CPU power?? Can't be...

[mr. bulbous]

I am just using the tutorial for the "be there" demo with my custom PC which was built using the "best PC for digi001" thread.
I have a 40 gig hard drive for system, and 60 gig for audio. The processor is AMD Athlon XP1600+, I have 512 RAM, and PT 5.1 is running on Windows ME. I just got this thing up and running, and followed all directions for computer settings.
The problem is when playing the demo session, it works the first time through, the second time through (usually) it stops (or locks up sometimes) and has this error: "You're running out of CPU power. Take out some plug-in's to free up power"...
this can't be, especially with this monster PC I have built.

Other things I've noticed: Since I got both hard drives installed (I ran it with just 1 hard drive for a day, to test everything), Pro tools is running slow, even to the point where sometimes it "draws" the screen images extremly slow.

I did install a Radeon (sp?)display adapter after everything else was installed (including pro tools/digi).

Please help, at this point I've had the digi001 and Pro tools for months, and am still trying to get through the demo session...YIKES.

Mr. Bulbous

[Phil O'Keefe]

I suggest you check to make sure your hard drives are in DMA mode. Do a search.. there's plenty of info on that topic here.

[mr. bulbous]

You know the wierd thng about DMA mode is that I remember doing this.
From My Computer right click, go to Properties,to the device manager, the find each hard drive then go to each hard drive properties to get to the DMA setting...there was none on either of the settings...Did I miss it, or maybe tried to find it in the wrong place?
I should also add that next to my error (previous post) is this number (-9128) if that helps describe the problem.
Also both hard drive are Maxtor quiet drive 7200rpm.
Thank you for the advice.
Mr. Bulbous

[Phil O'Keefe]

9128 is almost always due to HDD problems - usually DMA isn't enabled... though you're right - in some situations there isn't "DMA" as a field you can select in Device Mgr...

So the next question is: I need more details - can you post your entire system config for me please? What mobo? RAM type and amount. Hard disk and CD-R / ROM info, IRQ's... and probably most importantly, are you using a HDD controller card? Promise card? Or is the Promise controller on your Mobo? Those can definitely be problematic (onboard Promise controllers...) I have an onboard Promise controller on my mobo (Asus A7V266-E), and I had a lot of problems getting that to work right... my system actually did better on the DaveC test with the standard, onboard IDE controllers than it did when using the onboard Promise controller... and it works even better with a seperate, PCI card Promise controller.

Anyway, Right click "My Computer", select "Properties", select "Disk Drives", right click on each seperate IDE drive and select the "settings" tab. That's where you'll find the DMA checkbox... assuming you're not using a Promise controller. With the Promise controllers, DMA is an automatically selected property, and there's no user selection for it.

If your CD-RW's support it, select "DMA" for those as well, and also you'll usually want "disconnect" selected and it's usually best to UNselect "auto insert notification".

I've got a weekend long session with a band coming all the way down from the Modesto area, and so I might not be able to check back on this for a while. Maybe Allen will see it and offer some suggestions... I'll try to check back in with you when I can. Best of luck!

[mr. bulbous]

Thanks.
This has been updated for specific specs:

*MotherBoard: Shuttle MB VIA KT266A
*Promise controller card (!)Ultra100 TX2
*DvdROM LITE ON 16X (This is Master for the cd drives)
*CdRW LITE ON 32X12X40 (This is Slave for the cd drives)
*Floppy 1.44 Mitsumi
*512 RAM: DDRAM (two 256)
*AMD Athlon XP1600+ processor
*Maxtor quiet drive 40 gig hard drive 1700RPM(for system-this is Master)
*Maxtor quiet drive 60 gig hard drive 1700 RPM(for audio-this is Slave)
*Windows ME
*anything else needed?

I thought I may be able to enable DMA from my BIO's setting during the boot up. I checked, and was NOT able.

I have not changed any setting in Pro Tools, I have only started it up and played the demo song a few times.
there is a disc allocation problem when I forst start it up...but I am sure that is minor, and not related...Every user has differnt configurations, so the disc allocation would be different for this demo because the demo was recorded on a completly different PC setup, correct me if I am wrong.

[Roly]

Hi there bulbous one - Try putting both hard drives on their own ides.(system ide 1 tracks ide 2) Put your other drives on the promise controller. All as master on seperate cables.
cheers Roly

[keny]

are there any yellow question marks in hardware manager?
I have a feeling this is the "You have to enable USB" problem

[mr. bulbous]

Yes, there is (was) 1 yellow question mark, and (without looking - my pc is at the office) it is "PCI audio device"...but I now have this disabled. I am 97% sure it is just the original sound card on my mother board.

Roly: "Try putting both hard drives on their own ides.(system ide 1 tracks ide 2) Put your other drives on the promise controller. All as master on seperate cables."

*I guess I don't understand what you mean - or how to do this.
I have a bit of anxiety about messing with the hard drive(s) master/slave setup. I thought if it was set wrong it would not work...both hard drives are working. Is the IDE=the ribbon cables?

Thank you, Mr. Bulbous

[mr. bulbous]

Can anyone tell me more?

How/where do I checked to "enable USB"?
Was does the yellow question mark indicate? Do I need to change something?

Any other advice at all?

Thank you, I will check back before going to the PC to run a few experiements.

Mr. Bulbous

[Stone Knife]

Yellow ? means driver error/conflict or missing/disabled driver.
Please understand no offense meant here- your questions indicate you may be in deep waters to be building your own computer if you don't understand what Roly wrote about putting the drives on straight IDE.

It may not be out of the question to have someone with some computer-building experience take a look at how things are set up if you don't get it straightened out.

If you built an Allenstein, then you probably used a separate Promise controller to interface your hard drives to the computer, through a PCI bus.
Roly was suggesting just not using the Promise controller and using the 80-pin sockets on the MB itself to see if the drives work on plain IDE, I believe. May be a good thing to try, too.