Pro Tools 11/10 hanging on startup, crashing Mac Pro :(

[spmusik]

So I just updated from 10.6.8 to 10.8.4 and installed 11 on my Mac Pro 3,1 after years of a relative rock steady Pro Tools 9 setup.. and it has been a headache from the start. Downloaded from Avid, and it always hangs with a spinning ball at "Initializing Audio Engine" for about 5-6 MINUTES before continuing on to allow me to work. In addition, Pro Tools 10 also hangs for the same length of time, but instead when "Setting up MIDI".

I searched online, and found a post from DigiSupt saying this may happen if installed without clean uninstalling the previous Pro Tools, so I wiped both and did a fresh install.

No luck.

And as of today, my trusty Mac Pro has crashed 6 times with Pro Tools open.

Why did I ever do this upgrade?? I am losing valuable hours of productivity, and the first 2 crashes happened DURING a paid session. UNCOOL.

Anyone have ANY ideas whatsoever?

[spmusik]

Oh... and although I installed the new Digi 003 drivers, I have a blank screen screen and zero control surface usability on the console with Pro Tools (either one) open.

Disaster!

[KMcK]

How did you go from 10.6.8 to 10.8.4? A brand-new install on a clean drive I hope. If you "upgraded" on top of an old OS that is a potential problem-causer, especially if you jumped 2 major versions like that.

Are you running PT 10.3.6? That is the only version of PT10 that will co-install with PT11.

[spmusik]

I upgraded from the Mountain Lion App Store download... With as much stuff and as many apps as I have, I couldn't just wipe my drive and start fresh- especially given that with the download, it doesn't even save anywhere where i can wipe and reinstall.

I installed the version of 10 that came with the 11 installer- I was coming from 9.0.6.

I don't even have the option of wiping my drive and installing, as I don't have a physical copy (or even a .dmg) of Mountain Lion.

[nigelpry]

Yeah, it's likely to be some conflicting bit of old crap remaining from OSX 10.6.8 or PT9 that hasn't got removed while upgrading. I'd also recommend a clean OS install, on an empty drive/partition, as your starting point.

Why not get an external drive and create a fresh OS and PT11 install on it. Gradually install the other stuff you need. Still use your existing drive to work with. Eventually, when you are sure everything is fine on the new drive, clone it over to the old one. Of course unless you cloned your existing drive before installing all those updates, it's going to be painful to get that drive back to where it was.

You can re-download mountain lion from the app store. Before you do, have a little search on the net. You'll find articles telling you where the download gets temporarily stored before you do the install. At that stage you can grab a copy of it and burn to disc or backup to another dive.

I'm assuming you've downloaded the new PT11 003 driver?

If so, it only works properly in PT11. You will get a blank screen on the 003 and no control surface functionality when using the new driver with PT10. The new driver does give you use of the 003 as an audio interface, but without the rest of it.

Hopefully Avid are working on sorted that mess out, given that switching between PT0 and PT11 is a right royal pain given that if you want 003 control surface support, you have to deinstall the current driver, reboot, install the driver you need, and reboot again, every time you want to switch versions.

I've created an extra partition, so I've got one with PT10 and the other with PT11, both with the appropriate driver installed. It is much quicker to reboot into the other partition than to go through the driver change rigmarole.

But this situation limits the much heralded benefits of PT10 and PT11 co-installation.