my new pt10 wont launch...

[evoyzey]

ok...deep breath. Having purchased a new copy of pt10, getting all the ilok authorisations etc etc and loading onto my pc - the program crashes as it is launched when trying to load plugins. I have uninstalled/reinstalled several times - same result. I even downloaded a trial version from avid website and had exactly the same problem - having gone through the forums it would appear that there is a compatibility problem - I'm running win7 home premium (32) with an AMD Athlon II 255 processor (3.10ghz) - is there really no fix for this exept updating my pc to an intel chip/win 7 pro? I've already spent enough money.... I was running LE7 on an old xp system with no problems - tempted to go back to that...can anybody help - please bear in mind I'm a musician not a computer wizz...

[musicman691]

Unfortunately you are going to have to become something of a computer whiz when running PT. PT was never certified to run on an AMD chip machine. How much ram do you have? 4gig is a minimum and more is better.

Also - do you have any old plugins? Best to strip out everything non-Avid and re-install from there. PT can be finicky with using outdated plugs. You can usually tell what's causing PT to crash by watching the splash screen scan happening.

Are you by any chance trying to run Kontakt 5? The old RTAS version tends to crash PT on startup. K5 is now AAX so that's been fixed.

Have you done all the system optimizations? Things like turning off indexing, virus scanners, unneeded wireless stuff, no internet at the same time as running PT, etc.

Multiple hard drives are also a necessity for the most part. You never want to record to your system drive and partitioning that drive does NOT count as having a separate hard drive.

[Darryl Ramm]

Look up at the "Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!" link. Read all that, including the standard troubleshooting steps, and most importantly start by posting a Sandra report here.

Was an earlier version of Pro Tools installed on this computer/hard drive? (did you use the uninstaller with "clean" option first?)

What audio interface is connected? What version driver have you installed? If you think you are using the built-in audio in the PC what driver is that using? Does it need ASIO4ALL? (we need that Sandra report to help you here...)

Have you added any plugins?

If plugins are a suspect move aside all the plugin files (there are two separate folder in Pro Tools 10, just follow the instructions) and see if Pro Tools will start up without them. I'll go check and if those instructions are not clear I'll post a separate link here.

EDIT: OK standard Pro Tools troubleshooting steps suck at describing basic plugin debugging. PT 10 plugin folder locations and other infor are described here http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home...d-running.html. Move aside those folders, just rename them something else and see if Pro Tools starts. This should NOT be required unless you have added third party or additional old Avid plugins.

Darryl

[cwsand]

Your pc may not be compatible with Pro Tools. I would at least go through all the Windows 7 Optimizations and Troubleshooting

Hardware compatibility is a huge requirement to run Pro Tools 10 smoothly. You should also post a SANDRA report in case there's something else that could be replaced to keep you from buying a new computer. If you look at buying a new computer, you should also post a SANDRA to make sure everything's compatible.

Windows users need to provide a Sandra report

- Please - Use SiSoftware's Sandra Lite application to generate a full system profile:

www.sisoftware.co.uk

Under SiSoftware Sandra, click on "Download & Buy" to download the free Sandra Lite version or purchase other versions. After installing Sandra, click on the 'Hardware' tab and run the 'Computer Overview', then copy and paste into your post here on the DUC.

You can find videos on how to create a Sandra report here (generously provided by DUC member Benoni) : http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=303059


The more information you can provide, the easier it will be for Tech Support and other users to assist you - take the time now to document everything you can and you'll save time in the long run. We can't express enough the importance of describing everything in extreme detail - remember, no one here can see how your gear is configured, so we need an accurate description by you to get a clear picture. The better we can envision your setup, the easier it will be to troubleshoot.

If you have been referred to this thread and reply without providing the information requested above, including the Sandra report for Windows users, your post is very likely to be given lower priority in favor of those who have provided complete information. __________________
Avid Audio Tech Support

[mikeyman]

see now thats one thing Pro tools Avid should tell the people that are buying it...that they need a computer that will work with it.The sales people are fast to take your money 600$ but they don;t tell you the bad news till they sucked you in and get your money

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by mikeyman

see now thats one thing Pro tools Avid should tell the people that are buying it...that they need a computer that will work with it.The sales people are fast to take your money 600$ but they don;t tell you the bad news till they sucked you in and get your money

Like Avid totally hides the details and never tells purchasers the systems requirements?....

http://www.avid.com/US/products/Pro-...Specifications

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...ility/en353265

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...ility/en436391

http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...ility/en419171

Of course its always easier to just complain that to take responsibility for your own success and to check out the detailed system requirements before purchasing this software.

Darryl

[evoyzey]

Hi friends - thanks for all the info and advice - cwsand - I have gone through the steps outlined in your optimization link - thanks - and am now posting my sandra report. I hope you can all forgive my relative naivety - having run le7 quite happily about 2 years I wasnt expecting this kind of problem. No other versions of pt on system, am runing a mackie onyx 820i firewire interface (which I know may cause another compatibility issue if I ever get the program to launch(!), no other plugins on system either - I did remove the plugins to a seperate file before trying to launch again but same result. Have downloaded pt10.3.3 from avid site and have had same problem on launch so I think we can rule out dodgy software. Thanks again - hope this helps...Merry xmas people!

