Re: [Flexradio] audiodg.exe
Hi David and all, > Just found a nasty little "feature" in Win/Vista and Win/7, named > "audiodg.exe". This is a "required" audio driver that attempts to > isolate processes audio routing graphs for security purposes. Problem > is, the cure is almost as bad as the disease they are trying to prevent. Nasty indeed. Here is a link to what I had to say about it when trying Vista and Win 7 for the first time: http://www.sm5bsz.com/linuxdsp/run/snd-compat/d44-cpuload.htm That was nearly two years ago. audiodg.exe is probably not as cpu-hungry today if Windows Update has been used as it should. Nevertheless it is a problem by adding extra delay and probably other problems. We can avoid audiodg.exe by use of ASIO or WDM-KS. Right now I am doing tests with Linrad using Portaudio for both input and output. WDM-KS works fine for some hardware combinations under Vista. It seems to me that Portaudio is not yet quite stable (or the WDM-KS drivers are sometimes defective.) When running on slow computers I see odd problems sometimes. I think WDM-KS should be preferred over ASIO because one can open several WDM-KS drivers simultaneously while one can only open a single ASIO device. One can open ASIO in RDWR mode, but I find it inconvenient to have to use 96kHz/24 bit in four channels for the loudspeaker output. It is possible to use ASIO for 96kHz/24bit rx input and Tx output in RDWR mode, but microphone input and loudspeaker output can conveniently go through a low speed 16 bit audio channel which would have to be WDM-KS since a second ASIO is not allowed. (the other alternatives would involve audiodg.exe problems...) 73 Leif / SM5BSZ ___ 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/
Re: [Flexradio] audiodg.exe
And for Neal's attention, if I were to look at Dell laptops machines, is there any that stands out (or are they all toast)? I run WinXP on Latitude D630 and it is just about man enoug to run my Flex3000 and N1MM, but fire anything else up and audio breaks up with or without VAC. Do we have a list/grid of off-the-shelf model laptops on the wiki or elsewhere with "ok/not okay for Flex 15000/3000/500 etc? That would be great if we did. Mike G7TWC On 22 June 2011 11:32, Brian G3VGZ wrote: > David McClain wrote: > > > The Dell laptop has only one USB hub inside, and *everything* (disk, > > video, USB, mouse, keyboard, scratchpad, etc.) competes for service. > > (That's why I referred to it as a stupid little system). I guess for 90+% > > of folks, the computer is good enough... :-( > > I have an old IBM T30 thinkpad that struggles (but succeeds -- just -- no > other programs running) to run my flex 1500 so I'm looking for something > better for portable use. > > Any suggestions at what to look for in a new laptop? I don't want to end up > with a "stupid little system"! > > > -- > Brian Duffell G3VGZ > > ___ > 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/
Re: [Flexradio] audiodg.exe
David McClain wrote: > The Dell laptop has only one USB hub inside, and *everything* (disk, > video, USB, mouse, keyboard, scratchpad, etc.) competes for service. > (That's why I referred to it as a stupid little system). I guess for 90+% > of folks, the computer is good enough... :-( I have an old IBM T30 thinkpad that struggles (but succeeds -- just -- no other programs running) to run my flex 1500 so I'm looking for something better for portable use. Any suggestions at what to look for in a new laptop? I don't want to end up with a "stupid little system"! -- Brian Duffell G3VGZ ___ 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/
Re: [Flexradio] audiodg.exe
On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 7:30 PM, David McClain wrote: > ...I told Cubase to be sure to use the Lexicon ASIO driver, not its generic > driver. When I do that, I no longer get the audiodg.exe Aha, that's good, David. That's progress. > The Dell laptop has only one USB hub... This is a really bogus feature of many new computers. Apparently the manufacturers pay royalties per USB controller, not per port, so they make a single hub serve multi ports. As you can see from your device mgr, the ports have to share the bandwidth equally, and this can't be changed dynamically (or maybe at all). Moreover, it can create driver problems. On the Softrock reflector, guys are reporting that certain drivers won't install if such-and-such a device is plugged in. This again is a feature of the fact that the port where the device you're trying to install is connected is sharing a hub with something whose driver is stepping on something. I had this exact problem with the drivers for my Flex 1500, which I finally solved by buying another USB card. Real-time problems with the audio stream have plagued the audio software guys since the beginning of time; I remember so many problems with the ASIO drivers in Cubase when I first installed it in 2004. But it's