PTLE 8 - Crashes about once every 2 hours

[KingFish]

On Average - about every 2 hours or so, Pro-Tools LE will "Pause" then disappear (Crash) - Although I always submit the error reports to Apple, I wonder if anyone can tell, from THESE CRASH LOGS if it's a 3rd party plugin causing the issue?

This is a brand new machine - with ALL of the latest Downloads / Installers for ALL plugins and Software.

- Fresh Install of 10.5.5
- Fresh install of PTLE 8
- Fresh install of MPTK2
- Newest versions of Waves, DUY, McDSP, ChannelStrip, PultecBundle, NomadFactory Blue Tubes, Moogerfooger, Sound Replacer, Antares Auto-Tune, Massey & Music Production Toolkit 2

Although I say "Newest downloads" - some of these plugins, in fact, MOST of them, have NOT released an update since PTLE 8's release.

I use MetricHalo ChannelStrip, McDSP, Smack, TLSpace and Massey on every session.

Any way to tell from the Logs, if one of these Plugins is causing the problem?

I've repaired Permissions, run ALL "Troubleshooting tips" from the Sticky thread - and even updated to 10.5.6 using the Combo Update - even though NOT supported, I wanted to see if it might fix an issue, if it was OS X related.

the end result, 10.5.6 "Seems" more stable. It could be my imagination, but I only got 3 crashes yesterday in 10.5.6 - v.s. 7 crashes the day before in 10.5..5

These are LONG 12 / 14 hour days - the system by no means is "Crippled" - every few hours, I loose a few minutes of work (to the last autoSave) if I haven't hit save in a while.

So for now - I've set Auto Save to 5 min - and I'm hammering "Command S" obsessively. Just wondering if anyone out there can actually narrow down the problem from the CRASH REPORTS?

PTLE8 - MPTK2 - 8 core x 2.8ghz Intel Xeon MacPro - 16GB Ram - ADDITIONAL 1x 1TB Seagate SATA Drives

Tested both with M-Box AND Digi 002 - Same results - So "I Think" I've eliminated it being a FW or USB issue, OR an OS X 10.5.5 specific issue. Still imagining one of the 3rd party plugins being the culprit.

[KingFish]

Daytime bump for any Digi Folks, or clever crash log readers.

[sinukus]

Looks like a digi firewire driver crash every time (digifw). Could be your FW card, or something else on the FW bus.

[Slim Shady]

Have you tested it by pulling out the 3rd party plug-ins and then launching PT? That'll tell ya real quick whether or not one of those might be the culprit.

[KingFish]

Well Slim - the problem is that pro-tools runs, loads and operates great for hours. As mentioned in the original post - there are only about 7 of these crashes a day on 10.5.5 and 3 or 4 in 10.5.6 in a full working day - and they're "Random" in the middle of "Normal operation" - So Unloading the plugins, would give me the same "Load and Operation" for an indefinite period of time.

as a result, it'd take weeks of "Playing all day in pro-tools" adding 1 plugin at a time, each day, to see if the stability improved, or there was "A culprit" causing the random crashes.

Sinukus - as I look at the logs, and see the FireWire references on the crashed thread... I'm thinking that if this IS the case, it's a direct issue with Digi's compatibility with the 8 Core Mac Pro - as the ONLY FW on this system, is the "OnBoard" FW

These crash logs were created from the 3 crashes, while using the M-Box instead of the 002 - with NOTHING hooked into the FW ports of this machine.

I used the internal SATA session drive, had no 002 OR FW drives hooked up - and Pro-tools using the M-Box through USB - means that if FW was crashing the system - it's just the "Built in Logic Board FW" that's causing instability with PTLE 8

Any other 8 Core Harpertown Xeon users out there, getting random PTLE crashes throughout the day, as described in this thread ?

[eyrespace]

So... you're saying it's your logic board?

JUST KIDDING

Try removing 3rd party plugs and reintroducing them one at a time.

If this doesn't fit your particular workflow: what are you doing using first generation software for your daily gig?????

