Frank, I’ve never heard of this. Couple of thoughts besides Noel’s:
What version and build of BIAB is this, and what version of Windows?
You said it’s getting worse. When did that start, and what changed?
Does your hard drive have less than 15% free space?
What antivirus do you use?
Have you checked Task Manager? Sometimes when I boot up, my very fast PC turns to molasses as Windows, Adobe, iTunes and Malwarebytes etc. all decide to download updates! Or if a program is stuck hogging the CPU, you’ll see it in Task Manager. Even BIAB can be open in another instance and be running in a window hidden behind etc.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
If you feel okay doing so, I would try to exclude your BIAB folder from your anti-virus scanner. Also, make sure you are running BIAB as administrator (which is different than being logged in as an administrator or administrator-equivalence account). And of course, return to factory defaults doesn't hurt (although make sure you know your settings as you will have to reset them).
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
I'll start by updating to build 513, I'm at 510. And yes John, I do run BIAB as administrator. How would I go about excluding my BIAB folder from my anti-virus scanner?
Frank, all that I've used have a place in basic or advanced settings where you can add a list of excluded directory folders and files. Some antivirus program have you type in the directory path but most have a browse button to create the path for you.
As an example I use Microsoft Security Essentials. A screenshot is given below.
How would I go about excluding my BIAB folder from my anti-virus scanner?
What Jim said. They all do it a little differently, but the concept is the same among all of them and it should be pretty easy to find the exclusion lists.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
It had to do with my power settings on my computer. I had the HP recommended setting, which apparently will draw down power from your CPU at times and cause some things to run slow. Mike had me switch to High Performance, which worked.
I hope this might help others if they encounter similar issues.
Interesting that this would occur every time for you, since the power options only kick in when the CPU hasn’t been used recently.
Yes, this is a good reminder for anyone running a music program on a Windows PC. If you have a laptop, I can see using some power options to save battery life, but on a desktop, all the options should be set to full power always on.
I used to make at least a dozen tweaks to Windows on each new PC. Now the only one is to fix the default power options.
BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Slate VSX, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.
My laptop lets me set two options - one for when using wall power and another when using battery. I keep my wall power settings on maximum and generally have no problems. One of the items to check on is the USB Hub power settings. When they go to sleep, you can have external drives fall away, as well as USB audio devices. Once I changes the setting to NEVER turn off, those problems went away.
John
Laptop-HP Omen I7 Win11Pro 32GB 12TB SSD Desktop-ASUS-I7 Win10Pro 32GB 12TB SATA
My laptop lets me set two options - one for when using wall power and another when using battery. I keep my wall power settings on maximum and generally have no problems. One of the items to check on is the USB Hub power settings. When they go to sleep, you can have external drives fall away, as well as USB audio devices. Once I changes the setting to NEVER turn off, those problems went away.
I found after about 3 months of dropouts and stuttering problems with my USB interface that the cause was that after each bootup, the USB power off management HUB settings, but only for my expensive Freslogic PCIe card, were activated again, after first switching them off manually in Device Manager.
The 'aftermaket' latest drivers from Freslogic were the problem. Solution: Uninstalled all from Device Manager, also forcing the drivers from Freslogic to be deleted, and let Windows 10 ITSELF install their Microsoft standard Freslogic USB driver. Compliments for Microsoft ... they work OK ! F
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