slow, stuttering performance

[banjo71]

I've got Pro Tools 10.3.10 on a Windows 7 SP1 OS and I have done all the optimizations. I have a Fast Track Pro hooked up by USB. I have an eSATA card controlling my Glyph External Hard Drive.

The system is unstable and shaky at best. I have all the defaults for the playback engine engaged (1024 samples for H/W Buffer, 90% CPU Limit).

I would like some help figuring this out. It wants to stop during playback but if you stop the transport and replay it will play, until it wants to stop again.


Here's my computer's specs..

SiSoftware Sandra

ID
Host Name : Doug-PC
Workgroup : WORKGROUP

Computer
Model : Dell Inspiron 560
Serial Number : 1Q8****
Chassis : Dell Desktop
Mainboard : Dell 018D1Y
Serial Number : ..CN7509*********
BIOS : Dell A04 07/02/2010
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR2 DDR3

Processors
Processor : Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5800 @ 3.20GHz (2C 3.19GHz, 2MB L2)
Socket/Slot : FC LGA775

Chipset
Memory Controller : Dell P45/P43/G45/G43 DRAM Controller 4x 200MHz (800MHz), 2x 4GB DIMM DDR2 DDR3 800MHz 128-bit

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Micron 8JTF25664AZ-1G4D1D 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Micron 8JTF25664AZ-1G4D1D 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Micron 8JTF25664AZ-1G4D1D 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Micron 8JTF25664AZ-1G4D1D 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : ACR Acer V193W
(1440x900, 18.6")
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 210 (2CU 16SP SM4.1 1.24GHz, 1GB DDR3 1.2GHz 128-bit, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
OpenCL GP Processor : NVIDIA GeForce 210 (16SP 2C 1.24GHz, 1GB DDR3 1.2GHz 128-bit)
Compute Shader Processor : NVIDIA GeForce 210 (16SP 2C 1.24GHz, 1GB DDR3 1.2GHz 128-bit)
CUDA GP Processor : NVIDIA GeForce 210 (16SP 2C 1.24GHz, 1GB DDR3 1.2GHz 64-bit)

Storage Devices
Seagate ST1000DM003-1CH162 (1TB, RAID, SCSI-4, 3.5") : 932GB (K:)
Seagate ST3500418AS (500.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (C:)
Generic- SD/MMC (USB2) : N/A (G:)
Generic- Compact Flash (USB2) : N/A (H:)
Generic- SM/xD Picture (USB2) : N/A (I:)
Generic- MS/MS-Pro (USB2) : N/A (L:)
TOSHIBA TransMemory (4GB, USB2) : 4GB (F:)
PLDS DVD+/-RW DH-16ABS (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (D:)

Logical Storage Devices
Glyph (K:) : 932GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST1000DM003-1CH162 (1TB, RAID, SCSI-4, 3.5")
RECOVERY : 10GB (NTFS)
Removable Drive (F:) : 4GB (FAT32) @ TOSHIBA TransMemory (4GB, USB2)
OS (C:) : 456GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST3500418AS (500.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache)
Removable Drive (G:) : N/A @ Generic- SD/MMC (USB2)
Removable Drive (H:) : N/A @ Generic- Compact Flash (USB2)
Removable Drive (I:) : N/A @ Generic- SM/xD Picture (USB2)
Removable Drive (L:) : N/A @ Generic- MS/MS-Pro (USB2)
Hard Disk (Q:) : N/A
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ PLDS DVD+/-RW DH-16ABS (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Dell LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : ITE IT8720F
Audio Device : Dell HD Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semi High Definition Audio
Audio Device : EVGA High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Codec : nVidia 000B
Audio Codec : nVidia 000B
Audio Codec : nVidia 000B
Disk Controller : Dell 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
Disk Controller : Jmicron JMB36X PCIE-to-SATAII/IDE RAID Controller
USB Controller 1 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #4
USB Controller 2 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #5
USB Controller 3 : Dell USB EHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 4 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #1
USB Controller 5 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 6 : Dell USB UHCI Controller #3
USB Controller 7 : Dell USB EHCI Controller #1
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : 13330 XIO2213A PCI Express to 1394b OHCI with 3-Port PHY
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel ICH SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Canon MG3200 series Printer (USB, Colour)

Scanners and Cameras
Scanner : Canon MG3200 series (Scanner, USB)

Peripherals
Media Player : Toshiba TransMemory (3.75GB)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (Ethernet, 100Mbps)

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7601 (Service Pack 1)
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 4.8

[JoelG]

The processor is pretty underpowered, but if you're not using a lot of VI's, it would probably be ok for basic tracking.

How many plugins are you using? How many tracks?

I know you mentioned doing optimizations, be sure to have gone through and done the recommendations here: http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...oting/en367983 if you haven't yet. Specifically anything related to power saving.

Joel

[banjo71]

I have an example of tracking just now. I tracked 6 mic'd acoustic instruments (six mono tracks) and a click track. No plugins except for click. Super fast responses. I close the session, open it back up and now when ever an instrument plays back there is "regurgitation" noises, or hiccups, maybe a half dozen each second. I think it's the Fast Track Pro acting up. It never stops playing, just plays through the hiccups. And it doesn't hiccup during the parts where no acoustic instrument is playing - just where there is active gain in the music. I'm going to disconnect the USB cord, power it down and back on, reconnect the USB and see if that doesn't do it. If not, I'm going to upgrade the driver back up to most current (someone advised me to use the next to last version of Fast Track Pro, so here goes.)

[banjo71]

Yep, that fixed it "temporarily", until it acts up again. I'm gonna get me a different interface I guess.

[JoelG]

You're not hibernating or putting the computer to sleep by chance? Those two are both no-go's with Avid/M-Audio hardware at least.

Joel

[banjo71]

It's not hibernating or sleeping at all. All the settings are the same as when I had M-Powered 8.0.5 and that was a solid system with no problems hardly ever.

How important is it and what are the symptoms of not disabling the network adapter? After the freeze this last time, I manually shut down the system and when I repowered the computer, Adobe was waiting to be updated and installed. So I installed Adobe and continued to troubleshoot

I tried disabling the network adapter as in the optimizations, but my waves license manager wouldn't let Pro Tools recognize my licenses I have through Waves. I'm pretty confused.

[Andy Gone]

Originally Posted by banjo71

<...>

I tried disabling the network adapter as in the optimizations, but my waves license manager wouldn't let Pro Tools recognize my licenses I have through Waves. I'm pretty confused.

Just and idea... Try moving your Waves licenses to a USB stick and then disabling your network adapter. Just to check if it is the issue.

[banjo71]

It's looking more and more like not the Fast Track Pro, not the network adapter, but it could be the graphics card.

I have a NVIDIA GeForce 210 ePCI graphics card. Come to find out that Pro Tools 10 requires NVIDIA Quadro graphics cards...!! I had no idea until I browsed Pro Tools 10 Qualified Graphics Cards in the knowledge base.

Avid needs to make sure these requirements are all listed somewhere before we go out and upgrade.