That video card (integrated intel HD Graphics 620) could be the problem... Othervise ok to go, but that vc is just shit...

Your controller should be on the usb 2 bus by itself, with nothing else connected to it. If you have nothing else connected to your computer's usb 3 bus, then it shouldn't really matter, but its still good practice to use usb 2. I don't know if that will fix your problem, but its a place to start.

17tr2, thank you for the information about using usb 2. actually I've already tried that and unfortunately it didn't help... :(

Max Doe, Do you have any idea about what can I do with it (the video card)?

Integrated cards aren't possible to change, that one uses system memory what makes whole pc quite easily laggy with "heavy things"... at least i think so, but i'm not fully sure at this moment... that computer is made mainly for studying and light stuff, might be impossible to upgrade enough... sorry... i need to ask few friends if theres somethin to do... just bought newone too cause of maxed out old (10years) laptop and still lagging and dropouts, ended up with good gaming laptop and haven't had any problems atleast yet... have u tried 32bit version or older versions? And hi res is off? Other dj software?

If you can't figure it out on this web site, you may want to try computeraudiophile.com. Its the best place to go for technical issues like you have. I looked at the Serato support links you referenced above, and I can tell you that many of the posters over there are at a much higher level.

If they're not familiar with your gear, tell them a regular poster on the site said to say that your DAC is your controller and your music player software is Serato. Be patient. They will ask you a bunch of questions that you may think are not important, or unrelated to your problem, but that's OK. 90-95% chance they'll figure out what's wrong.

Just curious. Do you see the same problem if the Reloop hardware is not attached at all (using Serato DJ stand alone). Which version of Serato DJ?

I'm not sure why the integrated graphics on that PC would be an issue with Serato. Serato isn't like a high powered 3D game or anything, and with 16gb RAM I wouldn't think the graphics chip's use of the system memory would be an issue, but I might be wrong. It's only a 1080p monitor, right?

You said you did everything on those optimization pages. Does that include running latencymon and if so did it indicate any problems? PC laptops require a high amount of optimization (I'm running Serato on two of them) and sometimes a seemingly random driver can cause issues. That reminds me that I should run that on my new laptop too.

If you're running Serato DJ Pro then it may be the new software. I'm getting some strange behavior myself with it myself (switching back and forth to the options menu or to library view sometimes causes the currently playing track to restart at the beginning of the track) and have a ticket open with Serato. Some other people have strange issues right now and others don't have any issues and it seems highly system dependent, especially with windows involved as there's a larger range of hardware involved. You might want to try Serato DJ 1.9.10 though, if you haven't, at least until they fix the bugs.

By the way, I get the audio drop out warning all the time and it doesn't actually cause any drop outs. I'm not sure why it does that because the system load on the laptop I'm using right now never goes above about 12%, but I've just gotten used to seeing it.

17tr2: Thanks for the link to that site. I hadn't heard of it before.

Max Doe, I've tried the last version that was available before "DJ Pro", since I started with this new computer on the last September, I remember it was only 32bit version. haven't tried another DJ software yet, I will update the results here when I'll do that. what do you mean by "hi res is off"?

17tr2, thank you for the link! I'll try them and update.

DJRodC, currently I'm using the new "Serato DJ Pro" version, as I recently upgraded in order to see if it solving something (it did nothing...). When I'm using Serato without the Reloop hardware I don't experience dropouts, but anyway it seems that still the CPU usage is much higher than it should be (for instance, when I'm using Serato on a much older and weaker I5 pc - the CPU meter is much much lower) I can't see the reason for that.

onthe1, yes, I did run latencymon. when I'm doing it, it always shows the same massage:

"Your system seems to be having difficulty handling real-time audio and other tasks. You may experience drop outs, clicks or pops due to buffer underruns. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. At least one detected problem appears to be network related. In case you are using a WLAN adapter, try disabling it to get better results. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates."

