Pro Tools LE 8 - Keeps on crashing. A lot of information has been provided.

[Mattitude]

Hello everyone,

I am getting really annoyed at this. Pro Tools keeps on crashing, so it is taking me such a long time to record my music properly.

This is what happens:

I have my MacBook Pro connected via FW800 to my external hard drive's FW800 port. My external hard drive is then connected from its FW400 port to my 003 Rack's (Factory Bundle) FW400 port via a FW400 cable. I turn the external hard drive on, it appears on my desktop. I turn my 003 Rack on and open Pro Tools. I load one of my sessions, which is located in my external hard drive. It opens up fine. Now, sometimes when I'm recording my music, everything is fine... everything is running and there are no crashes, but I can guarantee it will crash at some point. I don't really get any error messages appearing. If I do, I can usually sort it out by changing the playback settings or something. But the thing that always seems to crash Pro Tools is the annoying spinning loading balloon (multicolored) that randomly appears, and never goes away. I can't click anything in Pro Tools. To close Pro Tools I have to right click the Pro Tools icon on the dock (when right clicked, it says "Application Not Responding') and click, 'Quit'. Pro Tools quits. The next annoying thing is because of the Pro Tools crash and quitting it.. my external hard drive usually won't let me open the files again, and it won't let me eject the external hard drive properly, resulting in having to disconnect it by just turning the switch off, which is not recommended because files can be lost or damaged without disconnecting it safely. There is the very rare occasion where the hard drive will disconnect safely.. but this is very rare. I then shut down my MacBook Pro and turn it back on.. and when I switch the hard drive back on.. most of the time it won't show up on my desktop, so I can't open my Pro Tools sessions. The 003 Rack recognises it though so I can open Pro Tools, I just can't open my sessions from inside the external hard drive, because I can't see it! To make the hard drive appear again, I usually switch the Macbook Pro and hard drive off and wait for quite a long time. I have to go and do something else for a while instead of repeatedly switching the hard drive on and off with it not working - This can't do it any good.

I don't have any other major applications, such as Graphic, movie applications installed or anything. I haven't even installed the iLife applications (i.e. iMovie). And I have removed many other applications that installed with OS X.. just to try and make things work better.

Here are some details you may need to know:

Kind of things I record:

I record electric guitar by plugging it into my effects pedal and then into the 003 Rack, so I have no need for any guitar amp emulators or anything.
I record bass guitar by using my MIDI keyboard. I usually use XPAND2 that came with Pro Tools 8.
I record drums by using my MIDI keyboard. I use Addictive Drums for this.

When I record electric guitar (direct). The Playback Engine settings are usually as follows:

H/W Buffer Size (when recording guitar): 256 Samples (Prevents latency. Any higher and I get latency)
H/W Buffer Size (when mixing): 1024 Samples
Host Processors: 2 Processors
CPU Usage Limit: 85%
Host Engine:
Ignore Errors During Playback / Record (may cause clicks and pops) - TICKED
Minimize Additional I / O Latency - UNTICKED

DAE Playback Buffer (disk buffer)
Size: Level 2
Cache Size: Normal

HARDWARE SETUP
Optical Format: ADAT
Footswitch Control: Record Punch In / Out
Clock Source: Internal

The crashes usually occur when I'm mixing. Usually happens if I click to play something, or just simply click anything. It rarely crashes when I'm in the middle of recording guitar.

I do have more than one track for my electric guitars. I double the guitars and pan them different ways (L and R) to get more of a wide, stereo sound. I rarely use plugins on guitars. Only your normal Compression, EQ and the odd delay if needed. But I do try and make most tracks inactive so everything can run better when I'm actually recording.

Other important details:

Computer model: MacBook Pro (bought around August 2009 from Apple)
OS version: Mac OS X 10.5.8
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.26 GHz
RAM: 2GB
Internal Hard drive: 160GB
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3MB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Digidesign hardware model: 003 Rack
Pro Tools version: LE 8 (updated to Version 8.0.1)

External Hard drive:
G-DRIVE 500GB (this is a compatible drive)
Kit Contents:
Universal AC Power Supply
1.6 Meter eSATA Cable (black)
1.8 Meter FireWire 800 Cable (white)
1.8 Meter FireWire 400 Cable (white)
0.6 Meter USB 2.0 Cable (white)

Interface:
1x 3Gbit, eSATA
2x FireWire 800 (9-pin)
1x USB2.0
(FireWire 400 via 800 to 400 cable)

Disk Drives:
Type – SATA II
RPM – 7200
Cache – Up to 32MB

Cooling System:
Integrated heat sink

Bridge:
Oxford 934 chipset

So that's about it really. If you need anymore information, please let me know. Like I said before, sometimes I can work for a while without it crashing and then other times it can crash within the first 10 minutes. And with all the restarting and everything I never seem to get anything done. I have put a clean install of OS X and Pro Tools LE 8 on and the same happens. This time I haven't even installed the extra plugins. I really want to get this sorted out. I have paid enough for it! Anyone who tries to help me out I really appreciate it and I would also really like DigiTechSupport to help!

One last thing that has just happened - I opened one of my sessions in Pro Tools and just double checked if the information I have given you is right. I have written this out in TextEdit before copying it into the Digidesign forum text box. I have been switching from the TextEdit window and Pro Tools to fill out information. Everything ran fine, no crashes. When I finished typing all the information down, I just went back to Pro Tools to find the multicoloured loading balloon there again - Pro Tools has crashed. When I right click the Pro Tools icon in the dock, it says "Application Not Responding".

Thanks,
Matt.