freeze during playback
 

PT TDM 6.1 (2) farms (1) DSP on Mac G4 Dual 866.

Running rather normal 64 track session, and randomly during playback music continues to play but total lock up. Tried to use higher buffer for editing, no change. 80 gig outboard glyph firewire only half full. Can't think of anything we've done different here.

??

Re: freeze during playback
 

Again today, computer froze twice in a 3 hour time span.

Any thoughts at all????

Re: freeze during playback
 

Are you running DV with the session?

Also, 64 tracks on a single FW drive is waaaaaay over Digidesign's recommended track count. Even if it IS a Glyph.

Lee Blaske

Re: freeze during playback
 

No, I am not running DV. I know Digi's reccomendations have always been lower, but I have been running 64 track sessions with 20 other virtual tracks since Pro Tools 4.3.2 TDM cubed. And i have never had problems. Used to use outboard Glyph scsi, then switched to firewire. We run this rig non-stop and always keep the drives less than 75% full. Always has worked. Still does, just that for some reason in the last week we've been averaging 2-3 crashes / session. Not running any other programs, no Mac update stuff. We can' figure it out.

Re: freeze during playback
 

Any new software you/someone else installed on the machine recently?

Any new plugs that you're using? (possible conflict...)

No [k]'s, right????

Firewire cable gone bad?

Re: freeze during playback
 

I had that a couple of weeks ago, used Diskwarrior and solved the problem.

Re: freeze during playback
 

But you are having problems now.

If it were me, I'd add another FW drive and split the load between two drives. I'd also check Oxford 911 firmware. To eliminate guess work, I'd also totally clear off your current FW work drive and do a complete low level re-format.

Quality FW drives are cheap (unless you buy them from Glyph). It pays to have some redundancy, not to mention better load distribution.

It's possible that it's not a drive related problem. Still, I think it would really pay to take the above steps, just to rule out the possibility. The FW drive's power supply could also be on the way out.

Also, if you haven't been inside your computer for some time, it would pay to open it up, blow the dust out (I like using an electric leaf blower for this task - just remember to keep the unit plugged in but not turned on to drain static - especially if you're in a low humidity area), and then reseat all cards, memory sticks and cables, treating all contacts and edge connectors with a high quality stabilant like Caig Pro-Gold.

Lee Blaske

Re: freeze during playback
 

Thanks guys for the tips. I will check all cables, clean Mac and follow other tips one at a time and update as we go.

thanks,

j

Re: freeze during playback
 

I had a similar problem and it was bad ram. Tech Toll tests did not detect the bad ram, but when I swapped it out the problem was cured. If you have several ram chips in the computer, try eliminating them one a t a time and see if the freezing stops. On my system it was the type of freeze where the audio in the buffer would loop and everthing else froze up.