Studio 1737 DPC Latency

Hi all... again

I should have mentioned that the work around listed on this forum worked for my pc/soundcard/dj software... Vista 64SP1/audigy2nx/virtual dj

In the process hacker expand "System Idle Process" and then double click on "System", this will open a new window where you can click on the "threads" tab..

Once in here sort the "Start Address" field by clicking on the heading, "aspi.sys!DeRe....." will now be the first row...

Right click on this puppy and then select "suspend thread" (NOTE: you can watch how active this thread is in the "Cycles Delta" field to the left of the "Start Address" field... ie big numbers popping up every five seconds... The problem in action...)

After doing this and turning off the wifi I have no more popping/crackling out the sound card... FOR NOW!!! :)

Hope this helps...

Cheers and back to my tunes...

Ok, I know you have advised us on this forum that you are aware of the problem and believe me, I really do appreciate that.  This is the first sign of hope I've seen since I spent all my money on this laptop 7 months ago.

Hang in there. I'm facing some challenges that I'd discuss with you over a beer sometime if you're ever in Austin, but I'm on it like white on rice.

Hey Bill, any news ?

Hi Guys / Bill

Yeah gotta keep this thread alive until resolved!

After looking further into this issue i was pondering on the idea that if a "system type" driver was created for the studio 1737 this could potentially give the developers more coding room to get around the problem as there is very little you can do when trying to resolve the issue directly in the bios.

i.e. windows's acpi.sys does not like the bios in this machine disabling the computer type (or suspending the acpi.sys thread) temporarily makes the issue go away, trying to patch a bios that has little scope to change in the first place may seem near impossible without an actual hardware alteration BUT writing a machine type inf (driver) may offer more scope to workaround the problem (ignoring polling requests etc or a form of hacked acpi.sys that would still offer the needed results without the requests), i could go on forever but im sure most of us here are tech savy enough to understand what im getting at.

In the good ol' days computer manufactures used to include system type drivers (just as acpi was emerging) as the windows included acpi.sys would not work 100% with many systems, this was due to lack of understanding in the standards between microsoft and the computer manufactures but the system driver always resolved the issues(this was mainly in the days of win98 and manufactures such as gateway, tiny etc etc would supply these) .

So what i'm getting at is, these problems have historically been resolved this way (not bios update) i know that dell are trying to resolve this issue the cleanest possible way (and i appreciate that) but please give us the inf fix first while you sort out the bios.

Do you think this is possible?

Let me know guys.

DuDeX

Hey Bill, any news ?

Nothing significant as far as a concrete solution. However, the awareness and visibility of the problem has increased over the weekend. The longer I keep the internal discussion alive, the more the sense of urgency steps up. I think we are reaching a tipping point on that front. The engineers definitely want to get this resolved, and have your interests in mind. They are reading the thread. I send them almost daily updates and forward your comments when I do. Hang in there.

Hello Bill,

The actual problem is a bit more widespread than just the Studio series laptops. I'm not sure if they are interested in reviewing the thread I had started on the NI forum but there is a fair bit of discussion on that thread regarding the other Dell laptops having this issue.

Hi everybody,

I am a very disapointed custumer who bought my 1737 studio laptop on june 2009 for live music recording and had exactly the same latency problems as described in this thread.  Hope I known this issue before my purchase.  It would have been simpler and easier to choose an other working laptop from an other company!

So, I downgrade the OS to WinXP and installed cubase SX3 to run a semi-professionnal firewire sound card.  Problems where still there even if WinXP was easier on the CPU.  I was still having the same crack and pop noise in the recording whatever the sampling used for the recording.  I tried a lot of things like removing physically unnecessary hardware (bluetooth, wifi and DVD drive as read on a forum) and deactivating all the non essential stuf in windows XP with no succes.  After some further reserch, was very surprised to see a lot of people with Dell laptops had these same problems even with the XPS series which are the top series of Dell laptops.  Thanks to forum like this one, I found that suspending acpi.sys was correcting the problem under WinXP... but as long as the acpi.sys is suspended.  Yea, people will surely laugh when reading I almost dismantled my laptop in peaces just to remove the DVD drive to test if it wasn't the probem.  So, it wasn't.

But suspending a process is not a good solution.  Why?  At the beginning of one of my recording session, my laptop crash and I had to reboot it in a rush and I forgot to suspend the processus before starting a new music session recording.  We were in a music party and I recorded almost 5 hours of cracking and popping sound!  I was furius when I heard the result.

