endless 9173 errors

[orvillej]

I never had a big problem with this before but lately I've been getting them so that they make it impossible for me to work. I just installed 2020.11 and i was having this problem on 2020.5, which I'd been using. i hoped maybe the latest version would help, but no.

I've double checked all my optimization stuff, my plug ins are the same ones I've had for some time, so I don't think I have incompatible plugins.

Any ideas?

[Darryl Ramm]

***Always suspect plugins***. Who give a flying fark if they are the same ones you have had for a long time. Maybe they are incompatible with later OSes or more recent Pro Tools versions. What you think is irrelevant, you need to troubleshoot/test those plugins.

You need to do basic troubleshooting, trash prefs, try removing all .aaxplugin plugin files, try different sessions, try from a new admin user account, try with a new empty session, try with built-in Output, etc. And if you still need more help after trying that please list all the things you have tried, and include the expected information, like exact os version, interface and driver version etc. And you have given no info about key things like what IO buffer size your are trying to run at or what sample rate... and since you have an Apollo, are you trying to run UAD plugins in Pro Tools? At what buffer size? They have horrendous problems at smaller buffer size if run in Pro Tools (vs. in the Console).

Is your signature correct? 8GB is below the minimum recommended systems requirements for Pro Tools. You are still running on old Oxford based Firewire HDD? With so little RAM I expect you can't/have not sent disk cache to a decent value. This old slow HDD may be a factor here. Ideally you want to set the disk cache large enough (not to "normal") to fully cache a session and to look at the system meter to see the session fully cache (go green) before you start working on it. But with 8GB that may not be possible. And slow disk can cause AAE CPU errors. Maybe time to ditch the slow HDD and move to modern SSD.

When you say you have optimized the system have you disabled spindump? Follow the Avid knowledge base note for that. Have you done every last other thing? Like fully disabled Wifi and Bluetooth? Saying you "have done it all" and not listing what you actually have done does not tell us much useful info.

And especially with only 8GB I hope you have uninstalled the Avid Link and Cloud Collaboration crapware. And are careful about having no other apps running.

Sorry to hit you with so much, but you really should be troubleshooting stuff systematically and not just hoping upgrades will fix stuff.

[Emi]

What Darryl said.

I haven’t seen a 9173 error in a long time. And every time I had it, it was due to a some plugin. Last one was the Convology XT reverb plugin, and off it went. Plugins are the first to check out.

[JFreak]

Absolutely. Move EVERYTHING out of the plugin folder, the next launch re-installs the stock plugins and if your errors are gone you KNOW one of the plugins was the reason for them.

Sadly, there is no easier troubleshooting than bringing the plugins back one vendor a time and see which one causes trouble. Then update those to latest version and if it does not help contact their support.

[Emi]

The easiest way is to keep your plugin folder with only the ones you really need. In the end a lot of them you don’t use. Keep it clean, it works.

[orvillej]

Thanks everyone. I'll do some more work on troubleshooting and get back to you here.

One other question- I hadn't thought about the HDs being slow. What is a good brand of SSD to use for audio work?

[seanmccoy]

Originally Posted by orvillej

Thanks everyone. I'll do some more work on troubleshooting and get back to you here.

One other question- I hadn't thought about the HDs being slow. What is a good brand of SSD to use for audio work?

Samsung.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by orvillej

Thanks everyone. I'll do some more work on troubleshooting and get back to you here.

One other question- I hadn't thought about the HDs being slow. What is a good brand of SSD to use for audio work?

Whoa. Lets back up. What exact Model # and EMC# iMac do you have? Those are printed on the back of the iMac. What size internal drive does that Mac have? Is it the drive than came with the iMac? Is is an SSD or HDD or Fusion drive?

And "Brand" is not really the question. Yes Samsung makes good SSDs, but an SSD is not an SSD. You need/want SATA? PCIe? Thunderbolt/NVMe? USB 3? USB2? How large? Lets start with if you even need one... if your iMac has an internal PCIe/NVMe SSD that is likely the best place you should be running your sessions from.

[orvillej]

I have a Late 2013 model iMac. That's why I'm stuck at 8gb of RAM because this model doesn't accept any more than that. Next computer i'll remedy that. The HD is a 1TB SATA. It came with the iMac. When I look in Disc Utility it calls it APSF volume. I have a lot of stuff on it so it wouldn't be great for a lot of storage, but I suppose I could copy sessions over to it, work on them, and then back up to my other drives. I think I'd rather have an external drive, but if using the internal drive makes more sense I'd try it.

My connections are Thunderbolt and USB. The FW drive is hooked up with a TB adapter.

I appreciate all your help. I know a lot more about music than I do about computers but I've enjoyed recording since PT 7 so I keep trying to learn more.

[Darryl Ramm]

EMC numbers would be nice.. why I asked.

1 TB drive... well that tells us it's not a factory (SATA) SSD drive option in that model. But is it a Fusion drive??? Did you order the Fusion drive option?? Is the HDD 4800 or 7200 RPM? (if the "HDD" is actually a hard drive not an SSD then no you would never put sessions on that. not on a shared boot/OS/session drive.... but with a fast PCIe/NVMe boot/OS drive like in current Macs... that's likely *the best* place to put sessions for most users.

Your iMac is expandable to 16GB using third party DIMMs, so the 8GB limit is not correct. But you have to pop open the iMac or have somebody do that for you. If you intention is to keep that machine you really ought to be doing that. Look up your model on OWC or call them up and talk to a sales rep if you want to order DIMMs and do it yourself.

And if doing that it is also the time to replace the internal HDD with a SATA SSD. That may take some care/research with thermal sensor compatibility (I can't recall for that model), but again if opening up to upgrade memory I'd do that or ask somebody competent who is upgrading memory that to to it all for me.

And if you had ordered a Fusion option in that iMac then would be a good time you could split off the fast PCIe SSD cache part of the Fusion drive and turn that into a normal SSD disk and use that for session storage. That's actually faster than you'll likely get any other way. And if it has an that cable connector for a PCIe SSD you can upgrade that drive... I'd do that if it has that cable. Which I think only came if you ordered the Fusion drive option, but some conflicting info about that.

Your iMac has 4 x USB 3 ports and two Thunderbolt (aka Thunderbolt 1) ports. Thunderbolt 1 (or 2) is pretty much a dead end for storage connectivity and you can't backwards attach most fast Thunderbolt 3 drives. So you are likely best to stick with USB 3 if you want to go to external SSD storage.

The small Samsung T5 or T7 drives are what I'd look at for external audio/session storage. You can literally velcro them out of the way to the back of the iMac. The T5 are SATA internally the T7 NVMe over USB so maybe a little faster. I'd avoid the PITA ones with fingerprint readers. Don't get the really small storage size ones. These external SSDs will be a lot faster to use than your old Firewire HDD... but that does not mean they will necessarily solve any issues you are having now with CPU errors.