xw8400 w. protools 7.3 HDII crash bonanza
 

Hello Everyone,

I thought I try out a windows protools but so far I have had not a very pleasant experience. Protools crashes frequently with 'access violation errors' 'error ocuured while writing tracks' and sometimes the '\code\azuki_Cliff\AlturaPorts\NewFileLibs\Sys\Sys _line 158' error... it's a nightmare. It happens when I try to enable plugins. I have saved a template with many disabled plugins and imported audio of a band and then 'save copy in' including the audio files so I get a new folder ready for mixing. However, when I try to enable the plugins in the new session for example with alt - ctrl+start it will most likely crash. Overall the protools interface is very unresponsive meters and time code don't display smoothly. It shouldn't be a a problem of running out of cpu the CPU is only running at 10%-20%... the HD dsp are also not running out I use a 144 voice 6 DSP setting after trying other settings which had no real impact on the crash frequency. I will try to use 7.2 next but I would really appreciate if someone could give me a hint as I am not very familiar with PCs. I followed the instructions in the manual for the settings of the PC bios and XP performance settings. The XP is in Chinese, I hope that won't affect things...

the system is a HP xw8400 with 2 dualcore 2.66 CPU, 4Gb RAM and the audio drive is a 500Gb Raid0

HERE IS A SANDRA REPORT
SiSoftware Sandra

System
Host Name : HP81742335028
User : Administrator
Workgroup : WORKGROUP

Processor
Model : 2x Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU 5150 @ 2.66GHz
Speed : 2.66GHz
Performance Rating : PR18088 (estimated)
Cores per Processor : 2 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Dual-Core
Internal Data Cache : 2x 32kB Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way set, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 1x 4MB ECC Synchronous, ATC, 16-way set, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing

Mainboard
Bus(es) : X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
MP Support : 2 Processor(s)
MP APIC : Yes
System BIOS : Hewlett-Packard 2.15
System : Hewlett-Packard HP xw8400 Workstation
Mainboard : Hewlett-Packard 0A08h
Total Memory : 3GB DDR2-SDRAM FB-DIMM

Chipset 1
Model : Hewlett-Packard Company 5000X Chipset Memory Controller Hub
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 333MHz (1332MHz data rate)
Total Memory : 4GB DDR2-SDRAM FB-DIMM
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 333MHz (666MHz data rate)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : 即插即用监视器
Adapter : NVIDIA Quadro FX 3500

Physical Storage Devices
Hard Disk : ST3250824AS (233GB)
Hard Disk : ST3250824AS (233GB)
Hard Disk : Volume0
CD-ROM/DVD : HP DVD Writer 735d (CD 48X Rd, 48X Wr) (DVD 6X Rd, 6X Wr)

Logical Storage Devices
Hard Disk (C:) : 229GB (198GB, 86% Free Space) (NTFS)
HP_RECOVERY (E:) : 3.6GB (1GB, 28% Free Space) (NTFS)
Hard Disk (F:) : 233GB (31GB, 14% Free Space) (NTFS)
Hard Disk (G:) : 466GB (320GB, 69% Free Space) (NTFS)
CD-ROM/DVD (D:) : N/A

Peripherals
Serial/Parallel Port(s) : 1 COM / 1 LPT
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 631xESB/6321ESB USB Universal Host Controller - 2688
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 631xESB/6321ESB USB Universal Host Controller - 2689
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 631xESB/6321ESB USB Universal Host Controller - 268A
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 631xESB/6321ESB USB Universal Host Controller - 268B
USB Controller/Hub : Intel(R) 631xESB/6321ESB USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 268C
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub : Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Keyboard : 标准 101/102 键或 Microsoft 自然 PS/2 键盘
Keyboard : HID Keyboard Device
Mouse : PS/2 Compatible Mouse
Mouse : HID-compliant mouse
Human Interface : USB 人体学输入设备
Human Interface : USB 人体学输入设备

MultiMedia Device(s)
Device : Digidesign HD Core
Device : Digidesign HD Accel
Device : Digidesign HD DSP
Device : Digidesign HD DSP
Device : Digidesign HD DSP
Device : Digidesign HD DSP
Device : Digidesign HD DSP
Device : Digidesign HD DSP
Device : Digidesign HD DSP
Device : Digidesign HD DSP
Device : Digidesign HD Accel DSP

Printers and Faxes
Model : PDF Complete

Power Management
AC Line Status : On-Line

Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Professional 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)

Network Services
Adapter : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet

Performance Tips
Notice 5901 : CD 1x= 150kB/s; Exercise caution when comparing measured versus published ratings.
Notice 5902 : DVD 1x= 11.08Mbps Exercise caution when comparing measured versus published ratings.
Tip 2 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip.

