Subject:BIOS & Optimize System?

Posted by: harris_music

Date:5/8/2001 4:47:55 PM

What do I need to do in order to
"optimize" my system for Acid Pro 2.0?

How much RAM does it take to run 120 tracks and
3 or 4 plug-ins? Or is something else more important than
getting higher RAM. I have a Pentium 3 - 800mhz 133 bus

For instance, when I update my BIOS on my
motherboard (which is an ASUS CUV4X-D) are there
any special settings I need to make so ACID will utilize my
high amounts of RAM?
(I have 2 - 256MB / NEC brand PC133 memory sticks)

Currently my motherboard is only detecting
384 MB of RAM, but it should detect 512 MB!
So for that reason, I'm about to update the BIOS, but is
there anything I need to keep in mind so as to get the
motherboard "optimized" for ACID PRO 2.0?

And is my "motherboard/RAM detection" problem the reason
why I'm occasionally getting error messages such as this:
____________________
SF ACID (this is in a blue bar across the top)

(and there's a red circle with a white "X" in it)

"This program has performed an illegal operation
and will be shut down"

"If the problem persist, contact the program vendor"

SFACID caused an exeception 10H in module
SFACID.EXE at 0167:00468d23

Registers:

EAX=00000015 CS=0167 EIP=00468d23 EFLGS=00210206
EBX=00000a56 SS=016f ESP=00aafc8c EBP=00aafcd4
ECX=00aafcc0 DS=016f ESI=008af8f0 FS=1647
EDX=00000001 ES=016f EDI=00000000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
d9 01 8d 7c 86 1c de d9 df e0 f6 c4 01 74 04 d9
stack dump:
00000001 008aea0c 00c000f4 008aelb4 00416c12
008af8f0 00000a56 00aafcb4 00aafcd4 008aea0c
0139141b 00000200 00000000 00000000 00000200
00000000
____________________
Does ANYONE know what the above message means????

When I get that error message it shuts ACID down, I loose
anything I have not saved and have to re-start ACID.
(So right now I usually save my work every few minutes)

Thanks!

Subject:RE: BIOS & Optimize System?

Reply by: Rockitglider

Date:5/9/2001 1:45:59 AM

Hello,

Did you post at Asus forum about the ram problem, And also
are you running Norton Utilities, And whats your operating
system?

Subject:RE: BIOS & Optimize System?

Reply by: DaveP

Date:5/9/2001 12:22:00 PM

In response to your crahing problems. I would make sure
that you have the latest verison of Acid installed as well
as the latest updates for the Epress Effects plugins.

Subject:RE: BIOS & Optimize System? READ THIS !

Reply by: harris_music

Date:5/15/2001 10:01:22 PM

I figured out the problem. I did have a bad NEC 256 MB RAM
stick. So this weekend I went out and purchased 4 KINGSTON
256 MB RAM memory chips ($99 each at P.C. Club) and now
everything is working great with a GIG o RAM!

System specs. are:
ACID PRO 2.0 is the version I have installed.
Windows 98 second edition.
Pentium 3 - 800MHZ socket 370 with a 133 front side bus.
IBM 30 GIG harddrive 7200 RPM. (as the c:drive for software)
MAXTOR 50 GIG harddrive 7200 RPM. (as the data drive)
MSI brand 640-D dual processor motherboard. (Excellent!)
4 - Kingston 256 MB PC133 RAM memory sticks. (Excellent!)
SoundBlaster Live Drive 24-bit soundcard.

The ASUS motherboard had a slight problem with the BIOS
chip. ASUS will fix it as soon as I can send it in. But
since I had been having troubles with other parts of my
computer I didn't feel like waiting to get it back in the
mail. I decided I will use the ASUS motherboard on a
second computer along with the NEC RAM (and I'm going to
have to try to return the 1 defective NEC RAM chip but will
do all that later!) So I went to P.C. Club and purchased a
MSI 640-D dual processor motherboard for only $150 (which
can accept up to 2 GIG's of RAM) The same day I purchased
the 4 KINGSTON RAM sticks. I reformatted my IBM drive and
re-installed all software from scratch to insure no
problems and everything is working great! During my 6
weeks of hell, I also had a Western Digital 10 gig hard
drive 5200 RPM, which crashed and never came back to life.
So I threw that right in the trash and bought a new IBM 30
gig 7200 RPM (only $150 at P.C. Club) which is working way
better than the old W.D. 5200 RPM drive ever did anyway.

During the last 6 weeks, there was a second problem I
attributed to "not enough RAM" (when really that was NOT
the problem) was that when I loaded a "free-trial-version"
multi-effects plug-in software program (provided free by
one of those hacker groups by the name of RADIUM) I would
get error messages all the time and my system would
constantly crash. But it would only crash when the RADIUM
stuff was used. After purchasing the store bought version
of the same program it works fine. So there is some type
of error within the free RADIUM software and I wouldn't
recommend anyone loading that on their computer!

And another problem I had attributed to not enough RAM was
a sort of computer beepy "glitch" noise in some of the
loops. Especially present when I applied reverb. I
thought that annoying beepy noise was due to not having
enough RAM but it wasn't. Because even after I had a GIG
of brand new Kingston RAM I still had the problem, so I
knew it must be something else. Somehow it suddenly dawned
on me to check the time strech "beats per minute"
increment. And that was the answer! It needed to be
slightly increased for those specific loops that were
giving me the glitchy noise problem. So if you get glitchy
noises in your loops, go into the "LOOP PROPERTIES" and
increase the beats per measure just slightly until the
glitch goes away.

Basically I could have waited until ASUS returned the BIOS
chip and NEC returned my RAM chip, but after 6 weeks I was
sick and tired of problems. I wanted to fix the problems
FAST so I spent $700. It was worth it!

So that was ...

$400 for the GIG of Kingston RAM ($99 each for 256 MB)
$150 for the IBM 30 GIG harddrive 7200 RPM
$150 for the MSI 640-D dual processor motherboard

Too bad I figured out both the "glitch" and the "RADIUM"
problems AFTER I spent all the extra money. But now I will
be building a second "back-up" computer from my spare parts
of the first disaster. And hopefully this story will help
others who are struggling to figure out similar problems.

later!~