I'm not using a WLAN adapter, anyway I tried to update all the drivers and software that related to internet or wifi and it didn't help, also tried to play on "airplane mode" with the wifi disabled. I changed the "throttling settings" as Serato website recommend to do that in Control Panel, I don't have an Idea how to that in the "BIOS setup" as they say, I also now sure what are "BIOS updates" ans where can I get them from (I tried to look for that), but I think that when I'm updating my OS it updated automatically (am I wrong?).
About the versions of Serato, I've been using that last Serato DJ version that was available before the new "Serato DJ pro" and problem exist since than, so I'm not sure switching a version is the solution, do you think I should try an older version then this one?
about your last comment, I also remember seeing the this "warning light" open a few times while playing on another computer without having a pauses in the music played, that's interesting...

support.serato.com

Hd 620 (if it's that?, had your specs from web) has very low or no own memory at all so it makes system memory to work a lot more causing high cpu usage and heating noticeable more and overall of these causes lagging very easily. There might be possible to add vram value from bios, might help or might not. I noticed that 2.0+ just takes out freakin lot of old type laptops... few of my friends had to upgrade their pc's to make things work...

r u sure u have 16gb ram? according to dell, your machine type are sold with 4gb or 8gb, but they can be upgraded up to 16gb.

m.dell.com

I'm not trying to argue that i'm right and i hope that i'm not so you can make it work... but it's just one thing i noticed...

It looks like there was a recent BIOS update (Feb 2018) for your laptop:

www.dell.com

I'm not familiar with Reloop products and I'm not sure how old the latest drivers are for that controller but sometimes these companies don't update their drivers and when Windows or OSX gets updated it breaks their drivers. I see a lot of experienced Serato users on here using old versions of the software and old versions of their OS and refusing to update their laptop just to keep things in perfect working order.

Unfortunately it's rare these days for many manufacturers to support their hardware products with software updates for many years after release. They tend to just release new hardware and enough of us tend to want new toys and just throw away our three year old gear that I guess their profits rise with this kind of strategy.

There are some exceptions to this, but Rane being sold to InMusic might be a sad case in point which goes to the heart of Serato. Who knows though, maybe they'll be supporting their new products for years to come. (although last I heard they weren't supporting ANY old Rane products very well and I haven't had the best support from them with my Akai gear)

Anyway, I'm not sure if this is the problem but you might want to open a ticket with Reloop as well if you haven't yet:

support.serato.com

As far as that latencymon message, have you tried adjusting the buffer setting in your audio settings? (second tab in Serato options menu to access driver settings) You might want to also try actually disabling that LAN driver or all LAN drivers in device manager and see if that helps.

CPU throttling in BIOS might refer to having the turbo boost enabled for your processor or hyperthreading enabled, etc.

And that i7 is only 2 core processor...

Max Doe, about the RAM memory, yep. I've checked it now, it's 16gb.

onthe1, I tried that BOIS update, it didn't improve anything :(
thanks for the idea of contact Reloop, I'll try them, hope they'll have something new to say...
About the buffer setting, yes, I tried many times to change it and put it on the highest velue, it didn't help.
About the LAN drivers - I tried just now, then open Serato, the problem still exist, although sometimes I see now the "Audio Dropout Warning" light without having the music pause. maybe it says something...

If that doesn't work I would look toward trying a new controller before a new laptop. Serato runs fine for me even on a five year old core i3, although I'm still using 1.9.10 on that one.

Most widely down laptops don't play nice with serato and never have in my experience, it's mostly due to drivers,

If you were to install Mac OS on it you will probably notice no problems, same hardware just different software

I ment "most windows laptops"

If the Latency Checker is sometimes in the red, you could have audio stutters.

Some hardware can perfectly handle DPC in the red, some others are making audio jump and the first red sport in DPC latency checker.

I've had laptops run all green but had laptops, to the dude with the the issues dual boot and install yosimite on it and see if.you still have problems, you can also get software to read/write on your windows partition