Frustrating Day

[Barry Johns]

Yesterday I had a session that was so frustrating. I could get through a couple of drum takes, then out of nowhere I get multiple errors one after the other, crash and then reboot, over and over again! Each error below happen one after another once the previous one, after they all free up, then I close Protools HD10.3.8, which takes a very long time, then I reboot the computer.

DAE unable to communicate with Hardware -6039, says reboot required.

Then

DAE error 9169

I have a MacPro 1.1 upgraded CPU to an 8 core.

Then

DAE error 9162

When I look them up, it seems to be associated with a Magma Chasis, from years ago, which I am not using, and never have.

Ran DIGItest, several times, everything passed.

Trashed preferences, worked longer after that, but I think it was a coencidence.

Checked the DigiLink cable connection, all seemed good.

Removed the Two Accel cards, then worked with just the core card, everything after that was smooth sailing. Since it was just tracking the HD1 was sufficient.

This all went on for hours before I tried removing the cards. I felt so bad for the band. They were understanding, considering I record for free. We obviously got no where near done as we had planned.

After they all left, I then put the cards back in and then through a process of elimination, found the problem card. So I'm now with an HD2, but what I need more help with, is why did all the cards pass DIGItest with flying colors, which I ran at least 5 times.

Ideas????

[JFreak]

Are you sure it's a faulty card? Swap the accels once more using the same ribbon you're using now. If it works, you have two working accels ... so change the ribbons, and if it doesn't work now you know have a faulty ribbon which is easy to replace.

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Are you sure it's a faulty card? Swap the accels once more using the same ribbon you're using now. If it works, you have two working accels ... so change the ribbons, and if it doesn't work now you know have a faulty ribbon which is easy to replace.

That's a great idea! That could explains why it's passing digitest!

Will do that when I get home, taking the kids to see Jurassic Park.

[Barry Johns]

Movie was good, but it's not the flex cable. I exchanged both cables just to see. The one card keeps being the problem child, even though it keeps passing DIGITest.

Uninstalled and reinstalled yet another time, no luck. I'm at a loss as to why it always passes digitest, but I only get errors when I have that one accel card in the computer, regardless of PCIe location.

[blackmacdaddy]

Hmm. Could it be the Timing Reset error that was a 'big deal' around 2009/2010 and it required sending your card back to Avid. It was a free thing, but now?

Also, that little resistor on the end edge of the card that can break and it still passes Digitest but doesn't work right.

Wild guesses here. Good Luck! :)

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by blackmacdaddy

Hmm. Could it be the Timing Reset error that was a 'big deal' around 2009/2010 and it required sending your card back to Avid. It was a free thing, but now?

Also, that little resistor on the end edge of the card that can break and it still passes Digitest but doesn't work right.

Wild guesses here. Good Luck! :)

That's when the card was manufactured. Let me chase that down!

[Southsidemusic]

Hey Barry

This is just a guess but this happened to our HD3 system on PCIe based cards a while back before we sold that and we had that same Mac Pro 1.1 aswell.

I can't remeber what its called but you can assign "bandwith" to each "card lane socket" and I recall we changed that and deleted PRAM and it worked.

If anyone know or if you know what I mean with bandwith/power assignment for all "lanes" where the cards sit you could check the config there just to be sure nothing has changed. Our had changed the bandwith in the lanes so that the graphics card had like 60-70% of the 100% to choose from.

Have no idea how that changed by itself as I remember it was very hard for us to find those settings since we didn't know what we were looking, hence we didn't change by mistake but if you wanna check there and the PRAM reset and see if that helps anything

Best if Luck as I know how it feels when these cards act up.

[Barry Johns]

Originally Posted by blackmacdaddy

Hmm. Could it be the Timing Reset error that was a 'big deal' around 2009/2010 and it required sending your card back to Avid. It was a free thing, but now?

Also, that little resistor on the end edge of the card that can break and it still passes Digitest but doesn't work right.

Wild guesses here. Good Luck! :)

I googled Protools HD Timing Reset Error and can't find anything about that issue. Are you sure that is what it was called?

[elicious]

hey barry, i know you've been through a lot of hd rigs.
(not sure if you flip them or use them)
but in this case, have you used this set up successfully before?

i ask , because i'm wondering if you checked the rev letter on the cards.

some don't play nice with others.

for ex., "k" cards can cause drama paired with "g" cards, etc.
e

[fm_xtk]

Originally Posted by Barry Johns

That's a great idea! That could explains why it's passing digitest!

Hi Barry,

I would hazard a guess and say the PSU of your MacPro 1,1 is on the way out. What you are describing sounds exactly like a dying PSU. Core card alone is ok, Core + 1 Accel is ok, then the problems start.

I, like you, used to run a 1,1 with upgraded CPU (exact same chip). However, my issue has been related to a Magma chassis and it's PSU (see my DUC post here).

However, when I fixed the Magma and still got errors I ended up using an external PSU for the MacPro's GPU (which I'd upgraded in order to run Mountain Lion) as my Mac Pro's PSU was also knackered.

My symptoms were exactly the same as yours and the fact that the cards would pass digitest made me think of all sorts of causes for the crashes - far too complicated ones as it turned out. It's very unusual for working TDM cards to suddenly go bad like this. I have seen it happen but it's very unlikely.

My experience has been that PSU's are a much more common problem. They can go bad from one moment to the next, especially computer ones.

The problem of course is that the MacPro uses a non standard PSU. You can buy old ones on eBay for ridiculous money or you need to think outside the box (literally).

I hope you find a solution. It will probably require some tinkering with an external PSU and a long ATX cable or something. Alternatively you can look for a chassis - the power draw for a Magma host card will be much less than that of three TDM cards.

I ended up building a Hackintosh and couldn't be happier.