Pro Tools 8 Power Mac G5...WTF???

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by GTRXTC3000

I am having very similar problems with my G5 Quad 2.5 Power PC & Pro-Tools 8 LE. Lots of errors saying delete some plug-ins (while running very few) or raise the hardware buffer size which I am running at full capacity (1024). My cpu meter on the G5 shows a 15 to 20 percent higher rate than the cpu monitor in pro-tools and goes into the red. Any solutions? 7 ran smoothly with Tiger 10.4. Any help or input on this matter is greatly appreciated.

What are the error numbers? Have you verified your plug-in versions are compatible?

Pro Tools Plug-In Compatibility Grid

Have you done any of the steps in the General Troubleshooting thread?

[GTRXTC3000]

Thanks for getting back to me. I have verified and updated all my plug-ins to be compatible with 8 from the compatibility chart prior to using PT8 and double checked again. Error numbers are 9128 & 6086. I read the Tech support General Trouble Shooting info after I had posted my thread and did try most of the trouble shooting listed except testing ram and clean install which is what I will do next and see if things go better starting over. I also plan on setting up a separate partition for Pro-Tools once I've backed everything up. It will be a few days before I can get started on this and will post my progress as soon as I've done everything possible. Any other suggestions are most welcome and I appreciate you taking the time.

[GTRXTC3000]

Just read a post from a member called "nean" who mentioned doing a safe un-install of 7.4 then 8 on top and has no problems. I upgraded to 8 from the Digi Design website and don't recall being instructed to un-install 7.4. Was I supposed to un-install 7.4 before upgrading to 8? I'm thinking of un-installing 8, going back to 7.4 and then un-installing that, then upgrading again to 8. Is it worth my time to try that? Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm quite sure 8 is a nice improvement over 7 and look forward to using it smoothly. Thanks in advance for any help.

[infiniteloop]

*facepalm* it is specifically mentioned that a safe uninstall is essential. It's all over the upgrade threads here too.

[The Dougfather]

Do you know where it is in the install process when it fails?

I'm assuming it fails with structure free because of the icon on the structure free folder. Because it says script installing you can't see excatly what it's installing?

Have you tried doing a clean uninstall and reinstall yet?

A fresh install of 10.5.5 made no difference, i have not had a look at the machine since, not quite sure how i'm going to play it from here.

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by GTRXTC3000

Just read a post from a member called "nean" who mentioned doing a safe un-install of 7.4 then 8 on top and has no problems. I upgraded to 8 from the Digi Design website and don't recall being instructed to un-install 7.4. Was I supposed to un-install 7.4 before upgrading to 8? I'm thinking of un-installing 8, going back to 7.4 and then un-installing that, then upgrading again to 8. Is it worth my time to try that? Any help is greatly appreciated. I'm quite sure 8 is a nice improvement over 7 and look forward to using it smoothly. Thanks in advance for any help.

Technically you shouldn't have had to uninstall, but we've seen some difficult issues resolved by doing a clean uninstall of PT8 and 7.x, then reinstalling just PT8.

Also, from your previous post, what did you mean by giving Pro Tools it's own partition? You shouldn't install Pro Tools to anywhere other than the drive with the OS and you should have a separate drive to record and play back your sessions from, so there's no situation I can think of that a partition would be necessary.

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by infiniteloop

*facepalm* it is specifically mentioned that a safe uninstall is essential. It's all over the upgrade threads here too.

Some of that was added after we started seeing issues cropping up with early adopters, plus I don't think it's specified in the installation guides that an uninstall is necessary (except on Windows - where it's required..!).

[DigiTechSupt]

Originally Posted by The Dougfather

I'm assuming it fails with structure free because of the icon on the structure free folder. Because it says script installing you can't see excatly what it's installing?

A fresh install of 10.5.5 made no difference, i have not had a look at the machine since, not quite sure how i'm going to play it from here.

Well, we know this can, or should, work - why some systems are more problematic than others is still a mystery, as there are many possible causes. We have several G5 systems here, as well as on our beta team, working without issues.

Again, you're absolutely sure you've done all the general troubleshooting? Especially important - making sure you do not have firewire networking enabled, especially if you're using a firewire interface or drives.

A clean install of the OS and of Pro Tools 8 (not upgrading with a previous OS or PT version installed) also seems to clear up many issues for a lot of customers (this mainly for others reading this thread).

If you like, we could try an iChat remote session where I could take a direct look at your system and see if I can find anything that could be causing the problems. If you're interested, contact me at vi [at] digidesign [dot] com and we can try to make arrangements.

[GTRXTC3000]

I was thinking of partitioning my OS drive with a partition for Pro-Tools and I always use a separate drive for record and playback. My OS drive has all the applications that come with the OS as well as documents, music, downloads, ect. I've read about the benefits of partitioning and figured logically it might help with the cpu usage when running Pro-Tools for it to have it's own space on the drive. Am I way off base? Thank you Tech support for your response and also thanks to Infiniteloop for yours as well. I do think I will try the safe un-install as I remember doing that when I upgraded to PT7 from 6 because I did have problems the first time I upgraded and did not un-install 6. I'll keep you posted as to the result of that when I give it a try. Thanks again for all the help..much appreciated.

[DigiTechSupt]

I was thinking of partitioning my OS drive with a partition for Pro-Tools and I always use a separate drive for record and playback. My OS drive has all the applications that come with the OS as well as documents, music, downloads, ect. I've read about the benefits of partitioning and figured logically it might help with the cpu usage when running Pro-Tools for it to have it's own space on the drive.

Am I way off base?

Yes! (I'm using emphasis not to point at you, but to make it clear to anyone reading this that this info you're getting is incorrect and potentially harmful).

You should never install an application to anywhere other than your main OS drive. There is no need to partition it and it's definitely problematic if you install the application to a different partition than your OS.

Partitioning used to be more important - it's not so much these days unless you're using huge (1TB+) drives and then only if all the data you're accessing is on the same partition. This is ONLY useful for audio/video drives - partitioning the OS drive isn't necessary, nor does it help (unless, of course, you've got a specific need to partition, like you want a partition on your OS drive for specific data).