Problems with PTLE? Post your configuration here..

[Jim Tucker]

I've solved my problem, so I'll give an update report and my own suggested checklist, in case they help anyone else.

First let me say that I, like many others here, am disappointed that Digidesign seems to pay very little attention to this, their official user forum. I understand that they want users to help one another as much as possible, but in most of the better vendor-sponsored user forums I've seen, the vendor assigns one or more people to play an active role in directing and moderating forum discussions.

I ended up taking a battering ram to my system and implementing ALL the changes in the http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.p...&Number=802377 general troubleshooting guide.

That thing is densely written and hard to follow, and I feel like I've just used a bazooka to kill a fly, but since Digidesign seems to be unwilling to look at my Sandra report or to provide any other kind of response to my particular situation, I was left with few other options.

My suggestions, for what they're worth, to people who are still stuggling:

==============================================
==============================================

JIM'S PRO TOOLS CHECKLIST:

1. Forget posting your Sandra report to this forum, at least initially. Nobody's gonna read it, apparently, so don't waste your time.

2. Don't expect a response from Digidesign. They don't act as though they care. Give up hope of meaningful vendor support in this forum. Once you're finished the grieving process, if you're still interested in a self-serve solution, read on to my point number three.

3. Copy and paste the http://duc.digidesign.com/showflat.p...&Number=802377 general troubleshooting guide into a new text file or a blank word processing document and save it to your hard drive.

4. Start parsing the dense prose of the guide into manageable pieces. Break the steps down into smaller sub-steps, with one paragraph for each itty-bitty step. When I did this I started to see things I was missing when I read the guide as-is. Use this document as your checklist. Print it out if you want to.

5. Work your way through the checklist, understanding that:
(a) Digidesign provides a confusing array of incomplete and hard-to-follow guidance about hardware compatibility -- this may be the most frustrating part for you
(b) at the end of the process your computer will be no good for anything except Pro Tools, at least not with the Windows hardware configuration they recommend

==============================================
==============================================


The Digi attitude seems to be "don't even bother talking to us unless you've (a) put on your propeller beanie geek hat, (b) spent a dozen hours scouring our poorly organized web site, your hardware vendors' poorly organized web sites, and our poorly written troubleshooting guide, and (c) crippled your system for any useful purpose except Pro Tools."

I understand now that if you really want to use Pro Tools, even as a hobbyist, you gotta be a technology geek (or at least play the geek role) with tons of time to burn on Pro Tools tweaking, or have a really good geek friend to do it for you. You also -- let's get real here -- need to be able to dedicate a well-equipped (read "not cheap") computer to the exclusive task of hosting Pro Tools. The PT-optimized computer will be no practical use for any other task.

If you're a pro musician maybe these are reasonable expectations, but for hobbyists like me that's not what I thought I was signing up for. (Note to self: that's what the "pro" in Pro Tools means; you're going to become a professional PC technician.) I just wish that Digi would drop any pretense of being accessible, helpful, or having a straightforward troubleshooting path. It just ain't so, people.

Welcome to the jungle!

Jim

[DigiTechSupt]

This thread was specifically meant for our Engineering department to collect information on systems that had gone through the standard troubleshooting and any further suggestions given by the DUC community, yet were unable to resolve the problem after a reasonable attempt.

This message from DigiTechSupt has been posted in this thread several times:

PLEASE NOTE!THIS THREAD IS ONLY TO BE POSTED TO IF YOU HAVE BEGUN A SEPARATE THREAD STATING YOUR PROBLEM AND NO SOLUTION HAS BEEN REACHED! THIS THREAD IS NOT REGULARLY MONITORED AND IS SPECIFICALLY FOR ENGINEERING TO MONITOR PROBLEMATIC CONFIGURATIONS. IF YOU POST TO THIS THREAD WITHOUT FIRST CHECKING COMPATIBILITY FOR YOUR SYSTEM, SEARCHING THE DUC AND ANSWERBASE FOR POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO YOUR PROBLEM, THEN YOU RUN THE RISK OF NOT RECEIVING A REPLY.

AGAIN, THIS THREAD IS ONLY TO BE POSTED TO WHEN ALL OTHER OPTIONS HAVE BEEN EXHAUSTED.

Digidesign Compatibility Information
Search the Answerbase
Search the DUC

Thank you for your attention.

Since the persons from engineering are tied up with other projects and unable to participate directly in this forum at the moment (though we have still been collecting data from it), we are going to lock it for now, as having a separate thread for each issue will make it much easier for DigiTechSupt and the DUC community to keep track any particular persons situation.

We will also break out the most recent posts to their own threads, so if you don't see yours here, look for it in the Pro Tools LE Systems for Windows XP forum.

We're not trying to ignore anyone, however please keep in mind that this forum is primarily patrolled by other Pro Tools users - DigiTechSupt has limited hours here and there are far too many posts for us to reply to everyone individually. Generally speaking, if you start a new thread, the community or DigiTechSupt will be able to assist you within a reasonable amount of time.

Thank you for your time and patience.