Brand new laptop... Computer too slow. HALP!

This forum is for discussing Reason. Questions, answers, ideas, and opinions... all apply.
timoteo
Posts: 2
Joined: 14 May 2018

14 May 2018

Hello everyone,

This is going to be another (very) common question, and I know I can search the board.... BUT.....

I just got back into my production hobby after a very long haitus and upgraded to a new laptop from an ancient (2001) Dell desktop running an Intel Pentium 4 chip and SB Audigy soundcard.... (I know right...) Anyway, I ran Reason 2.5 on this desktop and card flawlessly for years with no latency issues, crashing, clicks and pops, etc. no matter how much I loaded the rack (32+ channels).

I bought a new Alienware R4 (AW15R4-7620BLK-PUS) with 8th Gen i7, 16gb DDR4, because I wanted mobility, and because of the blazing specs (and because I just can't do Macbook Pro). I setup Reason 10 and enabled the onboard ASIO driver. All was good for a little while as I basked in the glory of all this RAM and speed....

Then I loaded the default song..... and the computer took a big ole dump all over me. clicks and pops... Computer too slow. THE DEMO SONG ON A BRAND NEW LAPTOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't express how fast my heart sank...

Played with buffer settings and lowered sample rate from 48 to 44 (haven't done this since 2001... frustrating) and got the audio under control with some latency, BUT... having a latency issue a brand new computer is unacceptable to me considering the specs...

Checked the CPU and RAM load and both were consistently in the 20-30% range as far as I could observe. Mind you, I did not buy a USB audio interface (yet) because I was hoping that I wouldn't need one, based on the specs of the computer.

So my question is, why is this happening to me? I haven't tweaked the laptop configuration for performance, any tips on that would be appreciated. Also, is it possible that the onboard audio card is bottlenecking the laptop? Will an USB audio interface fix the problem? (looking at Focusrite Scarlett or Traktor Audio 2). I apologize for my ignorance, I am way more musician than techy... and this issue is really hurting my soul rn all things considered.

PLS HALP!

User avatar
sublunar
Posts: 507
Joined: 27 Apr 2017

14 May 2018

Yes an interface will solve the problem. But I'm running an older Dell i7 with no issues whatsoever so I'm thinking something's probably just off with your configurations.

One thing I'd recommend trying is easy. Set up a new administrative user on this computer and try the demo song again. See if there's any difference. I know that's an odd suggestion but I was running into high DSP issues on my laptop and this was the fix. No joke. User profile corruption was my theory.

Interestingly I don't see audio specs for this machine listed, aside from 7.1 digital audio. But this could very well be a driver issue. Have you updated drivers?

Here's a couple handy optimization guides:

https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/ar ... indows-10/

https://www.sweetwater.com/sweetcare/ar ... windows-7/

Steedus
Competition Winner
Posts: 1009
Joined: 31 Aug 2015
Location: Melbourne, AU

14 May 2018

I feel for you .. I asked for help about a similar issue a while ago, but just got the usual offish "ya shudda bult it yasuf", and "it's a gaming PC - ofcourse it doesn't work with Reason" comments. Very helpful.

User avatar
Oquasec
Posts: 2849
Joined: 05 Mar 2017

14 May 2018

Most likely how you setup the rig ya got.
laptop cpus are basically desktop cpus minus the vents and stuff so they should operate fine.
Check ya machine for viruses and adware, clean the registry and caches, test all the little stuff out.
Producer/Programmer.
Reason, FLS and Cubase NFR user.

User avatar
aeox
Competition Winner
Posts: 3222
Joined: 23 Feb 2017
Location: Oregon

14 May 2018

I can't even go to 48 khz on my desktop, it's just too taxing. I also have to run everything with really high latency (4096 samples on a full project) That said, something seems wrong with the results you are getting.

When you open task manager, is there anything taking up a lot of cpu already in the background?

