Serato DJ Pro General Discussion

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 Serato DJ Pro General Discussion
Dell XPS 13 9360 DPC and CPU Throttling issues
Talk about Serato DJ Pro, expansion packs and supported hardware

Dell XPS 13 9360 DPC and CPU Throttling issues

charlee1985 1:59 PM - 7 July, 2019
I've been using my XPS to DJ since Feb 2018 without any issues. Since the 28th of June I keep losing sound after 20-30 mins of Djing. I can no longer play for more than 30 mins without having to re-plug my DJ controller.

Serato support hasn't been much help so far. I've gone through the PC performance guide (didn't do anythin) and I downloaded LatencyMon.

Every time that I run LatencyMon after 2-3 mins it gives me the message:

"Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates"

I've disabled everything related to Turbo Boost from the bios, but it still happens. I also followed the suggestion posted on Twitter by Nelson Mak (twitter.com) but still no fix.

Also tried to disable ACPI.sys from the device manager, as it's the driver that causes the highest delay, but it still seems to run.

To make things even worse for Dell, my Lenovo Yoga 2 13 from 2014 and the same version of Windows 10 runs fine.

Dell PM'ed me to say that they can't help (Even though I paid £1,5K for a professional machine) as my warranty has expired.

The issue appeared with Windows 10 Home 1903 release. I've joined the Insider program to see if a newer release fixes this but no luck :( I currently have Windows 10 Home 1903 (18362.10000) installed.

Anyone here has the same issue and found a fix?

Thanks
DJ_PRECISE 6:16 PM - 7 July, 2019
In serato dj pro 2.1.2, I've seen where I get the yellow and red indicator when playing, at times and it creates a dropout in the sound, although momentary, it's frustrating. Here's the thing, my cpu usage, as even seen in the upper left hand corner of serato is low, and in the green, but, I get these spikes from somewhere. I, also am using a dell with win 10 My machine is new, and I haven't even activated the windows, as I'm not interested in all that other bloatware. I'm not using and don't need office on here, only serato, audacity, and another converter I use, and that's it I have a solid state drive, i5, with 16gb of ram, what's the problem? So, Bro, I feel your frustration, although yours is more extreme than mine.
mixgoonie 7:47 PM - 7 July, 2019
I've got a e6520 with DPC latency (Similar tool as latencymon) completely in the red all the time (had to connect to a laptop cooler or is stops working) and all my personal mixes at home are done with that and I don't have no any drops after two years.

So for my personal experience, latencymon or DPC in the red has no influence on Serato, it does sometimes have it on Traktor 2 but also less the Traktor 3.

Windows 10 1809.
DJ Tecniq 1:17 AM - 8 July, 2019
Seems Win 10 is a real problem with Serato. I’d get off that OS at all costs.
charlee1985 12:15 PM - 8 July, 2019
Quote:
So for my personal experience, latencymon or DPC in the red has no influence on Serato, it does sometimes have it on Traktor 2 but also less the Traktor 3.


Interesting that you say that, as Serato support ask for the LatencyMon report. Also, before any of this started to happen, my LatencyMon report was in the greens
charlee1985 12:16 PM - 8 July, 2019
Quote:
Seems Win 10 is a real problem with Serato. I’d get off that OS at all costs.


It seems to me like a driver issue with Dell and the latest release of Win10. Saying that I am actually thinking of getting a Macbook as a back up device :/
DJ Tecniq 3:51 PM - 8 July, 2019
Quote:
Quote:
Seems Win 10 is a real problem with Serato. I’d get off that OS at all costs.


