't trade my rig for the best/fastest mac out there.

I would trade it for the best/fastest mac...but no one with the mac would make the trade :P

To each their own..............I'm not looking to start an arguement.

I guess you are one of the lucky ones....

LDC1129,

Prior to migrating to Windows 7 from Windows XP did you run the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor?
To determine if your current computer configuration will be compatible with Windows 7 please go to the following link: tinyurl.com

Another resource to verify compatibility is available at the Microsoft Windows 7 Compatibility Center located at the following link: bit.ly

Jessica
Microsoft Windows Client Team

Oh u work with windows? Tell them I'm throwing mine away in two years to buy the best mac book pro :P

I never upgraded.....

I bought my computer new in October when Win7 came out.

Hi everyone. Can everyone apart from ldc1129 please start a new help thread, this thread is getting very cluttered and it's making it harder to diagnose and troubleshoot the issue and pinpoint the problem.

Windows and ITCH are fully compatible, any issues arising form the use of ITCH and a Windows computer will most probably be a conflicting set of hardware/software/drivers rather than a bug in ITCH (which is very rare).

ldc1129 - sorry for the delay, it's been a bit mad here with all the NAMM announcements.

Can you please make sure you have analyzed all files, then click the ALL... folder, then click the empty box at the top of the second column to sort files by type. Do you see any files that have a broken CD icon?

Yes. I do have files that have a broken cd icon. I also have a few that show no icon at all.

Some of the files that have a broken cd icon play, some don't.

OK.

I tried to deletre the files with the broken cd icon but since I use iTunes it didn't work.

I went to the files option and ran the relocate files feature. i now went through the list and have no broken cd icon. I hit the analyze files button and it wants to analyze my entire library. Does this sound right??

Im with you idc 1129.......it just doesnt work with windows.....why dont they say Buy a MAC

My honest opinion is that I think they need to revise the minimum specs for every Windows OS.

But still hoping....

haydnrey - I've told you in another thread that you are making an incorrect statement. ITCH runs great with PCs as well as Macs. If you want to start a help thread then please do so otherwise can you please keep idc1129's thread uncluttered. Thanks :D

icd1129. Our minimum specs are actually erring on the side of caution. We can't control all manufacturer's hardware/software/driver conflicts, nor if vendors cut corners and use poor parts or below-industry parts.

One other problem is that we aren't officially supporting Windows 7 at present because many manufacturers aren't completely up to date with drivers, so there can be conflicts

However, this sounds very much like a corruption of data.
Analyze your entire library until it completes the task (if it crashes part way through we will have to find that file, I will advise on how to do that if it does).

Now go through and delete all the corrupt files from your ALL... crate.
If there is a track with a broken iTunes logo, then you will need to go into iTunes and remove from the entire iTunes library. Make sure you don't open iTunes and ITCH at the same time.

ok. I have been in the process of going through the library and deleting all bad files and hope to see if that works.

I don't think it is a hardware or software/driver issue as I have already seen a few people with similiar machines like mine from HP that are not having issues.

Similar doesn't mean the same, a different batch of units, a slightly modified motherboard in the same series, a cheaper USB bus can all lead to changes. Even with Macs there can be some units from a model using faulty parts. (Shock horror!)

But hopefully it is corrupt files :D
Let me know how you go.

Still haven't had a chance to clean it out completely. I am FORTUNATELY swamped with work. Hope to have some good news by the weekend!!

Been reading some other threads with the same issue and they seem to be doing ok after the files were removed so I have faith....

Yeah, corrupt files are a pain, so it's good idea to get rid of them.
Hope work settles down soon! (Unless you are a contractor :-D)

Let me know how you get on.

OK. Cleared all of the corrupt files. Spun for about 2 hrs last night...

About 15 minutes in I lost all audio for about 1 second and then everything came back. At about the 2 hour mark, Itch froze again!!

Currently at 2ms USB

If you bump it up to 5ms and press Apply, do you get any dropouts?


When you say it froze:
How long for?
Did it crash or did you have to quit?
Visual freeze, or audio freeze, or both?
Could you use the controller?
Did you do anything to fix the freeze?
Did you see if the activity monitor to the top right of the screen was maxing out?

Ok, can you try bumping the latency up to 5 and apply, see if that fixes the dropout. Let me know if that works.

Ok. Will try.

Ok. Raised the buffer to 5ms. Spun for about 50 minutes. No audio drop out or freezing.......what next?

Right - well your computer seems happy at 5ms, so that's probably a good indication that the laptop is either struggling below this, or that there is some sort of conflict going on.

Either just continue to play with it at 5, or you can try running the DPC latency checker again and see if anything shows up (this will hopefully show if there's any conflicts).

No issues seen on the DPC. Last nihg ti played for about 2 hours with no issues.

However, I did notice that at times there was a delay between me loading a track and the actual loading of the track. Also, sometimes waveforms were sluggish in loading. Any ideas.......

Ok. Frustration again!!!

