Play/Pause issue driving me nuts...

[kkfaudio]

I've been having this intermittently too over the last month on my new Quad core 7.4cs7 computer. It was especially noticeable this morning.

I just disconnected the FW drive that I use mostly for transfers since I'm running off an internal SATAII, and it hasn't happened over the last hour or so.

Maybe something worth looking into?
I'll report back if I see any other change...

[HeySchlitz]

I downloaded the Tech Support folder....extracted everything and when I run the tool it opens a window that says "There doesn't appear to be a valid installation of ProTools". I'm running 7.4cs7 on SP3.

Is there something special I need to do? It looks like i'm not the only one with this issue: http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread.php?t=228749

I don't believe I trashed the prefs last time I moved the plug-ins. Is that different than the "prefetch" file?

[Teolin]

I have the same problem. Really annoying!

[HeySchlitz]

Reading back through the thread....the common elements i've seen are:

- Intel Quad processors
- DDR2 800 Ram
- Win XP SP3
- Nvidia 8xxx
- Low buffer settings (64 or 128)

Once in this state, I see it at higher buffer settings...but not sure i've ever seen it start with a higher buffer setting. Anyone seeing it without one of the things listed above? Looking to narrow the list as much as possible.

Also, I checked my IRQ settings and it seems the FW shares an IRQ with some other stuff (looks like usb controllers?). Not sure if that's a red herring or not, but is there a way to isolate that?

[GTBannah]

Where do I check for IRQ conflicts?

I just went: Control Pannel->System->Device Manager, but my FW Card isn't listed there. There were no "?"s nor "!"s like there usually are when there is a problem.

[stevedresser83]

I had this problem and while I'm not sure its 100 percent gone these 2 things have helped.... turn off speed stepping in your bios. Basically your cpu won't run at full speed when idle. Download cpu-z to see how fast your cpu is running at idle. Also, I started overclocking my q6600 to 3.0 ghz, do at your own risk. I was recording a session that had 60+ tracks obviously some were off, but there were about 10 reverbs and a few comp running also, sample rate 64, no probs. My ram is 4 gigs of ddr2 800 vid card ati something... 3gb ram tweak on.

[GTBannah]

Originally Posted by stevedresser83

.... sample rate 64, .....

?!?!

[AlexLakis]

He meant buffer size.

Originally Posted by GTBannah

Where do I check for IRQ conflicts?

Go back to device manager and, under the view menu, select "Resources by Type."

Originally Posted by HeySchlitz

Reading back through the thread....the common elements i've seen are:

- Intel Quad processors
- DDR2 800 Ram
- Win XP SP3
- Nvidia 8xxx
- Low buffer settings (64 or 128)

Once in this state, I see it at higher buffer settings...but not sure i've ever seen it start with a higher buffer setting. Anyone seeing it without one of the things listed above? Looking to narrow the list as much as possible.

Yep, that's what a lot of people are running these days. I believe these common elements are purely incidental, however, since this problem has plagued users for many years. I've experienced this play/stop issue on several systems (PC and Mac) over the years even at higher buffer settings (although it occurs with less frequency the higher you go.)

Originally Posted by HeySchlitz

Also, I checked my IRQ settings and it seems the FW shares an IRQ with some other stuff (looks like usb controllers?). Not sure if that's a red herring or not, but is there a way to isolate that?

This potentially could cause problems, yes, although USB controllers usually play okay with other devices...If you can spare them, try disabling some of your USB controllers in your BIOS at bootup and see if that changes anything (I'm guessing it won't, tho.) The only real sure show-stopper IRQ conflics I've encountered with past systems using the 002 have been between the firewire controller and video card/UAD-1 PCI cards.

On one laptop system I had years ago, the onboard firewire insisted on sharing an IRQ with the video card, so I just bought a PCMCIA FW card and it was assigned a seperate IRQ. You could also mess around with "Standard PC" mode and manually assign your IRQs, but I would not recommend it.

stevedresser83, keep us posted on whether or not your issues are still occuring after turning off speed stepping.

[TCM]

Originally Posted by stevedresser83

I had this problem and while I'm not sure its 100 percent gone these 2 things have helped.... turn off speed stepping in your bios. Basically your cpu won't run at full speed when idle. Download cpu-z to see how fast your cpu is running at idle. Also, I started overclocking my q6600 to 3.0 ghz, do at your own risk. I was recording a session that had 60+ tracks obviously some were off, but there were about 10 reverbs and a few comp running also, sample rate 64, no probs. My ram is 4 gigs of ddr2 800 vid card ati something... 3gb ram tweak on.

Mine is OCed to 3 GHz, buffer 256....

OC doesn't help to avoid this behavior!

[HeySchlitz]

Originally Posted by AlexLakis

Yep, that's what a lot of people are running these days. I believe these common elements are purely incidental, however, since this problem has plagued users for many years. I've experienced this play/stop issue on several systems (PC and Mac) over the years even at higher buffer settings (although it occurs with less frequency the higher you go.)

Hmm....so if it's PC and Mac...doesn't that eliminate hardware from the equation? That would imply this is a software bug.

Digi, any luck reproducing the issue in house? I can stop worrying about this if I know you know about it. If you don't see an issue on your end, then i'll continue to make a case for it.