PT8 Freeze - need help fast

[Lord Hellsings]

Recently my PT8 started freezing up my whole computer on PT startup and during sessions.
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit with the 64-bit Pro Tools LE beta drivers and 8.0.3.

It's driving me insane as I have a deadline to meet in a few weeks and I can't do my thing as 80% of the time PT decides to make me restart my computer (computer reset button)

One possible solution I came up by myself was getting an external hard drive and re-install PT there.
Could that work?

At the moment I have my system disk as a RAID5 -setup containing 4 320Gb hard drives and an external disk for audio. PT is installed on the said system disk.

I'm getting desperate and appreciate any help.

SiSoftware Sandra

Computer
Model : System manufacturer P5K-E
Workgroup : WORKGROUP
Host Name : Censored
User : Censored

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Speed : 2.52GHz
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Quad-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 4x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 2x 4MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 16-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing

Computer
Mainboard : Asus P5K-E
BIOS : AMI 0806 10/31/2007
Bus(es) : ISA X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 4GB DIMM DDR2 DDR3

Chipset
Model : ASUS P35/G33/G31 Processor to I/O Controller
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 280MHz (1.12GHz)
Total Memory : 22.25GB DIMM DDR2 DDR3
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 420MHz (840MHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : A-Data DQVE1A16 1GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18 3-23-6-3)
Memory Module : A-Data DQVE1A16 1GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18 3-23-6-3)
Memory Module : A-Data DQVE1A16 1GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18 3-23-6-3)
Memory Module : A-Data DQVE1A16 1GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5-5-5-18 3-23-6-3)

Video System
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (800 SM4.1 870MHz, 2GB DDR5 4x1GHz, PCIe 2.00 x16)
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (800 SM4.1 870MHz, 2GB DDR5 4x1GHz, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (800SP 10C 870MHz, 2GB 4x1GHz)
Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (800SP 870MHz, 2GB 4x1GHz)

Storage Devices
Intel Raid 5 Volume 960.2GB (RAID) : 894GB (C:)
KingstonDataTraveler G2 16GB (USB) : 15GB (E:)
WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1 (999.6GB, USB/SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 931GB (G:)
HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH22NS40 (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (D:)
BUFFALO Virtual Cdrom (USB) : 600MB (F:)

Logical Storage Devices
Hard Disk (C:) : 894GB (NTFS) @ Intel Raid 5 Volume 960.2GB (RAID)
Removable Drive (E:) : 15GB (FAT32) @ KingstonDataTraveler G2 16GB (USB)
HD-CXU2 (G:) : 931GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1 (999.6GB, USB/SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache)
3.5" 1.44MB (A:) : N/A
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ HL-DT-STDVDRAM GH22NS40 (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
Utility_HD-CXU2 (F:) : 198MB (CDFS) @ BUFFALO Virtual Cdrom (USB)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : ASUS (ICH9) LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : Winbond W83627DHG
Audio Device : ASUS (ICH9) HD Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Analog Devices AD1988B Sound Chip
Audio Device : PC Partner Sapphire HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 PCI-E Dual Slot Fansink
Audio Codec : ATI (AMD) AA01h
Serial Port(s) : 1
Disk Controller : ASUS ICH8R (ICH8) SATA RAID Controller
Disk Controller : ASUS JMB36X PCIE-to-SATAII/IDE RAID Controller
USB Controller 1 : ASUS (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 2 : ASUS (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 3 : ASUS (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 4 : ASUS (ICH9) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
USB Controller 5 : ASUS (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 6 : ASUS (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 7 : ASUS (ICH9) USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 8 : ASUS (ICH9) USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : ASUS IEEE 1394a Firewire Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Printer : Canon MP600R Printer (Colour)
Printer : Canon MP600R Printer (Colour)
Printer : Canon Inkjet MP600R Printer (600x600, Colour)

Scanners and Cameras
Scanner : WIA Canon MP600R (Network: 000085CE25FE) (Scanner, 2400x4800, USB)

Peripherals
Media Player : Kingston DataTraveler G2 (14.9GB)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet -ohjain (Ethernet, 1Gbps)
Wireless Adapter 1 : Realtek RTL8187 Wireless 802.11b/g 54Mbps USB 2.0 Network Adapter

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 6.01.7600
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 5.9

Performance Tips
Tip 2546 : Large memory modules should be ECC/Parity.
Tip 2 : Double-click tip or press Enter while a tip is selected for more information about the tip.

