6101 Error - Potential Solution - Change playback engine to 1 processor

[Dave Lang]

Thought I would post something I stumbled across that really helped me out and might help someone else out in the future.

These days I'm running PT10 plain on an early 2011 15" MacBook Pro. For some reason I had no end of trouble with 6101 errors. I did all the optimizations (turn off spotlight etc), added more ram, put session on an external drive, try different number of processors, etc. etc. - everything you were supposed to do and I could get no relief.

The system worked but just got overloaded easily and started throwing up 6101 errors. I could get through simple (12-16 track) mixes with moderate numbers of plugs but something didn't seem right. And I couldn't mix at all at a higher sample rate or bit depth than 44.1 / 24 without 6101 errors. Argh.

I thought the computer was just too slow but was frustrated since the newer computers aren't much faster.

I was thinking of upgrading to PT11 just to see if it would help or maybe even switching DAWs.

I replaced the system drive with an SSD drive and though that made the whole computer work a lot better it didn't help the 6101 errors.

Then I stumbled across someone on some message board through google with a similarish problem who suggested that setting the playback engine to 1 processor might help. So it gave it a shot.

And the problem went away. Like magic. Can't believe it.

Hope this helps someone else.

[serio]

Out of curiosity, what interface are you using?

[Southsidemusic]

As i understood this you should use 1 less core of the total.

If you have a quad core it should say 3 cores and if you have 8 cores use 7
and if your Mac is a "dual" use 1 core for PT so the OS can have one core to roam freely

Best Regards
Chrizzooo

[Dave Lang]

I'm using an m-audio ProFire 2626 with the latest (support Mavericks) OSX driver.

I had the same issue under the previous OS.

Both OS installs were "clean" blank disk - OS - ProTools installs.

I tried the "one less" than total option and it definitely did not work. For my laptop I am given the choice to use up to 8 processors. No setting works as well as only choosing 1 processor (so far). I never did try "2". But 3 thru 8 sucked. 6101 crash all the time once you put some plugins on tracks.

With only 1 processor selected, the same sessions that were crashy work just fine.

Seriously - if you run into this problem try using only 1 processor.