Windows 10 with PT 2019
 

Hi I wonder if you could please help me out .... been using Pro Tools for some years now basically to record parts / demos etc. then forward them on to the bigger recording houses to mix / master.
I have been using the M Box Pro 2 with Windows 7 Pro and Pro Tools 12.6 for a long time on a stable machine that I put together some years back. I have posted a SANDRA report some time back and everything seemed to be ok. At the time as my PCs Motherboard will only take 8Gb I thought I would run into some problems as the suggested memory for Pro Tools 12.6 was 16Gb but fortunately It was fine, ok I did run into some initial problems but as always, I managed a work around, any way long story short. I decided to update to Windows 10 Pro and Pro Tools 2019.6, but before doing so I searched through the DUC to see if there were any known issues of which there were a few so I took some notes to use if I ran into any probs. Anyway, as always, I followed the DUC and AVID Windows 10 optimization guide to the letter before starting
• Loaded Pro Tools 2019.6
• Once opened I immediately noticed that a blank session was using 20% of memory
• Opened a session that was completed using PT 12.6, memory bar was ok probably because a lot of the tracks were frozen.
• Noticed when recording at 64 buffer getting heavy unusual CPU spikes
• Tried the Task Manager approach and assigned the Priority and Affinity settings to high and just to use two of the four CPU with no joy as this didn’t seem to have any effect.
• So, I deleted Pro Tools 2019.6 plus anything Avid related i.e. ILok, all Air Effects plus instruments so nothing was left. The only thing I did leave was all third-party plugins which have all been updated namely Miroslov Strings 2, Amplitube 4, T racks, Superior Drummer 2.
• Reloaded Pro Tools 2019.6 plus all associated software again, reloaded PT and still noticed the 20% memory usage however this cured the CPU spikes.
• Started a new session and all was fine until I tried to use Miroslov Strings which chewed up nearly all memory, so I altered the Disk Cashe to suit and managed to record what I needed to. Then froze it.
• Started a new session this time just using Miroslov and noticed 80% of memory nearly in use just by loading one track. Any how I can get around this.
• Left it until this morning fired up Pro Tools and immediately got the Blue Screen stop code UNEXPECTED KERNEL MODE TRAP when it was loading, never experienced this before.
• Tried loading PT 2019 again managed to eventually get it open but now it just quits randomly and goes back to the Desk Top.
Ok I have an old PC that does not compete with a lot of systems now, I know the processor is not supported but I could just roll back to Windows 7 (which I may have to do), and as I was using PT 12.6 with virtually no major issues as I could load all my Memory / CPU intensive plug inns at the same time and not get any issues I thought it would have been ok. I Know that 16Gb is the norm nowadays but as PT 12.6 ran ok with 8Gb I thought maybe Windows 10 and PT 2019 would be the same. I think I may have upgrade sometime soon but I like the “use your loaf not your bread” analogy ...many thanks in advance

Re: Windows 10 with PT 2019
 

Unfortunately Windows 7 may be your best bet with your current hardware.
The drivers that Windows 10 uses for your hardware may not be compatible in the way Win 7 was and the system as a whole just may not be working properly.

You can try turning off a lot of the background things that Win 10 does to see if it helps any. Things like one drive always being connected, background updates, windows defender and other things. This may give you a little more headroom, but blue screens are usually associated with a poorly behaving driver.

Re: Windows 10 with PT 2019
 

Many thanks for the response Will

Cheers
Steve
TEN / SIGNAL RED

Re: Windows 10 with PT 2019
 

What version of Windows 10? The update to W10 1903 has caused some to have latency issues and CPU spikes. Install and run LatencyMon for 15 minutes or so to see what drivers are causing issues. If it's ntoskrnl.exe then it's the update. I solved my issues by doing BIOS optimizations, turning off some services and updating to the latest W10 build released July 26. As always, YMMV.

Re: Windows 10 with PT 2019
 

FWIW, I had no issues with Windows 10 and Mbox 2 PRO, up until about 5 months ago when I sold that entire setup(AFAIK, its still working today):o

Re: Windows 10 with PT 2019
 

Hi chaps, it is 1903 updated again this morning... still no joy. Did the headroom optimizations again no joy

Thanks for your time much appreciated

Cheers Steve
TEN / SIGNAL RED

Re: Windows 10 with PT 2019
 

Hi, ladies and Gents ….. I have managed to get up and running again basically by following suggestions and trial and error. So, an overview…. I came in on Pro Tools 7 back in around 2008 when you bought the software with the M Box Pro with Windows XP 32 bit then through the years when Pro Tools was redesigned with a subscription plan to Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and now to the current Windows 10 Pro 64 bit. When I first started using Pro Tools, I configured a gaming system for it to run on. It was a big learning curve at the time as I’m not a gamer or computer buff but if I wanted to use systems such as PT, I figured I needed to learn quick sharpish. Obviously now as Technology gets better, and PC s get faster and more powerful my system is outdated to the current PT Specs however with a little time and error I managed to get around this to buy myself a little more time before raiding my piggy bank. However, that said, there are some small niggles that I have not been able to sought, but on the whole until I upgrade, I think I should be ok.
The one niggle is when Pro Tools 12.6 on Windows 7 Pro loaded to a blank screen and I checked the memory usage before loading a session, it would say around 1 - 2% this is with all the Plug inns / Third party included loaded. Now doing the same on Windows 10 Pro still using Pro Tools 12.6 it tells me it’s now 12% this is on a fully optimised Windows 10 pro operating system. When I was having the problems as detailed in my first thread, PT 2019 would load using 20 - 25 % of memory. Now as suggested I removed unused Plug inns and placed them in the unused folder, I actually removed all of them to see what happened …PT still states 12 % memory usage. So my conclusions are there is something within Windows 10 Pro that is utilising more memory which I still have to figure out. Any suggestions / ideas would greatly be appreciated
Many thanks
Cheers
Steve
TEN / SIGNAL RED
UK