CPU constantly at 100%

[vocalnick]

I'm not sure if this is the right sub-forum for this. I've searched around and I can't find it addressed anywhere, but I might have missed it.

I've got REAPER running on a fresh XP install on a Dell Inspiron 4150 laptop. I was working on a new project - very very basic, just 1 VST, an instance of MajorTom, Freeverb Too, and one audio track. The laptop fan started going crazy, and I noticed that CPU use was at 100% consistently while REAPER was open.

REAPER's CPU meter told me that FX use was only around 9%, but total CPU was completely pegged. The windows task manager's "processes" window confirmed that it was REAPER using up all that CPU time.

Is this normal behaviour? I'm sure it doesn't do this on my desktop machine....

[vocalnick]

I just rebooted and started again with a blank project, and still have the same behaviour. CPU meter is pegged, and it's the REAPER process doing it according to task manager

This is not good :)

[Justin]

That's very odd.. does it do it with an empty project?

What audio mode/driver are you using?

[vocalnick]

ASIO, using an Mbox 2 Mini with the Digidesign ASIO driver.

I don't recall it happening using Asio4all and the onboard audio before I installed the Digi stuff, but switching back over to that has no effect now.

Yes, it does it with an empty project. I've also emptied my VST folder and cleared the cache, so it's pretty much a vanilla REAPER install now.

I'll try removing the Digi driver and see if it has an impact. Doesn't really help me practically, but at least might help with the diagnosis.

[vocalnick]

Yup, I removed the Digi driver and it's back to normal. I should have known it was their software and not yours :)

Sigh... off to the DUC to bitch and moan there... like that'll do me any good.

[Tallisman]

I noticed a minuscule performance hit when I switched from Asio4All to the MBOX v1 and Digi asio drivers v7. I did not, however, install the whole pro tools thing onto the laptop.

Did you? or did you just install the digi asio drivers?

[vocalnick]

Nope, just the standalone DIGI asio/wdm driver.

After a lot of hunting & reading, it seems this is their "solution" to mobile features like speed step messing up their timing. The hardware likes/needs to have a constant CPU speed, so they create a dummy 100% load to trick the CPU into not slowing down.

Never mind that the cooling fan makes a noise like a Boeing, or that the machine heats up to egg-frying temperature, which will almost certainly shorten its lifespan.

Evidently it only adopts this behaviour if the registry reports a mobile chipset. I've got speedstep disabled on my audio boot anyway, so it's just a hugely kludgy fix for a problem I don't have.

I wonder if there's any way to hack the registry to trick the driver into thinking it's not on a laptop machine?