Trying to help my PT-owning friend. Failing so far. Halp!

[DaveNagy]

Hi all,

I have a musician friend who's not too familiar with PCs. I'm a computer buff, but am pretty clueless about PT. Together, we are attempting to get PT LE 6.1.1 (with an MBox 1) installed onto his recently rebuilt PC. So far, it's been a bit of a bust, and I was hoping someone could give me a quick checklist of what steps I should take, and in which order. Pretty please.

(I apologize for making my first post a plea for help. If this were my system that I was configuring, I would have already read this forum for weeks, made notes, checklists, etc. I wouldn't be so clueless now. But, it's not my system, and I'm not looking for a new hobby, so I'm begging you to help me short-cut the debugging process a bit. I know this is annoying to all you old hands that did this the correct, honest, and hard way. I empathize. Thank you again.)

Okay. My buddy received an MBox 1 package back in 2004-ish. Back then I helped him build a PC for it, but he did the PT install himself. It took him about 3 months to get it to (mostly) stop crashing, as I recall. I was able to find that "DEP fix" for him, and that seemed to let him run it okay. Flash forward to today: I've built him a new mo' better box. Reinstalled XP Home. Did all the Windows Updates, which include SP3 and (eek!) IE 8. (Which I now understand is the mortal enemy of PT. I can remove it if you advise me too.)

The new box is a 3GHz Core 2 Duo on an EVGA mobo. NVIDIA nForce 730i northbridge. Onboard GeForce 9300 video. 4GB memory, of which 2.75GB is usable. 640GB SATA drive, onto which we are installing everything. There's also a 200GB IDE drive connected, which contains his old Windows and PT install. (He'll be moving his files and projects over, and then reformatting that drive.)

Here's what happened during our failed attempt at installing/running PT last night:

The disc he has is labeled: PT LE 6.1.1. It came with the MBox. I went and downloaded the "Pro Tools LE 6.1 to 6.4 Update" from the Digi website. I also downloaded the "InterLok drivers installer v5.8.10.3223" from the PACE site. I did not download anything like the "Pro Tools LE 6.4cs9" update, because it looked like that only applied to "Digi 002" (whatever that is) users. This may have been a fatal error. Not sure.

First, I installed PT 6.1.1 off the disc. No obvious probs. Then I installed the 6.4 update. Then I installed the PACE InterLok driver update. Then I tried to run PT for the first time. It complained about the lack of hardware. Ah, duh! Plugged in the MBox. The "Found New Hardware" notifications popped up. I told it to load the drivers, but it couldn't find them. Twice. I have no idea where the various driver installers were storing the files, so I wasn't able to point the hardware wizard at them explicitly. It was at some point in here where we were asked to restart the PC again.

Bam. Blue screen. Auto restart. Over and over. Can't even get into Windows now. Safe mode. Didn't help. Unplugged MBox. Didn't help. Chose the "Last known good settings" option on the boot screen. Yay! We're back in.

Went into the Hardware Wizard and uninstalled all the driverless Digi devices listed there. Poked around on the Digi site again, looking for some hardware drivers that XP would actually use/recognize. Found some "Version 7" drivers. Installed those. Windows actually recognized them and showed a device as being installed. But the found-new-hardware wizard still failed twice more, again complaining about un-findable drivers.

Tried to run PT again. Now, it's complaining about a missing .dll. DAE.dll, maybe? I don't remember. The .dll did exist, however. I assume that it was the wrong version, and that perhaps that "Version 7" driver update is incompatible with PT 6.4. Or something.

IE8 is currently installed. I can try nuking it if you think that might help. I checked out the DEP settings, and they are set the way Digi recommends. "Windows only programs", or something like that. I can try the more drastic "DEP fix" found here, if anyone thinks that will help.

So that's it. I'm really hoping one of you can tell me the correct sequence of things to do and install, so this will work. Thanks in advance.

PS. If the path of least resistance is to upgrade PT or ditch the MBox, let me know that too. My buddy doesn't want to spend any more money, but I'm willing to twist his arm a bit, just to protect my sanity!