Re: xw8400 w. protools 7.3 HDII crash bonanza
 

Man, read the compato docs. Raids of any form are not supported!! That's your problem.

Re: xw8400 w. protools 7.3 HDII still bad
 

Hi Brandonx1,
thanks for the tip... because I used a lacie big extreme (which is raid0) with protools I guess it didn't occur to me that the bios controlled raid on the computer would be a no no. Anyway, I disabled it and now have the separate disks, and also tried external firewire disks...

However the main problem is still unsolved... Protools is running SLOW SLOW the meters move every once in a while and the counter is, well, not really counting... all the while the system usage window shows hardly any system usage!! And then protools sometimes says something like 'couldn't get audio of the drive fast enough... yet the drive is hardly active (I'm playing back 20 - 30 tracks of audio, hw buffer 256k) It doesn't change if I increase the HW buffer and I don't wanna do it cause it messes up the automatic latency compensation...

I have a mac pro with almost the same hardware as the HP xw8400 (2 X dual xeon 2.66) and protools runs totallly smoothly. I can not believe that it is just windows causin protools to be almost unusable... but rather that I have overlooked something... the bios doesn't really have options mentioned in the manual (pci bursting, hyperthreading etc...)

Anybody? Help is really appreciated...

Kind regards,
Lorenz

Re: xw8400 w. protools 7.3 HDII still bad
 

Just a shot in the dark, but did you apply the Multi Core Hotfix? If not, you might want to do a search here to see if your symptoms match. I had to install it on both my Intel Core Duo laptop and my AMD based "Quadzilla" TDM machine. The meters were "sticky" and MIDI was random on both machines until I applied the patch.

Here's a link -

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=60416

Re: xw8400 w. protools 7.3 HDII still bad
 

This sounds like you have something incorrectly configured. Are you sure everything is installed in the correct order. Read and re-read the installation stuff for your rig. Also, shot digi tech support a call. Tell them how you installed your equipment. where you place your PCI cards is very important. Also, you put your cards in a Mac pro or you have another PT HD rig in a mac pro? You know PCI-E HD cards are not supported on xp yet. If you're trying to use PCI-E cards in the xw8400 it's a miracle you're passing audio at all. Hope you get it worked out.
Best,
Brandon

Re: xw8400 w. protools 7.3 HDII crash bonanza
 

I know what the problem is. Just had to rebuild an xw8400 several times to find it.
You need bios V1.19. It should be on Digi website but it's not.
I've got it if you want me to email it to you.

Re: xw8400 w. protools 7.3 HDII still bad
 

Hi Brandon,

thanks again. As I am new to PCs I understand I might have dome something wrong in the setup. I am NOT using PCIe cards! I have another protools system on a mac pro (hd3 PCIe) which I was referring to before as running fine.

After applying the patch mentioned above the sticky meter issues has been resolved and I will also try the bios update julius suggested. I actually already updated the bios before as one of the possible culprits...

The system runs much better now that I got rid of the HP pre-installations and applied the patch... protools still sometimes crashes especially when - or after - reshuffling dsp resources....

and I can't re-open some seesions... dae error 7401 while allocationg voices, not all tracks were voiced... and I can't save the crashed sessions because "exit command did not complete because an access violation occurred" then I can only force quit protools and I have to restart the PC (why do PCs always need to restart?)

Thanks to everybody for the suggestions... maybe it's my lack of PC knowledge but mac installation seemed a lot less hassle. Anyway, I'll keep trying

Re: xw8400 w. protools 7.3 HDII still bad
 

Lorenz,

Go ahead and run the Digitest utility and test your cards. The BIOS update was a good suggestion. Also, make sure you turned off RAID in the _BIOS. Disabling it in Windows or simply reconfiguring the drives so they no longer function as a striped set may NOT be sufficient.