Is the laptop in power saver mode? This mode runs all your CPU cores at the lowest frequency. Set to balanced or high performance. I use balanced personally.

Some of the "Audio card driver" options in Reason give me really bad crackles and pops. Maybe a audio interface could help.

User avatar
full-of-life
Posts: 53
Joined: 13 Oct 2017

15 May 2018

it starts to stutter = I didn't notice that there are many open songs.
R10 msi gt72 windows10 abluesky mediadesk 2.1 CME WaveIdea Bitstream 3X/Xkey37 4filegate YT ▢▢ allihoopa

User avatar
Oquasec
Posts: 2849
Joined: 05 Mar 2017

15 May 2018

That's odd. even if you had you stuff set to the balanced mode and set the max to 25% it should still be doing fine in the 128-256 range.
Producer/Programmer.
Reason, FLS and Cubase NFR user.

User avatar
friday
Posts: 336
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

15 May 2018

Can you try to use the default Windows driver not the ASIO? (high latency)

User avatar
EnochLight
Moderator
Posts: 8405
Joined: 17 Jan 2015
Location: Imladris

15 May 2018

timoteo wrote:
14 May 2018
Hello everyone,

This is going to be another (very) common question, and I know I can search the board.... BUT.....

I just got back into my production hobby after a very long haitus and upgraded to a new laptop from an ancient (2001) Dell desktop running an Intel Pentium 4 chip and SB Audigy soundcard.... (I know right...) Anyway, I ran Reason 2.5 on this desktop and card flawlessly for years with no latency issues, crashing, clicks and pops, etc. no matter how much I loaded the rack (32+ channels).

I bought a new Alienware R4 (AW15R4-7620BLK-PUS) with 8th Gen i7, 16gb DDR4, because I wanted mobility, and because of the blazing specs (and because I just can't do Macbook Pro). I setup Reason 10 and enabled the onboard ASIO driver. All was good for a little while as I basked in the glory of all this RAM and speed....

Then I loaded the default song..... and the computer took a big ole dump all over me. clicks and pops... Computer too slow. THE DEMO SONG ON A BRAND NEW LAPTOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't express how fast my heart sank...

Played with buffer settings and lowered sample rate from 48 to 44 (haven't done this since 2001... frustrating) and got the audio under control with some latency, BUT... having a latency issue a brand new computer is unacceptable to me considering the specs...

Checked the CPU and RAM load and both were consistently in the 20-30% range as far as I could observe. Mind you, I did not buy a USB audio interface (yet) because I was hoping that I wouldn't need one, based on the specs of the computer.

So my question is, why is this happening to me? I haven't tweaked the laptop configuration for performance, any tips on that would be appreciated. Also, is it possible that the onboard audio card is bottlenecking the laptop? Will an USB audio interface fix the problem? (looking at Focusrite Scarlett or Traktor Audio 2). I apologize for my ignorance, I am way more musician than techy... and this issue is really hurting my soul rn all things considered.

PLS HALP!
Not much has changed in the past 20 years: built-in audio on Windows sucks pretty bad for audio production. It's a miracle your laptop came with any ASIO drivers at all!

Your issue can be solved by adding a proper USB soundcard made for audio production. Try anything from RME, though the recent Focusrite stuff is great, too. There's plenty of other options.

You could also try the free ASIO4ALL drivers and see if that gets you by in the meantime. http://www.asio4all.org/

Finally, be sure you have your laptop's performance set to "High Performance" under the Power Options. By default, it will underclock and throttle your CPU to save battery.
Win 10 | Ableton Live 11 Suite |  Reason 12 | i7 3770k @ 3.5 Ghz | 16 GB RAM | RME Babyface Pro | Akai MPC Live 2 & Akai Force | Roland System 8, MX1, TB3 | Dreadbox Typhon | Korg Minilogue XD

User avatar
Oquasec
Posts: 2849
Joined: 05 Mar 2017

15 May 2018

10.1 seems to be handling vsts a bit better too I notice...seems like each patch gets it more optimized.
Producer/Programmer.
Reason, FLS and Cubase NFR user.

