Another H/W Buffer size/ Playback -6086 error

[jawsont]

I did a clean install of XP a month ago and I'm trying to get PT up and running on this box, but I'm losing my mind.

I'm running PT 7.4 with an original Mbox, and have successfully done so on slower boxes than this in the past, so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

I've got PT installed on the c: drive, while I've recorded tracks successfully on the d:, e: and f: drives (d is my main 'recording drive').

I've tried pretty much all the troubleshooting steps outlined in the xp tweaks section for ProtoolsLE, I've tried disabling nearly everything on the computer as per instructions. I've read about 3 trillion posts regarding the H/W Buffer Size error after searching, but to no avail. All my drivers are up-to-date as far as I can tell.

The only thing out of the ordinary is that I get a message saying "SVCP71D.dll was not found." during startup, but it doesn't seem to affect the startup/function of recording if I simply acknowledge the error.

The Sandra report for the box is listed below.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I was hoping to get some tracks of my daughters singing some music for my mother's birthday.

__________________________________________________ ___________
Computer
Model : Northern_Micro P5X200

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 2.80GHz
Speed : 2.8GHz
Cores per Processor : 2 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Dual-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 2x 16kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 2x 2MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 lines per sector

Computer
Mainboard : Asus P5RD1-VM
BIOS : AMI 1104 07/17/2006
Bus(es) : ISA X-Bus PCI PCIe USB i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : No
Total Memory : 1.5GB DIMM DDR

Chipset
Model : ASUS RS400/200 Host Bridge
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 200MHz (800MHz)
Total Memory : 1.5GB DIMM DDR
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 200MHz (400MHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Kingmax MPXD42F-D8KT4B 1GB DDR PC1-3200U DDR1-400 (3-4-4-8 2-12-0-0)
Memory Module : SpecTek 512MB DDR PC1-3200U DDR1-400 (3-3-3-8 2-11-0-0)

Video System
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT (32 SP 1.4GHz, 512MB DDR2 2x400MHz, PCIe 1.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT (32SP 4C 1.4GHz, 511.7MB 2x400MHz)
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT (32SP 4C 1.4GHz, 511.7MB 2x400MHz)

Storage Devices
WDC WD1200JB-00EVA0 (120GB, ATA100, 3.5", 7200rpm, 8MB Cache) : 112GB (C:)
WDC WD6400AAKS-00A7B0 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 596GB (E:) (F:) (G:)
HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H22N (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (D:)
NYJ VO9EB0P2Z (SCSI, BD-R, HD-DVD-R, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R) : N/A (H:)

Logical Storage Devices
Hard Disk (C:) : 112GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD1200JB-00EVA0 (120GB, ATA100, 3.5", 7200rpm, 8MB Cache)
Music (E:) : 203GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD6400AAKS-00A7B0 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
Tracey (F:) : 197GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD6400AAKS-00A7B0 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
Misc (G:) : 197GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD6400AAKS-00A7B0 (640.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H22N (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
Optical Drive (H:) : N/A @ NYJ VO9EB0P2Z (SCSI, BD-R, HD-DVD-R, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R)
3.5" 1.44MB (A:) : N/A

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : ASUS M1573 South Bridge with Hypertransport Support
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : ITE IT8712F
Audio Device : ASUS M5461 High Definition Audio Controller
Disk Controller : ASUS M5229 EIDE Controller
Disk Controller : ASUS M5287 SATA Controller AHCI
USB Controller 1 : ASUS M5237 OpenHCI USB Controller
USB Controller 2 : ASUS M5237 OpenHCI USB Controller
USB Controller 3 : ASUS M5237 OpenHCI USB Controller
USB Controller 4 : ASUS USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Ali 1563 SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Printer : Adobe PDF Converter (4000x4000, Colour)
Printer : Canon MP160 Printer (USB, Colour)

Network Services
Network Adapter : ULi PCI Fast Ethernet Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport (Ethernet, 100Mbps)

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 3)
Platform Compliance : x86
__________________________________________________ __________

[Hotcrazyfruit]

I can point out multiple problems right off the bat,

You have mis matched memory modules, running at mis matched timings. They should be equally sized (ideally) and matched timings.

You have Hard drives with 8MB cache sizes, you should have at least 16 MB

Also, try not to partition your drives. It has a very negative effect on track counts and performance.

Also disable your internet when using protools

But overall, pentium is rather out dated. you might want to consider upgrading sometime soon :)

Nick

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by Hotcrazyfruit

Also, try not to partition your drives. It has a very negative effect on track counts and performance.

Nick

What? I always partiton large hard drives. If anything it Improves performance, smaller drive, less space to have to seek.

[jawsont]

You have mis matched memory modules, running at mis matched timings.

Good to know though, I worried that the memory modules may be part of the problem, that's a fairly easy fix, I'll also give a 16MB drive a whirl. I'm trying like mad to use this system as I don't really have the $ for another. I have used slower systems in the past, but I may have been using PT6.7 at the time, I can't remember.

I would love to put PT/Mbox on my 2.4GHz core2duo, but it's a Win7 box and thus isn't supported.

