Pro Tools 2020.5 GUI FREAK OUT on Windows 10

[jrgillam]

Hey folks,

I'm having a strange Pro Tools GUI issue in one session where my screen goes absolutely bananas (see attached images). It happens when I search for a plugin, but it also happened once when I tried to open a Windows Explorer window. I updated my graphics card drivers but to no avail. I tried creating a new empty session and importing all my tracks, which works when I add about half the tracks but not all of them. I still get the GUI panic when I search for a plugin after doing a full import session data from the original session file. It's a big session, something like 170 tracks with lots of plugins, but all from a handful of reputable developers. Other sessions seem okay and this only started happening on the problem session after many hours working on it with no problems. I have to force quit Pro Tools when this occurs.

Any ideas for how to troubleshoot this? Thanks so much.

Jeremy

[jrgillam]

I think my issue may have been caused by conflicting versions of Auto-Tune per this article: http://support.antarestech.com/suppo...-co-installed-

After much experimentation I was able to rebuild the session without the crazy graphical glitches returning, but I'll need to redo the tuning work which I lost in the rebuild before I'll be able to say for certain if it's resolved.

[jrgillam]

Well, I rebuilt my session and the problem returned. Removing Auto-Tune from my plugins folder doesn't solve it. Any insights would be a big help.

EDIT: the song is about half vocal tracks and have instruments (VIs and audio). When I import all the vocal tracks into a new session I don't get the GUI glitches. When I import all the instrument tracks into a separate new session I don't get the GUI glitches. But when I make a third new session and import all the tracks from the two previous sessions so that my original session is fully recreated, the glitches return. I'm so baffled!

[SigFriedChicken]

When this happens again, try holding down the Ctrl + Shift + Windows + B keys. This will restart the video driver. I know that doesn't solve the underlying issue, but if it works, it might be a quicker workaround.

You've probably tried this already, but you might also see if the issue continues to happen in Standard VGA mode:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...patible-driver

It's going to look ugly in Standard VGA, but it would help you rule out any video card/driver issues.

[jrgillam]

Thanks SigFriedChicken. Using the keyboard shortcut to restart the video driver didn't work.

I got a little overwhelmed looking at the Microsoft support article -- I have something like 45 oem drivers in the folder it points to -- but I tried disabling the graphics driver so the screen went all big and chunky, but the issue in Pro Tools persisted.

I also unplugged all my monitors, disabled my NVIDIA card, and tried the session using the integrated graphics in my Intel chip after restarting the PC. Same issue. Sometimes it takes longer to crop up than others but it's always happening eventually when I search for plugins enough times.

Trying to get AVID support to help but in the past they haven't been able to do much for me, so the community input is much appreciated.

[Mike Hunt]

Originally Posted by jrgillam

Hey folks,

I'm having a strange Pro Tools GUI issue in one session where my screen goes absolutely bananas (see attached images). It happens when I search for a plugin, but it also happened once when I tried to open a Windows Explorer window. I updated my graphics card drivers but to no avail. I tried creating a new empty session and importing all my tracks, which works when I add about half the tracks but not all of them. I still get the GUI panic when I search for a plugin after doing a full import session data from the original session file. It's a big session, something like 170 tracks with lots of plugins, but all from a handful of reputable developers. Other sessions seem okay and this only started happening on the problem session after many hours working on it with no problems. I have to force quit Pro Tools when this occurs.

Any ideas for how to troubleshoot this? Thanks so much.

Jeremy

wow, I hate to ask here but are you using cracked plugins?

[polycorn]

Wow, that looks painfully similar to my GUI gllitches.

In my case it just pops op during bounce. Not while committing tracks, not during normal use, only bounce.

It started a couple of weeks ago, not sure when exactly.

So far I have tried the following, with every step I tested and reverted settings to their previous state when applicable.

Other DAWs on my system (S1 and Ableton Live) don't have the same issue, another boot with more graphics-intensive applications (ok, I admit it, games) is without problems too.

- new session with only one track
- graphics card drivers roll back via Device Manager
- graphics card drivers update via Device Manager
- removed and reinstalled pro tools (updated to 20.5 while I was at it)
- bounce without plugins
- different connection to GPU
- pro tools video engine on
- pro tools video engine off
- run as administrator (think it did that anyway, but doublechecked)
- removed all AAX-plugins by moving to "Plug-ins (unused)" before starting PT
- disabled misc systray thingies (dropbox, iCue, eucon, antelope)
- ran CCleaner
- removed unused software (like Adobe Premiere)
- in NVidia Control Panel moved the slider to "performance" instead of "quality" (suggested by a colleage, though I believe that is for 3D stuff)
- tried a different Audio Engine (instead of Avid HD Native Thunderbolt tried the ASIO Driver by Antelope)

The next thing I'll try is from this thread, msg #3
https://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=392199
Not in the studio right now.

I run PT Ultimate 20.5 with a HD Native Thunderbolt and an Orion Antelope 32 HD Gen3. Win 10 64bit, NVidia RTX2070, i9-9900k, 32GB DDR4 2666

I'm curious to see if you have a similar setup so we might be able to narrow it down to something.

[polycorn]

All right, thanks to the thread in my previous post I think I have eliminated my issue. I sincerely hope it works for you as well.

I see you have a secondary monitor, same here. My second screen is mainly used for metering etc, but the resolution is 2560x1440 even though it is quite small.
That’s why I scaled it to 175%. Because of what I read in the other thread I thought I’d try turning that off.

Problem gone! 🤗

It had been 200% for a long time and that was fine iirc. So I thought I’d give it a try and set the second monitor to 200% scaling, bounced an 18 minute project and voila: no problems.

To confirm it was the irregular (?) scaling of 175% that messed up the PT GUI I quit Pro Tools, set the scaling back to 175%, launched Pro Tools and bounced the same project but unfortunately the problem did NOT reoccur.

I’ll leave scaling off, just to be sure, but unless this changes something in your situation as well I’m still not sure I have found the actual problem.

[jrgillam]

Mike Hunt -- No cracked plugins, and even though I'm on Windows I've been checking that everything I have installed is supported in Catalina to try to future proof my projects. I keep my plugin list fairly lean anyway.

polycorn -- thanks for your posts, glad you made some progress. Sadly no such luck yet for me. My system is pretty similar to yours:

Windows 10 1909
Pro Tools Ultimate 2020.5
Intel i9 9900K
ASUS ROG Z390-E Motherboard
NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1070 Graphics Card
64GB DDR4
RME Babyface Pro

My 3 monitors are all scaled to 100% (un-scaled?). I tried fiddling with the high DPI settings in the Pro Tools application properties but without success, the problem keeps cropping up. My computer is super stable. I never get graphics glitches in other programs, I never get BSOD, Cubase runs like a charm. RME drivers have stellar reputations.

[polycorn]

I’m intimately familiar w RME’s stability, good sound as well. And same here, only Pro Tools is freaking out.

Could you try changing the scaling and run Pro Tools, then quit PT and turn the scaling off again? Just to give it a shot...