Pro Tools MP 9 freezes (Not Responding)

[Hopesfall6x6x6]

Hi everyone, this is my first post ever. I just recently purchased the M-Audio Fast Track C400 and Pro Tools MP 9. Now before this I was using a Fast Track with Pro Tools Essentials 8 and I never had a problem, loved it. Just wanted more. So I bought the new stuff. First I bought the C400. Installed, ran good through Sonar Cake Walk. I then noticed Pro Tools 8 Essentials started freezing and not responding. So I went to buy Pro Tools MP 9 thinking this would solve my problem. So I bought it. Installed, program turns on, everything loads. As soon as I move the mouse it freezes. Actually the moment I do anything it freezes. So I went on Avid's support page did all the optimizing suggestions. Still freezes. I got desperate... I uninstalled everything and wiped my computer out restoring it to factory condition. Updated everything. New Install. Same problem. I am on day 4 with no Pro Tools. I am starting to loose my mind. Previous to owning Pro Tools MP 9 I had Pro Tools Essentials 8, Sonar Cake Walk 7, FL Studio 9, POD Farm 2.0. All of this worked amazingly before the Fast Track C400. That's when the issues started happening. But I know it cant be the C400 because it worked like a charm in Cake walk, just not in Pro Tools... Now my computer was made to be able to handle things like this. I will post the Specs under this after I'm done typing this book. So yeah, I have no idea why Pro Tools isn't working. And yes I have the Ilok plugged in as well. Let me know if anyone can be of help... For the record, Pro Tools seems to be doing everything its suppose to do, but it takes at least 5 minuets for it to do anything. So it seems like the problem is that It keeps freezing and not responding, then after 5 minuets of wait time, it does what it was suppose to do. This cant be normal?




HP Pavilion Elite HPE-112y Desktop PC High Performance Edition



Please Help...

[Hopesfall6x6x6]

Sandra Report

Computer
Model : HP Pavilion VT637AA-ABA HPE-112y 103C_53316J
Serial Number : MXX00*****
Chassis : HP Desktop
Mainboard : FoxConn ALOE
BIOS : AMI (OEM) 5.05 10/26/2009
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR3

Processors
Processor : AMD Phenom(tm) II X4 925 Processor (4C 2.8GHz, 2GHz IMC, 4x 512kB L2, 6MB L3)
Socket/Slot : AM2r2/AM3

Chipset
Memory Controller : HP RS780/880 Host Bridge 2x 2GHz (4GHz)
Memory Controller : AMD F10 Athlon 64/Opteron/Sempron HT Hub 2x 2GHz (4GHz), 2x 4GB DIMM DDR3 1GHz 128-bit

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673EH1-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673EH1-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673EH1-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673EH1-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : (Standard monitor types) Generic Non-PnP Monitor
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series (2CU 40SP SM4.1 600MHz, 512MB DDR3 1GHz 64-bit, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
OpenCL GP Processor : ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series (40SP 2C 600MHz, 256MB DDR3 1GHz 64-bit)

Storage Devices
WDC WD10EADS-65M2BX (1000GB, SATA, 3.5") : 931GB (C:) (D:)
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 (J:)
hp DVD A DH16AAL (RAID, DVD+-RW, CD-RW) : N/A (E:)
hp BD O DH4O3S (RAID, BD-R, DVD+-R, CD-R) : N/A (F:)

Logical Storage Devices
SYSTEM : 100MB (NTFS)
HP (C:) : 920GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD10EADS-65M2BX (1000GB, SATA, 3.5")
FACTORY (D:) : 11GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD10EADS-65M2BX (1000GB, SATA, 3.5")
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 (J:) : N/A @ Generic- MS/MS-Pro (USB2)
Optical Drive (E:) : N/A @ hp DVD A DH16AAL (RAID, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)
Optical Drive (F:) : N/A @ hp BD O DH4O3S (RAID, BD-R, DVD+-R, CD-R)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : HP IXP SB600/700/800 SMBUS Controller
LPC Hub Controller 2 : HP SB700/800 LPC host controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : ITE IT8720F
Audio Device : HP IXP SB600 High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semi 888 High Definition Audio
Audio Device : MSI RV730XT Audio device [Radeon HD 4670]
Audio Codec : ATI (AMD) HDMI Audio
Disk Controller : HP SB700/800 SATA Controller [Non-RAID5 mode]
USB Controller 1 : HP SB700/800 USB OHCI0 Controller
USB Controller 2 : HP SB700/800 USB OHCI1 Controller
USB Controller 3 : HP SB700/800 USB EHCI Controller
USB Controller 4 : HP SB700/800 USB OHCI0 Controller
USB Controller 5 : HP SB700/800 USB OHCI1 Controller
USB Controller 6 : HP SB700/800 USB EHCI Controller
USB Controller 7 : HP SB700/800 USB OHCI2 Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : HP VIA VT6308 1394 OHCI Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : ATI SB700 SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)