[edit] - Oh, and I have disabled the network adapter in trying to troubleshoot the problem, but it resolved nothing, and I've successfully used PT 7.4 in the past w/ the adapter running.

[spkguitar]

Originally Posted by jawsont

(d is my main 'recording drive').

Are you sure about that? Take a look; your "D" drive is your optical drive:

Originally Posted by jawsont

Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H22N (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)

Also...

Originally Posted by jawsont

Optical Drive (H:) : N/A @ NYJ VO9EB0P2Z (SCSI, BD-R, HD-DVD-R, DVD+-R-DL, CD-R)

That looks like a "virtual drive"; is it? if so, you need to disable it when using Pro Tools

Originally Posted by jawsont

I've tried pretty much all the troubleshooting steps outlined in the xp tweaks section for ProtoolsLE, I've tried disabling nearly everything on the computer as per instructions.

So... you made sure to disable the power saving features on each root USB hub? And you tried plugging the MBox into a different USB port?

Originally Posted by jawsont

The only thing out of the ordinary is that I get a message saying "SVCP71D.dll was not found." during startup, but it doesn't seem to affect the startup/function of recording if I simply acknowledge the error.

Are you sure you don't mean "MSVCP71D.dll was not found."??
This is an indication that something is not right. Most likely, another piece of software is out of date. Have you made sure that XP is up to date? And all of the plugins you have installed are up to date? Have you updated your PACE drivers from www.paceap.com?

Originally Posted by jawsont

Chipset
Model : ASUS RS400/200 Host Bridge

This chipset is known for "not playing nice" with Pro Tools. IMHO, you're lucky to get Pro Tools running at all.

Originally Posted by jawsont

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Kingmax MPXD42F-D8KT4B 1GB DDR PC1-3200U DDR1-400 (3-4-4-8 2-12-0-0)
Memory Module : SpecTek 512MB DDR PC1-3200U DDR1-400 (3-3-3-8 2-11-0-0)

As mentioned already, you need to match these; both size and timings.

[Hotcrazyfruit]

Originally Posted by Benoni

What? I always partiton large hard drives. If anything it Improves performance, smaller drive, less space to have to seek.

Yes but on the contrary if hes reading samples from one partition and is recording on another partition or whatever, it will bog down the drive. The only time i would partition a drive would be for archiving. Thats just me

Nick

[spkguitar]

Digidesign has actually recommended partitioning larger drives in certain circumstances. I do think they agree (as do I) that streaming session audio from one partition while streaming sample audio from another partition on the same physical disk would be a bad idea.

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by Hotcrazyfruit

Yes but on the contrary if hes reading samples from one partition and is recording on another partition or whatever,
Nick

Well that would not be a good thing to do of course.

But once you start getting 750GB 1TB and 2TB drives, its much better to partition.

I have a separate drive for my sample libraries. 750 GB, partitioned to 522 and 175GB. 522 for samples, 175 for storage. Same way I do my OS drive. 750GB, partitioned to 444 for OS, 253 for storage.

I dont "usually" partition anything under 640GB, unless its a Laptop hard drive.

Partitions also help me in file management. I like everything to have its own space, I dont want video files next to the Morphestra Library

And as mentioned, Digidesign use to recommend it.

[TOM@METRO]

I agree with spkguitar,

I see the chipset as the main obstacle here.

As far as partitioning goes... No more that one partition on a single drive should be actively in use at any time during a Pro Tools session.

[jawsont]

Originally Posted by spkguitar

Are you sure about that? Take a look; your "D" drive is your optical drive:

My bad - sorry, I record to the first three hard drive partitions e/f/g. E is my main recording location, but I pull samples from F for sampletank. d, as you say, is optical.

Also...
That looks like a "virtual drive"; is it? if so, you need to disable it when using Pro Tools

d'oh - Ironically, while I tried nearly every suggestion the digidesign FAQ had to offer, I forgot to disable my virtual drive.

So... you made sure to disable the power saving features on each root USB hub? And you tried plugging the MBox into a different USB port?

I tried every USB port on the damn computer.....no joy.

Are you sure you don't mean "MSVCP71D.dll was not found."??

er, yes.

This is an indication that something is not right. Most likely, another piece of software is out of date. Have you made sure that XP is up to date? And all of the plugins you have installed are up to date?

XP is up to date, as are the drivers, but as for plugins - I haven't bothered updating them since on other rigs I've had the exact same setup working (as far as protools/plugins, obviously hardware was different). I guess I'll try updating plugins (*blush* 3 of them may be *cough* quesitonable in origin - so I won't be updating them)

Have you updated your PACE drivers from www.paceap.com?

Another good thing to try.

This chipset is known for "not playing nice" with Pro Tools. IMHO, you're lucky to get Pro Tools running at all.
As mentioned already, you need to match these; both size and timings.

crap.

TYVM guys. I'll try updating PACE and my plugins and give it another shot, though I'm not holding out any hope...I suspect as the original answerer suggests - it smacks of memory issues to me. I'm not convinced the HD (8MB cache instead of 16MB) is the main issues as I've used this drive for recording before when it lived in another, functional, protools rig.