RandyEspoda
Posts: 275
Joined: 14 Mar 2017

15 May 2018

Check your BIOS to see if your core features are setup correctly. Most of the time power saving features enabled by default will bottleneck the system, and they are to be changed in the BIOS. Turn them all off, make sure all your cores are enabled, speedstep disabled etc...

Also in Win10, go to your windows power settings in the control panel, and make sure you are on high performance, and also there in the advanced settings, disable the power saving BS...I'm betting it's somewhere in those lines...

Southgate
Posts: 127
Joined: 05 Feb 2016

15 May 2018

Try this...my system is quite a bit faster after these tweeks...



🤞😉

User avatar
Carly(Poohbear)
Competition Winner
Posts: 2871
Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: UK

15 May 2018

Have a play about with the hyperthreading settings.
Set the CPU limit to none or 95%.

Also play about with the sample size, if I have mine setup really low I get real high latency (no clicks or pops) but if I set mine to about 3000 samples I get next to no latency, the figures in my case returned to Reason from my driver are incorrect, could be worth having a play with..
Capture.JPG
Capture.JPG (64.96 KiB) Viewed 4897 times

User avatar
Carly(Poohbear)
Competition Winner
Posts: 2871
Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: UK

15 May 2018

EnochLight wrote:
15 May 2018
Finally, be sure you have your laptop's performance set to "High Performance" under the Power Options. By default, it will underclock and throttle your CPU to save battery.
FYI
I always run mine on Balanced with a lot of things turned off and few things turned on, never have issues. (Yes I do have to have a video loaded up in the background to stop windows from going into sleep mode on idle)

Just don't like seeing my CPU run at full speed when nothing is happening on my PC (which is the case with running "High Performance") and when I need the power it never underclocks or throttles the CPU.

PoohBear

User avatar
abeonis
Posts: 84
Joined: 06 Nov 2015
Location: Spain-France

15 May 2018

Also, you should open the Windows Task Manager and see what applications/processes are consuming CPU and memory. Maybe you find interesting things to be fixed.
Windows 10 64-bit | Reason 9.5 | Live 10 Suite + Push2 | Intel i7 8700K | 16 GB RAM | Scarlett 6x6 | Arturia MiniLab MK II | 2x Novation LaunchControl XL

GRIFTY
Posts: 658
Joined: 16 Jan 2015

15 May 2018

Carly(Poohbear) wrote:
15 May 2018
EnochLight wrote:
15 May 2018
Finally, be sure you have your laptop's performance set to "High Performance" under the Power Options. By default, it will underclock and throttle your CPU to save battery.
FYI
I always run mine on Balanced with a lot of things turned off and few things turned on, never have issues. (Yes I do have to have a video loaded up in the background to stop windows from going into sleep mode on idle)

Just don't like seeing my CPU run at full speed when nothing is happening on my PC (which is the case with running "High Performance") and when I need the power it never underclocks or throttles the CPU.

PoohBear
this is pointless unless you're trying to conserve battery.

User avatar
benjified
Posts: 69
Joined: 15 Sep 2015
Location: Toronto
Contact:

15 May 2018

I recently bought an Asus Zenbook 430uar with a Core i7-8550U quad core cpu, 16GB RAM, and a SATAIII SSD. I also have a Propellerhead Balance and tried using the new Windows USB audio drivers but couldn't get it to work, so I installed the old balance driver. I opened one of the demo songs and was soon greeted with choppy audio. To add insult to injury I switched to the default audio driver on the onboard sound and got better performance.

I went to https://support.focusrite.com/hc/en-gb/ ... Windows-10 and was able to get a working set up this way. I haven't yet poked around in the BIOS yet and maybe I don't need to. I also grabbed the ASIO4ALL driver and get good performance with that although every time I launch an app or switch sound settings I get pops in my headphones.

