3CX 10 SP6 Bad Audio Issue

[tsunami_australia]

I'm trying to decommission my Dell server (Win2k3 + Elastix) back to a whitebox Win2k3 + 3CX to save on noise and power consumption. Only issue is I'm getting really degraded audio, even on-hold music on a local handset is seriously choppy.

I used to run v9 on a whitebox single 2k3 (all in one, DC, DHCP etc etc) install fine before getting the Dells and giving Elastix a try (licensing and exploratory reasons) now I've got a 3CXv10 VM on the Dell working happy but that's a waste so got a working config off it and restored to the whitebox. The whitebox works fine for 1/2 a day or so (not sure of exact time) then goes really bad and the entire server needs to be rebooted to combat the issue and the v10 backup when restored to v9 won't let me login (claims bad user/pass combo when I know they are correct).

So I'm fishing for ideas and suggestions here before I admit defeat and stay with the noisy Dell and Elastix.

EDIT: Sorry I should mention hardware.
Phones: Linksys SPA942 + iPhone 3CX app
Whitebox: Athlon x2 4600+ with 4gb ram and 320gb hdd
Dell: VM on there has 1core off a Xeon3.2 32bit and 1-2gb ram

 

[leejor]

I don't suspect your processor hardware as the issue. Now it may be something else on the system (software) that is taking the toll on audio. I run (along with a number of people it seems) on a couple of Atom based machines, from an early single core to a more recent dual core, with no audio issues.

It might be a network or Codec issue as well. Your system (Athlon x2 4600+ with 4gb ram and 320gb hdd) should have no problem keeping up.

Unless you are forcing audio through 3CX, a call should be from extension to extension, directly. If that audio is having a problem, you may want to re-examine the set-up of your network (a Hub?). Music on hold, could be an audio driver or Hard drive issue (speed?).

Given that the system work for a while, then needs to be rebooted, it might be something eating up memory, and not freeing it.

 

[SY]

Most probably you need to set /usepmtimer option in boot.ini
Please check this article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/895980

 

[jpillow]

I'd say add more ram, from my experience 2g of ram is minimum needed on a small install 3 handsets. From your notes it looks like your running 1-2g of ram on the dell.

 

[paul.hadley]

I had a similar problem with V10 on a Dell Poweredge 1750 with 3GB Ram and two Processors. It was particularly bad when the call was trans coded or it went to the IVM.

After a lot of messing about it turned out to be the antivirus on the server. As soon as I removed the 3CX processes from the AV scanner all was fine. Sound is now perfect on all calls with only a monthly reboot.

Don't know if that is any help.

 

[tsunami_australia]

TYVM all for the responses.

* The hard drive is a 7200rpm so should be fine (was out of my old Vista machine and worked well then).
* I already had stated that it was running 4gb of ram )))))))

As for the Dell, that's what I'm currently looking at ditching, a PowerEdge 1750 running ESXI3.5 (a spare 1750 under it for hotswap on issues).

Now come to think of it, last time I had 3CX running successfully on a all-in-one network 2k3 server was v9 on the lower powered dell with 2gb ram.

I have had the same issue on the VM server (server01 it's called) which is allocated 2-3 cores of twin Xeon3.2 and was temp allocated 3gb memory for the exercise and it failed in the exact same way this current whitebox is. BUT, I was able to build a 2k3 member server (server03) (NO ADDC) with only 1gb of memory & 1 cpu core and it sang like a bird without a single problem (with server01 running 2gb and server02 off as it's a backup DC and smoothwall chewing an extra 512mb leaving only 512mb for ESXi).

It was features (more-so paging in the freebie of Elastix) and the less system resources overhead that pushed me to keep the Elastix VM up and server03 down.

So given this (wish I'd remembered earlier to include earlier), it's not the hardware and since there is no AV on the machine it's not the AV. Yes audio is routed via the PBX due to something else that was happening back in v9 but that wouldn't explain why it would be a problem on 2 PDC's and not on a member server.

 

[sigma1]

Network card / drivers (please don't say Realtek)

 

[tsunami_australia]

Well the ESXi server uses some synthesised virtual card but the whitebox is an on-board so is of course realtek. Why?

 

[sigma1]

Try and put in an Intel based card in a PCI slot and let us know.

 

[tsunami_australia]

In the ESXi server, the inbuilt sockets are Broadcom and the addon is Intel (NO REALTEK) so unfortunately that theory doesn't seem to float (unlike my empty wallet).

 

[tsunami_australia]

Ok now on an Intel card with the same results as I said would happen since the ESXi is broadcom+intel with the same results it is NOT network related.

The ONLY similarity so far I've found is that both were 2k3 all-in-one servers.

 

[tsunami_australia]

Ok problem sorta solved, found an old but sorta up to date v9 backup so installed v9 onto the server, fixed up the info to current profile and haven't had a problem yet after running for around 12hrs so it is a v10 thing. I've had other issues with v10 before being crappy on audio.