Bizarre PT8 startup issue

[jeffpardo]

Hey all,

I'm having a weird startup issue with PT8 I'm hoping some of you can help with.

When I go out to the studio in the morning, launch PT8, open a session, and hit play.....the stop and play buttons light together, sometimes the file plays out of time with the scroll bar, sometimes there's distortion, sometimes it plays for a second then stops. After I quit protools and relaunch, the issue is completely resolved. This happens EVERY SINGLE DAY that I start working, and then never re-occurs that same day. It's the most bizarre PT issue I've encountered in 5 years.

I do keep the computer running overnight, so it's not connected to the computer starting up, only PT starting up at the beginning of a new work day. I sort of wonder if it could be connected to the clock in the Mac Pro turning to midnight, resetting the day, blah blah.....

I'm on a MacPro Quad Core (I believe...end of 2007 model) running a Digi002 with the music production toolkit 2.

Any help would be great. Thanks.

[Vedat]

It's funny you say that because I do get weird quits with no warnings etc. in the mornings and nothing else happens all day. (7.3.1 HD)
There's definitely some goblins of the night still lurking in there until you start working.

[ajv205]

Yet another reason not to switch to 8 yet.

[lane]

okay, good. here's my every single day 1st time start-up issue.
I am on a oo3+ with factory bundle blah blah, I have a stupid macbook but it's fast enough for what I'm doing most of the time, I know this isn't a computer issue though...
So every single day, the 1st time I startup PT8 it goes through the process, ejects my effing external drives, I then get the device removal message!!!
then the start-up conitunes and stalls at peripherals, says one of two things,
a) cannot communicate with 003 please re-connect and try again, which I don't do because my external drives are daisy chained to the link on the 003 (only one FW on the macbook) so i hit cancel, start-up finishes but I have to force quit, every single morning I send two error report to apple (you'd think the [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]ers would be onto it by now: ))

b)it less often tells me that it can not set a specific sample rate and so can not start., the same things happen, force quit, two error reports to apple etc etc etc.
then, after I've force quit and sent my love letters to apple support, I start it up again, super smooth and everytime for the rest of the day as well.

THis is ALWAYS a 1st s/u of the day, never any other time.

HEY DIGI, WHAT GIVES!!!!!!!!

thanks for the thread dudes!


lane

[Obsidian Dragon]

I don't have any of these problems but it sounds like there is something strange going on with your firewire chain. Somehow it sounds like the Macbook is having trouble seeing or connecting to all the devices upon startup. Here's what I would try.

Turn all firewire devices off before starting your Macbook
Turn on the Mackbook and allow it to complete its boot sequence
Turn on the first device in your firewire chain (audio hard drive?)
Turn on the next device in your firewire chain (more hard drives?)
Make sure each time that the Macbook recogizes each device
Turn on the final device in your firewire chain (Digidesign interface?)
Do you get any errors? If so, the last device you turned on before you get the error may be the culprit or the connection to it.

Also make aure your audio hard drive is the first device in the chain (not the Digidesign interface). Maybe try having less devices chained together. Make sure all devices are the same firewire type (400 vs. 800). Try different firewire cables (they do go bad without any physical damage but I don't know why.)

[jeffpardo]

Bump....DigiTechSupt, could you please comment on the issue discussed in the first post? Thank you.

[Obsidian Dragon]

Did you try the steps I listed two posts up? It should at least point out where the problem might be in the firewire chain. What firewire devices do you have connected?

Note: It is not possible for DigiTechSupt to respond to all posts. but they do try when possible. Remember, this is a "User" conference.

[jeffpardo]

Obsidian....Got your post. The only firewire device in my chain is the 002, so the only firewire issue could be the 002. Everything else is internal....separate hard drives within my Mac Pro.

Also, I never get any error messages....just the symptoms (Start/Play both pressed down together, distortion, music out of time with the scroll bar, etc.)

A bit more symptom info....last night, I shut down my computer and my 002, which I almost never do. Go out this morning, power everything up....no problems upon protools launch.

So, the problem only seems to happen when the Mac Pro and the 002 are left on overnight.

Bizarre.....any other thoughts would be appreciated.

[Obsidian Dragon]

The next thing I would look at is any power saving settings in the OS. Built into the OS are some power saving setting that are useful to extend the battery life for notebooks but are not aplicable for desktops that are plugged into A/C power. These setting may include putting some devices to sleep (monitor, hard drive, even putting the processor into a slower speed). I don't recall anything turning off Firewire or USB ports but you might want to check that too.

[nod25]

Originally Posted by jeffpardo

A bit more symptom info....last night, I shut down my computer and my 002, which I almost never do. Go out this morning, power everything up....no problems upon protools launch.

What I would have expected.

Originally Posted by jeffpardo

So, the problem only seems to happen when the Mac Pro and the 002 are left on overnight.

Correct. I turn of my MacPro and 002R every time I'm finished for the day and re-start both the next day. It's the only way (I've found) to solve this issue.

Originally Posted by jeffpardo

Bizarre....

Yeah.