[JMS40]

You must dump IE8. It breaks Pro Tools in XP.
You must install cs9 in order to make 6.4 compatible with SP2 and SP3... that goes for any Digi device but especially USB devices like the Mbox. SP2 and higher with Mbox is a showstopper without cs9.
You should also install cs6 which is a plugin bug fix.
Lastly, update your PACE drivers to the latest 32 bit drivers.
cs6
http://archive.digidesign.com/download/cs/64cs6/lewin/
cs9
http://archive.digidesign.com/download/cs/64cs9/lewin/
PACE
http://www.paceap.com/dldrvr.html

This is all necessary but keep in mind, number one, 6.4 will only utilize one of the processors on your dual core. (The first PTLE version that supports multi core processors is 7.0. Your friend could buy and update to the latest version of PT, version 8, if he wishes. PT 8 will be the last version for the original Mbox. Digi is dropping support.)
Number two, keep in mind, all of this assumes the new computer you built uses compatible components. You can post a Sandra system report if you'd like the users here to have a look for you... See the General Troubleshooting thread for instructions and download link.

[JMS40]

I just noticed you wrote this:

Core 2 Duo on an EVGA mobo. NVIDIA nForce 730i northbridge.

You made a bad choice there as Intel processors need to be paired with Intel chipsets for Pro Tools use. This mismatch doesn't stop everyone, but it is problematic for many and Digi warns about this in the Compatibility documents.

I encourage you to try making the changes I mentioned above, but if you still have issues, this is likely the culprit.

[TOM@METRO]

He's not wrong.^^^

[spkguitar]

Originally Posted by JMS40

Your friend could buy and update to the latest version of PT, version 8, if he wishes.

I personally would highly recommend this. You will have far fewer "troubles". (OK, some new ones as well, but... )

[DaveNagy]

Thanks so much for the prompt and detailed advice. Sounds like there are a few low hanging fruit I can try right away. Nuking IE8, for instance.

How does this sequence sound? I worry that I will do things in the wrong order, and trap myself in BSOD hell part way through.

1. Undo everything I can. Uninstall PT. Uninstall hardware in Device Manager. Uninstall IE8. (If you recommend it, I can nuke XP entirely and start fresh.)
2. Install PT 6.1.1 off of the original disc
3. Install the PT 6.4 upgrade. (Or, should I get my drivers in order, first?)
4. Install cs6, cs9, and the PACE update.
5. Plug in the MBox. Hope and pray it gets recognized this time.
6. Fire up PT.
7. Profit!

Bummer about the Intel/NVidia combo. I did not know that. I can only hope that won't be a show stopper.

Oh, and I will advocate to my friend that he consider upgrading to PT 8. Any quick advice on the most economical way to do that? He's a college professor, if that opens any avenues.

Thanks again. Awesome response.

[JMS40]

If it were me, I wouldn't un-install PT quite yet.
I would roll IE back to version 7, then apply the cs updates, then the PACE drivers and see what happens.

If that fails and you end up doing a reinstall of Pro Tools, I would use the Pro Tools Uninstaller Utility - "PTNUKE" to do a clean wipe.

One thing you mentioned in the first post you should avoid... never use the Windows New Hardware prompt to install Pro Tools drivers. The PT install instructions advise that you ignore those prompts and use only the PT installer.
Do you have a copy of the Mbox Getting Started guide with the installation instructions?
Getting Started with Mbox-6.4-Download

As for buying PT version 8... it's available on the main Digidesign site in the DigiStore and also from retailers like Sweetwater.

There is an Academic discounted version BTW:
http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PTLEv8-eEdu/

[AirborneFO]

Dude, I really have nothing to add to this conversation other than your post made me laugh! I have been in your spot and it just had me laughing the entire time! Anyways.....carry on. LMAO

[DaveNagy]

There are.... instructions?

My friend kept all his boxes and paperwork, so I imagine he's got that Getting Started guide somewhere. It sounds like you advocate ignoring any old paper versions and instead, just download the 6.4 version.

What a novel idea.... reading the manual.

Ah, so I just ignore the "Found New Hardware" prompts, eh? That's encouraging. I think I effectively did that, since the wizard always utterly failed to achieve anything useful. So, if the PT installer does its job, in the end I will end up with nothing but happy, recognized devices in the Device Manager? 'Cause it's been ugly in there, so far.

Thanks again.

[DaveNagy]

A few updates:

My friend tried re-installing PT 6.1, and everything, miraculously, started working. Until he upgraded to 6.4, and then it all blew up again. He says he did everything recommended above, except for getting rid of IE 8, so that may be the final hurdle.

But since he's only using one of the cores in his shiny new CPU, he's pretty jazzed about the idea of upgrading. Hang the expense! (He thinks he can get a good deal if goes through his contacts at the university.)

Anyway, that's where things stand at the moment. Thanks again for the advice.