003 freeze ups? What could be wrong?

[Jimibrix]

Im experiencing something which happened suddenly, about 2 weeks ago. I get my session up, everything seems to be working, when after 2 or 3 minutes, the on screen console freezes still, all sound goes off to silent, but the counter is still moving. The 003 console then goes to 'Offline" with my firewire light blinking. When I go into playback engine and switch from 4g to 5g, or 5g to 4g, it comes back on, diaolog returns to 003 screen, whereupon the same thing happens again after 2 or 3 minutes, and i go into playback engine and move it again, back to 4g, or 5g vice versa. Any clues as to whats happening? I uninstalled pace, ilok, Protools and 003 drivers, then reinstalled them all fresh. No change.
Any ideas?

Using PC windows 7, 64b, protools 10.3, using Digidesign 003 console. Plugins are working.

[albee1952]

First thing is a warning!!!
NEVER hot-patch the firewire connections(plug or unplug with things turned on). Doing that will often fry the FW chip in the 003, the FW port in the computer, or even both(yes, I learned the hard way).

Here is how I would troubleshoot:
1-cablestogo.com and order a new FW cable. They do die for no particular reason(I had 1 go bad and it was untouched for a solid year).
2-if your FW is an add-on card, I would shut everything down, remove the card, dust off the motherboard and slots, then stick the card back in and give it a go.
3-Make sure you have the proper driver from Avid for the 003 console(rack uses a different driver) and for Windows 7(assuming your signature is accurate)
4-given the age of the 003, you might think about updating

[Jimibrix]

Replaced the FW cable, same thing. The card is not an add on. I don’t want to replace the 003 simply because it’s older technology.
But here’s the thing. If it was the 003 it doesn’t make sense that it comes back on when I lower to 4gb until it goes out again and raise it back to 5gb. If the 003 was failing I would think it would have trouble kicking back on no matter what I did in the settings.
I’m thinking it must have something to do with my settings in the computer itself.
What is the timeline cache supposed to be? It shows 100 over here. It’s gotta be something stupid like that.

Another clue: Everything will be going smooth when I touch the mouse and suddenly it happens. Does that sound like a 003 issue?
BTW, I uninstalled the 003 drivers and reinstalled them again. No change.

[albee1952]

Hmmm, at this point, I am less suspect about the 003, so its time to post full system specs. A Sandra Lite report as described in the Help Us Help You link(near the top of the page) makes the most sense. Here are some things to consider:
1-is this computer connected to the internet? Win 7 is not very secure and you could easily have a virus, trojan or other malware on the system. There are lots of free programs to clean the system(not sure if Win 7 will be a stumbling block) and if you do choose to run some ant-BS software, once it reports a clean system, I would uninstall those programs(so they don't run in the background).
2-Mouse and graphics drivers might need an update. If graphics are nVidia, get the driver from the nVidia site instead of the card-maker's site.
3-Any new plugins installed? Any recent software or other updates(even if NOT for PT)?
4-Do you have any drive images so you could restore the computer to an earlier time when things were working well?
5-how beefy is the PSU in the PC? These days, I won't use anything under 700 watts(under-current can cause a lot of weird behavior).
6-Trying another FW card might be worth a try, but it might just be chasing your tail with out-dated technology.