User avatar
kuhliloach
Posts: 880
Joined: 09 Dec 2015

15 May 2018

timoteo - First of all don't worry. The issue is most certainly fixable, and I predict your laptop will perform wonderfully after some basic troubleshooting. What caught my attention most about your post was you said the laptop has some kind of native ASIO driver--I've never heard of anything like that. Could you tell us more about what ASIO driver you are referring to? As mentioned in this thread I would also take a good look at ASIO4ALL - it is a work of genius that has impressed me in many ways over the years, from offering low latency on basic laptops, to improving the factory latency of my existing ASIO hardware when using it instead of the ASIO driver that is provided by the vendor for a given device. For example, with ASIO4ALL being used as the driver for my Line6 Toneport UX2 (instead of the Line6 drivers) lower latency settings become available (down to 64 samples.) I sometimes wonder if Microsoft should acquire the ASIO4ALL company.

Troubleshooting the issue should hopefully empower you to learn more about your new system. It might be frustrating that this work time is non-music making time, but I predict getting through it will be well worth the effort. There is certainly an art to streamlining a Windows installation for the purpose of running a DAW and this is something I wish Microsoft would take more seriously. I'd suggest learning the Windows Task Manager and getting a good feel for what other applications might automatically be running in the background when Windows starts. Even your GPU settings might have an effect on the performance of Reason, or any apps for that matter.

Consider updating drivers - if you are trying a factory supplied ASIO driver are you sure it's been updated to the newest version? Windows Updates and other driver updates may also be needed to get it going. Your specs are amazing and should do a fine job with Reason once you get the basics ironed out. And once you discover which change makes the big difference you'll gain a greater understanding of entire system.

User avatar
chimp_spanner
Posts: 2908
Joined: 06 Mar 2015

16 May 2018

If you know anyone with an interface I’d recommend taking your laptop to them and seeing if performance improves. Tbh I’d say you need one anyway. On board sound chips - specifically in Windows - simply aren’t up to the job. Yeah ASIO4ALL is impressive in what it manages to do but, it’s a workaround and it will require more CPU to do what a proper interface with proper ASIO drivers would do. And interfaces definitely can make a difference. I went from a UR44 (great) to a StudioCapture (not so great) and got pops, clicks and higher CPU at all the same project settings. Went back to the UR44 and no problems since.

Bottom line is, if you’re making music I don’t think it’s realistic or reasonable to expect to be able to do it on whatever sound chip your laptop comes with (Realtek usually). They just aren’t made for it!

User avatar
Carly(Poohbear)
Competition Winner
Posts: 2871
Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: UK

16 May 2018

GRIFTY wrote:
15 May 2018
Carly(Poohbear) wrote:
15 May 2018

FYI
I always run mine on Balanced with a lot of things turned off and few things turned on, never have issues. (Yes I do have to have a video loaded up in the background to stop windows from going into sleep mode on idle)

Just don't like seeing my CPU run at full speed when nothing is happening on my PC (which is the case with running "High Performance") and when I need the power it never underclocks or throttles the CPU.

PoohBear
this is pointless unless you're trying to conserve battery.
Not at all, there is no need to run a system flat out all time, you are only shortening the life time of the device.

User avatar
Carly(Poohbear)
Competition Winner
Posts: 2871
Joined: 25 Jan 2015
Location: UK

16 May 2018

chimp_spanner wrote:
16 May 2018
If you know anyone with an interface I’d recommend taking your laptop to them and seeing if performance improves. Tbh I’d say you need one anyway. On board sound chips - specifically in Windows - simply aren’t up to the job. Yeah ASIO4ALL is impressive in what it manages to do but, it’s a workaround and it will require more CPU to do what a proper interface with proper ASIO drivers would do. And interfaces definitely can make a difference. I went from a UR44 (great) to a StudioCapture (not so great) and got pops, clicks and higher CPU at all the same project settings. Went back to the UR44 and no problems since.

