100% CPU Usage only when Interface is plugged in

bumboclott 9:03 PM - 29 May, 2006

I've read other threads concerning CPU Usage problems, however, I think mine is different. My CPU Usage jumps straight to 100% and stays there right when I plug in the interface to my laptop. When the interface is unplugged, I am able to load up the software fast, all my crates show up instantly, and the CPU usage lingers around 1%. Everything is fine until I plug in the Interface.

The only thing I can think of that I did differently from the last time SSL was running smooth on my laptop was that I enabled my wireless network to copy over an album from my home pc to my laptop. I noticed right away that my system was staggering, but I thought nothing of it. I disabled the wireless network right after the album transferred and now SSL hasn't been running the same ever since.

What's going on? Now everything is staggering and runs all glitchy. It was never like this before. I've had Serato for well over a month now and I've never had any problems until today. Not even a USB dropout or whatever.

Here are my laptop specs:

CPU: P4, 2.8 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
HD: 40 GB Internal

SSL version 1.5

I am running a dual boot Windows XP (SP2) system. One is used as the primary boot and the other is used as a secondary emergency boot. This problem happens on both boots. I have no driver issues. No networks are connected\enabled. No programs running in the background. No viruses\spyware.

I've already tried uninstalling SSL 1.5 and going back to SSL 1.4. That didn't work. I Re-installed the SSL drivers and tried the interface on all of my USB ports. That didn't work either.

Now here is where it gets complicated... for me at least. I hooked up the interface to my home PC, and everything seemed to run normally. I was pretty sure my SL box crapped out until I tried this. My Home PC is a P4 1.4 GHz \ 512 MB RAM.

Any ideas\suggestions before I try re-installing Windows XP on my laptop?

nik39 7:46 PM - 30 May, 2006

I heard once of that problem, and that was due to a faulty SSL amp. Do you have the chance to try a different SSL box?

bumboclott 11:11 PM - 30 May, 2006

No, I don't know anyone else with SSL. I thought it was the SSL amp too but when I attached it to another computer it seemed ok...

What else should I try?

Josh 11:55 PM - 30 May, 2006

you could try using system restore and roll back to a time just before this problem appeared...

bumboclott 7:43 PM - 31 May, 2006

Josh,

I've already tried that. Same problem...

Shaun W 6:45 PM - 1 June, 2006

Have you tried testing the SL 1 on a different computer?

bumboclott 6:55 PM - 1 June, 2006

Shaun, yes I have. It seems to work fine on my home PC.

I stated that in my first post. Please refer to it for more details. Thanks.

Shaun W 8:27 PM - 1 June, 2006

Sorry about that. I guess reading would help a bit ;)

When looking at the Windows Task Manager, does SSL use most of your CPU or is another process hogging your processor?

bumboclott 8:43 PM - 1 June, 2006

I will look tonight and post the results tomorrow. Unfortunately, I don't have internet hooked up at home right now so there will be a delay in my responses.

bumboclott 12:50 AM - 5 June, 2006

I took several screen captures of my task manager to show the behaviour of my system when the interface is hooked up. Who can I send these to?

bumboclott 1:54 AM - 5 June, 2006

...but to answer your question, it looks like SSL uses most of my CPU.

For my primary boot... Under Mem Usage, ScratchLive.exe reads reads 54 Megs, the second highest process is an svchost which is 17 Megs, and next is 15 Megs for explorer.exe. There are 21 Processes running, CPU Usage reads 100%, and Commit Charge reads 161M/1121M

For my secondary boot (OS with all the XP tweaks)... Under Mem Usage, ScratchLive.exe reads reads 57 Megs, the second highest process is an svchost which is 14 Megs, and next is 13 Megs for explorer.exe. There are 14 Processes running, CPU Usage reads 100%, and Commit Charge reads 130M/1121M

bumboclott 4:23 AM - 6 June, 2006

Bump

Josh 4:30 AM - 6 June, 2006

can you sort the tasks by the CPU column, and break down which tasks are using the most CPU, such as you did above for RAM usage?

bumboclott 2:34 AM - 9 June, 2006

Primary boot:
ScratchLIVE.exe = 99
everything else reads 0

Secondary boot:
ScratchLIVE.exe = 92
svchost.exe = 04
wmiadap.exe = 04
everything else reads 0

Sorry for the delays in my resonses. I have no internet at home right now and I have to find time to post when i'm at work.

