Urgently need advice!!!

[Fix]

Ok, so I decided to upgrade to PT-8 and like an idiot...I didn't double check the system requirements before I bought it. I didn't realize till' after I uninstalled 7.4 that I didn't have enough RAM to run 8. (I'm currently on a Dell 8250 running Windows XP Pro SP2 with 512 MB of RAM and a Pentium 4 CPU 3.06Ghz.)

At first I figured this wouldn't be a problem at all, I would just order more RAM and re-install 7.4 until it arrived. My problem is halfway through the installation, the system just completely froze at the point where it's installing the drivers for the hardware.

Now, no matter what I do the system doesn't recognize the PCI cards and I can't find a way to re-install the drivers. It always freezes at the same point in the installation. I contacted tech support and they walked me through 3 more tries after going through step by step to make sure nothing was left behind in the previous installations. I even tried to install version 7.0 to see if that would help but it does the same thing.

I desperately need to get this rig running as I'm losing lots of money being out of commission so ANY advice would be greatly appreciated!

(NOTE: I should also point out that I ran the initial un-install from the PT-8 disc and not from Windows add/remove programs...it actually wont let me do an un-install from add /remove now. It gives me an error message saying another version of PT is running.)

[Fullsound Recording]

Time for a new Box man. Build a dual quad core and you will rawk

[x9blade]

out of curiosity do you have any raid functions active in the bios?
do a search for protools nuke maybe that will help with the uninstall problem.
also, you might want to try looking into acronis or similar program in order to take an image of your system before installing any upgrades. i hope you get your problems resolved

[albee1952]

Huge +1 for x9blade's advice. Sadly it is too late but others may learn from your bad fortune. NEVER do any update without a backup plan. Many of us keep spare system drives that are cloned from our working system drives using Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost or other disk cloning software. Why not just go to the nearest computer retailer and bite the bullet with some more RAM. 512 wasn't enough for 7.4 either. Don't bother with the Windows uninstall feature. Just use the uninstall utility that is included in PT8. If nothing else works, I would buy a new drive and reload everything from the ground up. Then, once you get it working, use the old drive for making a clone of your new setup.(assuming it is large enough to be worth it.

[stonehenge]

try this - http://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?...&categoryid=34

[Fullsound Recording]

Frankly as i see it. With all the posable compromises you are well advised to just save time a rebuild the OS now..

[Fix]

First off, I would like to thank everyone for their timely responses.

For x9blade's question, I'm pretty certain that I do not have any RAID functions enabled on the system right now. I also ran a search for Pro Tools Nuke and nothing was found. I honestly have no idea what that is and I would actually love to know what that is supposed to be. I will also certainly look into some software to clone my drive from now on.

I also tried using Reg Cleaner and the -fix approach and removed absolutely everything that was Digidesign related that I could find. Still, the system has problems installing the hardware drivers.

I really am at that point where I think I'm going to just try getting at least a gig more RAM and wiping the OS and starting from scratch. My problem is still the fact that my model of computer requires RDRAM and very few manufacturers still make it. I've checked Ebay and I'm not sure if I really do have to go with non-ECC or not. (I guess I'm pretty sure I will go with non-ECC since that's what my current RAM is.)

Lastly, in response to Fullsound...lol...believe me I would LOVE to get a new computer. That was the first thing I looked into actually. However, I feel like I'm pretty much done with PC and the Windows platform though and the Mac I want doesn't support my older PCI-X cards that currently run my Pro Tools system. I'm not sure if I can afford to upgrade the computer plus the core and accel cards at this time. If anyone can fill me in to a way to use my cards in a newer Mac Pro system...you would probably make my whole year!!!

[RyanC]

Did you try to go to device manager, delete whatever digidesign drivers are there and then scan for new hardware? Just delete the driver that has either a RED X on it or a Yellow !. Then select scan for new hardware.

You can find the device manager by right clicking on my computer, selecting properties, click the hardware tab and it is the first option. Digi drivers will be under "sound video and game controllers".