Unexpected problem starting a recording

[Steve Crook]

I've started getting this message:

There was an error while recording:
Your computer is not responding.  Please shut down any applications that use a lot of CPU time and try again.  Please also try disabling any anti-virus installed.
If this doesn't help, please try unchecking 'Detect CPU overload when recording' in the Recording Options dialog.

This happens when press OK on the start recording dialog, before the 'Waiting for ADC" message appears. There's a 5-10 second pause with an hour glass and then this dialog pops up. Usually after I've finished one side and want to start recording the next. If I try to start the recording again it always records without incident. I don't think it's VS, but *something* has changed in my system, nothing I can think of, and I'm a bit stuck to know where to start looking. I was hoping I might have more of a clue if you could tell me what specific circumstances cause the dialog to appear.

Windows 10, Core i7 and 16gb ram. The machines a little old, but plenty capable enough for recording, and I've been doing them on this box for a couple of years or more. I rarely do much more than light browsing while recording. VS 12.0.2 Beta 1. I'll try Beta 2 just in case...

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Hi,

Yes, I'm not sure what's going on either.  Did you try following the  'Uncheck Detect CPU overload when recording' advice in the error message?  If not, I would recommend giving it a try.

Like you, I very much doubt that your machine can't keep up, it's just taking a while to get started.  This might in turn be related to your audio device.  Maybe there's been a driver update or firmware update.

[Steve Crook]

Tried moving a few things around on USB ports (I'm also using a USB3 hub) and recording to an external SSD using USB3, and have been since I started using VS. Anyway, after rearranging things I still get long pauses starting recording side 2, but none of them are long enough to trigger the error.

So I suspect there's some funny business with USB. But I've got enough now to be able to experiment to try and narrow things down.

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

Most likely, yes.  Connecting USB audio devices via a hub (or indeed via an overly-long cable), if that's what you're doing, is generally inadvisable as they can be finicky beasts.  So, if you're doing that, I'd certainly try connecting it direct to see if the problem goes away.

Just so I know, what device are you actually using please?

[Steve Crook]

A Schiit Jil ADC (doing 24/192), been using it for about two years with a 1m cable to a USB3 socket on the back of the PC. It's been working flawlessly. The SSD is connected to another USB3 socket at the back ATM, but has been on the USB hub for months without giving me problems.

I have a different USB hub, and I'm going to swap with the one I'm using ATM just to see...

[Paul Sanders (AlpineSoft)]

OK, thanks.  Might be worth connecting the SSD direct if you can (just as a test), although I don't really believe that's at cause here.

There's also another approach.  You could download this:

https://www.alpinesoft.co.uk/VinylStudio/vsdump.exe

and run it while the hourglass cursor is up.  If you then email me the file it produces it will tell me where what VinylStudio is waiting for, and that might move things forward.