[Ankhoa]

Not sure if your problem is caused by plug-ins, but if it is Firewire related, the fix sent by Digidesign worked for me and my PT LE 7.11 crashes. The fix requires me to open up the back of my Digi002 (mine is a desk top control surface), change out the some power cables that Digidesign sent and clean all the power connection terminals in the Digi002 for these power cables. I just cleaned the connections w/o having to change out the power cables, and my PT LE session works! No more crashes. I had to do this fix twice in 6 months.

BTW, has you or anyone using PT LE 8 and try to bounce a mix session as a MP3 song? PT LE 8 only allows me 16 bit depth while in PT LE 7.11 I can bounce up to 24 bit depth. I can only get 24 bit if I bounce the session to a wave file format. I'd appreciate any help on this? Sticky?

Thanks,

Albert Ankhoa
PT LE 8 - Digi 002
MAC OS 10.5.6
iMac Core Duo 2GHZ 2G RAM

[Robert Jackson]

Try reinstalling PT. It worked for me.

[KingFish]

Eyre - as it's not an immediate crash, and there are 50+ plugins - it'd take me 50 days, of working on the system, adding 1 plugin a day, to "Average stability" in attempts to find a plugin causing the occasional operation crash.

I'm working on 1st generation software "At Home" by myself, editing, mixing / overdubing. However, when I'm Tracking at the studio, with the clients on the couch, The HD system is still on Tiger / PTHD 7.4

As stated above, the system isn't "unusable" - just seemingly a bit "Unstable" with 3 or 4 crashes a day. - AutoSave and Command S every minute or so, make it a Minor inconvenience. but if it were Plugin related, I';d begin a correspondence with the company involved.

Ankhoa - if it IS firewire related, it's a "Big Problem" with system incompatibility, which Digi needs to know about. As I'm using an M-Box USB and there is NO external FW device hooked up. Eyre's "Logic Boar Joke" wouldn't be that far off - But I'm not "Waving that flag, screaming bloody murder", as this thread is really an "Investigation" into ALL the possibilities.

The Crash Logs DO show FW references - with NO FW active on this system. I wish there was a way to "Disable" the FW on the Logic Board on a mac, to see if that improved PTLE 8's stability.

Digi - if you happen across this thread, I'd love your thoughts.

[KingFish]

Well - I started over again - removed everything - zero'd the drive - clean installed PTLE8 cs1 10.5.5 Combo - Repaired permissions - NO 3rd party plugins - and worked all day Saturday, just editing, comping, EA fixing tracks with NOTHING but an M-Box - a Mouse, Keyboard, and display hooked up to the Mac Pro.

it crashed 9 times - All 9 crashes were the same.

---------------
Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x0000000000000014
Crashed Thread: 41
-----------------

Thread 41 Crashed:
0 com.digidesign.framework.DAE 0x04017c08 FWAudioCallback + 184530
1 com.digidesign.framework.DAE 0x04018167 FWAudioCallback + 185905
2 com.digidesign.framework.DAE 0x04017ae8 FWAudioCallback + 184242
3 com.digidesign.framework.DAE 0x04018ce8 FWAudioCallback + 188850
4 com.digidesign.framework.DAE 0x0401871a FWAudioCallback + 187364
5 ...gn.framework.CoreFoundation 0x004f069e Sys_RawThreadTask::Run() + 36
6 ...gn.framework.CoreFoundation 0x0050f0fe Sys_RawThread:estroy(Sys_RawThread*&) + 246
7 ...n.framework.PlatformSupport 0x002e8c2a PSHardware_MatchDeviceInfo(TPSPCIDeviceInfo const*, TPSPCIDeviceInfo const*) + 12118
8 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93c25095 _pthread_start + 321
9 libSystem.B.dylib 0x93c24f52 thread_start + 34
-------------------------------------------------------

Yesterday... I updated the machine to 10.5.6 Combo Update - re installed PTLE8cs1 repaired permissions, worked all day doing the same workflow as Saturday - had 4 crashes, all the same as above logs - Thread 41

So it seems in my case, and my tests - that 10.5.6 "Seems" a little more stable (Even though it's unqualified) but I've nothing on this system but OS X and the "Core ProTools LE installation" - and No external hardware hooked up.

Definitely eliminating suspect, of 3rd party Plugins. this is a direct problem between my stock, 8 Core Harpertown 2.8ghz machine - and PTLE 8