Serious Lagging Issues

[DJ BFunk]

Well on top of my Protools getting overloaded plug in errors, I now have an even bigger problem. Here is the order of events as they happened:

This session began with tons of plug ins but you would think each track could handle at least 1. BTW, all plug ins are up to date. At first, I was getting errors like " you have too many rtas plug ins", or "your DAW cant gather information from your disk quick enough" something like that. With that said, I removed all that I could because I couldn't perform a mix down since I was getting interrupted by these errors every 10 seconds. This session now only has 1 stereo instrument track running Massive, and 28 audio tracks with only 4 of them running alloy 2. Thats it, way less than before. You would think it would run better.

Now, each time I move my mouse and click on anything whether it be moving the screen, clicking on editing options, highlighting, fades, viewing a plug in or as simple as trying to save my session, each click of my mouse is causing the loading wheel to spin "Wheel of Death" for at least 1-10 minutes.

I really do not think its my computer because this project was fine until the other day and this problem just came out of no where. I open other sessions running these same plug ins on every track, and Im not experiencing the "Wheel of Death." I am however getting the Errors every 10 seconds on those but thats something Im used to and have been dealing with since I began using Protools, endless issues I guess.

This has been going on for about a week now.

2 GHz intel core 2 duo / 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM / Mac os 10.6.8 / protools 7.4 / 003

[TOM@METRO]

The first thing I would do is go back to the most recent working image or clone of your system drive. Does the issue remain after that?

[DJ BFunk]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the quick reply. Im not sure what you mean though? Are you saying to restore my mac to an older date? Please explain, if you can. Thanks

[DJ BFunk]

BTW I'm working on a different track now because the "Wheel of Death" issue is not happening in any other project so I thought Id get some work done tonight. Im not sure if this will help but Im thinking my computer is just toast.

I have a single stereo track project, working on mastering a song. The only plug in on this single stereo track is Ozone 5. While Running the track, I got the same error " You are running out of CPU power. Remove some RTAS Plug ins or increase the CPU usage limit."

I get this error in every project I do and I have tried every possible setting. I seem to find "CPU at 95%" and only running "1 processor" works best. I always thought I got this error because I had too much going on or too many plug ins. Now how is that the case if I just got this error with only 1 plug in on a single stereo track project? Something isn't right here.

ps: im sorry I'm talking of 2 problems but I feel the lagging and this CPU error may be caused by the same source.

[TOM@METRO]

Originally Posted by DJ BFunk

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the quick reply. Im not sure what you mean though? Are you saying to restore my mac to an older date? Please explain, if you can. Thanks

Don’t you keep images (backup copies) of your system drive? I was referring to those.

You may have an incompatible plug-in loading into PT. It does not have to be used in the session to cause issues. I have seen this happen with plug-ins from dubious sources as well. Try removing all plug-ins (other than stock) from the plug-in folder and placing them temporarily into the unused folder.

program files> common files> digidesign> DAE> plugins

[albee1952]

What buffer setting are you using? Try upping to 1024(if you aren't there already).

[DJ BFunk]

Tom,

Thanks again for the reply. Protools backs up my projects but I do not back up my system drive. Isn't that done in Time Machine? Ill try removing the plug ins from the folder you advised and keep you posted.

Albee1952,

Yep Im at 1024 and have tried every possible setting variable possible. Thanks.

[albee1952]

Maybe its time for some tedious investigation. Hold the SHIFT key while opening a troubled session(this will make all plugins inactive). Now, show the system resources meter and note where its showing. Now watch that while you make plugins active(I would do 1 at a time). This is tedious, but just might yield an "AHA" moment. For instance, for me, TL Space was on all my stuff, but when I went to PT9, I started having freeze-ups and stalls. I was able to watch that CPU(RTAS) meter jump all over when I enabled an instance of TL Space. Now I don't use it(I really like it), but at least I was able to find the cause and work around it. Fingers crossed you can nail it down

[DJ BFunk]

Albee,

Thanks, Ill try that but the thing is , each time I click my mouse, I have to sit and wait for 10 minutes whether its clicking on a plug in or the FILE menu. I think this may take me hours to accomplish. Just opening this project, takes 10 minutes.

Im actually going to bounce each track to Wav and then load them into a new project. I have other projects that work fine with the same plug ins and way more of them. Well I take that back, those projects don't have the "Wheel of Death" each time I click my mouse but they do freeze after 10 seconds of play which I been working around for years. When it all comes down to it, Protools has never worked nicely with this computer :/

[TOM@METRO]

"2 GHz intel core 2 duo / 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM / Mac os 10.6.8 / protools 7.4 / 003"

Wiat a minute, is this the system we are talking about??? I thought PT7.4 would not run on Snow Leopard. (10.6.8)