DAE 6101 on new iMac

[solo206]

So, I'm getting the dreaded 6101 (cpu overload) error on my brand new imac. Im running the latest pro tools 10 & 11 version on Mountain lion 10.8.5. I know that avid has yet to fully suport 10.8.5, but on my laptop it runs perfectly smooth. Also it seems like others are having success with it. No matter what I do (lower buffer size, track counts, plugins etc.) I still get the error during playback even though my imac spe is perfectly fine to handle heavier loads.
So, I need to know whether others are facing the same issue with the latest osx or whether my imac is at fault. Ive tried uninstalling and re-installing pro tools and did a complete factory reset on my imac and its the same error. I would much appreciate any feedback back, thanks.

*Late 2013 imac, 3.5ghz i7, 8gb ram, 1tb fusion drive running 10.8.5 osx with pro tools 10.3.7 with Pro Tools Aggregate i/o

**I've attached a screenshot of one of my session settingsScreen Shot 2013-10-12 at 4.13.42 PM.jpg

[musicman691]

Still on OSX 10.8.4 on the system in my sig file and on the odd occasion I get 6101 errors while playing back a session but I can stop playback, go back to the start of the session, restart playback and not get the error at all. If it doesn't happen constantly I'd not worry about it.

Have you done all the optimizations for your computer? Working with separate hard drives for your sessions? Also give it a shot without aggregate I/O. What exactly is you audio I/O setup - you may not need to run aggregate as that has been a problem on Macs from time to time.

[solo206]

Thanks for replying. Yeah I've tried all the optimization, but still nothing. Im aware you get these errors once in a blue, but this happens everytime I try to get playback. Im aware you should use another disk other then your main drive, but this is a 1tb fusion drive with plenty of space. I've tried using the other i/o configurations like built in/speaker i/o's, but still nothing. I wonder if any others with a 2013 27' imac are having similar issues. Perhaps issues conflicting with the nvidia 775m graphic card?

[SpinningDisk]

No problems here, yet😚


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by solo206

Thanks for replying. Yeah I've tried all the optimization, but still nothing. Im aware you get these errors once in a blue, but this happens everytime I try to get playback. Im aware you should use another disk other then your main drive, but this is a 1tb fusion drive with plenty of space. I've tried using the other i/o configurations like built in/speaker i/o's, but still nothing. I wonder if any others with a 2013 27' imac are having similar issues. Perhaps issues conflicting with the nvidia 775m graphic card?

Doesn't matter if it's a fusion drive with 1 terabyte of space - you're still asking a drive to access multiple areas on that drive and that can't be done no matter how fast the drive is because you still only have one read/write head. You really need to have a second drive to record and playback from. In my setup even though I have a huge system drive (2 terabyte) I still use external drives. And when (not if but when) you get your external drive make sure it's not a green drive (energy saver) and also spins at a minimum of 7200 rpm or better yet is an ssd.

You say you've done all the optimizations - turn off Spotlight, turned off any power savings like sleep, etc.?

The graphics card has nothing to do with this.

What other audio I/O options have you tried besides the built-in? You mentioned aggregate audio - that means using several audio interfaces, whether it's a combo of internal and external interfaces, multiple external interfaces, etc.

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Doesn't matter if it's a fusion drive with 1 terabyte of space

This is probably creating more problems than it is solving. The Fusion Drive uses an Apple software technology called CoreStorage, which acts as a virtualization layer between the storage and the OS. CoreStorage first appeared in OS X Lion, and it is what made full disk encryption (FDE) possible with Lion.

But I digress, if only slightly. A Fusion Drive is an SSD and a traditional HDD that are fused together by CoreStorage. So you actually have two sets of read/write heads, one per physical volume. The issue is that to Pro Tools, the OS, or any other program, the volume you created with the Fusion Drive appears and is addressed as a single volume. Pro Tools cannot tell the OS "let me use the SSD for this session". The OS determines which files you access most frequently and moves them to the SSD if they are on the HDD. You would have to use your session document and its audio files enough (a subjective term) to get them moved to the SSD.

If you have PT11 HD or PT10 HD or PT10 with CPTK, you can use the Disk Cache and probably mitigate this problem. Having said that, Disk Cache is not an excuse to skimp on a 7200 RPM drive. It's just a means of getting better performance and working with volumes that are hosted on a SAN or served as NAS.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Chief Technician

This is probably creating more problems than it is solving. The Fusion Drive uses an Apple software technology called CoreStorage, which acts as a virtualization layer between the storage and the OS. CoreStorage first appeared in OS X Lion, and it is what made full disk encryption (FDE) possible with Lion.

But I digress, if only slightly. A Fusion Drive is an SSD and a traditional HDD that are fused together by CoreStorage. So you actually have two sets of read/write heads, one per physical volume. The issue is that to Pro Tools, the OS, or any other program, the volume you created with the Fusion Drive appears and is addressed as a single volume. Pro Tools cannot tell the OS "let me use the SSD for this session". The OS determines which files you access most frequently and moves them to the SSD if they are on the HDD. You would have to use your session document and its audio files enough (a subjective term) to get them moved to the SSD.

If you have PT11 HD or PT10 HD or PT10 with CPTK, you can use the Disk Cache and probably mitigate this problem. Having said that, Disk Cache is not an excuse to skimp on a 7200 RPM drive. It's just a means of getting better performance and working with volumes that are hosted on a SAN or served as NAS.

Thanks for the explanation. But for all intents and purposes to the end user there's still only 1 read/write head the end user (and os) accesses and what move to the ssd part is invisible to the end user and programs.

Would disk cache in HD really help on recording? I thought that was mainly a playback helper.

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Thanks for the explanation. But for all intents and purposes to the end user there's still only 1 read/write head the end user (and os) accesses and what move to the ssd part is invisible to the end user and programs.

Agreed. The point is that with 1 read/write head, doing any session work on the Macintosh HD is a bad idea and is unsupported by Avid.

[solo206]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Doesn't matter if it's a fusion drive with 1 terabyte of space - you're still asking a drive to access multiple areas on that drive and that can't be done no matter how fast the drive is because you still only have one read/write head. You really need to have a second drive to record and playback from. In my setup even though I have a huge system drive (2 terabyte) I still use external drives. And when (not if but when) you get your external drive make sure it's not a green drive (energy saver) and also spins at a minimum of 7200 rpm or better yet is an ssd.

You say you've done all the optimizations - turn off Spotlight, turned off any power savings like sleep, etc.?

The graphics card has nothing to do with this.

What other audio I/O options have you tried besides the built-in? You mentioned aggregate audio - that means using several audio interfaces, whether it's a combo of internal and external interfaces, multiple external interfaces, etc.

thanks for the responce dude, but I tried the recomended setting with a 500gb external ssd, but still no luck. I run on my internal drive on my macbook, usually runs smooth when im mixing in the box, but when I do get a error its usually a "engine cant pull audio fast enough.." not a Dae 6101. Besides im running two tracks, at times w/o plugins and still getting this error.

[Chief Technician]

Originally Posted by solo206

thanks for the responce dude, but I tried the recomended setting with a 500gb external ssd, but still no luck. I run on my internal drive on my macbook, usually runs smooth when im mixing in the box, but when I do get a error its usually a "engine cant pull audio fast enough.." not a Dae 6101. Besides im running two tracks, at times w/o plugins and still getting this error.

What is the formatting of your disk? Mac OS Extended (Journaled)? Something else?