Error startin Pro Tools SE - Avid Hardware not found
 

Hello,

When starting Pro Tools SE I receive the Message "Avid Hardware not found. Try again ..." (it's in German, so the Englich translation might be different) and the programm will be terminated.
My Fast Track C400 is connected to the pc and works (as I can se with the software control panel).
Yesterday everything worked fine, but today the software will not recognize the interface. Any idea what to do?

My System:
Sony Vaio, Intel Core i3 CPU, 2,40 GHz, 4 GB RAM
Fast Track C400
Pro Tools SE, 8.0.3

Re: Error startin Pro Tools SE - Avid Hardware not found
 

I forgot to mention:
Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit

Re: Error startin Pro Tools SE - Avid Hardware not found
 

Mostly it shows that message when your device is not active ( communicating with your PC )


It sounds like it could be a few things.

The device gave in, or there is a USB issue ( hardware ) or a corruption ( software.)

Check your device manager to see you dont
have any issues with your USB's. Try using another USB port.

Or Re-Install the driver for your device.

If that does'nt work, try it on another computer.

And if you then still have the same issue. Then I fear the device itself is faulty. :eek:

Re: Error startin Pro Tools SE - Avid Hardware not found
 

Thanks for your answer.

I can try again in the evening, but I can answer some of the points yet:

I successfully reinstalled the device driver with no different result. I tried different USB ports with no different result. (I haven't yet reinstalled Pro Tools SE - I will try it this evening.)

My Fast Track C400 is connected to the pc and lights shine. When I plug in my guitar and my headphones, I can hear what I'm playing. I even can control master volume with the software control panel, so it seems that the device is connected, communicating with the pc and working.

Can that still be a fault in the device itself? Or any other ideas?

Re: Error startin Pro Tools SE - Avid Hardware not found
 

Does the device have an external power source or is it only powered by USB ??

Re: Error startin Pro Tools SE - Avid Hardware not found
 

It's only powered by USB

Re: Error startin Pro Tools SE - Avid Hardware not found
 

hmmm, its a tricky one but lets break it down.

You say you can hear what you are playing. That does not prove communication with the PC, cause the signal from the guitar to the headphones is routed through fast track and not the PC....
However, controlling the main volume level through control panel shows communication.

So it seems to me,, USB ports, USB drivers, Fast track communication board and Fast Track Ports are all working fine. :D

What's Left:
Pro Tools issue. There might just be some corrupted files. So try Re-Installing it tonight. Or try it on another computer- could also be an OS corruption inflicted by a virus or spy-ware. If the problem still persists I think you should take it in for testing.

At the end of the day it could actually be anything, working with PC's my whole life i have noticed there is something called " The Ghost in the Machine " where issues just does not make sense @ all...

NOTE: Pro Tools also, is sooo jelous, hahaha. Last night I ran both Pro Tools and FL-Studio together and I got like 6 error messages from SE, froze up- and refused to open.. It's like it just told me-- :mad: I WORK ALONE !!!!

Re: Error startin Pro Tools SE - Avid Hardware not found
 

well, it's frustrating.

First I reinstalled only Pro Tools SE, but that didn't help.

Then I deinstalled Pro Tools SE, Fast Track C400 driver and Interlock driver (from PACE), which was installed together with Pro Tools SE. And then I ran through the same steps on my normal PC an on a Windows XP PC with exactly the same reaction on both machines:
First I installed the device driver for my Fast Track C400. Then I installed Pro Tools SE. After the necessary reboot I opened Pro Tools SE and it worked.
Then I closed the program and opened it again, and it worked.
Then I rebooted the PC and from now on I couldn't start Pro Tools SE. Every time I tried ist, I received the error message.

There was no difference wether the interface was connected to the PC during boot or was connected after the PC was started.

I tried different USB ports, same reaction.

But I realized, that windows installed an update for the drivers every time I connected the device to a different USB port. That worked for the first time after successfull installation and the program still worked. But after rebooting the program never started successfully, no matter what USB port I used or if the driver was installed by windows or not.

I have no idea what to do next. I guess I have to send back the hardware and try it with a different one. Or has anybody an idea, what I could try instead?

Re: Error startin Pro Tools SE - Avid Hardware not found
 

This sounds like it may be the communication board.

We had this laptop once that had a network card issue. The thing was that every morning when you would start it up, the card would work for about half n hour. After that, it just stopped responding.
@ the end it wasn’t the whole card that was faulty, but a chip on the board- of that network card, that kept overheating.
Intermittent problems is mostly caused by something like this.

Yes the device works fine, but after a while... :confused:

When two PC's give the same result, that also gets scratched off the list.

All that is left unfortunately :( is that it may be a chip on the communications board.

Sending it in is the only option left..
Sorry - - - but hey maybe they just replace the board inside, which would'nt be too expensive. better than buying a new one.

Good Luck

Re: Error startin Pro Tools SE - Avid Hardware not found
 

After hours of testing I found out, that
- when the error occurs, deinstalling the C400 device driver and reinstalling it makes it work again,
- when the error occurs, not only Pro Tools SE can't recognize the device, but Steinbergs Cubase Elements (which I installed as demo version) doesn't do as well (so it's a device driver problem, not a problem with Pro Tools SE),
- the error corresponds with using different USB ports for connection. I can't exactly reproduce the error, but whenever it occurs, I used a different USB port. I couldn't find out, whether it's a specific port, the number of different ports I used or the order in which I used them. And I won't spend time on finding out but will start recording now :-).

So thanks Routingwithin for your assistance.