It seems to me like a driver issue with Dell and the latest release of Win10. Saying that I am actually thinking of getting a Macbook as a back up device :/
Mac is the way to go. Windows is really buggy esp for Serato.
YZ 4:04 PM - 8 July, 2019
You're having a problem with Serato on Windows eh? Hmmm
charlee1985 6:44 PM - 8 July, 2019
Quote:
You're having a problem with Serato on Windows eh? Hmmm


Still trying to make sense of this mate :P

Been DJing on Windows without issues since 2005.
kmeex 7:08 PM - 8 July, 2019
Are all drivers up to date? Try manually in device manager update all you can. Especially wifi card and onboard audio card drivers. Try turn off bluetooth / IR and try to disable wifi card if update make no difference. Also acpi drivers must be up to date. When I was using PC to dj biggest culprit was wifi card power handling and bluetooth. I was using Asus machine with win10.
charlee1985 9:24 PM - 8 July, 2019
Quote:
Are all drivers up to date? Try manually in device manager update all you can. Especially wifi card and onboard audio card drivers. Try turn off bluetooth / IR and try to disable wifi card if update make no difference. Also acpi drivers must be up to date. When I was using PC to dj biggest culprit was wifi card power handling and bluetooth. I was using Asus machine with win10.


Everything seems up to date. I will try with the wifi card disabled tomorrow. Also how do I update the acpi drivers? I go through the device manager but it says it's up to date
charlee1985 4:37 PM - 15 July, 2019
I removed 3 Dell apps and everything seems to be working fine now.
PaulT99 9:17 PM - 15 July, 2019
IMO Windows 10 sucks with Serato.
Everytime a Win10 rollup update comes up, it breaks something else in Serato.

For this reason i got a 2nd laptop, and made it just for DJ / Music use. Given i do use it to earn $$.
A Dell Precision i7, 16GB, 500GB SSD, dedicated GeForce graphics. And i built it up with Win7 Pro.
Super stable and not 1 issue in the year ive been using it.
DJ Tecniq 11:51 PM - 15 July, 2019
Wonder if a clean install of Win 10 would fix it...most wont attempt it but usually a fresh system is best.
Dose 5:59 PM - 22 July, 2019
If you're still having problems with this, i think the 1903 (May) update is the cause. I've heard that the latest insider release in the Fast Ring (20H1 releases) fix this issue, but i'm not able to test this out since i havent been able to get that on my machine. I'm having
the same issues in traktor pro 3 using an s4 mk3 and am going to try to run tests if i get the same drop outs/distortion using a pioneer controller with Serato DJ and repost what I find. One thing i noticed though is that i've only gotten crazy latency dropouts on controllers. Running DVS (both Serato and Traktor), I didn't have the same issues.
KIF 8:47 AM - 6 November, 2019
Quote:
I removed 3 Dell apps and everything seems to be working fine now.


Since i also have an XPS 9370 i am really concerned about what DELL apps you did delete!

I would love to have my freaking Laptop run Serato!

thanks!
charlee1985 7:00 PM - 13 November, 2019
Mine still works perfectly now. Just remove Dell apps one by one and test Serato
djtmay 5:52 AM - 22 November, 2019
My dell g7 7790 that I bought 3 weeks ago is giving me the same issue... I have had the same error code with latency mom as stated in the earlier post... I have upgraded ram to vengence 16gb, installed 1tb m.2 Samsung 970evo ssd...also installed Samsung 860 1tb ssd ...installed a new copy of windows 10 optimized it to serato recommendations.....AND STILL NO LUCK!!! call Dell to do a return cause I'm within my 30 days.... they authorized my return and said I have a bad laptop and said they will send me another one but with the i7 processor cause they(dell) pull up serato pro dj requirement specs and said I should have no problem running serato. I asked them could I get that g7 with windows 7 installed on it cause I believe that's the problem. I even went out and bought a new controller thinking it might be my ns6ll .... so I got the pioneer 1000srt.... still the same issue... but my old Toshiba satellite 655 running windows 7 has not missed a beat. .so I'm try this new g7 they sending me but I think I am going have the same issues and I will be watching my 30 day return span.... and at the same time I'm looking for me a new or like new laptop with a I series processor and windows 7 laptop....Toshiba I wish you would go back to making your economy line laptop. Build quality wasnt that good but with proper care it lasted a long time.

