FLex 3000 Crashes now that I dedicated a faster PC to it :(

VE3HR

I replaced a Dell HP6930P Laptop
duo core intel 2.6ghz
4gig ram
onboard ATI graphics.
StarTech PCExpress1394 card
160g HDD-
running win7at first then 10Pro
AVGFree

With
Intel i5 3.2ghz
8g ram
Intel HD Graphics 4460
SIIG DP Firewire 2-Port PCI-e
1tb hdd
Windows 10 Home

On the laptop the PowerSDR never  flinched even running around 80% cpu. I bought the desktop solely for Flex operation. It will ramble along at 4% cpu use but will suddenly jump to an incredible DPC number of 14,735 us. It normally runs about 119us.
I have toroids on all cables, am using the gold FLex supplied cable and have shut down all networking to test with no difference. I have swapped the firewire card to a new slot, there are no IRQ conflicts,power supply is logged and steady and all devices except the PC tower are grounded.
Any and all help would be appreciated - I'm fairly new to 'Flexology'
cheers

John

one thing to try is to make sure that all sleep modes are switched off on the new pc. This includes HD, usb, firewire port, keyboard, screen etc etc and any "green power saving" settings. Look in control panel for them

DH2ID

Hello Russ, welcome to 'Flexology' ;-)

I own both a Flex-3000 and a Flex-6500 and these SDRs are both in use. I wanted to sell the Flex-3000, but then I found that I can carry it easily and I use it to try out
new digital modes.

Now to your notebook problem:

I have a Sony VAIO i7 notebook that I used with the Fklex-3000 for two years.
I had always latency problems, even when shutting down almost all background
programs. Now I use the same notebook with SmartSDR and the Flex-6500
and - of course, no problems with latency anymore.

I also have a CF-52 i5 Toughbook by Panasonic for EMCOMM work, also
with a firewire connector - no problems at all, no latency, works like a charm
with the Flex-3000.

It all comes down to the firewire driver and the corresponding hardware chip,
which you usually can't change in a notebook.

You'll find some answers here:

http://kc.flex-radio.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50179.aspx
http://kc.flex-radio.com/knowledgebasearticle50063.aspx

If everything else fails, you can either try different notebooks or
use your old one ;-)

73, Alex DH2ID

VE3HR

Guys tx for the quick replies
John - all sleepware has been disabled, should have mentioned that. Tx
Alex - the new PC is a desktop the old was a laptop. Going backwards is not an option. I know the laptop was overworked and went to a faster machine because of this. I also investigated the firewire cars and this is recommended so I should be good there.  I guess I need to figure out the reason for the DPC spikes first

DH2ID

Ok, got it.... Here is a good freeware DPC prog:

http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon

My biggest latency culprits are:
ndis.sys and dxkrnl.sys. Can't stop them ore Windows won't run....

My settings:





You can also read out the info from your FW driver:
_______________________________________________________
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit Service Pack 1 [6.1.7601]
  CPU(s):
    Processor:  Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU       M 520  @ 2.40GHz
    Physical:  1
    Cores:     2
    Logical:   4
    L1 Cache:  32 KB   (4)
    L2 Cache:  256 KB  (2)
    L3 Cache: 3072 KB  (1)
  Installed RAM: 7990 MB

  Microsoft 1394ohci.sys [6.1.7601.17514]
  Microsoft ohci1394.sys [6.1.7600.16385] 氨来捡⥹
  Microsoft 1394bus.sys  [6.1.7600.16385] 氨来捡⥹

Looking for OHCI 1394 Host Controllers...

1:
  Vendor : (1180) Ricoh
  Chipset: (0832) R5C832
  Revision: 04
  Status :  Active
  Details:
    Subsysten VendorId: 10f7
    Subsystem DeviceId: 8338
    Max # isoch Rx contexts: 4
    Max # isoch Tx contexts: 4
  Max 1394 Speed Capability: S400
  Support:  Not compatible.
  Notes  :  This controller is not compatible with DICE drivers.
2:
  Vendor : (1180) Ricoh
  Chipset: (0832) R5C832
  Revision: 04
  Status :  No longer present, or disabled.
  Details:
    Subsysten VendorId: 10f7
    Subsystem DeviceId: 8338
    Max # isoch Rx contexts: 4
    Max # isoch Tx contexts: 4
  Max 1394 Speed Capability: S400
  Support:  Not compatible.
  Notes  :  This controller is not compatible with DICE drivers.
______________________________________________________________

VE3HR

Tx for the link to the latency monitor Alex. Showed me Win10 is a bloated porker! I used it to locate and remove several apps and processes I really didn't need.
The monitor has been running 7 hours reporting a 755us DPC as highest. The 3000 hasn't blinked.
Here's hoping

DH2ID

Congrats, Russ! I'm still staying with Windows 7pro 64bit until I see real
benefits from 10 ...

