"Pro Tools hardware is either not installed or used by another program" ??

[awritersparadise]

Everything was fine.. nothing has changed. nothing was updated from it last working fine.. and now I get this error when booting PT..
"Pro Tools hardware is either not installed or used by another program"

so I hold down N... and it's not seeing my Apollo interface all of a sudden.. so I unplug/plug... reboot.. same prob.... I repeat a few times.. then it finds it.. but is now set for 32ms playback hardware.. so I change it to 256.. reboot.. and it's not finding it again...

What is happening?
Please help.
I found one thing on the PT help site about a midi setting.. but I can't find that particular one anywhere in PT 2019..and it feels unrelated to this.

S

[musicman691]

Couple of things to check:
Is Windows using your audio interface for system sounds? It shouldn't.
Is your iLok plugged into a working USB2 port?

Peripheral to this:
Don't hot plug/unplug peripherals from the computer even though theoretically you may be able to. Too much weirdness can happen. Not to mention possible port damage.

[awritersparadise]

I've used this same setup for 2 years, so not sure why it would all of a sudden start this. I haven't removed any iLoks (literally ever).. and when I do, I'm OCD about doing it right. Can't be iLok because it loads software and plugins fine.. just says PT "hardware" is either not installed or used by another program. PT is all of a sudden locking up here and there and when I reboot the system.. load PT, I get this message.

i DID find that windows was trying to use it as both input and output device.. so I stopped that.. thought for sure that was it.. but same thing... even after reboot.. I press N down.. and PT even sees my apollo.. but when I choose it, it then gives me the error. Can't believe this.

PT help files mention: Set Sound In/Out in Audio MIDI Setup to Built-In
but I see this no where.. maybe only a mac thing? again, seems unrelated.

and FYI - Apollo is definitely working - the Apollo software finds it perfectly.. loads great.. and all my instruments routed through it I hear just fine as normal with normal levels and faders.. just PT has stopped playing nice with it.
Have session in 30 mins.. normally after 10 reboots, this stops.. but no luck right now..

[Benoni]

Try trashing prefs.

Try re-installing the driver.

[albee1952]

FWIW, many times a Windows update or driver update will change some settings without warning. The last 3 updates reset Power Management on MOST of my USB ports(most, but not all) and my Windows default sound device(which is supposed to be the optical SPDIF on the motherboard) has been reset to my interface at least once, and changed to HDMI every time I update the nVidia driver

[awritersparadise]

trashed prefs... same.
had PT 2019.5... just installed 2019.6 .. same

it'll randomly work after 20 reboots and then after a few hours suddenly my HW Buffer Size is magically changed from 256 to 32 or sometimes 64 in pro tools... by itself.. I keep it on 256.. it's never done this before.. but keeps changing now to really low.. and clicks.. so I go to my Apollo software and it'll say something completely different....and it is from my Apollo software that I have to set this setting.. so I change it back to 256.. then restart pro tools and that's when suddenly it says hardware iis in use.. or not installed... and depending the reboot, Apollo only shows up every other reboot.. it's very very unstable.

Guess I'll try reinstalled Apollo driver.. from there, I'm lost.. and this is costing me so much time I didn't have to fix new probs this week. Stopping me in my tracks.. (no pun intended) haha.