HDX PT 2018 CPU Spikes AAE -9171 Halts Playback

[Howardk]

Just loaded my Test session, and today it will run with a buffer of 64. First time, usually -9171 almost immediately. This is with a 4 interfaces reconnected and back on the System Drive with all the Plugins installed etc. . .

Closed Pro Tools and reopened and it crashed. I have had about a dozen or so of the Pro Tools crashes. I have saved some of the logs. . . mind you they are greek to me, and the all have a mixture of text and lot of gibberish, which seems strange, crash logs from my old Mountain Lion System where all clear text. Here is an example with a couple crash logs: Link to Zipped Crash Log Examples on Google Drive

[Howardk]

Have not had the Kernel dumps in the last day or so.

I took out all cards and RAM, cleaned all card edge connectors and reseated. . . also, I was getting consistent total system crashes (system would actually restart on its' own) when I ran Digitest with an Avid 8x8x8 Interface. However Digitest would complete without crashing with no interface, or a 192 i/o or Aurora 16. I tried again with a different Mac OS Sierra System disk installed, and Digitest completed in all cases. . . very strange. . . not sure what to make of it. . .

I have also done a bunch more tests, and my system is performing much better than before. Now I can run 64 sample buffer. . . sure it will halt with an AAE -9171 within 10 minutes or so, but if i check "Ignore errors", it run hours with an intensive test session.

I have since moved the hardware and System disk back into the original machine i was working with (2.93 GHZ 2010 12 Core Mac Pro) and ran the intensive session again without Halting errors.

Things are much better. . . but not sure which exact change I made improved things.

[Howardk]

I have been running 1 hr and 2 hr test sessions on the 2.93 system, recording output back into inputs, running a pretty full load of AAX/DSP Plugs, and added 3 x AAX.native plugins, with continued good success I thought.. . then the Gremlins came back. . . -9171 Halts. . . seems inconsistent, like the weather. Trying to sort thru my Test Log Steps Noted to see what change I made may have caused the return of the -9171 (Even with 512 buffer at the moment). . . I will report back if I find anything, or if I can provide clear info. . . I don't want to post info that is not correct as it just adds confusion.

[Howardk]

Had a guitar recording session yesterday, using one instance at a time of Helix and Bias FX along with about 40 audio tracks, and no issues.

Ran my test session last night, and it completed the 2hr run. First time it has in about 5 tries.

These CPU spikes seem so random with Pro Tools when running HDX. Sure I can get work done if I keep everything AAX.DSP, but it is a waste of 12 cores of Native CPU, mostly idling yet something swoops in and causes CPU overloads, and many modern tools are native only. . . maybe time to get Vienna Ensemble Pro integrated into my system, or similar, but then I have to print tracks instead of Commit/Freeze, but time is the commodity I have the least of and wasting it during a creative process takes away from flow.

I, and likely many, would really like to able to run a handful of Virtual Instruments and Native Plugins on our HDX rigs during song/sound development, with reasonable buffers so we can play the instruments. Sure we will commit the tracks once developed, or freeze, which are both great but during the creative process more flexible is simply better. Sure I can have that on Pro Tools regular, Ableton, Logic or most other DAWs, just not Pro Tools Ultimate with running a DSP card. This doesn't make sense to me and you would think there was a way to better manage the CPU usage in the HDX environment.

All the others I have talked to on this topic, have gone to the largest buffers and pretty much resigned to not using AAX.native due to the difficulties of using AAX.Native with HDX systems.

I wonder, is this a someday solvable thing or even on the table with Avid's development team?

[LukeHoward]

I don't have much luck with HDX at small buffer sizes. Even 512 samples (at 96K) isn't super-reliable. Hopefully when the new Mac Pro comes out it'll get better (I'm on a 2010 Mac Pro).

[Howardk]

Originally Posted by LukeHoward

I don't have much luck with HDX at small buffer sizes. Even 512 samples (at 96K) isn't super-reliable. Hopefully when the new Mac Pro comes out it'll get better (I'm on a 2010 Mac Pro).

Sure wish there was a way to tame the beasts (these CPU spikes). . . Mac Pro 2010s are not working hard at all on average. . . just these short lived little CPU spikes. . . and systems without HDX cards seem to run like the wind. . .

As some people say "way above my pay grade" but I sure wish it would get dealt with.

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by Howardk

Sure wish there was a way to tame the beasts (these CPU spikes). . . Mac Pro 2010s are not working hard at all on average. . . just these short lived little CPU spikes. . . and systems without HDX cards seem to run like the wind. . .

As some people say "way above my pay grade" but I sure wish it would get dealt with.

Yeah, I've tried a few things like disabling hyper threading but the only I can get it to work reliably is with (at 96k) buffer sizes of 1024 or above. I really should try CoreAudio and see if that's an improvement, because for ITB mixing there's no real reason to use HDX... (except I do like to use outboard...)

[Howardk]

I did as well. With my system, and test session, disabling Hyperthreading did not perform as well as with 24 virtual cores. I had to increase the buffer size to run and -9171 halts seemed more frequent, but far from an exhaustive test.

[Howardk]

Another guitar recording session today. . . same session as Jan 8/2018 (a couple days ago) and the session on the 8th went fine. Today I had many -9171, -9173, a couple beach ball freezes, a Pro Tools crash screen. . . not a good day. Stability is so random with my current setup.

[the.engineer]

Originally Posted by Howardk

Another guitar recording session today. . . same session as Jan 8/2018 (a couple days ago) and the session on the 8th went fine. Today I had many -9171, -9173, a couple beach ball freezes, a Pro Tools crash screen. . . not a good day. Stability is so random with my current setup.

Howard thanks for being a tesing bench for all of us, it's really helpful to see the processes you're going through. I've been experiencing a graphical issue in PT 2018.12 on 10.13.6 with an updated graphics card (AMD Radeon R9 280X 3GB) with an old Apple 27" LED Cinema display. I was getting so fed up I plugged in a cheap Asus 24" 1080p screen via HDMI and not only did my graphical lag go away but my CPU spikes were less frequent as well.

I noticed in your system specs that you still have the stock 5770 card, I would replace that ASAP with a Metal compatibile graphics card https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208898

You may run into isses with power connectors but if you're handy with a soldering iron (or know someone who is) you can splice the HDX power cable into one of the graphics card power cables. The HDX power cable is only used for the fan.

There is also the AMD RX 560 4GB which doesn't require power cables. There's a lot of information about graphics cards and some don't show the boot screen, so check before you buy.

Also, your system drive is a 6G drive and, though I'm sure it isn't a problem, the Mac Pro 5,1 is maximum 3G speed on the SATA bus. I am about to upgrade to a PCIe M.2 SSD blade for my boot drive, I will report back!

Lastly, have you considered upgrading your 2.93 CPUs for the 3.46 X5690?

I know it's yet more money to drop (especially when, like me, you've just paid the premium for Pro Tools Ultimate) but could be cheaper in the long run.

You may have done some of the things I've suggested, but if you haven't good luck!