Also I tried installing windows 7 on the dell g7..... it wont let me.
deejay_awana 3:31 AM - 23 November, 2019
Quote:
I've been using my XPS to DJ since Feb 2018 without any issues. Since the 28th of June I keep losing sound after 20-30 mins of Djing. I can no longer play for more than 30 mins without having to re-plug my DJ controller.

Serato support hasn't been much help so far. I've gone through the PC performance guide (didn't do anythin) and I downloaded LatencyMon.

Every time that I run LatencyMon after 2-3 mins it gives me the message:

"Your system appears to be having trouble handling real-time audio and other tasks. You are likely to experience buffer underruns appearing as drop outs, clicks or pops. One or more DPC routines that belong to a driver running in your system appear to be executing for too long. One problem may be related to power management, disable CPU throttling settings in Control Panel and BIOS setup. Check for BIOS updates"

I've disabled everything related to Turbo Boost from the bios, but it still happens. I also followed the suggestion posted on Twitter by Nelson Mak (twitter.com) but still no fix.

Also tried to disable ACPI.sys from the device manager, as it's the driver that causes the highest delay, but it still seems to run.

To make things even worse for Dell, my Lenovo Yoga 2 13 from 2014 and the same version of Windows 10 runs fine.

Dell PM'ed me to say that they can't help (Even though I paid £1,5K for a professional machine) as my warranty has expired.

The issue appeared with Windows 10 Home 1903 release. I've joined the Insider program to see if a newer release fixes this but no luck :( I currently have Windows 10 Home 1903 (18362.10000) installed.

Anyone here has the same issue and found a fix?

Thanks


I also have a Dell laptop (specifically an Inspiron 5570), and DPC seems to be an issue on Dell laptops, especially with ACPI.sys just causing audio latency issues. Also with the having to re-plug your controller in, you'll probably have to disable USB selective suspend in Control Panel. Disabled that and haven't had problems with disconnecting since, but the latency is still there. Hopefully Dell does something about this....

TL;DR: Yes, I'm also facing the same issue as you. It's an issue on Dell laptops.
djtmay 8:58 PM - 23 November, 2019
I call dell and told them I'm sending the dell g7 back... the guy told me I got a bad laptop cause he went to serato website and pull the specs and the g7 should run serat6with no problem... so he is sending me a new laptop with more ram(16gb) and the i7 processor... I told him I dont think it's going to do any good and that it's an issue with the computer with windows 10 and serato not getting along. But he insisted I try the more powerful one he sending me and just try it for 30 daysand if it dont work to call him personal cause I have dell premium support warranty. If it dont work then I need to call dell tech so they and help fix my problem. It's got to be something with the laptop cause the other 2 djs in my crew has the plain dell laptop with windows 10 and have no problem what so ever... but this high tech g7 ain't shit with serato. I got luck enough to find a NEW Toshiba s70 with i7 processor 16gb of ram and 17.3 screen and backlit keyboard for $575 with windows 7 pro and done ordered it. I should be good for the next 4 years now if I dont accidentally damage the laptop. So when the dell g7 get here I'm play with it but still going to return it cause I know it going to do the same thing the 1st one did... I just cant chance being in the middle of a gig and serato crash.... or freezes on me... I'm not know for that.... never had it happen to me but once and that when I 1st went to serato... it was the old computer and that was the last night I ever played on that laptop... it was a dell xps and that was over 15 years ago. Every since then I been rocking Toshiba satellite. So I'm going back to with what works for me.
Northern Beat DJ 2:11 AM - 3 February, 2020
Quote:
Mine still works perfectly now. Just remove Dell apps one by one and test Serato



I just placed an order for a Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 (9365) mainly for work but I plan on using my main laptop now as a DJ only laptop (since i use it now for both work and DJing) and I mainly DJ weddings albeit very frequently and get paid very well to do so.

