CPU spikes? NO! ***sigh*** yes.

[thepontif]

I know asking this question is like banging my head against a brick wall but does anyone have anything substantive regarding the CPU spikes issue?

I went about 4 years without a SINGLE protools glitch and hung on to PT11 as long as I could. As soon as I upgraded my life became hell every time I opened up PT.

Win10
3.6GHz quad core processor
PT2018.7
RME Fireface UFX (the original one) on USB 2.0

I've done everything to troubleshoot. Latest drivers, bios changes, latest versions of everything, removed plugs from plug-in folder. No effect at all. A year ago I could comfortably run 32-48 channels with a normal compliment of plugs in mix sessions at 64 samples at 88.2 and now nothing less that 512 works, even on simple sessions (8 tracks). I can't even have a singer lay down tracks over his own tune.


Interestingly, with my CPU monitor running, PT's system monitor registers spikes that other monitors don't. Playback never stops...it's just full of garbled crap. Increasing buffer to an amount unusable for tracking is the only way to make it go away.


This has been a problem for a LONG time as far as I can tell. I'm on faculty up at Berklee and I can definitely say with confidence that from what I'm hearing those young people of today are starting to look at PT like a dinosaur and an embarrassment.

The demise of its status as an industry standard is becoming observable. Which is sad because it's great software when it works.


The music business is hard enough without this distraction. How do we work when out tools won't?

Any substantive advice would be immensely appreciated.

[jeam25]

Hi friend ! I know that is frustrating beleive me .

Some things to double check :

1. Run PT as administrator and as non administrator and test

2. Set windows sounds to NO sounds

3. Install video card driver only if possible without the bloatware

Let us know

[thepontif]

Originally Posted by jeam25

Hi friend ! I know that is frustrating beleive me .

Some things to double check :

1. Run PT as administrator and as non administrator and test

2. Set windows sounds to NO sounds

3. Install video card driver only if possible without the bloatware

Let us know

Will try. Thanks!

[albee1952]

Also, experiment with Hyperthreading on and off to see if either gives better performance(and its likely that one way will be better, but it differs from one machine to the next) Then, look at what plugins are in play. On my system, I can do a lot of work at the 64 buffer setting. But one instance of Ozone 8 will toss that out the window

[Darryl Ramm]

Post a Sandra report.

Try with another interface, even if you have to use ASIO4ALL. Uninstall or disable all AV software. Get every optimization done and keep aggregating troubleshooting steps, e.g. remove full third party plugins and keep going with them removed. Disk cache enabled? - set to what size? Dynamic plugin processing disabled? Ignore errors not checked — do you see AAE errors?

When you are sure you have tried absolutely everything else grab a spare SSD or partition and do a full clean reinstall of Windows 10 Pro and the latest Pro Tools, ILM and interface drivers and as little else as possible and check. Do a genuine Microsoft installer install do not do a systems recovery install polluted with OEM crapware.

[thepontif]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Post a Sandra report.

Try with another interface, even if you have to use ASIO4ALL. Uninstall or disable all AV software. Get every optimization done and keep aggregating troubleshooting steps, e.g. remove full third party plugins and keep going with them removed. Disk cache enabled? - set to what size? Dynamic plugin processing disabled? Ignore errors not checked — do you see AAE errors?

When you are sure you have tried absolutely everything else grab a spare SSD or partition and do a full clean reinstall of Windows 10 Pro and the latest Pro Tools, ILM and interface drivers and as little else as possible and check. Do a genuine Microsoft installer install do not do a systems recovery install polluted with OEM crapware.

I’ll have to eke out some time and resources for that so it can’t happen today.

Incidentally, I tried everything in the first response to no avail. Symptom remains unchanged.

Also, I spaced and said it was 2018.7, but it’s actually 2018.10

[The Weed]

Have a look at this thread.

And how much RAM do you have and where are your sessions. More information means more help.

Be sure to do ALL the optimizations.

[jeam25]

Remember to test another usb port and cable as daryl said before testing another interface .

[jeam25]

Hi don't remember if mentioned but check your Bios settings . All power management related must be disabled and setup your ram clock and timings according to your specs .

[thepontif]

Thanks, everyone.
Some more good stuff to look into here.