I was hoping that the A07 bios release would resolve this issus definitively but, nothing changed, have the same crack and pop in the sound.  Really desappointed especially when I had the opportunity to test the laptop of a friend of mine ( I think it was a Toshiba but not 100% shure) who cost nearly 2/3 the price I paid for my studio17 laptop (800 $CAN, my 1737 was 1200$) with a smaller CPU, 2 Gbytes memory, core2 duo) and his laptop work perfectly with no latency problem at all with windows XP and a lot of software installed and a lot more of goodies I would certainly never install on my laptop.  So, why is there no problem on his laptop and I have problem on mine?  Quality issue?  Bad motherboard design?

When I purchased my laptop, I decided to go with Dell because I thought Dell was a good product with a good customer service.  From what I saw and read until now, this reputation seems over rated specially when Dell annouced the released of a new bios specially to resolve the latency problem, but at the end, the bios had absolutly no effect on the latency problems.  This is not serious!!!  Next time, I hope developpers will test their work and maybe the problem will be corrected becase I can assure Dell, it will be my last Dell product I ever own!

Thanks to all the people who brings solutions on these forums who are finally doing what Dell should be doing to help their customer.  It is special to see that Dell customer service relies on their customers.

Thanks again for the good job everybody!

René.

After weeks of research into the right laptop, I've just taken delivery of two 1737, for, wait for it...a music project!

Doh!

Can't beleive I didn't spot this and other related threads, before purchasing,  and of course was only aware when everything was snap, crackle and pop. Luckily I've only had them 2 days, and thanks to the info here, and over on NI forum, now know about the DPC latency, and its catastrophic effects on audio/video, I'll prbably be looking for a full refund from Delll for both. What a pain, they seemed good laptops for everything else too! The fixes worked for me (put xp on the second drive followed the guides with process explorer etc), but it made life hard, especially when setting things up, restarting, screen not switching off on lid close,  usb plug and play not working right, a couple of hangs I wouldn't normally get. I'm used to all that to a certain degree, but this was all a bit high maintenance for a relatively recent higher spec laptop.

Obviously I''l try and help the cause by explaining exactly what the problem is (even though I doubt I'll be understood), is there anything I can say to the support agent to help them understand this is an issue known by Dell, to help both me and those needing updates (the more real complaints returns for this issue the better I'd have thought)?

One thing though, if a bios (or acpi.sys) fix is likely in literally the next few days I'll hold off, till the last possible time for me to return them under 7 day return policy (if thats the case??). Sounds like "Bill-B" is on the case, and taking the flak (good luck to you in your unenviable position between two unhappy camps)..and I have no doubt he'll do his utmost to persuade those coders to get it done, not just for those wanting to do audio, but also general use, I've seen some complaints on other forums for just mp3/video playback issues with this range of laptops...

Thanks for everyones input and posts of fixes, I'll probably tinker a little more while I still have the chance....

BREAKTHROUGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I was talking to the Dell Studio tech support (the live chat thing),

After going over and over explaining the problem and going though the usual dell trouble shoot, he told me that Dell currently do not have any bios fixes planned for the studio 1737 as they are now rectifying the issue by collecting your laptop and replacing your motherboard with an updated verion that has all the DPC latency issues fixed, Good News for us that are still in warranty but unfortunate for those who are not (although you may be able to pay for this upgrade)

fianally can use the laptop i had purchased!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

arranging my collection now!

DuDeX

OK now getting angry just trying to confirm this fix and another engineer has told me that there is no new motherboard that has fixed the issue and they are still looking into this issue!!!!

What is going on i am so unimpressed at the moment!!

Is there a new motherboard or what!! Are dell working on a fix!!! different engineers are saying different things we need clarity on this!!!!!!!!!

Bill can you confirm any of this?

DuDeX

Hi Bill, Is the "fix" being worked on for all the effected models,  as there must be a common cause for so many different models experiencing the same issue, mine is an XPS M1330. Cheers, Steve

I have made them aware that the problem affects multiple platforms. As far as I can tell, they are looking at them all.

Hi Bill,

Is the "fix" being worked on for all the effected models,  as there must be a common cause for so many different models experiencing the same issue, mine is an XPS M1330.

Cheers, Steve

One thing though, if a bios (or acpi.sys) fix is likely in literally the next few days I'll hold off, till the last possible time for me to return them under 7 day return policy (if thats the case??). Sounds like "Bill-B" is on the case, and taking the flak (good luck to you in your unenviable position between two unhappy camps)..

I am indeed on the case, and I'll just be honest with you here. If you are basing your return it/keep it decision on the timing of a fix, go ahead and get the return set up now. No sense stringing you along. There will not be a BIOS update in the next 7 days, but I am told there will be a fix as soon as possible.