Played last night and Itch froze on me after about 10 minutes. Happened when I switched to a different crate and tried to load a track. Needing assistance on this matter!!!!!

Delay with the track - this could have been a new track that wasn't analyzed (the program will analyze a non-analyzed track when you load it, creating a bit of a lag).

With the freeze. Were you making sure you weren't online etc (everything in the article i posted)? Did the freeze stop? Have you analyzed all files and made sure there aren't any corrupt files?

Track delay was not with a new track. Track has been previously played. Also, it happened with more than one track.

Not online. No corrupt files at this time. No it did not stop. I had to force shut down to exit program and restart.

Sorry, by online, I mean, had you disabled wireless and wired networks?

As for the freezes, how long did they freeze for?

Yes, I have wireless turned off.

The freeze will last indefinately if I leave it...

Ok. I downloaded 1.5 RC2 last night and tried it out.

First time it froze within 3 minutes!!

Restarted the program, spun from a different genre crate with no issues for about 1 hour.

I use iTunes library feature. Any ideas.........

If you don't use the iTunes feature, do you still get these freezes (Just test with a few tracks in a new crate).

Have not tried that. Will try and see what happens.....

I downloaded and installed Itch 1.5 last night in hopes that my Win7 probs would go away!! I also redid my laptop to Win7 Profesional 64-bit to get more RAM. I was wrong..........

- I had a freeze/crash within 10 minutes.
- Itch 1.5 is consuming alot more processor power than previous versions. It is also fluctuating alot
- I noticed that some songs were showing one BPM reading in the list but when I loaded them it showed another in the deck.

Anyone having these issues???

Did you have to force quit? Or is there a crash report?

Under Mac OS X the crash log will be located in ~/Library/Logs/Crash Reporter/ITCH


This is highly odd, it should be consuming LESS if anything. There is nothing new in the software that would consume more. Unless things in your library are very corrupt and this is causing the software a headache.
Are you talking about Activity Monitor, or the bar in ITCH?


Can you please take some screen shots of this and attach to the thread?

Cheers!

This is Win7 Pro 64-bit



Bar in upper left corner. I did notice last night that it seemed to be normal again. Could have been something during the first use in the background????



Will try and see if the issue replicates itself and take them.

Woah, sorry, wrong copy and paste. Go here:
www.serato.com

As for the activity monitor, it would have been some sort of system issue or other program hogging resources, there'd be nothing happening in ITCH to cause this type of anomaly....

Cheers :D

Ok. Crashed within 3 minutes. Had to force close as always. Can not obtain the .dmp file. Followed the how to and it doesn't work......

I was able to get this from the error details:


Description:
A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: AppHangB1
Application Name: ITCH.exe
Application Version: 1.5.0.47
Application Timestamp: 4b79c284
Hang Signature: ee58
Hang Type: 0
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Hang Signature 1: ee58adfc0be875cb4fc267cb0300045d
Additional Hang Signature 2: b8c8
Additional Hang Signature 3: b8c8dd3c610b272d7c401969af998c30
Additional Hang Signature 4: ee58
Additional Hang Signature 5: ee58adfc0be875cb4fc267cb0300045d
Additional Hang Signature 6: b8c8
Additional Hang Signature 7: b8c8dd3c610b272d7c401969af998c30

By the way, this is from another crash within 2 minutes!!

If it helps, I noticed that the crash usually happens when I switch to another crate and try to load a song.

So the crash closes the program and you aren't force quitting or anything?

Yes, I DO have to force close. It will not respond at all.

Right - so this isnt' a crash, but a hang. So there will be no crash log.

Can you check to see if there are new drivers for the laptop?

I'd also check this Vista article out, it should be similar to WIndows 7, so just do what you can:
www.serato.com

Hey, I'm having the exact same problem...
just in my case, I upgraded to the new Itch the night before a gig (worst mistake of my life) and this "hang" happened to me 2....the music would play, but the program would not respond and I had to cut the music, close everythign and open itch again- all of witch leaded to about 20 seconds without music.

ITS ITCH 1.5....you guys HAVE TO FIX IT....it had this hang thing LOTS while I was practicing, and that one time during my past gig.

What can I do to try and fix it?

Hye DJJRAFT - can you please start a new help thread and give us all your computer information and as much detail about the problem as possible (when, what, how often, what it looks like etc). Cheers.

Hey Matt,

Just want to let you know that I as well have been having the same exact problem as ldc1129 and djkkraft. I'm using a Sony vaio laptop. I'm aware that you would prefer that I start a new thread, and I did. The reason why I'm also posting here is because other than using a different computer than the other guys.. we are all experiencing the same exact problem and can't seem to find a fix.

Thanks

Hi Nerves,

I just got back to your private discussion. Please follow up on your previous thread www.serato.com or the private discussion.

I'll just point out here that even if users had the exact same computer, there are hundreds of different factors that can be at play, and while the results (symptoms) may seem the same, the causes can often be totally different (though they can also be the same!). So this is why we like diagnosing issues separately, otherwise threads can turn into a mess and crossed-wires and conflicting results etc.