Peripherals

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (Ethernet)
Wireless Adapter : Qualcomm Atheros 802.11 a/b/g/n Dualband Wireless Network Module (802.11n (HT), AES-CCMP, 65Mbps)

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

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 4.2

[Darryl Ramm]

Here we go again with another WDC Caviar Green....

The single WDC Caviar Green hard drive you have is a piece of junk and known to cause problems like you are having. It is a low-performance low-cost drive that spins slower than the required 7200 rpm and has "green" power management features that cause havoc with Pro Tools. Your whole hard drive setup does not come close to meeting the Pro Tools requirements. You need at least two separate hard drives (not partitions on one drive), one for boot/system and one dedicated to audio sessions. Get a 7200 rpm SATA drives or look at good quality SSD drives (Samsung, Intel, OWC, etc.). Personally I would not wast time on spinning disks nowadays.

You need this spec drive for your audio/session drive. personally I would not use a WDC Caviar Green or any similar drive for the system drive either, especially if you want to use VI/sample based plugins (The VI samples would go on the system drive). you may get away with a single for SSD drive for system and audio sessions although this is not recommended.

Once you have purchased and installed proper spec drives(s) make sure you follow all the system optimization steps shown under the "help us help you..." Link on this page.

Darryl

[YYR123]

Search this forum for trashing your preferences also might help

Magana get a black drive better performance no issues get a 32mb cache or 64 meg cache

[Hopesfall6x6x6]

Wow, I spent almost 1,300 bucks on this computer just a few years ago. It was purchased just for recording. Like I said I ran Sonar cake Walk Producer edition 8 just fine on this. Plus Pro Tools Essentials 8 and FL Studio. I never had a problem. Not even a slight freeze. Then when I got the C400 I tried running it with Pro Tools Essentials 8 and then out of no where Pro Tools Essentials started freezing up but would come back rather quick, not a big deal U pushed through it and what not. But then I wanted PTMP9. Is it really possible that Pro Tools MP 9 requires that much more then Sonar Cake Walk, FL Studio 9, POD FARM 2.0 and PT Essentials 8 all together running at the same time...... That blows my mind. If what you say is true then I'm pretty pissed. When I ordered this computer I had it ordered for recording. So the big question is, why now does it all of a sudden freeze. Never did in any other recording program. But regardless, thanks for the help. I really do appreciate it.

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Hopesfall6x6x6

Wow, I spent almost 1,300 bucks on this computer just a few years ago. It was purchased just for recording. Like I said I ran Sonar cake Walk Producer edition 8 just fine on this. Plus Pro Tools Essentials 8 and FL Studio. I never had a problem. Not even a slight freeze. Then when I got the C400 I tried running it with Pro Tools Essentials 8 and then out of no where Pro Tools Essentials started freezing up but would come back rather quick, not a big deal U pushed through it and what not. But then I wanted PTMP9. Is it really possible that Pro Tools MP 9 requires that much more then Sonar Cake Walk, FL Studio 9, POD FARM 2.0 and PT Essentials 8 all together running at the same time...... That blows my mind. If what you say is true then I'm pretty pissed. When I ordered this computer I had it ordered for recording. So the big question is, why now does it all of a sudden freeze. Never did in any other recording program. But regardless, thanks for the help. I really do appreciate it.

With that disk, in no way was this computer ever close to meeting the spec of a Pro Tools computer. And personally I'd never recommend anybody buy a AMD based PC for Pro Tools. You've just been lucky. Which is what often happens with undespec computers, works fine for a while and then the smallest things sends them into a bad dark place. You might be able to mess around and get it working, but then it will just tank again some time in future. Stop wasting time and get your computer up to spec and all optimizations done. i recommend the Samsung 840 Pro if you want an incredibly impressive SSD drive.