Computer Model : GigaByte GA-MA74GMT-S2
Chassis : GigaByte Desktop Mainboard : GigaByte GA-MA74GMT-S2
BIOS : Award (OEM) F8 08/03/2010 Total Memory : 3.25GB DIMM DDR3
Processor : AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 255 Processor (2C 3.11GHz, 2GHz IMC, 2x 1MB L2)
Socket/Slot : AM2r2/AM3
Chipset Memory Controller : Gigabyte RS690 Host Bridge 201MHz
Memory Controller : AMD F10 Athlon 64/Opteron/Sempron HT Hub 2x 1GHz (2GHz), 2x 3GB DIMM DDR3 1.07GHz 128-bit
Memory Module : Nanya M2F4G64CB8HG5N-CG 4GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Kingmax FLFE85F-C8KM9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-24 4-33-10-5)
Monitor/Panel : ACR Acer G195HQL (1600x1200, 18.5") Monitor/Panel : CMO CMC 17" AD
(1600x1200, 17.1")
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon 2100 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) (PS2.0, VS2.0, 128MB, PCI)
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon 2100 (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM) (PS2.0, VS2.0, 128MB, PCI)
Graphics Processor
Storage Devices
Seagate ST3250318AS (250GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 8MB Cache) : 233GB (C:) (D:)
WDC WD10EVVS-63M5B0 (1TB, USB2/SATA300, 3.5", 5400rpm, 8MB Cache) : 932GB (H:)
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50 (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (E:)
ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P (ATA66, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (F:)
Logical Storage Devices
music (D:) : 100MB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST3250318AS (250GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 8MB Cache)
Elements (H:) : 932GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD10EVVS-63M5B0 (1TB, USB2/SATA300, 3.5", 5400rpm, 8MB Cache)
Hard Disk (C:) : 233GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST3250318AS (250GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 8MB Cache)
Floppy Disk (A:) : N/A
Optical Drive (E:) : N/A @ HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH22NS50 (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
Optical Drive (F:) : N/A @ ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P (ATA66, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Gigabyte IXP SB600/700/800 SMBUS Controller
LPC Hub Controller 2 : Gigabyte SB700/800 LPC host controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : ITE IT8718F
Audio Device : Gigabyte IXP SB600 High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semi High Definition Audio
Serial Port(s) : 1
Disk Controller : Gigabyte SB700/800 SATA Controller [IDE mode]
Disk Controller : Gigabyte SB700/800 IDE
USB Controller 1 : Gigabyte SB700/800 USB OHCI0 Controller
USB Controller 2 : Gigabyte SB700/800 USB OHCI1 Controller
USB Controller 3 : Gigabyte SB700/800 USB EHCI Controller
USB Controller 4 : Gigabyte SB700/800 USB OHCI0 Controller
USB Controller 5 : Gigabyte SB700/800 USB OHCI1 Controller
USB Controller 6 : Gigabyte SB700/800 USB EHCI Controller
USB Controller 7 : Gigabyte SB700/800 USB OHCI2 Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : TI TSB43AB23 1394a-2000 OHCI PHY/link-layer Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : ATI SB700 SMBus
Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Printer : Brother HL-2130 series (1200x1200, USB)
Network Services Network Adapter : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (Ethernet, 100Mbps)
Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7601 (Service Pack 1)
Platform Compliance : x86
Windows Experience Index
Current System : 3.6

[Darryl Ramm]

What exactly is the crash message? What if anything is written to the Windows systems event log?


Your BIOS memory is reporting 3.25 GB but you have 6GB pf physical memory installed. Something is wrong there. Go exploring around in the BIOS and see what you can find. It is Award BIOS which I don't have on a system here, presumably you can run a memory test with it. And the second and maybe related problem is...You have unbalanced memory DIMMs, this may or may not cause the problem you are seeing, it can cause applciation crashes etc., and its generally better to have identical pairs of DIMMs on each memory channel. And they are so cheap you could just replace both with a matched pair of the largest DIMMs you can find that will fit the system. And check if the BIOS sees all that memory when you install it. All this *might* be causing your problem, or might not, the only way to tell is to swap out the memory for proper matched DIMMs.

Not that it will be causing this current problem but there are other issues you will face in future with this computer...

It looks like you may have your audio sessions (I assume they are on the "music" partition) stored on a separate partition on your boot/system drive. Audio/session data is supposed to be on its own audio spec drive, not sharing the boot/system drive. By partitioning it on the boot/system drive its actually slower than just putting it on the boot partition.. it needs a separate 7200 rpm or faster or SSD drive.

You also have a WDC WD10EVVS-63M5B0 hard drive, I'm not sure what that is used for but be aware it is not an audio-spec drive, it is a low-power low-performance hard drive. We don't see that many of them here but its similar to WDC's Caviar green that causes lots of problems for Pro Tools. These are variable speed, closer to 5400 rpm drives, you are supposed to have a 7,200 rpm of faster (or SSD) drive for Pro Tools audio session. A WDC Caviar Black is a great drive for example. An under spec hard drive can cause all types of clicks, pops, run time errors, etc. These energy managed/"green" drives don't deserve to be in a computer, they are a backup drive at best.

Make sure you have really done all the optimization and troubleshooting steps. if nothing else works do a complete clean reinstall of Windows, keep it as clean/simple as possible and install pro Tools and see if this works. you might want to try to install Windows 7 64 bit on this computer once you max out the memory. And you are right to question AMD, personally I'd just not go that route, there are many more folks on Intel mainstream processors.

Darryl

[sunburst79]

The report says Win7 Home and x86 complaint. I'm going to guess that the 3.25 is what's being detected by 32bit Windows. And it's simply not seeing the 6 Gigs the motherboard is detecting.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by sunburst79

The report says Win7 Home and x86 complaint. I'm going to guess that the 3.25 is what's being detected by 32bit Windows. And it's simply not seeing the 6 Gigs the motherboard is detecting.

You are probalby right, the lines in the report are wrapped together, its Windows reporting that memory, nothing to do with the BIOS. But either way the DIMMs should be balanced. And the total memory capacity limits is why I recommended installing 64 bit Windows.

Darryl