Strange happenings over weekend

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

Not sure if anyone else has had a problem like this on here. Was using a DAC 3 over the weekend with a Vista based laptop. Everything was fine, was talking to a guest so I know it was not me touching anything and the pitch slowed right down.
The pitch graphic on the screen had moved, the DAC 3 pitch control was still central, totally baffled so I quickly sorted the pitch back to normal and seemed to run okay for about 30 mins and then same thing happened again.
Second time was the opposite side but again the track slowed right down with the pitch moving on screen but not on the DAC 3.
Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen and if so did you find a cure??
Using Virtual DJ v6.06 and like I said Vista laptop with 1.7 dual core processor and 4GB Ram, External 1.5TB Hard Drive, the DAC 3 and external soundcard are through a USB hub, the hard drive plugs directly into laptop.
Any advise appreciated
Thanks

[CRAZY K]

Not sure if anyone else has had a problem like this on here. Was using a DAC 3 over the weekend with a Vista based laptop. Everything was fine, was talking to a guest so I know it was not me touching anything and the pitch slowed right down.
The pitch graphic on the screen had moved, the DAC 3 pitch control was still central, totally baffled so I quickly sorted the pitch back to normal and seemed to run okay for about 30 mins and then same thing happened again.
Second time was the opposite side but again the track slowed right down with the pitch moving on screen but not on the DAC 3.
Just wondering if anyone else has had this happen and if so did you find a cure??
Using Virtual DJ v6.06 and like I said Vista laptop with 1.7 dual core processor and 4GB Ram, External 1.5TB Hard Drive, the DAC 3 and external soundcard are through a USB hub, the hard drive plugs directly into laptop.
Any advise appreciated
Thanks

Cant specifically help on that --although I spotted the word ---hub--I know nothing much of these things as I dont need them but from Yorkshire I have reports of problems surrounding unpowered or even powered hubs.

I use a USB Hard Drive and a keyboard through my two Cortex inputs but thats about the limit--otherwise im told powered hubs are needed?

All the cheap technology we use nowadays is going to fail at some time e.g. my Hard Drive gave up after 5 years and I just bought a Brand New Printer thats is faulty ---so unfortunately I guess we face these continuing problems with so many cheaply made products--but check the hub anyway.

Which is why backup for just about everything is a must for me.

[DazzyD]

Sounds to me like a sticky controller slider/button or even a sticky key on your laptop keyboard. This can happen especially after some liquid spilled on the keys has dried up after not being cleaned properly. The fix is easy but fiddly - you need to remove the keys/controls to find the offending one (bear in mind that with a computer keyboard it's not necessarily the keys you expect it to be - especially if two or more are sticking at the same time!! ) and give it a good clean.

Of course, it could be something much simpler.

[Excalibur]

Right, well I'll dip my uneducated toe in the waters for this one. My computer fault finding skills come under the category of " I wonder what will happen if I press this? ", so I'm no Guru, but the following have worked for me. Computers aren't really my area of expertise, but there are two things I'll comment on.
First, as alluded to by Crazy K, I'd rather see the soundcard ( and possibly DAC3 ) connected straight into the laptop, with the HD into the powered hub. Don't ask me to give technical reasons, just personal experience.
Second, possibly linked to the first, occasionally my soundcard goes into "Paul Robeson " mode, sound drops a couple of octaves and slows down or stops. This means the latency figure on the ASIO soundcard has gone down to the smallest number. I then whack it up to the highest, and all is well again.

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

Ok so there are a few ideas for me to be getting on with, I will have a look into a few things, unfortunately my computer skills are a bit "Lets see what happens if I push this" as well, but I have been running this system like this for over a year and its the first time its happened.
The bit that confused me is that the pitch moved on screen without it moving on the controller or any keys being pressed on laptop.
What was that zone called?..... "The Twilight Zone"

[Gary]

If I'm reading the original post correctly the two times this happened, it was a different control each time that was affected (eg: the fault simulated the left deck pitch slider being dragged down, then later the fault simulated the other
Deck pitch slider being dragged down)

Assuming these are two separate controls, I doubt it's the controller failing - it's too much of a coincidence for two separate controls to fail in the same way that quick.

Is the current midi controller the only midi device that you've had on that computer/lappy? Vista was notoriously bad at handling midi and there was a bit of free software which cleared out vista's midi device buffer. It might be worth while googling that freeware, running it once and then re-installing just the dac- 3

[itruby]

Is it a trackpad mouse? Could be that that is causing the issue?

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

Ok thought I would update you guys as I am 100% certain that this problem has been sorted, I rewired my playout box and seperated the USB feed and removed the USB hub so that the controller is plugged directly into the laptop.
Worked it hard for the last week and not a problem so all sorted
Many thanks for all your ideas

[Excalibur]

Ok thought I would update you guys as I am 100% certain that this problem has been sorted, I rewired my playout box and seperated the USB feed and removed the USB hub so that the controller is plugged directly into the laptop.Worked it hard for the last week and not a problem so all sorted
Many thanks for all your ideas

I'd rather see the soundcard ( and possibly DAC3 ) connected straight into the laptop, with the HD into the powered hub. .

Glad to see you're sorted. As a general rule, I like to have only keyboards and hard drives plugged into hubs. That's why I'm not going to retire my old Acer, because it has four USB sockets.

[BossmanKaraokeDisco]

Glad to see you're sorted. As a general rule, I like to have only keyboards and hard drives plugged into hubs. That's why I'm not going to retire my old Acer, because it has four USB sockets.

yes I spent ages when I upgraded to a new laptop trying to get one with 4 USB sockets but to get the other spec I wanted I settled for 1 less.

The only reason I had the hub was so that I had a spare socket for any reason, just means that I use them all now instead of all in to hub and only one.