Hi guys,

I'm still struggling to get pd extended running properly on my Windows XP laptop.

It could be because of importing libraries, but I wasn't able to find any information on how to do this.

At first I had a 'couldn't create' problem with major commands. Ofcourse I tried 'Reset to Default' button. This didn't work however. Then I put
[import extra vanilla] in the patch and that worked fine.

But when I try to choose the Audio Midi testing option in the Media Menu PD crashes. My systemlog reports it happened in metro which is used in the Audio/Midi display. Then I searched for metro.dll, and discovered it in startup/vanilla and extra/vanilla. I was wondering or the crash could be the cause of importing the same library twice??

I suppose the startup/vanilla and startup/extra are the libraries run on default?? But why does my PD ext on W7 this automatically, and PD ext. on W XP not??

How should I use the import command to load the right libraries??

Is there any (more extensive) information about the import command???

Thanks, Pam

This all feels very familiar. I'm also a Windows user. I've seen all the symptoms you describe, though under Win7. The following steps have all helped me get pd-extended to be more stable on my PC.

Forgive the repost, I've posted this elsewhere, but I've learned a little more along the way, so there are a few things added.

The things that made a difference were:

• Use the .bat file to invoke pd, not the desktop icon. The desktop icon just runs the executable. In the pd directory there is a pd-extended.bat file that looks like it properly loads all of the libraries. Make a shortcut on your desktop to that bat file.

• In fact, invoking pd-extended.bat from the cmd line is helpful; it sometimes provides more information if there is an issue.

• Rethink your audio card config settings & your pd audio settings. pd appears to be very sensitive to this... Don't try & squeeze more latency than your audio card reports, i.e., if your ASIO settings for your audio card say 13 ms, then don't adjust pd lower than 13 ms. Some good reading may be found following the links here:
  http://puredata.info/docs/faq/WindowsPerformance

• I haven't found any documentation on what "Use Callbacks" means, but on my system, it must be checked to get low latency. If it is unchecked, and I try 10ms, I get extreme pd instability.

• Don't turn DSP on & off (& on & off...). Once on, just leave it there. For some reason my system is very sensitive to cycling the engine a lot.

• *** LOTS OF PROBLEMS are due to multiple instances of pd.exe running.*** Double-check in Task Manager whether there is more than one pd.exe running. If so, kill them. If ending the process doesn't get rid of it, you may need to reboot windows. **I have recently learned that opening up the device manager and disabling/enabling my audio device allows me to kill the task in TM. This saves a reboot.**

• It appears to be important that your audio driver does NOT allow any apps to take exclusive control of your audio device. (Like web browsing or listening to music while running pd...). This article shows you how to turn exclusive control off:
  http://dailykermit.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/windows-7-exclusive-device-control/

• Is your audio card presented to pd in multiple ways? TRY EACH, until you find one that is stable. I have found that my 8-channel audio card driver represents itself two ways to pd. One way is a bunch of pairs ((0)1-2 (UA-101), (0)3-4 (UA-101), etc...) and the other way is just the unit as a whole ((1)UA 101). When I used 1-2(UA-101), I had lots of audio issues, causing general pd instability. Using the simpler (1)UA-101 entry resulted in a MAJOR improvement in stability....

• It appears that adding your audio & MIDI ports at startup using startup flags is a little more solid than doing so using the GUI. If you add this to your startup, you'll see all the port numbers:
  -listdev
  Once I did this, I added specific startup flags as follows:
  -listdev -audioindev 7 -audiooutdev 7 -midiindev 9,12 -midioutdev 10
  I keep -listdev in there so it's easy to see/diagnose if any software updates change this list over time. Note that for some reason, the audio ports are handled as 0-n. I.e., my devices appear to be "8." in the list, but I had to subtract one to get them to load properly, hence the "7"s above. MIDI devices are listed as 1-n; what you see is what you put in the command line.

• The floss manual also has good info on bringing up pd in Windows. It's a bit dated, but still worth reading:
  http://en.flossmanuals.net/pure-data/getting-started/advanced-configuration/

Current state - I get 10ms latency and solid performance. I can work without issues. My biggest outstanding issue is that pd rarely exits properly, requiring that I kill the task in Task Manager, following the steps above.

I'm still learning, so YMMV, and input is always appreciated...

I hope this helps! If nothing else, a few things to try and read up on.

Shawn

Wow Shawn,

that's very extensive. I'm going to work it out, and will report about it. In the mean time I expected it to be something with the audio card/ settings,

Thanks a lot!!!

Well I tried your suggestions but it didn't change anything. Found this discussion though.
http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/156683-pure-data-new-version-has-got-problems-on-w98se/
It describes the same problem on a W98. A comment is made that it's because it tries to execute a SSE2 command, which is not possible on older processors. Mine is an AMD Duron.
I was wondering however: during installing the installer wants to change some files in system32 or something like that. Could this be related??

... installed it again with installer download. It installs 27 dll's in system32.