Error 9039 in PT8 running just a stereo file.

[willsium]

Hi there, I'm a completely new PT user and have just bought and M-box with PT8. I have however been having a few problems with it to say the least. I keep getting error 9093 which tells me "The operating system held off interrupts for too long. If this occurs frequently, try increasing the “HW/Buffer Size” in the Playback Engine panel."

I have tried increasing the buffer size but it doesn't seem to have any effect. I'm only running a single stereo audio file with no plug-ins at all and the cpu meter tells me I'm using only around 3% of my cpu with all the other readouts being very low too.

I'm running windows vista (32-bit) on an Intel dual core 2.4Ghz CPU and 4GB of RAM. It's a laptop (a Dell) and was brand new last week.

I've tried resarching the problem but the answers seem very vague and varied with no one producing a reliable fix.

At the momment though PT is unusable for me which is rather a shame as if I can't get on with it then it'll be ending up on ebay.

I shall endeavour to contact Digidesign directly but I'm not sure what thier support service is like.

Any help though would be massively appreciated.

Regards,
Will.

[Avid]

As you said, there could be a number of different reasons. See if any of these threads help:
Search Results for 9093

[sw rec]

Are you utilizing an external firewire hard drive to record your audio? This is imperative, not optional.

[willsium]

Originally Posted by sw rec

Are you utilizing an external firewire hard drive to record your audio? This is imperative, not optional.

I'm not actually recording just trying to play back a single stereo file. As for an external drive being imperative, I have several friends who use PT on their laptops and they record just fine without an external drive.

Surely playing back a single file doesn't need to be run from a separate drive? I mean windows media player manages it.

I have already looked though the other posts but there are a lot of replies like this "Well good luck with finding a cure for H/W buffer, if you do you will be a hero."

Also people contribute the problem to plug-ins (I'm not using any) or a need to defrag a HDD (I've done this).

Also switching to 1 processor (doesn't change anything).

There's another guys that says he has an external firewire drive, the highest sample rate and also 1 processor selected and still gets these errors.

I know I'm not the only one with this problem but I haven't actually found anyone with a fix yet or the exact same problem as me.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Digidesign

As you said, there could be a number of different reasons. See if any of these threads help:
Search Results for 9093

This link takes me nowhere.....boohoo

[willsium]

It's just the same as typing 9093 into the forum search

[sw rec]

Again, the external drive is imperative. Anyone saying it's working just fine without one just hasn't had their "luck" run out yet. Here's a quote from the Digi support page:
Hard Drive Requirements & Formatting

Minimum speed of 7200 RPM & average seek time of less than 10.0 ms

• Recording to boot drive not recommended or supported
  
• For 24-32 tracks, drives must be dedicated for audio (internal or external)
• It only stands to reason that if it won't work reliably WRITING to your system drive, it won't work reliably READING from your system drive. It has ENOUGH to do just running Windows and Pro Tools without asking it to perform another task. This isn't Windows Media Player. This is a very advanced intricate audio recording/editing/mixing program. Digi (and all us end users) don't pull these recommendations out of thin air. These are things that have been extensively tested. It's just how it works.

[willsium]

Originally Posted by sw rec

Again, the external drive is imperative. Anyone saying it's working just fine without one just hasn't had their "luck" run out yet. Here's a quote from the Digi support page:
Hard Drive Requirements & Formatting

Minimum speed of 7200 RPM & average seek time of less than 10.0 ms

• Recording to boot drive not recommended or supported
  
• For 24-32 tracks, drives must be dedicated for audio (internal or external)
• It only stands to reason that if it won't work reliably WRITING to your system drive, it won't work reliably READING from your system drive. It has ENOUGH to do just running Windows and Pro Tools without asking it to perform another task. This isn't Windows Media Player. This is a very advanced intricate audio recording/editing/mixing program. Digi (and all us end users) don't pull these recommendations out of thin air. These are things that have been extensively tested. It's just how it works.

I appreciate that it's recommended but as I say I have a friend who's been running audio from his system drive (macbook) for over a year without any issues.

I do really appreciate your help but I'm a bit nervous about buying an external firewire drive with the right chipset etc as there are no guarantees that it will fix my problem. Are there any other possible solutions to try first?

I don't suppose there's anyone else out there with a Dell Studio 1537 that is using PT8 without problems?

Also would a HDD partition be any good or does it have to be a separate physical drive?

[spkguitar]

Originally Posted by willsium

I appreciate that it's recommended but as I say I have a friend who's been running audio from his system drive (macbook) for over a year without any issues.

First, macs and PCs are two totally separate beasts.

Next, your friend has been very fortunate, as the separate hard drive requirement is for both platforms. As a mac user (macbook) as well as a PC user I can attest to this recommendation first hand. It is absolutely essential that you use a sepaerate hard drive for your audio sessions.

Originally Posted by willsium

Also would a HDD partition be any good

No. It must be a separate physical drive.

[sw rec]

Try this. www.byteccstore.com and look at their external IDE-to-Firewire cases. They have the Oxford chipset in them, and you can pop in any good 7200-rpm IDE drive and go to work. I have two of them and they perform flawlessly. Does this guarantee an end to your problem? No. Does this eliminate a very major variable? Yes.