yet another cpu overload thread
 

Ok so I have had this issue a little while, recently updated from pro tools 12 to pro tools 2019 and from high sierra osx on my mac to mojave hoping that might help, but nope!

My issue seems slightly different from most I've read about.

With a moderate session running with just a few plugins, (and most tracks committed) everything will be fine for a while, the cpu use is showing to be around 20%. Then at some point during playback I'll get a 9173 error, and from that point onwards I can't even play the session without an error popping up. Buffer size is set to the max. Individual CPU readings from now clock at zero however the main total cpu reading constantly spikes all the way up to 100. If I open up apple's activity monitor the cpu use shown there is steady around 20%. It's hard to say what prompts the initial error as it can happen at any point while using pro tools, but opening any other program while pro tools is running will almost definitely get it. I have 16gb ram and plenty of it is free. I have messed around with disk cache settings too to no avail.

After this happens my only option is to quit pro tools and start again, at which point it'll go back to normal until it happens again. I can deactivate every plugin, or even delete every single track and the spiking still goes on.

I've read as many threads about this error as I could find, and tried as many solutions as possible! Having the session on an external drive, on my main ssd, using different audio interfaces including the built in output, updating the ilok firmware, sorting all the recommended optimisation settings, nothing helps.

Re: yet another cpu overload thread
 

Hi, how about more detailed information about your hardware setup...

Re: yet another cpu overload thread
 

definitely more HW info needed, but this already smells of a bad plugin to me (i could be wrong).
Process of elimination by removing all plugins to the unused folder first.
PS deactivating plugins saves the cpu but it won't account if there is something in the plugin folder causing issues just being there.

Re: yet another cpu overload thread
 

In english this means; if a bogus plugin is in the plugin folder it will be loaded into memory when PT is started, and can cause problems even if it is not being used. Only way to troubleshoot is to move plugins to the unused folder.

Re: yet another cpu overload thread
 

In addition to systems details you also don't describe your interface, or the session sample rate, or what Disk Cache is set to. We also have no idea what drive you are recording to, a stupidly slow drive can cause CPU overload errors.

Looking at CPU meters rarely provides any useful insight.

Trying to upgrade OS versions was likely a waste of time. I really hope you did not do an in-situ upgrade. That is really never recommended, and if you system is having problems/deeply messed up it may not fix things or may make them worse.

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There is a pretty standard approach to tackling CPU overloads that you should have tried/be trying now:

As always start with trashing prefs, and checking your system is properly optimized and then trash prefs periodically as you do other troubleshooting, use Peter Gate's tools to help you trash prefs. http://petegates.com/pg-pt-prefs.html

And you always then assume plugins are the cause of CPU overloads and try to find suspect plugins. Move *all* .aaxplugin files from the plugin folder to the unused folder and trash prefs. Pro Tools will put back the default ones. See how that works, you won't have many of the plugins you want, but it's a quick test to see... if things are still having problems then you have some other issue. Then try moving about half your 3rd plugins back, trashing prefs, testing if that works. Keep splitting third party plugins groups into half adding or removing them to do a binary search to try to find the problem plugin (or plugins). It may be more likely it's a plugin you are using... so you can start testing with those, but as pointed out it may be a plugin (or several plugins) you are not even using. Your goal is to make large dramatic changes, not slowly step through stuff, to quickly see if you can try to identify posible causes.

If removing all plugins did not solve the issue the it's lower probability stuff like possible corrupted sessions (test with a new empty session), bad interface drivers (test using Built In Output as the playback engine), stranger corrupted prefs of other things (create a new admin user and test from that account). If nothing there helps and can try a full clean reinstall of Pro Tools. Still stuck, then grab a spare drive or partition and do a clean full install of macOS and Pro Tools and ILM and nothing else and test that with Built-In output and then install device drivers and third party plugins, testing as you go. If that all works OK then clone over your old boot drive/partition.

There are many many posts on DUC outlining this standard troubleshooting approach, unfortunately people here really never guesses what a CPU overload cause is. So asking here won't help you, you need to work through this troubleshooting stuff yourself. And if you then are still stuck and need help post here with all you system info, and a clear description or exactly what troubleshooting you have done.