Pro Tools freezes on "Building Edit (or) Mix Window" when opening sessions

[Reckoner36]

Hey everybody,

I've spent the past few days trying to work past this issue to no avail, and I would greatly appreciate some help.

I'm using a Mid 2010 (6,2) Macbook Pro (2.4 GHz Intel, 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM) with Mountain Lion 10.8.5. Pro Tools 10.3.10. Mbox Pro 3 Firewire.

Everything was working fine a few days ago, until suddenly I was unable to open any session or create a new session without it freezing at either an empty progress bar, "Building Mix Window", or "Building Edit Window". The rainbow wheel spins indefinitely. This happened when I disconnected my computer from my interface and went to work away from home using the Built-In Output. I've had this problem before, but solved it for quite some time by updating Pro Tools 10.3.2 to 10.3.10. Since this issue came up again, I have: Deleted my pro tools preferences, tried to open pro tools with no plugins, reset my pram, completely replaced my HDD with a SSD, installed a fresh operating system (still 10.8.5), re-installed pro-tools, tried older version of pro-tools, tested my ram, and just about anything else I've found on forums with no luck.

I'm really not sure what else to try, and I'm all ears if anyone has a suggestion. It worked reliably for a long time and I don't know how this could come out of the blue. Let me know if there's any more information I can provide... Thanks so much,

-Josh.

[Stig Eliassen]

A couple thoughts you could try:

1) repair disk permissions on the system drive with Disk Utility, reboot and try to launch PT

2) hold down the N key during launch until the Playback engine opens - does PT launch, and are you able to select the preferred hardware (if not selected already)?

[Reckoner36]

Thanks very much for the reply.

I've repaired disk permissions & rebooted many times.

PT itself always launches fine, but then I'm never able to open a session. I've tried selecting all the different outputs, but nothing works.

[Stig Eliassen]

Next I would try to delete databases, reboot and try again. Link below...

PT Prefs Helper

[Reckoner36]

I found a very strange solution to my problem...

Apparently there is some issue with the graphics card in my model of Macbook Pro. The graphics card switches between two different modes, and I think this feature was stopping Pro Tools from building its interface.

I went to System Preferences > Energy Saver > and unchecked "Automatic graphics switching".

It has been working perfectly since.

Thanks for answering Stig.

[Stig Eliassen]

Ok, I see. I've never even heard of that. Thanks for reporting back.