Our old friend -9173

[noiseboyuk]

I've never really suffered much from the much celebrated "Pro Tools ran out of CPU power. Try de-activating or removing Native plugins (AAE -9173)", but on a current show running 2023.3 I'm getting it a lot. It is a slightly different template to my usual, lots of instances of Sonnox Limiter v2, but nothing seems particularly unusual otherwise. CPU levels are low, sub 10% all round, and when it stutters and spikes the Total turns red even though it's still showing a low level.

Here's why I'm posting it though. If I close and restart Pro Tools, the problem vanishes. It seems oddly specific to a first launch after the rig powers up. I can't remember others reporting anything as odd as that.

One other curiosity - often the Clip Effects is sometimes unresponsive on a first launch too. No button does anything, even though it's not greyed out. On a PT restart, everything is normal once more.

Anyone got any theories as to what might be happening? The fact it always seems clean after a restart makes bug-tracking a bit tricky. I'm guessing a reinstall of PT might be on the cards - whenever I do this I uninstall the previous version, restart, install, restart. But I don't trash prefs, so I'm expecting that might be the next thing to try.

Win10 Pro, 2023.3. RME Babyface (buffer 512). Disk Cache on, fully green.

[Stephen Bond]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Anyone got any theories as to what might be happening? The fact it always seems clean after a restart makes bug-tracking a bit tricky. I'm guessing a reinstall of PT might be on the cards - whenever I do this I uninstall the previous version, restart, install, restart. But I don't trash prefs, so I'm expecting that might be the next thing to try.

I maybe be wrong but the -9173 error probably dates from DAE, the predecessor to AAE. Restarting Pro Tools will restart the 'Avid Audio Engine'.

You can probably still restart AAE by changing the buffer size, mid Session.

All plugins will interface with the AAE and cause errors. This is certainly a plugin/AAE/CPU error.

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...Tools-AAE-9173

Stephen

[mandal]

Upgrade to Win11 ?

[noiseboyuk]

Originally Posted by Stephen Bond

I maybe be wrong but the -9173 error probably dates from DAE, the predecessor to AAE. Restarting Pro Tools will restart the 'Avid Audio Engine'.

You can probably still restart AAE by changing the buffer size, mid Session.

All plugins will interface with the AAE and cause errors. This is certainly a plugin/AAE/CPU error.

https://avid.secure.force.com/pkb/ar...Tools-AAE-9173

Stephen

Thanks Steven - whenever I've tried changing buffer size or sample rate with PT running everything has gone to hell, so I've always taken to closing PT and doing it within the RME app.

Now I come to think of it - and this is a vague woolly thought - the first time I launch PT, it seems to make a real meal of things. It seems to take longer to open than normal, things appear more slowly as if everything is this awful effort. On subsequent restarts things are much more snappy.

mandal - win11... really? win10 is a fully supported OS, I've not heard of any compatibility issues only affecting win10. Or did I miss something?

[Ben Jenssen]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Here's why I'm posting it though. If I close and restart Pro Tools, the problem vanishes. It seems oddly specific to a first launch after the rig powers up. I can't remember others reporting anything as odd as that.

Here's a recent duc post with the similar symptoms:

3 different systems crash during 1st session of the day

Now I come to think of it - and this is a vague woolly thought - the first time I launch PT, it seems to make a real meal of things. It seems to take longer to open than normal, things appear more slowly as if everything is this awful effort. On subsequent restarts things are much more snappy.

I see this all the time. After quit and relaunch of PT, the launch, session loading, everything seems to be faster than the first launch. I think this is new with native 2023.3. I've been thinking it's just a matter of data being sorted and available from RAM a bit more quickly because it is already there.

mandal - win11... really? win10 is a fully supported OS, I've not heard of any compatibility issues only affecting win10. Or did I miss something?

I think he was just trying to be funny.

[Stephen Bond]

Originally Posted by noiseboyuk

Thanks Steven - whenever I've tried changing buffer size or sample rate with PT running everything has gone to hell, so I've always taken to closing PT and doing it within the RME app.

This reboot/reset of the AAE will only work with changing the buffer size without closing the Session. The natural choice to tax the system less would be in increase the buffer size, say the next one or two higher. For example, if you are happy editing and mixing at 256 then try switching to 512 or 1024. If you are tracking then you will have you check the headphones/monitoring isn't too latent to use.

Other changes then Pro Tools will likely insist on saving and closing the Session itself to make the change.

Sample rate is dependent on the current Session file. Pro Tools will complain if the clock rate it detects hasn't been switched accordingly to match this file e.g. 44.1. or 48 KHz.

Stephen

[noiseboyuk]

Thanks to you both - Ben, that other thread is even more bizarre, in that it happens even if the machines are left on overnight? Who can explain that?

Stephen, I'm on 256, but my gut tells me this isn't the issue as the CPU never moves much above 10% even as it stalls. Still it's worth a try.

I might try going back to 2022.12 actually. It felt better all round, 2023.3 seems to be one of the bad releases with multiple issues. Sadly my support plan has expired, so that's the last update I'll get for a while. 2022.12 worked very well for me, so that's okay - I have elastique audio AAX as a permanent license so I won't miss that functionality. I won't update the plan just to get another slightly more recent working version as long as 2022.12 behaves as it did.