Cheers guys.

Is this just with Windows 7? or would buying a mac be one solution?

Seems to be a Win7 issue.

Is the laptop heating up too much? Maybe the vents aren't getting enough space to keep the CPU's cooled... are you able to check. If it is happening after an extended time this could be the issue.

It's very hard to diagnose this I'm sorry to say... There's something strange going on, but the basics seem covered and OS tweaked, and the DPC latency checker say things are good, there are no corrupt files, and the CPU looks like it isn't spiking...

In a nutshell......

So can you test the heat of the machine?

I don't know if this helps, but long story short, as you know, I was having the SAME EXACT problem as you for months and I was getting so pissed that I almost smashed my laptop and vci wtih a hammer! I was on the phone witih Serato and Vestax, and on the forums for weeks.

Knock on wood, I think I fixed it. I haven't had a problem for awhile.

Try this (if you haven't allready) -

1. Analyze ALL of your files and delete EVERY corrupt file that you have.

2. Shut off all other programs that you have running in the background (anti virus, internet, ect.)

3. Make sure the computer isn't getting hot. That causes freezes also.
You might want to buy a laptop cooler. They are cheap (around $15 to $20)

I think that it's most likely a corrupt file, because like I said, ever since I deleted all of my bad files, I haven't had a problem.

I never had a problem using Windows XP, only Windows 7, but so far so good.

Let me know what happens.

No overheating. I use a stand so good circulation!

Wow - people are just cluttering this thread up left, right and center. :-P

Sorry it's taking so long, it feels like I'm missing something, and I am, but I can't see what...

Can you please take screen grabs of your Task Manager (Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete). Open the Processes tab.
Expand so it's a full page, then expand each column so all the contents are showing then take a grab. You may need to scroll down if these go beyond one page.

To take a grab do the following:
1) Use the Snipping Tool application (press CTRL+ESC then type in "Snipping Tool". Doubleclick this to open).
2) Hightlight the screen area you want to capture.
3) Select Save as... to desktop as a .jpg file.

And attach the files to this thread.

Matt-C,

I have been searching the ITCH forum posts for windows 7 people with problems, and notice that your threads abruptly stop and terminate with no more dialog or indication whether a solution was found.

The last traffic I see on this thread is May 7. Was this thread moved somewhere else, or did ldc1129 just stop responding? I am learning to just silently read posts before chiming in with complaints, just in case your solutions for others could work for me, without me having to bother you all over again for the same problems.

That's becasue there is no more dialog I'm afraid to say - often users get back to working condition and don't reply to threads, it can be a pain, and we would obviously users popped back in with a 'all fixed' at least, or more, but we can't control users I'm afraid to say :D

It would be a better use of time to either just do a quick search, look at the support page, or just start a new detailed help thread. Cross posting on other threads all over the show about the lack of answers will probably frustrate you more.

Cheers!

Hey Matt,
Maybe you can help me out. I've posted numerous threads on Itch freezing when I use it with Windows 7, but never when using it with Windows XP. I've done everything you guys had said to do as well as what Carl from Vestax had mentioned. When I deleted all of my corrupt files, the problem was solved.. Well so I thought. A few days ago while spinning at a BBQ, itch froze up on me 4 times. Is itch and windows 7 compatible? I don't know what else to do.
Thanks

Hi Nerves - I think I have answered a couple of your help threads, let's stay over there so we don't clutter this thread up any further. Cheers :D

No, it is not dead. Just sometimes people have to shift to other priorities.....

And in all honesty, I have seen instances where "support" does not post for extended periods of time so it is a 2 way street!!

WELL..................................................................
....................................

I had a chance last night to put Itch throught the ringers. I spun for about 6 hours last night. Overall, it was a pretty smooth set. I had no freezing. I did have 2 instances where I lost audio for about 3-4 seconds, not in succesion.

Hi all..
Im a very new user to Serato and am using Itch with the vci300 controller...
Im using on a laptop easy noteLJ65 specs r: 64bit, 4gig ram, 2.13ghz, 400meg.

The problems im having i cant work out are, songs keep skipping, just for half a second or so. This hapens when im using my exteranl hard drive. When ive copied my music to latop hard drive anfter serato has re-scaned the files, everytime i try and drag them into a crat, the program crashes as soon as i click on anything. It never does this when using external hard drive, but im curious to know if the skipping issue is down to the external hard drive. Ive tried difrent buffer rates, 10 and 5.... PLEASE HELP :)

Hey jatman74.
Can you please start a new help thread so we can track and diagnose your issue without further cluttering this thread up thanks.

ldc1129.

The freezes you did encounter, did you see the CPU bar spike to red during these audio droppouts? Unless there is some sort of conflict, you should get no dropouts - so it looks like something may be going on if you still wan to keep looking.

Yes, it did go red.

Are you able to open your Task Manager, sort by CPU - and when playing as soon as you see a dropout can you please check if there is a process happening that could be spiking?

Ok. I will try that and see what happens.