PT8.0.4 won't play

[Mark_T]

This is my first post. I have PT 8.0.4cs and an M Audio Profire 2626. PT generally loads correctly, and I can hear output through the 2626 interface, however I'm getting no indicator of any audio levels at all on any PT channels in the edit window.
I've had minimal success recording any audio so far using PT. However, when I try to replay the audio, either one of the few tracks I've been fortunate enough to be able to record or the Filtered Dreams demo, attempting to listen to the recording yields the blue "Stop" button and the green "Play" button to light up momentarily and the word "Pause" appears in green letters in the lower left hand side of the edit window. It's as if PT has frozen.
In the end, I'm not sure if this is a PT problem or an M Audio interface problem, as I'm new to both, having convered over from Steinberg Cubase. Any help is greatly appreciated. Here is what I hope is a correctly posted (albeit lengthy) Sandra report:

Computer Model : Dell Studio XPS 9100
Processor Model : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
Speed : 2.8GHz
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 2 Unit(s)
Type : Quad-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 4x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L2 On-board Cache : 4x 256kB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L3 On-board Cache : 8MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 16-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size, 8 threads sharing

Computer Mainboard : Dell 05DN3X
BIOS : Dell Computer Corporation A02 05/26/2010
Bus(es) : ISA X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR3

Chipset Model : Intel X58 I/O Hub
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 3.2GHz (6.38GHz)

Chipset Model : Intel Core Desktop (Bloomfield) UnCore
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 3.2GHz (6.38GHz)
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR3
Channels : 3
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 665MHz (1.33GHz)

Memory Module(s): Samsung M378B5673FH0-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673FH0-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673FH0-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673FH0-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 5670 (400 SM5.0 775MHz, 1GB DDR5 4x1GHz, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
Compute Shader Processor : ATI Radeon HD 5670 (400SP 775MHz, 1GB DDR5 4x1GHz)
STREAM Processor : ATI Radeon HD 5670 (400SP 5C 775MHz, 1GB DDR5 4x1GHz)

Storage Devices
WDC WD1001FAES-75W7A0 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ) : 932GB (C:)
WDC WD1001FAES-75W7A0 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ) : 932GB (D:)
TSSTcorp DVD+/-RW TS-H653H (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (E:)

Logical Storage Devices
RECOVERY : 11GB (NTFS)
DATAPART1 (D:) : 932GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD1001FAES-75W7A0 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ)
OS (C:) : 921GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD1001FAES-75W7A0 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ)
Optical Drive (E:) : N/A @ TSSTcorp DVD+/-RW TS-H653H (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Dell LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : T2 87-21
Audio Device : Dell HD Audio Controller
Audio Device : Dell Redwood HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5600 Series]
Audio Codec : ATI (AMD) HDMI Audio
Disk Controller : Dell 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
USB Controller 1 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #4
USB Controller 2 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #5
USB Controller 3 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #6
USB Controller 4 : Dell USB EHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 5 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #1
USB Controller 6 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 7 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #3
USB Controller 8 : Dell USB EHCI Controller #1
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : Dell TSB43AB23 1394a-2000 OHCI PHY/link-layer Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7600
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 5.9

[banjo71]

Try going into playback engine under set up and increase the h/w buffer size to 2048. Then exit and reboot. This may work, may not.

Also, if you are running a real time virus protector, turn your internet connection off and pause the protection until you're done running Pro Tools.

The other thing it could be is that you have too many programs running in the background. Try to eliminate program start ups that don't need to be running. Your idle CPU should be 98-99%. It's important your PC is optimized to run one main program: Pro Tools.

[Mark_T]

Banjo71, thanks for the advice. Changing the buffer size to 2048, along with following the advice in some of the PT Youtube videos regarding power optimization, etc. did help. I was able to record some audio tracks successfully and hear them upon playback. I am still experiencing some intermittent problems with the pause and PT freezing on me as I indicated in my original post.

I'm going to double check all the youtube videos for possible changes to my screen settings, storage device and speed settings, and make sure I didn't gloss over any.

Your help was much appreciated. Thanks!