Update DIGI002 Rack Drivers?

[mjslakeridge]

As you can see from my details, I have a pretty old PT system, but it works pretty good for what I do. The only issue I occasionally have is the "System Held off Interrupts for too Long - try increasing the hardware buffer size" error.

I never get the error at 512 samples. Occasionally at 256 samples and pretty frequently at 128 or 64 samples. I have 4 processors selected for RTAS processors and CPU usage limit of 99%. Over the years I have messed around with the number of processors and CPU usage limit, but without much effect.

I looked at my driver version for the DIGI002 rack in Control Panel/Sounds and Audio devices and it is version 7.4.0.309 dated 10/31/2007. I noticed the most recent version available from Avid (for the 002) is version 9.0.2.65 dated March 11, 2011. I don't know if this version is for Windows XP SP3 which I am running, or if the hardware buffer size error has anything to do with the 002 or it's drivers.

Any pros/cons of updating my DIGI002 drivers to the latest Avid offers?

[Darryl Ramm]

No deep comment here, but I would try increasing RTAS CPUs to 5 just to see if that helps overall--it likely won't help with this problem, but you have 6 cores in that CPU you can try throwing 5 of them at plugins.

What FireWire card do you have? The interrupt error is often associated with Firewire. Move any storage or other peripherals off FireWire. Get a new USB or similar interface. Try upgrading drivers, sure if it's supported--it is trivial to go back.

Post a Sandra report and we can see if anything else is obvious.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mjslakeridge]

Thank you for the response Darryl. I just created a new session with 1 mono audio track and 1 stereo master fader. Imported (using copy) a single audio track from another session. No plugins on any track. Tried hardware buffer size of 256 samples and it plays back for about 20 seconds before throwing the error message. 48k, 24 bit session.

CPU utilization of 5% or less. No other applications running. Have done all of the Avid recommended optimizations. There is one external HDD connected to my firewire card, but the device is off. I only turn it on when not using PT and do some backups to it.

I am not sure which firewire card I have (it came with a Sweetwater build I had long ago and have it installed in my current rig, so I assume they used an approved one). Per device manager it says "Texas Instruments OHCI compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller".

I may try installing the latest DIGI002 drivers, as I have already downloaded them. I presume I could successfully roll back to previous drivers if they don't work, and I also just made a backup image of my OS drive using Acronis True Image Home.

As for the Sandra report, my PT computer is not connected to my home network, so I will probably have to download the program on my main computer and run it on the PT rig, if it works that way?

[Darryl Ramm]

Looking at CPU utilization is not likely to tell you much , and it's low as expected with no plugins instantiated. The #CPU comment was more a general suggestion for large CPU hungry sessions.

TI FireWire chipset is good and the main question I had. A Sandra report would still be nice. Just download the Sandra installer and move to your DAW PC and you can copy back the Sandra report or copy and paste the text you need into any app.

Recheck *every* optimization is done, no Bluetooth, no WiFi, unplug every USB and FireWire device you can, etc. etc, every last thing done while you troubleshoot. You already likely know the community does not have lots of coverage on these AMD processors and chipsets so you are somewhat on your own. Competition is good and I hope we see lots more folks playing with the new AMD Rizen and Threadripper (but lack of Thunderbolt support is a issue for me).

[mjslakeridge]

I will try generating the Sandra report tomorrow. I will have to watch the tutorial video first as I have never run the Sandra software and it has been a long time since I looked at the tutorial.

It's possible that my firewire card is going bad because it is 10+ years old, but I can loop playback the section of audio indefinitely at 512 sample size buffer.

Getting ready to watch some football! (Canadian football league on ESPN3, but it is still football).

[mjslakeridge]

Bad news on 2 fronts!

I installed the latest drivers for the DIGI002 and tried to launch PT, and it said no Digidesign hardware found. I confirmed that the drivers I intended to install were indeed installed for the DIGO002 rack. So I went to roll back to previous drivers and it said no drivers were backed up. Not good. I guess installing the latest drivers overwrote the old ones.

Luckily I had made a disk image of my C drive last night before messing around with the drivers, so I restored from that disk image, and now the old drivers are there and PT launches and works again.

As for the Sandra report, I downloaded the software onto my Windows 8.1 Professional computer and installed the software and successfully ran the overview report after looking at the short tutorial video, just to know which report to run. Copied the downloaded Sandra.exe file to a thumb drive and inserted it into my PT computer, exited out of all open programs and tried to run the software. Got a message saying "This program does not support the version of Windows your computer is running".

I did not see a legacy version of the Sandra software on their website. Other than the paid versions I only saw one download option, which is the one I chose. Sandra - lite or something to that effect.

Just to verify I was on the correct download site, this is the link:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/...e-Sandra.shtml

Any other advice/suggestions?

[The Weed]

Try Speccy from Piriform. It may be that the downloader sensed your operating system on your Internet computer and you got a version for W8.1. May or may not be the case with Speccy, which has a free version. Belarc Advisor is also good, but I don't think it provides just a computer overview.

BTW, how did you get interested in the CFL? Or is that just to tide you over until College and NFL football season?

[mjslakeridge]

Ya, maybe that is what happened. I could temporarily connect my PT computer to the network and download it again and see what happens, although when I went to their FAQ section and looked at compatibility it only mentioned Windows 7 and up. I Googled Sandra for Windows XP and there were quite a few download sites, but I don't know if I should trust them to not download a bunch of other crapware along with the Sandra software.

I started watching the CFL last year mainly to tide me over until College and NFL started (not the preseason NFL, which is a joke), but found myself interested in the Canadian game due to the 3 downs rather than 4 which makes for a pretty exciting pace of the game. Plus there are some ex-NFL players that I like to follow. I think Toronto has an ex Houston Texans receiver (DeVier Posey), but he got injured in the first game or two. Calgary has a QB from the Houston area (Katy, TX), Bo Levi Mitchell.