Pro Tools 8LE Freezing...brand new iMac! What is the problem?!?!

[DJM]

I just recently purchased a brand new iMac (see config below) and installed PT 8LE directly from the AVID website. Install went fine, I was even able to open some of my old PT7 Projects. But, the next day, it kept stalling at "Building Editing Window"...I had to force quit several times. I gave it a day's rest and the next day it finally allowed me to create a new session...however, now I can get as far as laying down a quick test vocal to make sure it's running correctly and the spinning beachball appears. It freezes randomly at different times, so I am not really able to pinpoint what is setting it off. All I know is I'm not doing complicated stuff, just simple tracks and it keeps freezing! I am worried that it has something to do with my external hard drive, but I even tried saving a new test session to my desktop and it still behaved the same. Any thoughts??

(I am using a WesternDigital Hard-drive that was originally used with my old PC (it has my old PT 7 files on it)...I didn't reformat it...since it seemed to be working fine. I am using a 400-800 firewire cable.)

Please help!!

iMac 21"
Snow Leopard 10.6
3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8GB memory
500GB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
---
PT 8LE (8.0.3)
MBox2 Mini

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by DJM

I just recently purchased a brand new iMac (see config below) and installed PT 8LE directly from the AVID website. Install went fine, I was even able to open some of my old PT7 Projects. But, the next day, it kept stalling at "Building Editing Window"...I had to force quit several times. I gave it a day's rest and the next day it finally allowed me to create a new session...however, now I can get as far as laying down a quick test vocal to make sure it's running correctly and the spinning beachball appears. It freezes randomly at different times, so I am not really able to pinpoint what is setting it off. All I know is I'm not doing complicated stuff, just simple tracks and it keeps freezing! I am worried that it has something to do with my external hard drive, but I even tried saving a new test session to my desktop and it still behaved the same. Any thoughts??

(I am using a WesternDigital Hard-drive that was originally used with my old PC (it has my old PT 7 files on it)...I didn't reformat it...since it seemed to be working fine. I am using a 400-800 firewire cable.)

Please help!!

iMac 21"
Snow Leopard 10.6
3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8GB memory
500GB hard drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
---
PT 8LE (8.0.3)
MBox2 Mini

Just guessing that the old drive is formatted FAT32? If so your going to want to copy that data somwhere safe (preferably 2-3 different places) and reformat the drive with Mac HFS+.

At least thats my guess.

[caruso7r]

You should maybe do what sunburst79 said. Even though it may have opened up originally the first time there may be a problem with permissions on the external drive so I would copy all the files from the external to your internal, reformat hfs+ and copy back to the external and try again. Post back to let us know if that worked.

[huzzam]

Originally Posted by caruso7r

You should maybe do what sunburst79 said. Even though it may have opened up originally the first time there may be a problem with permissions on the external drive so I would copy all the files from the external to your internal, reformat hfs+ and copy back to the external and try again. Post back to let us know if that worked.

Also: move any plug-ins that aren't up-to-date or listed as compatible *out* of your plug-ins folder. You can check here:

http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...n=news_details

I had many mysterious crashes due to some sub-par plugins being installed. I wasn't even using them, mind you; they were just in the plugin folder. Once I moved them out, all's been well.

~peter in oakland

[PRS4LIFE]

DJM,

I posted a thread about this not too long ago. I am too having the freezing/spinning beach ball issues that you explain.

You definitely might want to try and back everything up on your external hard drive and re-format it for "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" which can be found in Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility. Then go through the General Troubleshooting for Mac thread on this forum and try everything in there too.

Although, I think I've done everything I possibly could. From a clean install of snow leopard to, fresh install of pro tools, re-format of my external hard drive, and the dozen other things in the General Troubleshooting guide. I still can not pinpoint the problem. I know it's frustrating, especially when it's something as simple as a few tracks and that's it. I have stuff I want to do but feel like I'm working on pins and needles here.

[DigiTechSupt]

There is a known issue with new iMac i5's and i7's related to bluetooth. Try toggling bluetooth on or off and see if that allows you to launch Pro Tools.

We're working with Apple to find a solution for this - at the moment it's not clear exactly where the problem lies.

[PRS4LIFE]

I questioned myself whether or not bluetooth could be a cause. I don't have one of the new iMacs but I do have the new magic mouse. It's the only thing that's different about my setup aside from upgrading to snow leopard.

Although, I did use the magic mouse on Leopard for a little bit and didn't notice any issues. I still have my wired mouse. I'll turn bluetooth off and use that and report any problems.

[PRS4LIFE]

I've spent a couple days using my wired mouse, and so far no problems! I turned off bluetooth, deleted the DAE Prefs, installed the 8.0.3cs1 update, and repaired permissions. Looks like, for me at least the stalling problems are due to the bluetooth in conjunction with the magic mouse.

[tdidonato]

i'm having a very similar problem on my brand new mac pro...the "building edit window" and spinning beach ball syndrome...but eventually a session will open...it just take 15 minutes.

[PRS4LIFE]

nevermind....thought everything was fine, but it stalled again, my luck.