[Jenk2k]

RAID and PT has always been unsupported and not advised.

BETA anything for a business deadline is not advised. I'm not saying it can't work, but it's just untested and probably filled with stuff that needs to get fixed before final release.

I would reccomend running windows XP temporarily until you get your project done. In XP land, almost all of the potential problems are known and fixable with known reliable and/or qualified hardware.

[Cloud_9]

Originally Posted by Jenk2k

RAID and PT has always been unsupported and not advised.

BETA anything for a business deadline is not advised. I'm not saying it can't work, but it's just untested and probably filled with stuff that needs to get fixed before final release.

I would reccomend running windows XP temporarily until you get your project done. In XP land, almost all of the potential problems are known and fixable with known reliable and/or qualified hardware.

I advise the same as above, W7 is not recommended for work with deadlines, and definetly do not install PT on a separate external drive, it should be installed on a local system drive. Are you storing and recording your sessions on a separate, dedicated drive? If not, rectify this ASAP. I see an ASUS audio controller on your Sandra, is this disabled? It should be.

Get rid of RAID, it is not supported and will cause issues.

Hope this helps.

[Lord Hellsings]

To rectify things a little:

- This is the only computer I have.

- No Windows XP unfortunately.

- Any and all recordings I do go to this HD: WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1 (999.6GB, USB/SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 931GB (G:)

RAID not being supported was a new one for me, I'll be looking into possible solutions ASAP.

What comes to the ASUS audio..
Unfortunately I don't have a dedicated PT computer (yet - planning on building one) so the driver is needed for other stuff, unless there's a way of playing computer audio through my Digi 002 Rack

[sw rec]

1. You should be able to disable RAID in BIOS (hold down the delete key while booting).
2. As long as you're using that WD drive in SATA mode and NOT USB, that element of it should be fine. USB drives are NOT supported.

[Lord Hellsings]

Only thing I'm afraid of when disabling RAID is losing my data.

I put the disks into RAID5 for the sake of preserving the said data in case of fried hard disk.

Guess I could try to remove one drive from the RAID for system disk and save the rest for whatever.

The external drive shows kinda wrong on the Sandra.
It's an USB external drive with a 1Tb WD hard drive inside.
Buffalo DriveStation is the actual name of the thing.

So no SATA in it really.
It HAS been working perfectly though

[sw rec]

Don't worry, one day out of the blue it will STOP "working perfectly."

[Cloud_9]

Originally Posted by sw rec

Don't worry, one day out of the blue it will STOP "working perfectly."

Count on it.

[Cloud_9]

Originally Posted by Lord Hellsings

To rectify things a little:

- This is the only computer I have.

- No Windows XP unfortunately.

- Any and all recordings I do go to this HD: WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1 (999.6GB, USB/SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 931GB (G:)

RAID not being supported was a new one for me, I'll be looking into possible solutions ASAP.

What comes to the ASUS audio..
Unfortunately I don't have a dedicated PT computer (yet - planning on building one) so the driver is needed for other stuff, unless there's a way of playing computer audio through my Digi 002 Rack

Have you heard of DIGIHELPER? It works good for me when needing sound from Media player, quicktime videos and the rest. cant say if it will work for web content or other multimedia. I would disable that sound card.

I am also supposing you have an antivirus installed since this is your only PC? There are a lot of factors here that can be contributing to your situation.

W7
Asus sound adapter
RAID
Anti-Virus
Wireless network Adapters

I am also supposing that you have not performed optimizations for your system.

[Mork_]

Just out of interest, why did you choose RAID 5?

I would pick up a copy of XP, dual boot with XP, on one HDD (Pro Tools computer), Win7 on another HDD (Every day computer), record onto the third, use the USB for backups.

This is basically how I have my machine setup.