Looking For Rock Solid PT System

[Camilo Orozco]

Hello,

I want to know what is the best combination of software/hardware to get the most stable ProTools system?

Now I am running PT 7.3.1cs4 / 192 I/O with AdatBridge attached to the legacy port / OS X 10.4.9 / G4 MDD 1.25 ghz with 2 Gb RAM, and the system is NOT working OK, the click track is not playing consistently, sometimes I can't bounce to disk, sometimes the waveforms don't draw when recording, sometimes I get "ghost" audio.... etc...

I am using PCI-x process cards, so please focus on G4's G5's with PCI-x please.

I regret have made this "upgrade" from my old 6.7 PT system that was working like a charm.

Thank you.

Camilo.

[Drew Mazurek]

.....I want to know what is the best combination of software/hardware to get the most stable ProTools system?.............my old 6.7 PT system was working like a charm

Seems you answered your own question. Can you not just go back?

[Alécio Costa]

7.3.1/7.3.1cs4 was a no go to me.
I am back to 7.3 and up to now is fine. Except for the boring interface bug...


Pretty solid system? G4 800/933/733 + Mix System + 5.1.3 + OS 9.2.

[Camilo Orozco]

I am back to 7.3 and up to now is fine. Except for the boring interface bug...

Hello Alecio,
What Mac model and OS X version are you running in your 7.3 setup?

[Alécio Costa]

Hi, bud
MAc Pro 2.66 - 10.4.9 -

[sleadley]

It sounds like you need to follow the troubleshooting guides. I would buy a drive, install a brand new system and upgrade with the combo updater to 10.4.9 then boot from that drive and install Pro Tools to the latest version using only the factory plugs for the moment (using only the 192 interface to begin with) then see if it all works OK. I don't install the core audio drivers.
Then if that is all OK start adding plugs from your old system and see when it breaks (if it is going to break) We have a Rock Solid system that we use 24/7 on a PCIe Mac G5 Dual 2.3Ghz machine and it is great. Very very few problems. Just the usual freeze problem that plagues a few users but it does not get in the way and it happens maybe once a day. Apart from that no problems at all.
hope this help
Simon L

[Ginger]

Rock solid HD2 Accel running on a G4 Mirror door 10.4.9 PT 7.3.1cs3

Did you do a clean install? This is really the only way to go. Most of the problems people have is because of not following installation/setup instructions to a "T". You really must if you want to have a trouble free system.

At this point I've built/upgraded 20+ systems. Never had a problem. (Other than known bugs of course.) I follow compatibility docs and system settings EXACTLY.

Are you using this system for anything else? What other software is installed on it? DO you have the latest versions of your plug-ins installed? Latest ilok driver?

All these things are crucial. Also, ram is known to fail unexpectedly. That could be a factor as well.

HTH

[Camilo Orozco]

Thank you Ginger and Sleadley for your help.

Yes, brand new HD (Seagate Barracuda 7,500 RPM 250 GB Drive) , then fresh install from OS X DVD, then update the OS to 10.4.9 using “combo updater”, then repair permissions and reboot, then installing PT 7.3 , then upgrading to 7.3.1cs4, repair permissions and reboot.

At this point no other plugins except from digi’s are installed.

I make a brand new session, create 16 audio tracks, then import 16 wave files (44.1 @ 24 bit) and add them to this session, then add an click track using “track menu”, press play…. And…. It looks like it works ok for a few bars, then the click starts to play “weak” not on time… very frustrating, some times the click plays ok from the beginning to the end of the session BUT when I try to bounce the session the click goes completely out of sync!!!, I mean no click for a few seconds then 3 clicks in a row, the click goes mad!, I am talking here a simple 16 track session, If I open a heavier session, the story is worst!!, I begin to get 'drive too slow or fragmented' errors, the firewire drive is almost empty! 50 GB used 200 GB free space.

Something else, before I jumped into the 7.x wagon I saved the “old” hard disk with my trusty PT 6.7 installation just in case something didn’t work (as it is now happening), now I have the two drives installed in the computer, I am using an external Firewire drive with the “test session”, I boot using my “old” drive (OS X 10.3 with PT 6.7), then open the session and it works perfectly, then I reboot using the new drive with 7.3.1cs4 OS 10.4.9 open the SAME session and it does not work. What is going on here????

The old drive is 80 GB that came originally with the Mac, and the new is 250 GB, , I don’t know if at that time (2003) there where 250 GB HD in the market, Do you think that might be the problem???

Thank you for all your help.

Camilo.

[Ginger]

Thank you Ginger and Sleadley for your help.

The old drive is 80 GB that came originally with the Mac, and the new is 250 GB, , I don’t know if at that time (2003) there where 250 GB HD in the market, Do you think that might be the problem???

Thank you for all your help.

Camilo.

I don't think so. It doesn't sound like that's the problem. Did you setup the OS as recommended BEFORE installing ProTools? Like energy settings, turning off dashboard and spotlight, etc? At the top of this forum there is a sticky post from Digi with all the recommended settings for the OS and other trouble shooting suggestions. I follow that pretty closely. If you didn't do that, I suggest starting over. I know it's a pain and time consuming but if you didn't do these things last time before installing PT, it's really the only way to try to resolve this. Short of that, maybe one of your update downloads was corrupted.(?) But I'd start with following the OS setup first.

Sorry.

HTH