not only the hardware. After all, the machines can run on-line gaming programs, which have complicated multi-threading and processing requirements, and zero tolerance for latency. But those games are written by teams of monster hard-core programming experts who put man-decades into them. Real-time programming is tricky and hard. As ham gear tries to move in that direction, there's a shortage of programmers who know what you need to know, and who are interested in applying their skills to ham radio. Well, now I've ranted enough and I feel better. Good luck with your laptop system. If you can tolerate some latency, you can probably make it stop pausing for disk writes by increasing some buffer size and/or tweaking the page file. 73, Tony KT0NY ___ 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/
Re: [Flexradio] audiodg.exe
Hi Tony I just installed an external Lexicon Alpha on my laptop, and downloaded the latest drivers. I told Cubase to be sure to use the Lexicon ASIO driver, not its generic driver. When I do that, I no longer get the audiodg.exe in the task list. And the system does run better, but not yet correctly. There are a few other Win/7 features that cause the system to go silent for several seconds. One may be wmiprvse.exe (Google for its issues), and I notice that whenever Cubase goes to disk, it pauses the sound. So, while there can be some improvements from eliding audiodg.exe, there are many more gotchas in these stupid little systems. The Dell laptop has only one USB hub inside, and *everything* (disk, video, USB, mouse, keyboard, scratchpad, etc.) competes for service. (That's why I referred to it as a stupid little system). I guess for 90+% of folks, the computer is good enough... :-( 73 de Dave, N7AIG On Jun 21, 2011, at 15:01, Tony Estep wrote: Wow, David, that is ugly. Thanks for the heads-up. This apparently is a misguided attempt by Microsoft to provide a process external to the protected kernel where audio developers could link their ASIO drivers etc. without getting into the supposedly secure area of the OS. My Win7 has such a file, but even when I install an ASIO driver and/or run audio programs, no process by that name appears in my Task Manager. I wonder what's different with my system?? 73, Tony KT0NY On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 4:19 PM, David McClain audiometrics.com wrote: Just found a nasty little "feature" in Win/Vista and Win/7, named "audiodg.exe". ... ___ 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/
Re: [Flexradio] audiodg.exe
Wow, David, that is ugly. Thanks for the heads-up. This apparently is a misguided attempt by Microsoft to provide a process external to the protected kernel where audio developers could link their ASIO drivers etc. without getting into the supposedly secure area of the OS. My Win7 has such a file, but even when I install an ASIO driver and/or run audio programs, no process by that name appears in my Task Manager. I wonder what's different with my system?? 73, Tony KT0NY On Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 4:19 PM, David McClain wrote: > Just found a nasty little "feature" in Win/Vista and Win/7, named > "audiodg.exe". ... ___ 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/
Re: [Flexradio] audiodg.exe
Thanks! On Jun 21, 2011 5:19 PM, "David McClain" wrote: > Just found a nasty little "feature" in Win/Vista and Win/7, named > "audiodg.exe". This is a "required" audio driver that attempts to > isolate processes audio routing graphs for security purposes. Problem > is, the cure is almost as bad as the disease they are trying to prevent. > > On my Dell laptop, the problem is so bad, that I see frequent long > pauses where the GUI's become unresponsive, audio dropouts occur, and > this presumably is the main culprit for the F1.5K audio dropouts. > > It is so bad on the Dell laptop, that even after disabling all audio > "features" as indicated on the various complaint web pages for > audiodg.exe, I still cannot run Sonar nor Cubase without long periods > of slience, lots of stutters, and general unresponsiveness. It > probably also adds to the DPC problems. > > The only audio editing program that works well is Adobe Audition. No > doubt Adobe was aware of the problems in Win/Vista and Win/7 that > they must have circumvented the Windows audio system with their own > code. I can kill audiodg.exe and still run Audition with real audio > output. Killing audiodg.exe otherwise disables all audio outptut from > programs that "follow the rules". > > Just Google audiodg.exe and get an eyeful of the problems with this > Windows "feature"... > > > Dr. David McClain, N7AIG > Chief Technical Officer > Refined Audiometrics Laboratory > 4391 N. Camino Ferreo > Tucson, AZ 85750 > > email: d...@refined-audiometrics.com > phone: 1.520.529.2437 > web: http://refined-audiometrics.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/