12.8.x BLUE SCREENS

[ShadeTek]

Since updating to 12.8.1+2 both my identical suites have been blue screening with IRQ-NOT-LESS-OR-EQUAL. Anyone else had this issue?

[panamajack]

Blue screens are the kiss of death. Struggled with years before finally beginning a Mac collection.

I got blue screens from inadequate power supplies, incorrect drivers, video card incompatibilities and even with iLok drivers.

Pro Tools has a compatibility chart for HP computers, are you certain you have a compatible mobo? ...and have updated the BIOS and all the drivers?

Still have more PCs than Macs, and still run both XP and Win7. Blue screens have kept me away from investing in Win 8 and Win 10, but I still subscribe to the Vegas 15 video stuff so require a PC.

Been on PCs since DOS 3.1. Ugh.

Blue screens build character. [not!]

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by ShadeTek

Since updating to 12.8.1+2 both my identical suites have been blue screening with IRQ-NOT-LESS-OR-EQUAL. Anyone else had this issue?

If Pro Tools 12.8 was causing lots of bluescreens DUC would be littered with posts about that. Your computer knows what happened... you need to work out as much from that as you can. Starting with using Event Viewer. And these are commonly device driver related so obvious things to do there are check drivers and try to work out what driver this occurred in. Starting with Event Viewer. There are lots of posts online explaining how to do stuff, like https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...6359f50?auth=1

If problems keep reoccurring and you can't make progress just spin up a whole new perfectly clean Windows install (from genuine Windows install media, not a OEM recovery media) on a test drive or partition and do an as clean as possible Windows install with minimal drivers needed, ILM and Pro Tools and nothing else and see if that is stable.

[guitardom]

Bluescreens are driver/hardware related, not software. They seem to become increasingly more rare (fortunately). But this is the app I use to detect the driver or hardware causing the problems.

[panamajack]

Originally Posted by guitardom

. . . But this is the app I use to detect the driver or hardware causing the problems.

That looks like a really interesting program.

The Pro Tools media drivers are not plug and play. You can open the device manager (in the Windows Control Panel) and see if there are a bunch of yellow exclamation points by the sound card hardware.

The "HAL" (hardware abstraction layer) can cause problems.

[gnjlee]

Originally Posted by panamajack

I got blue screens from inadequate power supplies, incorrect drivers, video card incompatibilities and even with iLok drivers.

This statement is very honest. These issues you posted were probably avoidable, but I am not in your shoes so I can't say for sure.

It is true that the Mac side has less conflicts than the PC side when working with 100% functional hardware, but that is due to the limited size of the Apple computer eco system. With Windows based PCs, you are dealing with unlimited possibilities.

If you are paying the rent with recording, the best way to avoid most issues is to go with a very good PC vendor like Dell, HP, or Pro Tools PC. This way you will be able to focus on making music and not on being a computer technician.

[gnjlee]

Originally Posted by guitardom

Bluescreens are driver/hardware related, not software. They seem to become increasingly more rare (fortunately). But this is the app I use to detect the driver or hardware causing the problems.

Anything that runs Kernel mode has the potential for bad behavior when stability is of utmost importance. My Windows machine doesn't see any real surfing time and I use Windows built in security and no Symantec/McAfee/Avast/otherstuff. I also use known good chipsets when building or buying machines and stay away from bargain hardware. Subsequently my Windows computers are more stable than my Macs.