Dual Head Graphics and other issues

[skfno]

Good day and Happy New Year to all.
I re-built my system in the summer with an intel DG965WH board and I had numurous problems using Cubase 5 with ScopeV.5 and FX Teleport.
Some issues I resolved others I could not so I changed the board to the DP35DP board over Christmas which seems so popular on here.
To my surprise at first glance the old and new board looked physically identical apart from there being no ps2 (mouse keyboard) or printer ports but extra usb ports on the DP35DP. They both also seem to use all the same drivers and chipsets. When I first switched on the new MB my hard drive fired up the original windows XP pro32 install and apart from losing the display driver settings everything was there.
However I still re-formatted the partition and re-installed everything. For a start things appeared promising using Cubase and Scope but issues have come to light which may be useful to know on the forum and maybe someone out there has had similar experiences.
I had been experiencing cpu spikes and crackling in the audio when moving the mouse cursor during playback with the old board so before I changed it I tried seeing if the problem was still there with another sound card (ESI 1010). It was and still is even after changing the motherboard. The odd thing is that it only crackles and spikes the cpu on the edges of the screen and not the centre.
I have now come to the conclusion that it may be the graphics card that is the problem (Matrox Millennium P650 PCIe 128mb) so maybe this is one to avoid for audio work.
Can anyone recommend a proven dual head PCIe graphics card for my system?
With regard to some of the other issues I got a nice reply from sonic core support saying they thought that the problems would be solved by turning off multicore support in Cubase but I cannot find any option to do this. Anyone tried this and know where to find it?
Hope someone has some ideas,
Once again Happy New Year!
ps My main computer is:
Intel DP35DP
2GB Patriot memory
Intel Q6600 Core 2 quad processor
Matrox Millennium P650 PCIe 128mb graphics
1 x Pulsar 2
2 x Power Sampler
1 x A16 Ultra

[H-Rave]

To turn off the multicore support in cubase is in he device setup, where you choose the asio driver.

[garyb]

would you post a list of used irqs?

[skfno]

would you post a list of used irqs?

Thank you for your reply and here is the answer to the question.

IRQ 0 System timer OK
IRQ 3 Communications Port (COM2) OK
IRQ 6 Standard floppy disk controller OK
IRQ 8 System CMOS/real time clock OK
IRQ 9 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System OK
IRQ 10 Intel(R) ICH9 Family SMBus Controller - 2930 OK
IRQ 13 Numeric data processor OK
IRQ 16 Intel(R) G33/G31/P35 Express Chipset PCI Express Root Port - 29C1 OK
IRQ 16 Matrox Millennium P650 PCIe 128 OK
IRQ 16 Intel(R) Management Engine Interface OK
IRQ 17 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2939 OK
IRQ 17 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293C OK
IRQ 17 Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 1 - 2940 OK
IRQ 17 Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller OK
IRQ 17 Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 5 - 2948 OK
IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2937 OK
IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 3 - 2944 OK
IRQ 18 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2936 OK
IRQ 18 Sonic Core Pulsar2 OK
IRQ 19 Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 4 - 2946 OK
IRQ 19 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2935 OK
IRQ 20 Intel(R) 82566DC-2 Gigabit Network Connection OK
IRQ 20 Intel(R) ICH9 Family PCI Express Root Port 2 - 2942 OK
IRQ 21 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2938 OK
IRQ 21 Sonic Core DSP-Board OK
IRQ 21 Intel(R) ICH9 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 1 - 2920 OK
IRQ 21 Intel(R) ICH9 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 2 - 2926 OK
IRQ 22 Microsoft UAA Bus Driver for High Definition Audio OK
IRQ 22 Sonic Core DSP-Board OK
IRQ 23 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2934 OK
IRQ 23 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293A OK

With my previous board (DG965WH) I managed to get all the cards on there own IRQ's with no sharing by moving the boards and switching off some usb ports (did not help with problems) but I have not tried it with this set up yet.
Thank you in advance for any assistance.

[garyb]

you need to disable usb controllers # 2937 and 2936 and it would be a good idea to disable pci-e port #Root Port 3 - 2944(if you aren't using it) in the device manager.

[skfno]

Thanks again for your advice. I will certainly try that tomorrow.
However here is something of interest. After turning off multiprocesser support in Cubase (thanks so much for the info on where to turn it off). All cpu spikes and crackling disappeared instantly. Now bearing in mind the same crackling was present when I used my ESI card in the system as a test without Scope cards it would appear that multiprocessor support in Cubase is not not compatable with more than just Scope cards. Sonic Core support was bang on the nail with their diagnosis of the problem. I wonder how many other Cubase users are having the same trouble. Anybody else on here had this problem?
Might just try FX teleport again tomorrow and see if the system still crashes whilst loading a big project.
I would like to change the memory in my system after reading your comments Garyb. What would you suggest as an alternative?
Regards to everyone,
Steve

[garyb]

10-4 on the Cubase multiprocessor support. i think some have trouble and some not....

as to memory, i've had great luck with plain old Kingston Value Ram. it's cheap and i've never had a bad stick. you don't get any fancy heat spreader/sinks attached though....just make sure that it's 1.8vlt in the specs.

[skfno]

A quick update.
After switching off multiprocesser support in Cubase 5 and curing the cpu spike problem I tried re-installing FX Teleport to see if was more stable than previously when it was causing a lot of blue screening when trying to load some of the bigger project I was working on.
Well all the projects I could not load back into Cubase without spectacular crashes are all loading fine.
Stardust thanks for the confirming the Multiprcessing problem with Cubase. I would like to try the work around you mentioned but I don't think my knowledge and understanding of the terminolgy is good enough and I don't feel confident enough to try it .
It is frustrating though to think that I will be limited to one processer out of 4 for use in Cubase as I updated to a quad processer specifically because I needed more processing power in Cubase.
Regards to everyone,
Steve

[Fluxpod]

Turning off multi processor will not limit the cores cubase uses.Its a bit misleading....it means that cubase will not split 1 plugin over several cores.It doesnt make a performance diff at all for me.I use reaktor a lot and if i have multi processor on it will wreck havoc but thats ni´s fault:P

[electric guillaume]

Hi, I 've had the same problem as skfno. I got cpu spikes when moving the curser to the edge of the Cubase window and especially when moving from one screen to another.
So thanks for the hint concerning the multi processor support. No spikes anymore when turning it off. I understand that in my case Cubase is still using two cores. However my CPU load indication is increased by 30%-40% compared to the same song with active multi processor support. (using Omnisphere, Massive, FM8, Reaktor and 2xKore2)
Just like skfno, I don't judge my computer abilities to be sufficient to do what's been suggested in the work around in the other thread. At least not without some additional plain language explanation. So if somebody feels able to explain what it takes to make a simple batchfile and how to use it, please do not hesitate.

[iSiStOy]

Ok, first you should download Process.exe from here.
Create a new folder in your c: drive. Say c:\ProcessExe and place Process.exe into this folder.
Then uncompress the zip file below to the same newly created folder.
Edit the bat file (right-click, Modify) and follow comments (after 1st REM - of each paragraph)
Eventually, create a shortcut on desktop.
This file to be executed after having launched Cubase.

Hope that helps

[electric guillaume]

This was an extremely helpful explanation! All problems solved
Thank you very much.