Win2K, KMixers, and Time-Out's... Oh My!

nlamartina wrote on 3/23/2002, 1:43 AM
Okay, here's a puzzle for you... Just spent the last couple days building a DAW from scratch. Everything put together and operating flawlessly. I was just starting to pat myself on the back when I opened Vegas, started playing back a project and got the dreaded message, "Unable to mix audio. Operation timed out". If I were new or inexperienced, this wouldn't surprise me. However, since I am neither, this is frustrating. I've gone all through the forums and found out very little, other than the fact that the KMixer in Win2K is buggy with WDM drivers. I am not currently recording 24 bit though, so I don't see this as a problem yet.

Here are the specs relevant to operation:

- Win2K (SP2) and Win98SE dual-boot (clean install)
- DirectX 8.1
- Sound Blaster Live! Platinum (WDM driver)
- 20 gig Maxtor system hard disk (FAT32; 7200 RPM, UDMA-100)
- 30 gig Maxtor capture disk (NTFS; 7200 RPM, UDMA-66)
- 60 gig Maxtor storage disk (NTFS; 5400 RPM, UDMA-66)
- Acid Pro, Vegas Video, and Sound Forge installed
- Windows Media 7, Quicktime 5, and DivX 5 installed
- Netgear FA311 ethernet card
- 3D Prophet II GTS 32 MB
- 192 MB SDRAM
- FIC SD11 motherboard
- Generic TI-based 1394 bus adapter

Concerning environment:
- Win2K is completely updated (sans Internet Explorer)
- NO OTHER SOFTWARE is installed beside the SoFo apps and WinZip
- All SoFo apps are completely updated
- Hard disks were all zeroed out before being formatted
- BIOS updated to latest revision
- All VIA chipset drivers are current
- UDMA enabled on all drives
- Sound Blaster drivers are latest available
- Video card drivers are current
- All source files are local; no network activity
- System resources are clean and available; nothing unusual running in background
- All software was installed in correct order
- CPU usage is as low as 1% when problem occurs

It appears the error occurs upon the first press of the play button, and then somewhat at random afterwards. Project complexity appears to be a non-issue. Before someone suggests that I upgrade the system or start bouncing tracks, save your breath. I was running this stuff on an AMD K6-450 with 128 MB of RAM in Win98SE with the same sound board, and it ran flawlessly. However, I was using MME drivers. Is this the problem? Do I need to revert to MME? If so, where can I find the drivers for Win2K? Do they even exist? Will the eventual fix for the KMixer correct the problem I'm having? Something else? Any help will be GREATLY appreciated. I'd really like to get this system off it's behind.

Regards,
Nick LaMartina

Comments

Cheesehole wrote on 3/23/2002, 1:57 PM
>>>However, I was using MME drivers. Is this the problem? Do I need to revert to MME? If so, where can I find the drivers for Win2K? Do they even exist? Will the eventual fix for the KMixer correct the problem I'm having?

I can probably knock these questions off your list. I'm using the SB Live! in WDM mode and have not had this problem. I'm using the latest WDM drivers, although I don't like them. I'm considering reverting back to the Win2k default drivers (also WDM), or changing to a better sound card.

you didn't mention if Win98 exhibits the same problem. does it?

- ben (cheesehole!)
nlamartina wrote on 3/23/2002, 5:23 PM
>>>you didn't mention if Win98 exhibits the same problem. does it?

No. Win98 operated just fine with both WDM and MME (although the latency for WDM was CRAP). Strange that you're not experiencing the same problem. Is there any particular thing that you tweaked or changed when installing the SBLive? Do you have "devldr32.exe" running in the background? What is the driver date for your card? Mine is 11/22/2001, version 3520.0.0.0. How about you?

Many thanks Ben,
Nick
nlamartina wrote on 3/23/2002, 7:59 PM
Okay, an update. Went through every single WDM driver version available. No difference in behavior. I also tried the open-source KX driver with no luck either (which is a shame, since it looks like an outstanding program). Any other ideas?

- Nick
Cheesehole wrote on 3/23/2002, 11:04 PM
the devldr32.exe that came with my SB Live CD would crash my system on boot-up every single time. but the latest downloaded version doesn't. it is running in background right now.

I didn't have to tweak anything. the SB Live is working for me in Vegas perfectly. the weird thing is Sonar only recognizes it as a MONO recording device. no matter what I do, Sonar sees it as a single MONO in device. other than that, it works fine. I can sync Vegas and Sonar together, and use Sonar to play MIDI, and Vegas to record the tracks. no timeout errors. I can play back many tracks at once in Vegas with no errors.

the driver version is listed as:
Creative SB Live! (WDM)
3509.2.0.0
nlamartina wrote on 3/24/2002, 2:14 PM
Okay, tried the 3509.2.0.0 driver. No difference. Any other ideas?

- Nick
nlamartina wrote on 3/26/2002, 9:38 PM
Okay, I've gotten more information. Perhaps this little bit might jog someone's memory...

As stated before, I've gone through every single available driver without any change in behavior. I've even moved the soundboard from PCI slot to PCI slot to see if something clicked. Still no change. Then I decided to slap the ol' SBlaster 128 in the machine to see if it worked [note: Before I reformatted this system and added new parts, it was running a release version of Win2k (as in no updates) with the SBlaster 128, with NO PROBLEMS]. Well guess what? Different card, same error. "Unable to mix audio. Operation timed out". So, this leads me to believe that one of the Win2K web updates I installed screwed things up. I am currently running SP-2, with all web updates installed (except for IExplorer, Outlook, and languages). Do anyone know of a Win2K update that could possible be causing the problem on my system? If you have even a vague idea, please say so. I'm about ready to reformat.

Thanks again for any help or suggestions,
Nick LaMartina
nlamartina wrote on 3/26/2002, 10:17 PM
Okay, I just did myself a favor by doing the math and unistalling SP2 (along with all the other web updates). Low and behold, everything works perfectly now. Something in SP2 was causing the problem. What, I don't know, but it's fixed. The moral of the story, kids? If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

Thanks Ben and others for your help,
Nick LaMartina