Bottom line is, if you’re making music I don’t think it’s realistic or reasonable to expect to be able to do it on whatever sound chip your laptop comes with (Realtek usually). They just aren’t made for it!
I see a lot of people make that statement, I have no issues with my Realtek, however it would be fairer to say if you have external audio hooked up then get an interface to do the job correctly.

User avatar
chimp_spanner
Posts: 2908
Joined: 06 Mar 2015

16 May 2018

Carly(Poohbear) wrote:
16 May 2018
chimp_spanner wrote:
16 May 2018
If you know anyone with an interface I’d recommend taking your laptop to them and seeing if performance improves. Tbh I’d say you need one anyway. On board sound chips - specifically in Windows - simply aren’t up to the job. Yeah ASIO4ALL is impressive in what it manages to do but, it’s a workaround and it will require more CPU to do what a proper interface with proper ASIO drivers would do. And interfaces definitely can make a difference. I went from a UR44 (great) to a StudioCapture (not so great) and got pops, clicks and higher CPU at all the same project settings. Went back to the UR44 and no problems since.

Bottom line is, if you’re making music I don’t think it’s realistic or reasonable to expect to be able to do it on whatever sound chip your laptop comes with (Realtek usually). They just aren’t made for it!
I see a lot of people make that statement, I have no issues with my Realtek, however it would be fairer to say if you have external audio hooked up then get an interface to do the job correctly.
Yeah actually, it's unfair of me to single out Realtek. My laptop actually has one and I have, from time to time, made a little music on the sofa just using the windows drivers without a hitch, and my laptop is significantly older than the OP's! But I think in general, trying to push onboard sound chips to low latency and running big projects on them is kinda asking for trouble. I don't doubt some are able to do it! But a dedicated interface is gonna win every time. And they're so cheap now. My old KA6 (which I still have) goes for around 100 bucks second hand and it's such a good little interface.

User avatar
EnochLight
Moderator
Posts: 8405
Joined: 17 Jan 2015
Location: Imladris

16 May 2018

kuhliloach wrote:
15 May 2018
What caught my attention most about your post was you said the laptop has some kind of native ASIO driver--I've never heard of anything like that. Could you tell us more about what ASIO driver you are referring to?
A lot of the newer motherboards these days offer some sort of ASIO driver with their integrated sound. My daughter's recent AMD Ryzen build came with ASIO drivers (the motherboard, an MSI Gaming Pro Carbon X370, has integrated audio from Realtek ALC1220, but the software is by Nahimic - which is basically multimedia software like 3D sound for gaming, etc, but they also slapped in a rudimentary ASIO driver).
Carly(Poohbear) wrote:
16 May 2018
Not at all, there is no need to run a system flat out all time, you are only shortening the life time of the device.
Not necessarily. Assuming your fan is cooling correctly, your CPU will be able to run at 100% clock for the life of the laptop. I've been running mine, overclocked on air, always on 24/7/365 for the past 7 years straight... I did have to replace my CPU fan once, but that was only recently.
Win 10 | Ableton Live 11 Suite |  Reason 12 | i7 3770k @ 3.5 Ghz | 16 GB RAM | RME Babyface Pro | Akai MPC Live 2 & Akai Force | Roland System 8, MX1, TB3 | Dreadbox Typhon | Korg Minilogue XD

User avatar
chimp_spanner
Posts: 2908
Joined: 06 Mar 2015

16 May 2018

I run my laptop on high performance all the time, and it's usually exporting video or rendering tracks. That said, it's on a floating desk clamp thingy, so the bottom and sides are super well ventilated. Still, sounds like it wants to take off some days!

User avatar
PSoames
Posts: 278
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Location: Somerset, UK

16 May 2018

Yes. Power profiles in windows. Switch them off when using Reason and you should see improved performance.

Personally, I'd switch them off for ever, but that's your choice.

Post Reply
  • Information
  • Who is online

    Users browsing this forum: DotNetDotCom.org [Bot] and 28 guests