On 09/18/2020 10:18 PM Jerome Sodus <jsodus@...> wrote:

This is not related to the ham's problem.

Thank-you, Bill G4WJS, for making me aware of the "Resource Monitor"; something I never knew existed (and I've used Windows for decades).

This is a real eye-opener.

I have disabled so many unnecessary apps; computer starts up so much faster.

I really should have timed the start-up times "before and after" my changes to get some objective numbers.

But for now, I'm just happy with my subjective opinion.

Thank-you again.

Jerry KM3K  

On 09/18/2020 6:53 PM Bill Somerville <g4wjs@...> wrote:

On 18/09/2020 23:38, Wayne ( VE3JV ) wrote:

The continuing saga (“FT8 intermittent decodes”)....

I have tried most of what Bill and everyone has suggested so far (see previous messages in this thread) with no luck (time app changed to Meinberg NTP, check settings, WSJT-X on high priority, uninstall/re-install Icom driver and WSJT-X,..). Re. resource grabbing apps/services, only Windows tasks seem to hog CPU to any extent when needed (30%+) ; but I am still on the lookout, since I notice the hourglass cursor shows up once in a while.

1. I even tried a USB C to USB 3.0 (with blue tab) adapter : that produced no decodes at all (waterfall ok with sigs)! Yes, the Icom USB audio driver was “properly” activated when USB 2.0 cable from radio was plugged into the adapter, and the radio turned on. This was different result from when the cable was plugged directly into a normal USB (not C) port on the PC (that configuration produces at least a few decodes once in a while). Does that difference tell anyone what the problem might be?
2. I tried also to stop the HP software from starting up, but there were only two HP apps that I could disable for startup via Task Manager. No change in decode process was noticed. Other HP background processes continued to run. Should I try complete uninstall of HP apps in Control Panel? Just wary if that might mess up something necessary (eg. HP Command Centre is activated by one of the function keys). I’m not worried if I loose an unnecessary HP app.
3. I have been wondering if I need an updated (as yet unavailable) Icom USB audio codec driver. The new PC has **all** newer USB 3.2 ports (Gen 1 for the normal USB ports, and Gen 2 for the USB C port). These are supposed to be downward compatible, but the specialized Icom driver is for USB 3 (3.0 I assume since it’s from 2018). Is a newer driver needed to be compatible with the newer USB technology?
4. If all else fails, I may try a 9 year old laptop (HP, now updated to Win 10), since it has a USB 2.0 port!

Thanks for listening!

Hi Wayne,

not an answer, just some clarification. There is no Icom audio codec driver, the Icom driver (just a repackaged USB chip manufacturer driver) is for the CAT virtual serial port. The audio codec is a standard Windows driver that comes from the operating system and Windows Update Service.

Rather than contemplating culling HP services on spec you should do some analysis using the Windows Resource Monitor application (available from the Task Manager Performance tab) and determine if any services are consuming excessive CPU or memory resources.

73
Bill
G4WJS.