Where did you buy this from? Nobody at an OEM/VAR should have build/sold this computer for a Pro Tools (or other DAW)/recording/multimedia computer. If you configured it yourself, next time pay attention to all the documented systems requirements.

If you want to waste hours reading about other people's misery search DUC for 'Caviar Green', they are just toxic.

Darryl

[Hopesfall6x6x6]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

With that disk, in no way was this computer ever close to meeting the spec of a Pro Tools computer. And personally I'd never recommend anybody buy a AMD based PC for Pro Tools. You've just been lucky. Which is what often happens with undespec computers, works fine for a while and then the smallest things sends them into a bad dark place. You might be able to mess around and get it working, but then it will just tank again some time in future. Stop wasting time and get your computer up to spec and all optimizations done. i recommend the Samsung 840 Pro if you want an incredibly impressive SSD drive.

Where did you buy this from? Nobody at an OEM/VAR should have build/sold this computer for a Pro Tools (or other DAW)/recording/multimedia computer. If you configured it yourself, next time pay attention to all the documented systems requirements.

If you want to waste hours reading about other people's misery search DUC for 'Caviar Green', they are just toxic.

Darryl

Well... I suppose I messed up. I ordered this computer from BestBuy over the phone with a computer tech. They offered the Pro Tools Essentials Bundle when I purchased this. So I wanted a computer to run Pro Tools, this is what they suggested. I bought the PC with the Pro Tools essentials bundle. Then as time went on I got tired of being so limited and wanted to better my equipment. Now I suppose its time to better my computer. Please under stand 3 years ago when this computer came out I knew virtually nothing about audio production or what type of computers to have. I just wanted to learn. So yeah, I suppose my biggest mistake was trusting a BestBuy employee to sell me what I wanted. Now when I think about it I spent about 2 grand for PC, monitor, M-Audio Speakers, Interface.... I could have just bought a Mac. Anyway, thank you for pointing me in the right direction. These past 4 nights of no sleep was really getting to me. I appreciate your help very much. Thanks again Darryl.

[Hopesfall6x6x6]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

With that disk, in no way was this computer ever close to meeting the spec of a Pro Tools computer. And personally I'd never recommend anybody buy a AMD based PC for Pro Tools. You've just been lucky. Which is what often happens with undespec computers, works fine for a while and then the smallest things sends them into a bad dark place. You might be able to mess around and get it working, but then it will just tank again some time in future. Stop wasting time and get your computer up to spec and all optimizations done. i recommend the Samsung 840 Pro if you want an incredibly impressive SSD drive.

Where did you buy this from? Nobody at an OEM/VAR should have build/sold this computer for a Pro Tools (or other DAW)/recording/multimedia computer. If you configured it yourself, next time pay attention to all the documented systems requirements.

If you want to waste hours reading about other people's misery search DUC for 'Caviar Green', they are just toxic.

Darryl

Okay, so I bought a new hard drive and the problem still persists... now what could it be?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Hopesfall6x6x6

Okay, so I bought a new hard drive and the problem still persists... now what could it be?

What exact hard drive? Attached how? With what file system?

Just post a Sandra report made with all you drives attached and explain where the audio session files are stored (did you move them to the new drive? or create new session files?).

What are all the playback engine dialog settings.

Have you done any of the standard trouble shooting steps, esp. deleted preferences and databases. All explained under the "Help us Help You..." link above. Have you list all the standard Pro Tools optimizations you've done, and any you have not done.

Darryl

[Hopesfall6x6x6]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

What exact hard drive? Attached how? With what file system?

Just post a Sandra report made with all you drives attached and explain where the audio session files are stored (did you move them to the new drive? or create new session files?).

What are all the playback engine dialog settings.

Have you done any of the standard trouble shooting steps, esp. deleted preferences and databases. All explained under the "Help us Help You..." link above. Have you list all the standard Pro Tools optimizations you've done, and any you have not done.

Darryl

I am working on producing a new Sandra Report now. For some reason its not working. I bought a Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm 64 cache 1 Tb 4.1ms speed. I have no sessions because Pro Tools continuously freezes which will not allow me to do anything. But yes I created a folder called Pro Tools Projects and Data in the newly added "K" drive, which had nothing in it. I followed every step for optimizing ( which I think is why Sandra is saying error right now). I am currently uninstalling Sandra Lite and going to reinstall to produce a report. Sample rate is 48 buffer is 512. C400 control panel is also set to the same.