HP i7 Laptop - W7/64 - PT8.0.3 - 003r = Issues

[OmniDigital]

I have been reading posts regarding W7 and PT8.0.3 for a couple of days. I was able to closely follow these Avid Installations but, like many others, I got a DAE Error -6006 when starting PT and it got to 'Creating DAE Objects'. I have a flashing 'Host 1394' light on my 003r ... even when the laptop is not running any programs. That can't be good. I have not installed the legacy firewire drivers ... can someone give an assist on how to do that?

I was hoping to have this ready to play some VI tracks and click for a live performance in a month or so. Now I'm reconsidering. Since I need it to be stable, I'm wondering if a dual boot to XP Pro / PT 8.0.1 might be a better idea in the near term??

I don't have much more time to invest in tinkering with W7, but I'm game for trying any suggestions that might get me closer to running on W7 and 8.0.3.

Here is the Sandra report for reference:

SiSoftware Sandra

Computer
Model : HP HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
Workgroup : WORKGROUP

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 720 @ 1.60GHz
Speed : 1.73GHz
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 2 Unit(s)
Type : Mobile, Quad-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 4x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L2 On-board Cache : 4x 256kB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L3 On-board Cache : 6MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 12-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size, 8 threads sharing

Computer
Platform Compliance : Intel Centrino Mobile Technology
Mainboard : HP 3659
BIOS : HP F.17 02/06/2010
Bus(es) : PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM

Chipset
Model : HP Clarksfield/Lynnfield DMI
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz)

Chipset
Model : HP Core Mobile (Clarksfield) UnCore
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.13GHz (4.26GHz)
Total Memory : 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 665MHz (1.33GHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Samsung M471B5673EH1-CH9 2GB DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-10700S DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M471B5673EH1-CH9 2GB DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-10700S DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M (32 SM4.1, 1GB DDR3, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M (32SP, 986.3MB)

Storage Devices
Seagate ST9500420AS (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (C:) (D:) (E:)
hp CDDVDW TS-L633N (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (F:)

Logical Storage Devices
SYSTEM : 199MB (NTFS)
Hard Disk (C:) : 355GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST9500420AS (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
RECOVERY (D:) : 13GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST9500420AS (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
HP_TOOLS (E:) : 99MB (FAT32) @ Seagate ST9500420AS (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
Optical Drive (F:) : N/A @ hp CDDVDW TS-L633N (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : HP PM55 LPC Interface Controller
Audio Device : HP P55/PM55/3400 High Definition Audio
Audio Codec : Integrated Device Tech 7603h
Audio Device : HP High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Codec : nVidia 000Ah
Audio Codec : nVidia 000Ah
Audio Codec : nVidia 000Ah
Disk Controller : HP P55/PM55/3400 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
Disk Controller : HP Standard SD Host Controller
USB Controller 1 : HP P55/PM55/3400 USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
USB Controller 2 : HP P55/PM55/3400 USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : HP IEEE 1394 Host Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (Ethernet, 1Gbps)

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line
Battery No 1 : 100%

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7600
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 5.9

[sw rec]

You won't have a stable system without a separate dedicated audio drive. There's only one hard drive listed in your report.
1GB video ram is certainly a problem, you'd be better off with a 256-meg video card.
What are you using for a firewire controller? Yours may be incompatible.
All told, XP would indeed be more stable. But you're still going to have to address these issues.

[OmniDigital]

Thanks sw, yes I was planning to configure an external firewire drive once I could get the software installed and running without errors. This is a laptop so I've been using the internal firewire (FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : HP IEEE 1394 Host Controller). The flashing Host light on the 003 makes me think I should focus there. l saw several mentions of the legacy firewire drivers making a difference. I'm looking for info on that now. Thanks again for the input.

[sw rec]

You won't get it running without errors recording to your system drive. Try a SIIG fw controller, and go get that second hard drive while you're out there. AND the video card. It's ALL necessary.

[Transputer]

A while back I saw someone on the DUC attempting the same with the DV6 - can't find anything conclusive regarding any possible success.

Anyway I too have access to a Pavilion DV6 i7 LAPTOP. Clearly swapping out the video card won't be an option as the machine is a laptop. The onboard firewire doesn't appear to work with my Profire 2626 so first call will be TI firewire expresscard. This will be the first laptop/ DAW solution I've attempted after about a trillion custom desktop builds. Last time trying to do audio on a laptop was with the Powerbook 500 series in 1995 ! Already i can see some track changing required, for example on my DV6 the bios has zero options to turn off the onboard sound - imagine discovering that on a desktop board !

Time permitting I'll document what I can.

@ the OP suggest you get a TI firewire expresscard and some kinda eSATA drive or enclosure and drive of your choice for starters

[OmniDigital]

Thanks Transputer. Since first posting I have changed to the legacy firewire driver and completely removed PT and all Digi drivers. I disabled the on-board audio and WiFi in device manager. I uninstalled IE8. Then I reinstalled everything. Same result. -6006 at 'creating DAE objects'.

Next step, as recommended, will be a TI based firewire card. At this point my goal is to simply get past this -6006 error and get PT to load without further errors. I'll work on adding the 2nd audio drive then.

At minimum, I need this PT/Laptop combo to reliably play back a stereo track and a click on a seperate output. Time will tell if that is possible...

[temple-of-joy]

hey omni,

i've did you get your rig running correctly?? i'm having some real issues with PTLE8.0.3cs2 [but have tried all versions of 8] on the D7 with mbox2 mini. Maybe you've encountered problems with hyperthreading, as in hyperthreading does not work with pro tools at all?? there have been some recommendations to halve the number of active cores which has no effect whatsoever and leaves me with original results of cpu usage: one core slammed, close to maxing out while PT runs in an idle state (pro tools running fine with no session loaded).

is what i describe an issue for you or anyone else reading?? i have read some success stories of re pro tools on dv7, which makes me think that my computers hardware is malfunctioning or the mbox2 is not compatible with this laptop.

any insight/ideas much appreciated.

[Transputer]

Quick update.

TI based expresscard received and so far so good - on Reaper 64bit Pro Tools may have to wait a while as I need this rig Profire 2626 and DV6 to record audio now.

IRQ 19 is shared Intel(R) PCHM SATA AHCI Controller 6 Port and the StarTech firewire TI expresscard I'm using. Able to record and playback 24bit audio to the c:\ drive a 500GB 7200rpm spin speed Seagate ST9500420AS.

How you getting on OmniDigital ?

[OmniDigital]

Thanks t-o-j and transputer. I've been side-tracked with other things the past few days. I'm considering a dual-boot W7 / XP Pro approach. Looks like there could be some challenges with the XP Pro install relative to the new hardware and drivers but I've found some encouraging information in that regard. Even if I get XP Pro and PT 8.0.1 installed on the HP laptop, the internal firewire port will likely still be an issue. So, the SIIG firewire express card will be my next move and hopefully that will lead to some progress on W7.

For now though, I have to figure out how to get my 003r working again on my desktop system. After connecting the 003r to the HP i7 laptop, when I connected it back to my Sweetwater creation station for my normal work system, I get no audio at the outputs. Headphones are fine, and PT seems to run normally, just no audio from the main analog outputs.

[temple-of-joy]

good luck.