John

One could always go into start and then type in msconfig and then click the services tab, which will show you what services are running and disable those not needed.

VE3HR

yes John you could sit and watch that...or use the above software and receive a diagnostic analysis :-D

CONCLUSION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Your system appears to be suitable for handling real-time audio and other tasks without dropouts.
LatencyMon has been analyzing your system for  4:24:01  (h:mm:ss) on all processors.


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SYSTEM INFORMATION
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Computer name:                                    
OS version:                                           Windows 8 , 6.2, build: 9200 (x64)
Hardware:                                             Aspire TC-603, Acer
CPU:                                                  GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4460 CPU @ 3.20GHz
Logical processors:                                   4
Processor groups:                                     1
RAM:                                                  7858 MB total


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
CPU SPEED
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Reported CPU speed:                                   3193 MHz
Measured CPU speed:                                   1 MHz (approx.)

Note: reported execution times may be calculated based on a fixed reported CPU speed. Disable variable speed settings like Intel Speed Step and AMD Cool N Quiet in the BIOS setup for more accurate results.

WARNING: the CPU speed that was measured is only a fraction of the CPU speed reported. Your CPUs may be throttled back due to variable speed settings and thermal issues. It is suggested that you run a utility which reports your actual CPU frequency and temperature.



_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MEASURED INTERRUPT TO DPC LATENCIES
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The interrupt to DPC latency reflects the measured interval in which a DPC could execute in response to a hardware request from the moment the interrupt service routine started execution.

Highest measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       607.480997
Average measured interrupt to DPC latency (µs):       4.460056


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 REPORTED ISRs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Interrupt service routines are routines installed by the OS and device drivers that execute in response to a hardware interrupt signal.

Highest ISR routine execution time (µs):              91.237707
Driver with highest ISR routine execution time:       Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total ISR routine time (%):          0.185690
Driver with highest ISR total time:                   Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in ISRs (%)                          0.187884

ISR count (execution time <250 µs):                   14464794
ISR count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 500-999 µs):                0
ISR count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
ISR count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0


_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
REPORTED DPCs
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
DPC routines are part of the interrupt servicing dispatch mechanism and disable the possibility for a process to utilize the CPU while it is interrupted until the DPC has finished execution.

Highest DPC routine execution time (µs):              396.712496
Driver with highest DPC routine execution time:       Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Highest reported total DPC routine time (%):          1.156410
Driver with highest DPC total execution time:         Wdf01000.sys - Kernel Mode Driver Framework Runtime, Microsoft Corporation

Total time spent in DPCs (%)                          1.282166

DPC count (execution time <250 µs):                   60333888
DPC count (execution time 250-500 µs):                0
DPC count (execution time 500-999 µs):                49
DPC count (execution time 1000-1999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time 2000-3999 µs):              0
DPC count (execution time >=4000 µs):                 0

Again Tx Alex

N7AIG

Can you share the "answer" with the rest of us Flex-3000 owners?

VE3HR

"Answer?" If you mean the crashing then I can tell you what I did. First off I was using AVG Free. WIndows 10 has Defender built in so one had to go. Perhaps not the best way but I removed AVG for now and left Defender running adding my Flex apps as exclusions. I think that was the big issue. My new tower is an Acer and as such had quite a few background apps running.I didn't need any Acer apps personally so removed them all (Acers searchindex especially).
As a sidenote- my Flex was hanging at 2 seconds on start-up and that issue resolved itself once I removed AVG. Was it the AVG or the two AV programs running simultaneously I'm not sure..It now works and removing all the extra apps helped my overall system.
A win10 issue to close up is in the updates procedure. In the advanced settings for updates Windows utilizes your connection (and data) for 'seeding' other users in their updates. You can disable this option which I did.
I hope this helps
cheers