Dell Latitude E6500 for pro-audio applications

Hi legsing. I am using NI Audio Kontrol 1. Also tried built-in soundcard with ASIO4all and it supprisingly worked great at the same latency.

 

My E6500 hasn't had a problem with the ground yet. Maybe its due to specific gear setup? Anyway thanks for the tips!

 

I have exact the same noise-problem described by GKdesign with my E6500 - P9500. So this might be not a individual problem.

I will now contact the dell service an give a feedback later.

PS: Does anybody have problems with hibernation-function? If the laptop is switched to standby-modus (via Fn+F1 oder by closing the cover) after wake-up the screen stays black and the system probably freezes. Switching with Fn+F8 results to a screen with pink and blue beams. so you have to do a hard-shutdown via powerbutton to restart the system.

 

Thanks for the tips. I have an E6400, nVidia GPU, running XP. Which I use for music. Latency readings are okay but not great so I tried your tips... and it's actually gotten worse.

So perhaps I'll try Vista and see if I can get as low readings as you.

 

I've installed Vista and followed the tips in the first post. But I can't get much better readings than in XP. Peaks of around 350-400.

Which other services would be good to disable with regards to audio work?

 

Hmmm... our P9500s have noise... maybe it's just that we have connected external equipment in a ground loop that permits the noise to exhibit itself. Breaking the ground loop works for me here. Still have occasional latency spikes, but have not tried hard to find the source.

GK

 

Do you mean DPC latency? I assume you did not turn off Speedstep in BIOS. Below is about my settings in Services. Note I've a batch file to manually turn on/off specific services when I need internet access as mentioned in the first post.

<Automatic>

Audio Service
COM+ Event System
DCOM Server Process Launcher
Dell ControlPoint Button Service
DHCP Client
DNS Client
Group Policy Client
Multimedia Class Scheduler
Network Store Interface Service
NVIDIA Display Driver Service
Performance Service
Plug and Play
Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
Security Accounts Manager
Shell Hardware Detection
Software Licensing
Task Scheduler
Themes
User Profile Service
Windows Audio
Windows Audio Endpoint Builder
Windows Event Log
Windows Management Instrumentation
Background Intelligent Transfer Service

<Manual>

Network Connections
Network List Service
Network Location Awareness
Andrea ST Filters Service
Application Experience
Application Information
Base Filtering Engine
CNG Key Isolation
COM+ System Application
Cryptographic Services
Dell ControlPoint System Manager
Extensible Authentication Protocol
Human Interface Device Access
Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider
Protected Storage
Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol Service
SL UI Notification Service
Thread Ordering Server
Virtual Disk
Volume Shadow Copy
Windows Backup
Windows Driver Foundation - User-mode Driver Framework
Windows Firewall
Windows Installer
WLAN AutoConfig

<Disabled>

Ambient Light Sensor
Application Layer Gateway Service
Certificate Propagation
Computer Browser
Dell Wireless WLAN Tray Service
Desktop Window Manager Session Manager
Diagnostic Policy Service
Diagnostic Service Host
Diagnostic System Host
Distributed Link Tracking Client
Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Function Discovery Provider Host
Function Discovery Resource Publication
Health Key and Certificate Management
IKE and AuthIP IPsec Keying Modules
Intel(R) Matrix Storage Event Monitor
Interactive Services Detection
Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)
IP Helper
IPsec Policy Agent
KtmRm for Distributed Transaction Coordinator
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Mapper
Microsoft .NET Framework NGEN v2.0.50727_X86
Microsoft iSCSI Initiator Service
Netlogon
Network Access Protection Agent
Parental Controls
Peer Name Resolution Protocol
Peer Networking Grouping
Peer Networking Identity Manager
Performance Logs & Alerts
PnP-X IP Bus Enumerator
PNRP Machine Name Publication Service
Portable Device Enumerator Service
Print Spooler
Problem Reports and Solutions Control Panel Support
Program Compatibility Assistant Service
Quality Windows Audio Video Experience
ReadyBoost
Remote Access Auto Connection Manager
Remote Access Connection Manager
Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Locator
Remote Registry
Routing and Remote Access
Secondary Logon
Security Center
Server
Smart Card
Smart Card Removal Policy
SNMP Trap
SSDP Discovery
stllssvr
Superfetch
System Event Notification Service
Tablet PC Input Service
TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper
Telephony
Terminal Services
Terminal Services Configuration
TPM Base Services
UPnP Device Host
WebClient
Windows Color System
Windows Connect Now - Config Registrar
Windows Defender
Windows Error Reporting Service
Windows Event Collector
Windows Image Acquisition (WIA)
Windows Media Player Network Sharing Service
Windows Modules Installer
Windows Remote Management (WS-Management)
Windows Search
Windows Time
Windows Update
WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service
Wired AutoConfig
WMI Performance Adapter
Workstation

 

"Disable Nvidia power management"
Actually, for this part, it's not quiet as simple. It all depends on the drivers and GPU, some setups have different configuration layout.
That is why I made the donation supported Nv GPU Pro, so that it works for everyone. http://www.nvgpupro.com/
See what people are saying on this forum.

I am also not convinced that disabling Nvidia Power management (PowerMizer), and eSATA helps. On my end I did not see any latency difference (I have the Latitude E6400). Although, I have to admit that disabling Nvidia PowerMizer when plug-in only and not on Battery is a nice thing to do to have the best Aero experience, as heat is not a problem for the Latitude E series (heck I even overclocked my GPU preatty high).

 

@ TC-seraph:

great workaround!

Is it possible to get the batchfiles from you?

 

@TC-Seraph: thanks a million! And yes I mean DPC latency.

I've tried disabling speedstep in the BIOS but as far as I could tell it didnt make much difference. And doesn't disabling speedstep keep the processor at the lowest possible speed?