Pro Tools won't load... hangs at plug-ins.

[WATYF]

I've been using 7.1 (with all the latest cs updates) for months on this machine without a single problem (other than occasional buffer errors and what not). But today, it decided to up and break on me.

I fired up PT when I got home and did some editing. Closed it down. A few minutes later, fired it up again so my wife could play some piano. Closed it again. About an hour later... try to open it... and it just hangs. It stopped loading on a particular plug-in (one of the WavesShells). Tried rebooting. Still won't load. Cold boot. Still won't load.

Thought I maybe had a corrupt plug-in or something, so I removed the one that it was hung up on (temporarily). It just hung up on a different plug-in (and so on). So I removed them all from the Plug-Ins folder... Pro Tools starts up instantly.

So apparently, I can't load Pro Tools with any plug-ins. I tried restoring my entire plug-ins folder from a system backup from a week ago, but the same exact thing happens (so I know it's not the plug-in files). I haven't done anything on this machine since I last ran Pro Tools (no installs or updates or anything), so I have no idea why it would just break all of a sudden (especially an hour after I had successfully used it).

So what on earth would cause something like this and how do I fix it?


System Specs:

Mainboard :Asus P5B
Chipset : Intel P965
Processor :Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 2400 MHz
Physical Memory : 2048 MB (2 x 1024 DDR2-SDRAM )
Video Card :Nvidia Corp GeForce 7900 GT
Hard Disk :WDC (150 GB)
Hard Disk :WDC (150 GB)
Hard Disk :Maxtor (204 GB)
DVD-Rom Drive :BENQ DVD DD DW1650
Monitor Type :Philips PHILIPS 201B4 - 20 inchs
Network Card :Realtek Semiconductor Realtek Semiconductor
Operating System : Microsoft Windows XP Professionnal 5.01.2600 Service Pack 2
DirectX : Version 9.0c (March 2006)


WATYF

[Stiff]

Did you try adding the plug-ins again one by one?

[WATYF]

I'm not totally sure how that would be any different than removing them one by one. At this point, I'll try anything, though.


Does anyone know if I have to re-install 3rd party plug-ins if I do a uninstall/reinstall of Pro Tools (or if there's any way to avoid that)? It looks like I'm going to have to try a reinstall of PT if nothing else works, and I'd really like to avoid reinstalling all of my plugs, because I have a crapload of them and installing/authorizing all of them takes an eternity. I have a project due next week, and I've already lost an entire night of studio time due to this problem... I'd rather not spend all night tonight reinstalling everything I have.

FTR, I already tried deleting DAE prefs and Digidesign Database folders and and the other folders that the troubleshooting tells you to delete. And I made sure I'm on the latest cs update and PACE drivers. Pro Tools will load just fine if I remove all of my plug-ins from the Plug-ins folder, but then again, that makes Pro Tools pretty useless.

On a side note... what the hell kind of crappy software just up and breaks for absolutely no reason? What if one of my clients was sitting there when PT decided it just didn't want to load that day? It's no wonder I'd never use PT for live recording... you just can't afford to have the magical PT gnomes decide that they don't want to work the minute the drummer kicks off a two hour live set.


WATYF

[kRokksOn]

Do you have all the latest upgrades for you plugins? I had this problem with my Waves plugins and when I removed the waveshells, PT started fine. An upgrade to my plugs did the trick.

[WATYF]

Checked Waves and other plugs I have. I'm on all the latest versions.


WATYF