Dropouts....still

Having dropouts with noire piano, specifically the vibrant preset. Ive researched every thread here and I’m still not able to solve this problem. I have an asus vivobook17 with upgraded ram to 36gig. I5 processor with 4 cores. Ive gone through the gig performer “setting up your pc” to the letter…windows 10 not 11. Dedicated laptop only for gig performer, nothing else. Set multicore in Kontakt for 4 cores, dialed voicing from 256 to 128 in noire…
What am i missing? Cpu usage barely hits 16 percent…any ideas anyone? Again, i have searched threads exhaustively…
Thanks for any help

What audio interface?
Buffer size/sample rate?

Do any of these 17 tips help?
Link: FREE e-book by Deskew - Optimize your Windows PC for the stage!

Is this your laptop? When fast actually means slow: some Asus VivoBook 17 laptops may be suffering from a huge performance bug - NotebookCheck.net News

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In my case it was a ‘bad’ audio interface, from behringer. Having now a Scarlett focus rite mostly solved the problem. Also turning off wifi helps.

Thats the ebook I used to optimize the laptop. The vivobook I have is not that processor…its an i5 quadcore. The interface is my keyboard itself, Roland rd2000 which has a reputation for one of the best interfaces, sample rate 44100 buffer 256 which ive been using forever. I guess I might add that this started not too long ago. I thought the culprit might be a windows update or something so thats why I did the optimization per deskew ebook. I also thought it might be ‘Lunaris’ plugin as its cpu hungry, but i removed it to no success.

So if it used to work and now does not, clearly something else changed on your computer…any chance you have anti-virus software that’s doing real-time file checking?

This sounds like you could have a DPC latency issue. Did you check it with e.g LatencyMon?

https://www.resplendence.com/download/LatencyMon.exe

Since its a dedicated laptop for only live performance, there is no antivirus installed. Even windows virus security is disabled.

I have not checked DPC Latency, if i remember correctly it should be well below 1000u…
I will check this evening and see.

I really appreciate all the help, got alot of time and funds invested…

If everything worked OK, and after Windows Updates is not, then one or more updates are causing troubles.

Try to remove recent updates: How to uninstall a Windows update - Microsoft Support

Does this only happen with Noire? What about other Kontakt plugins like the Grandeur? If the dropouts do not occur with any other plugin it could be an issue with Noire.
256 seems high for a buffer size. With my Focusrite 2i2 I use 44100 and 128. Try reducing the buffer size to 128.
Agree that LatencyMon should be used to check for interfering drivers and apps.
16% cpu is low. You’ve probably already followed the optimization guide. I didn’t think Windows Defender could be permanently disabled. I turn off real time protection every time I use GP.
There are tons of unnecessary background applications on Windows. See if there are more to disable.

Actually, that’s the wrong way round. If the problem was due to buffer size (which I doubt given the history) the solution would typically be to move to a larger buffer size, not a smaller one.

Got the same dropout problem here using Windows 10 Pro 21H2 with 3 different USB audio interfaces. Dropout is every 3 seconds periodically.
After research in internet that seems to be a known problem after some windows updates and microsoft says there is no way to step back.
Don’t know if the onboard audio has the same problem.
For me the workaround was to use the HDMI audio going into the monitor and use the headphones plug to route to the powered speakers. Driver is Asio4All.

Yes, the problem is only with noire…which unfortunately my main piano source. Grandeur, Maverick, Gentleman, all seem to be fine but they are very “small” in comparison to the levels of effects of noire, not to mention the particles engine. I checked the latency. Way good. I can only surmise that Stoffel may be correct. If thats the issue then reformat back to origional factory? Disable updates somehow? Man what a job with all the vsts to redownload and install etc…yeesh…
I assume this would be an option?

I didn’t think Windows Defender could be permanently disabled.

Dwhitejazz,
I misspoke, it was the microsoft protection that came with the laptop, not windows.

If this is a known issue, hen before you do major surgery, why not reach out to native instruments community (I assume Noire is a NI product, that’s where I saw it) and get their feedback.

Ouch. This is a very serious issue.
If you stumble upon these problematic updates, or explanation from Microsoft, please post them here.

You can. Here is what I do Block unwanted networks - #7 by npudar

dhj, yes noire is NI…most of my instruments are. I will reach out to them and see if I get an answer, good idea.

npudar, didnt know one could block the automatic update search for windows. Seems every update windows 10 does makes it more like 11 which I have to put up with at work, and its awful.

So far it seems like im at least getting somewhere in this…I REALLY appreciate this y’all

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My laptop runs very well but if I enable WiFi or launch any other app, like spotify, I get dropouts for about 1-3 minutes, then they eventually clear.

Sorry. I was thinking in terms of latency rather than dropouts. There is more latency with a higher buffer size.

Thanks Brandon, I double checked that wifi was disabled in task…it was. Thx

dwhitejazz, no worries as the track you were on was solid. It made me double check my audio setup!

What does LatencyMon tell you?