I will be using my XPS as a back up for my main on and I am curious as to which apps you un in stalled that fixed this issue? I am hoping I do not have the same problem. However, I could easily run it with virtual DJ would rather not though.
skampy 12:26 PM - 5 February, 2020
I also have a Dell XPS 13 9360 and I had some throttling issues as well, until I unlocked the fill power management utilities in Windows. By default, Dell allows to switch only between preset power management settings, but if you change 1 setting in the system registry (Regedit), you can disable the USB power savings mode etc. Don't remember exactly how it's done, but google on "XPS advanced power management settings" and you should be able to find it.
deaconfresh 8:07 PM - 11 March, 2020
Has anyone identified which Dell/Microsoft apps are conflicting with DJ Pro? I have an XPS, Windows 10 laptop and a Pioneer DDJ 100 SRT controller. I've noticed that it runs fine out of the gate but then glitches out of nowhere. The task manager shows the CPU usage spikes to 100% when this happens. The computer has plenty of RAM (32 GB), an i9 processor and a 2TB solid state drive. For it to freeze, there must be an app conflicting with DJP. and/or the controller.

I've taken all of the optimization steps, deleted McAfee and maximized power management. I'm still trying to figure out what is causing the glitches.

Any helpful suggestions would be most appreciated!
DJ Tecniq 11:32 PM - 11 March, 2020
Should be able to check your computer processes and what is causing such high cpu. I’m a Mac guy so I’m not sure where in Windows to find that but that’s where I would first investigate.
Serato, Support
Luke B 12:28 AM - 12 March, 2020
Hey guys,

We have noticed some fairly hard to resolve issues that can occur with some Dell (and by extension, Alienware) machines. Note that these issues are not just limited to Serato DJ Pro and can occur with all kinds of audio applications.

We have a guide on how to enable the high performance power plan here (for machines that do not offer this plan by default):
support.serato.com

Unfortunately we have some reports of the Dell Support Assist app (and it's related processes) resulting in weird hangs and performance issues.

Note that some of these issues are largely out of our control, but please do get in touch via support.serato.com to see if we can help.

Cheers
deaconfresh 12:17 AM - 14 March, 2020
Thanks for jumping in on this discussion. I'll check with Dell to see what can be done with the Support assist app.
The Trade Offs Music 12:47 AM - 14 March, 2020
I got same problem with my laptop Lenovo L490.ICan not play more than 30 mins without having to re-plug my DJ controller
PaulT99 7:06 PM - 17 March, 2020
If your going to use Windows for a DJ specific laptop, then you really have to go Windows 7.

Windows 10 just has to many issues. Sound subsystem, Intel speedstep throttling and so on. Breaking serato on every build rollup.
I use a Dell Precision 8 core i7 with Win7, and use it as my DJ only laptop on Win7.
Been absolutely faultless for 2 yrs.

Im earning money via my trade, so cannot have any issues at all.
david07 11:46 PM - 17 March, 2020
Second-hand MacBook Pro at a good price and less hassle, sdj pro is made for mac, windows is a torture for audio 0
PaulT99 7:05 AM - 18 March, 2020
Quote:
Second-hand MacBook Pro at a good price and less hassle, sdj pro is made for mac, windows is a torture for audio 0


You mean Win10 is torture for sound. Fixed that for you.
Win7 is flawless. Why do you think Banks, Government, And industries where high revenue are concerned are still using Win7 ?.

Macs are even worse for sound issues at the moment.
I count 5 threads on mac sound issues on just 4 pages of this forum, and thats without even digging.
After seeing a DJ @ Little Box in Ministry of Sound (The biggest club in the UK) fall flat on his face after his MAC's sound started to break up. I would never use a Mac for a live event.
metroplex2005 9:51 AM - 18 March, 2020
Quote:
You mean Win10 is torture for sound. Fixed that for you.
Win7 is flawless.

+1
Win10 is also fine, as long as you disable autoupdate on a running system.

Quote:
Macs are even worse for sound issues at the moment.

+1
Macs are fine, as long as don't update a running system to catalina

I am using both, MacOS (except catalina) and WIN7/10. Both are working flawless, if proper set up.
80-90% of the problems are in front of the screen, not hardware/software related...