Thanks Tim and Gerald and Graham and All: Almost certain it's the graphic card. On the crackling PC the CPU runs at 30% or less and CW is okay. If I run packetspots or other programs (F-Secure virus software is a suspect) CPU goes up past 50% and CW starts to drop characters. Turning off display ends crackling and allows for better CW.....this is why I'm suspecting the graphics card before i go into more exotic fixes. Do look at task manager and don't see anything running that shouldn't be and once I have all running including Writelog the system has been pretty stable and useable.
Will try the suggests below re new drivers (although all new within last two months) and monitoring software although using Flex and Widgets continuously monitoring CPU usage on both machines. On second computer with less RAM no crackling sounds but CW failing. Will get more RAM (always a good first try and relatively cheap) and see if that works. If that fails will swap graphic's card between machines. If that fails, a new machine would be nice :) No bluetooth, no wireless, nothing out of the ordinary and both desktop machines running clean Windows 7 installs done at a shop I trust. Overall, the Flex receiver on CW during 160-meter contest was by far the quietest I've ever run and best filters I've ever used. All I'm have is a 60-foot Alpha-Delta sloper and could hear all of North America easily and in past contests often Caribbean and Europe so love the Flex 1500 receiver. Again I'm learning and that's the point. Thanks again to all who commented so quickly. Best regards, Peter - VE3HG VE3HG Blog Follow VE3HG On Twitter On 2010-12-05, at 8:31 PM, Tim Ellison wrote: > " If the intermittent crackles co-inside with DPC spikes, then you need to > figure out what is causing that. Likely some other peripheral that is tying > up your kernel." > > If it is a DPC problem, the culprit(s) will be.... > > Bluetooth transceiver > Wireless transceiver > NIC card > Video card. > USB > > Excessive and/or long duration DPCs are hardware/driver problems. Upgrade > your hardware drivers to the latest version especially if you are using Win7. > Also you need to make sure your BIOS is at the latest revision too. > > Here is the other thing to check. If your FLEX-1500 is connected to a USB > controller that is connected to a low speed polling device like a keyboard > and/or mouse (wired or wireless), it will adversely affect the performance of > the FLEX-1500. If you are using a laptop, there could be oodles of things on > the USB controller. Here is how you check to make sure the FLEX-1500 isn't > sharing a USB controller. > http://kc.flexradio.com/KnowledgebaseArticle50459.aspx > > > -Tim > > > -----Original Message----- > From: flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz > [mailto:flexradio-boun...@flex-radio.biz] On Behalf Of Graham Haddock > Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 8:09 PM > To: Peter - VE3HG > Cc: flexradio@flex-radio.biz > Subject: Re: [Flexradio] crackling noise > > Peter: > In addition to looking at the CPU loading in Task Manager, I also suggest that > you download the tool named DPC Latency Checker from > > http://www.thesycon.de/dpclat > > and run it. > > The intermittent crackles caused by the CPU loading can usually be cured by > installing the ".dll" patch for 2.0.1. > > If the intermittent crackles co-inside with DPC spikes, then you need to > figure out what is causing that. Likely some other peripheral that is tying > up your kernel. > > I would look at these things before buying a new computer. [Unless you are > looking for an excuse for Santa to bring you an upgrade.] > > --- Graham / KE9H > > == > > > On Sun, Dec 5, 2010 at 3:09 PM, Peter - VE3HG <ve...@cogeco.ca> wrote: >> >>> Thanks to those who suggested the graphics card might be the suspect. >>> Sure enough swapped Windows 7 computers and no crackling. >>> >>> The 2.80 gig HP with a GeForce 8600 GT card and 4 gigs of memory was >>> the problem. A 3.33 gig E-Machine with a lesser ATI HD4350 card and >>> only 2 gigs of memory ran quiet - no crackling. >>> >>> However the 2 gigs RAM in the E-Machine don't seem sufficient for >>> clean CW. I'll try more RAM but it's looking more and more like a new >>> computer :( >>> >>> Best regards, >>> >>> Peter - VE3HG >>> VE3HG Blog >>> Follow VE3HG On Twitter >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> FlexRadio Systems Mailing List >>> FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz >>> http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz >>> Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ >>> Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: >>> http://www.flexradio.com/ >>> >> >> > _______________________________________________ > FlexRadio Systems Mailing List > FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz > http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz > Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ > Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/ _______________________________________________ FlexRadio Systems Mailing List FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ Knowledge Base: http://kc.flexradio.com/ Homepage: http://www.flexradio.com/
