Completely Bummed Out.

[bvcreative]

Hi all,

Yes, It's not been a good couple of weeks. After waiting for weeks for my 003 Factory to arrive, I finally got it about two weeks ago. Immediately after installing I was having serious playback issues (not able to get through even a few seconds of playback before locking up/crashing PT.) My first call to Digidesign led me through a path of removing all drivers and references to my old system (a Yamaha 01x, which, btw, was working pretty well). Still, no luck, PT still crashing.

Finally another call to Digi tech, where we discovered that my motherboard is one of a rare breed which is not compatible with PT 7.3. This info was part of the compatibility list on the website, but only if you knew that your motherboard was an "SiS" motherboard, which I did not. It's a Sony Vaio - not exactly some rare computer. Also, given the fact that I've ran 65 audio tracks with no problem using Sonar, the thought that it wouldn't be able to handle PT didn't even cross my mind.

So, what I ended up with was a system that I had completely dis-assembled to install PT, only to find out that PT didn't work. Going backwards and re-installing all my old stuff was an incredible pain, taking several hours to do. At least now I'm back where I was before this all began.

I'm holding onto the 003 because I will eventually get a new system, but for now I'm out of money and even if I were to buy a system it comes down to what system to buy, and since Vista is just around the corner it makes no sense to invest in an XP box just to run PT. Yes, I could get a Mac, but again, I'm out of money for now, and Macs are much more expensive, too. I know there are inexpensive ways to get a system built or purchased on eBay, etc., but right now I'm tapped out - can't do it - just don't have 300 - 700 or more to spend on this!

I'm looking to the right and I see a rock, and I'm looking left and see a hard place. I'm just going to let the 003 sit for a while until I get some money saved and figure out my plan from there. Ugh.

BillJV

[540s]

I'm certainately not qualified to give advice on PT stuff just getting into it myself & still 1-2 days from having my system up & running.....



But: The one thing I can say is spending some time on the forums here can save lots of time & money down the road. When I first seriously considered stepping away from my analog equipment & going protools I had been tempted many times to just buy something without doing too much research... Thats how I do most things After doing some reading on the DUC the first couple things I assumed would work don't inspite of being advertised as such, so the folks here saved me time, money & hassle right from the start. Fortnately, I did spend lots of time on here before buying & the stuff I bought should have limited issues. I'm waiting for one more box from NewEgg & then should have my Quad going built with parts that are known to work with PT. I'm betting I will surely have some set up issues being fairly new to this, but the componants wont be the problem



When you are ready to get a new computer check back on here & see what people are building & using & have de-bugged before spending a dime. There are lots of people who went through the teething process already to determine compatable systems that are willing to share that info.

[albee1952]

I feel your pain and have a suggestion that may help others before they tread the same path. Any time I do a major change(i.e. new hardware, new software, etc) I always install a new system drive(I keep a few 40-80 gig drives around just for this purpose). Any major change is done on a fresh load of XP on an otherwise clean drive. This way, no matter what happens, I can reinstall the last working drive and go back to work like before the upgrade. With drives at $49, its the best $49 I ever spent as it has saved my butt twice already. Once I have a solid working system, one of my spare drives gets cloned so I have a fully working backup system drive in case of a crash(2 kinds of DAW operators: those that have had a drive crash, and those that WILL have a crash).

[bvcreative]

Thanks for the advice. That's a good way to approach getting the computer when the time comes. I'm not mad at Digidesign, I have no reason to be - the information was on their website if I had taken the time to research what kind of chipset I had before buying, and checked for compatibility. That being said, I will say that I'm a bit annoyed, given that normally you don't have to *know* what kind of specific motherboard chipset you have to run software, or even hardware. Usually knowing you have a P4, etc, is enough. Are they ultimately blameless for my scenario? Yes. Are they making it easy to run Pro Tools on any reasonably powered Windows system? No.

So, lesson learned. Buyer beware. Research thoroughly. Don't assume anything. And, I think it's also fairly safe to say that although it may be unsaid officially by Digidesign, I get the feeling from many posts and people that Pro Tools really wants a system dedicated only to it.

So... there it is.

bv

[AltissimoFreak]

Welcome to Protools!

When it work, it works better than anything else on the market, as long as you are only trying to do what Digi thinks you should with it. When it doesn't work, you will want to stab your eyes out with a soldering iron and wish you had never heard the word Protools.

Once you take to time to get a properly configured computer, it will be wonderful and allow you to manipulate audio in ways which you never thought were possible. But, it's a wicked steep learning curve to get there.

[cruisemates]

You will not be the first or the last person to get into ProTools and decide you need a completely new computer from what you started out with. Many of us have been there.

I suggest you start looking at the forums here for what the best "build it from scratch" configurations are. You will probably see you want AMD, with a non-integrated video card, etc.

The good news is you can build a basic computer for less than you can buy one, and a PT computer does not need a lot of things new computers come with these days - like integrated video/ethernet/soundcard.

Out of curiousity. where are the Sis chips on your motherboard? I really don't know, but if they are related to something (like onboard graphics, ethernet, USB) that you can disable in your bios then you just might get it working. But I guess you have been down that road already.

Sorry for your pain!

[gdx]

When I first connected my 002r,I found that the firewire cable kept coming loose.Make sure your firewire card & cable are completly connected tightly.