Ready to throw mbox and pro tools out the window. H/W Buffer issue

[YoothAttack]

I am running Pro Tools 8 LE with an mbox 2 on a PC. I am saving to an external firewire 400 7200 rpm drive. I have gone through all the steps to optimize my operating system. Through all of this, 5 seconds into recording, I get the good ol'
""The operating system held off interrupts for too long. If this occurs often, try increasing the H/W Buffer Size in the Playback Engine Dialog." Just in the past few days has it gotten to the point where I cant listen or record more than 2 seconds of material. My firewire drive was purchased this morning. My internal hard drive was replaced less than 2 months ago. Here is my computer scan.

Computer
Model : Dell XPS M1530
Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7250 @ 2.00GHz
Speed : 2.2GHz
Cores per Processor : 2 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Mobile, Dual-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 2x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 2MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing

Computer
Platform Compliance : Intel Centrino Duo Mobile Technology
Mainboard : Dell 0D501F
BIOS : Dell A08 03/19/2008
Bus(es) : ISA X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB PCMCIA USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 3.5GB DDR2 SO-DIMM

Chipset
Model : Dell Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Express Processor to DRAM Controller
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 200MHz (800MHz)
Total Memory : 4GB DDR2 SO-DIMM
Channels : 2
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 333MHz (666MHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Samsung M4 70T5663QZ3-CE6 2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM PC2-5300U DDR2-666 (5-5-5-15 3-20-5-3)
Memory Module : Samsung M4 70T5663QZ3-CE6 2GB DDR2 SO-DIMM PC2-5300U DDR2-666 (5-5-5-15 3-20-5-3)

Video System
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT (32 SM4.0 1.1GHz, 256MB DDR3 2x704MHz, PCIe 1.00 x16)

Graphics Processor

Storage Devices
WDC WD2500BJKT-75F4T0 (250GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 233GB (C:) (D:)
LaCie Rugged FW/USB 320GB (FireWire/1394, NCQ) : 298GB (F:)
TEAC DVD+/-RW DVW28SLC (ATA33, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 64kB Cache) : N/A (E:)
OVULEJI 8LEB4DA7SLA (SCSI, BD-R, HD-DVD-R, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R) : N/A (G:)

Logical Storage Devices
RECOVERY (D:) : 10GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD2500BJKT-75F4T0 (250GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
OS (C:) : 220GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD2500BJKT-75F4T0 (250GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
Optical Drive (E:) : N/A @ TEAC DVD+/-RW DVW28SLC (ATA33, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 64kB Cache)
Optical Drive (G:) : N/A @ OVULEJI 8LEB4DA7SLA (SCSI, BD-R, HD-DVD-R, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R)
LaCie (F:) : 298GB (NTFS) @ LaCie Rugged FW/USB 320GB (FireWire/1394, NCQ)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Dell ICH8M-E (ICH8) LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : Winbond WPCE775LA
Audio Device : Dell 82801H (ICH8) HD Audio Controller
Disk Controller : Dell 82801H (ICH8) Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
Disk Controller : Dell Mobile SATA AHCI Controller
Disk Controller : Dell SD Bus Host Adapter
USB Controller 1 : Dell 82801H (ICH8) USB UHCI #4
USB Controller 2 : Dell 82801H (ICH8) USB UHCI #5
USB Controller 3 : Dell 82801H (ICH8) USB2 EHCI #2
USB Controller 4 : Dell 82801H (ICH8) USB UHCI #1
USB Controller 5 : Dell 82801H (ICH8) USB UHCI #2
USB Controller 6 : Dell 82801H (ICH8) USB UHCI #3
USB Controller 7 : Dell 82801H (ICH8) USB2 EHCI #1
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : Dell R5C832 IEEE-1394 Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Printer : Canon Generic PCL6 Driver (600x600, USB)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Marvell Yukon 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller
Wireless Adapter 1 : Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (802.11g (ERP), WEP n-bit, 54Mbps)

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

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows Vista Home 6.00.6001 (Service Pack 1)
Platform Compliance : x86

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 4.8


HELP FOR THE LOVE OF GOD or im moving onto motu and cubase

[albee1952]

Try disabling the wifi. Also review the system tweaks that are spelled out in the Getting Started Guide, especially the part about turning OFF power management on all USB ports. Speaking of which, try the Mbox on other ports as one may work better than another. You might even consider going to Windows 7 64 bit and running USB2 for your recording drive(which would bypass the possible incompatible firewire controller). I hope that recording drive is 7200 rpm(report does not say). Dells are notorious for being a crap-shoot as to compatibility. If the OS is the factory load, there's no telling how much bloatware you have installed, so you might spend a day cleaning house. Or do what I did on my Gateway that came with Vista; I removed the system drive and installed a new drive and loaded everything fresh, and left out all the extra garbage.