Thanks for the help!

nobspangle 7:19 AM - 9 June, 2006

Try seeing if you can get newer/different drivers for your chipset/USB

SSL shouldn't max out a 2.8GHz CPU, even on buffer 1.

bumboclott 8:43 PM - 14 June, 2006

It seems that all of my drivers seem to be up to date.

The drivers website for my laptop is h18007.www1.hp.com

I tried this though... I reinstalled everything under 'Universal Serial Bus controllers'. That didn't work...

I was thinking about reinstalling Windows XP, but I don't think it's an XP issue since it happens to my other partition.

What else could it be?

Dj KaGeN 9:07 PM - 14 June, 2006

Since reading and re-reading this... and thinkin a bit about it. You stated that your lappy and SSL got along fine, and then the issue appeared when working with your wireless. You have a dual boot, and both boots are acting almost the same now. Have you loaded anything new (knowingly or unknowing) to either partition as of late?

Do you have microsoft auto update enabled ?? Start there?? If not- why not try adding them?? After that I'd go ahead and rebuild one partition - what do you have to loose at this point?

bumboclott 3:18 AM - 18 July, 2006

It's been almost a month since I posted about my situation, so here here's an update:

I ended up reformating my HD and started from scratch. I installed XP and updated everything from Microsoft Update. I started up ScratchLive and everything was 100% functional. A couple days later I started everything up and my old problem resurfaced. At this point I ran out of ideas and figured that my lappy and SSL just didn't get a long.

Well today something happened and I think I figured out root of the problem. I started up SSL and nothing was lagging. I played a few tracks and everything was fine, until I unplugged the AC cord of my laptop. After that happened, the red USB light popped up, the waveform started to stagger, and my CPU usage went to 100%... I replugged the AC cord and everything went back to normal.

So it turns out I probably didn't have to reformat my HD and reinstall XP at all. Can anyone tell me why Serato causes my laptop to behave that way when running on battery?

nik39 2:59 PM - 18 July, 2006

B/c it runs with less CPU power, I assume to little CPU power to deal with SSL. Many laptops reduce their CPU speed when they are running on batteries so that the laptop works longer w/o AC adapters. Unfortunately in your case it doesnt make much sense to reduce the CPU speed. This is something you can control in your power saving functions inside Windows XP control panel.

nobspangle 7:25 PM - 19 July, 2006

This is another good reason why the best CPU to have in your laptop is a Penitum M, the pentium M throttles the CPU based on load rather than the battery. When it is sitting idle my 1.7GHz laptop usually runs at around 200MHz, as soon as you put it to work it scales up to a faster clock rate, regardless of whether it is on mains or battery.

bumboclott 3:16 AM - 20 July, 2006

Right. My CPU isn't a Pentium M. I didn't consider them when purchasing this laptop because I didn't think it'd make a huge difference.

I've been reading other threads regarding high CPU usage with SSL. Is my issue similar to the ones who have ACPI problems?

and nik39: My power scheme was always set to 'always on' in the control panel > power options. Is that what you're talking about?

bumboclott 5:22 AM - 21 July, 2006

bump ^^

By the way, a huge "thanks!!!" to all those who've posted in this thread.

nik39 9:41 AM - 21 July, 2006

Quote:

This is another good reason why the best CPU to have in your laptop is a Penitum M, the pentium M throttles the CPU based on load rather than the battery. When it is sitting idle my 1.7GHz laptop usually runs at around 200MHz, as soon as you put it to work it scales up to a faster clock rate, regardless of whether it is on mains or battery.

I dont think this is good, b/c it will take some time until the full CPU speed is reached, so in other words, in a mission critical situtation like SSL I wouldnt want any interference, any throttling or whatever. Are you sure this is the standard for the P M processor in all appliances?

nik39 9:42 AM - 21 July, 2006

bumboclott, sorry forgot about your question, yes, thats what I meant.

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