Upgrade to 2018 ultimate audio drop out

[ubxf]

Hello,
i was happily in 10.10.5 / 11hd /HDX land when i realized it was time to upgrade. So i got a new ssd drive and did a clean install of high sierra 10.13.2 and 2018.7. Everything looked like it was working well at first but when i put up a real session that had many tracks and plug ins i started getting random drop outs (silence) during playback. I figured that i went too far and backtracked to 10.12.6 / 2018.4 but the same problem is happening. After i looked at the recommended Avid list i saw that my computer Mac Pro early 2009 ( upgraded to 5,1 6 core 3.3 GHz) might be the problem. The other one is i have 2 Digi 192 not supported either. Reading through the different threads i didn't see anyone with similar trouble. Is my only option a new computer and interface ? i wished to try before i buy and was told by Avid that there wasn't any trial for 2018 ultimate.
Any suggestions would be appreciated
Thanks

[ubxf]

I just thought that the graphics card (GT120) could be the problem .
HD 5770 might be better?

[Rich Breen]

There are loads of those machines out there with that graphics card and those I/Os happily running the same software as you. You should be able to get this system to run just fine. Personally I have a similar setup (dual hex core though) and regularly run 100 - 150 tracks with fairly heavy plug-in complement with zero issues.

So random audio drop-outs with no error messages? First thing that comes to mind is plug-ins; can you narrow it down to specific plugs? All plugs at latest known-good versions? Do things work fine when *no* plugs in the session? Remove all except core plug-ins from the plug-ins folder and see how it runs. Any chance one or more plugs are running in trial mode?

After that: Clocking all OK? Drives/drive interfaces all solid? Your description of the issue is fairly vague, so hard to know where to start, but there's no reason that machine can't work just fine.

[ubxf]

Thanks Rich, yes no error message and when i looked at disk activity or processing meter nothing unusual like spikes. I bypassed all plug ins and still same problem. I will try to remove all plug ins before launching protools.
The other thing that is new to me is the system and protools are on a Samsung 860 SSD drive.

[ubxf]

Thanks Rich. So you were right it was the plug ins. No error message was the clue that something sneaky was going on. I had the problem with all plug in bypassed so i removed all plugs and relaunched protools. The problem was gone. then added plugs one at a time till i started hearing the drop out. It turns out that my Isotope plugs lost the connection to the ilok and were running in demo mode which induces a drop out (without warning even if bypassed)
Thank you for your help it gave me the confidence that the hardware might be ok, things had been so stable for so long that i had forgotten how to troubleshoot :)

[Rich Breen]

excellent! thanks for posting back.

[midnightrambler]

Originally Posted by ubxf

It turns out that my Isotope plugs lost the connection to the ilok and were running in demo mode which induces a drop out (without warning even if bypassed)

Yes this has happened to me before as well! Total pain in the neck.