Intermittent loss of audio playback

[Stormfront]

I've had PT8LE running on this system for nearly a year with MBox 2 Pro (firewire) and experienced virtually no PT issues or errors in all that time.

I've run many sessions with lots of plug-ins and CPU has shown no signs of stress - problem is......

Unpredictably, only in the last month or 2, every now and again (sometimes in the same session of PT where I've gone for lunch and come back having not closed off the session let alone PT itself) the AUDIO playback disappears and I can't find a way of reinstating it other than to close PT, restart my PC, and reopen PT at which point everything's fine until it happens again sometimes days, weeks, hours later with no apparent cause & effect?

When this issue occurs PT appears to be playing back everything in the session - all track and master faders are registering playback - just no sound coming out of either headphones or monitors.

I believe all routes and sends are fine in the playback chain, and of course volume is ON for headphones & monitors etc.

I've run the PT CPU usage utility during the problem - this shows PT as having virtually no impact on my CPU at the time the playback "mute" is occuring.

There are no errors generated, session otherwise is working fine - just every now and again the audio disappears from the playback.

It's very odd, entirely unpredictable and getting very annoying - especially given the Murphy's Law factor (i.e. it only seems to happen 5 minutes before a client is about to arrive to do a session!).

ANY advice welcome - I've noted a few DUC posts have encountered similar issues but no clear answers yet?



Sandra report as below:


Computer
Model : Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H

Processor
Model : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+
Speed : 3GHz
Cores per Processor : 2 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Dual-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 2x 64kB, Synchronous, Write-Back, 2-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 2x 1MB, ECC, Synchronous, Write-Back, 16-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size

Computer
Platform Compliance : AMD LIVE!
Mainboard : Gigabyte GA-MA69G-S3H
BIOS : Award (Phoenix) F3 07/27/2007
Bus(es) : ISA X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 3GB DIMM DDR2

Chipset
Model : Giga-Byte RS690 Host Bridge
Front Side Bus Speed : 1x 200MHz (200MHz)
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 100MHz (200MHz)

Chipset
Model : AMD Athlon 64 / Opteron HT Hub
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 1GHz (2GHz)
Total Memory : 4GB DIMM DDR2
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 334MHz (668MHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-5300U DDR2-666 (5-5-5-13 3-18-5-3)
Memory Module : 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-5300U DDR2-666 (5-5-5-13 3-18-5-3)

Video System
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT (16 SP 1.45GHz, 512MB DDR2 2x400MHz, PCIe 1.00 x16)

Storage Devices
WDC WD3200AAKS-75SBA0 (320GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 298GB (C:)
WDC WD3000HLFS-01G6U0 (300GB, SATA300, 10000rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 279GB (J:)
Generic STORAGE DEVICE (USB) : N/A (F:)
Generic STORAGE DEVICE (USB) : N/A (G:)
Generic STORAGE DEVICE (USB) : N/A (H:)
Generic STORAGE DEVICE (USB) : N/A (I:)
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH20NS10 (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (D:)
HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H62N (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (E:)

Logical Storage Devices
Hard Disk (C:) : 298GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD3200AAKS-75SBA0 (320GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
PROTOOLS (J:) : 279GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD3000HLFS-01G6U0 (300GB, SATA300, 10000rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH20NS10 (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
Optical Drive (E:) : N/A @ HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H62N (ATAPI, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
3.5" 1.44MB (A:) : N/A
Removable Drive (F:) : N/A @ Generic STORAGE DEVICE (USB)
Removable Drive (G:) : N/A @ Generic STORAGE DEVICE (USB)
Removable Drive (H:) : N/A @ Generic STORAGE DEVICE (USB)
Removable Drive (I:) : N/A @ Generic STORAGE DEVICE (USB)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 SMBUS Controller
LPC Hub Controller 2 : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : ITE IT8716F
Audio Device : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semiconductor Realtek 885 High Definition Audio
Serial Port(s) : 1
Parallel Port(s) : 1
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 Serial ATA Controller
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 ATA Controller
USB Controller 1 : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 USB Controller (OHCI0)
USB Controller 2 : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 USB Controller (OHCI1)
USB Controller 3 : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 USB Controller (OHCI2)
USB Controller 4 : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 USB Controller (OHCI3)
USB Controller 5 : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 USB Controller (OHCI4)
USB Controller 6 : Giga-Byte IXP SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : Giga-Byte TSB43AB23 1394a-2000 OHCI PHY/link-layer Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : ATI SB600 SMBus
SMBus/i2c Controller 2 : ATI AFS SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Printer : Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Driver (200x200)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Printer : Canon iP4600 series (USB, Colour)
Printer : Adobe PDF Converter (4000x4000, Colour)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC - 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

[albee1952]

I'd guess at one of 2 possibilities. 1-you have Windows Auto Updater turned on and something updated(which you DON'T want) or 2 (and more likely) you have something set wrong in your Power Options setup and something is going into a sleep mode, screen saver or similar. Review the Power settings for starters. If none of this helps, I would close out Pro Tools and the session before going to lunch. If you are still using the firewire cable that came with the Mbox, it might be worth getting a new cable(the included cable is crap). Hope you get it sorted out

[Stormfront]

Thanks albee1952,

On your advice I re-revised all my settings and found a contradictory situation where - although I had originally configured my Windows XP Pro how I needed - somewhere along the way (somehow??) XP had reactivated a small component of the Windows auto update which I hadn't approved and wasn't aware of.

The problem (as above) with main audio playback problem hasn't resurfaced since I corrected this and I was confident the problem was solved.

However just the last 2 days there's a new intermittent glitch whereby when you've got a Count Off (say of 2 bars) set to ON the first 2 bars will play visually through the Click track but the audio of that click only plays from the first beat of the song?

Upon turning the Count Off on & off several dozen times, exploring all the settings (including ensuring that the Count Off is set to "Play & Record") - and the necessary hurlings of abuse at my PC and pulling of hair the Click audio will miraculously start playing from the start of the Count Off as it has visually always said it was doing?

So this new glitch seems related to the original problem but then it never pays to assume. I suspect it'll eventually come down to Bill Gates covertly getting back into my system somehow and if I trace a cause I'll post it here for others who may experience the same annoying minor glitch.

[Stormfront]

I'm once again happy to take advice or experience on this issue.

After my previous post I've gone for about a month using PT most days without any recurrence of this issue, and thought I'd solved it as above.

However, without any obvious reason or effector - twice this week my audio playback has been mysteriously muted while the on-screen meters play away contently. Upon rebooting my system Pro Tools plays back fine again - but this doesn't work if you just restart Pro Tools without rebooting the system.

Once again I'm somewhat frustrated - and the "Law Of Murphy" continues to be the only consistent factor in this problem - it ONLY occurs when I really need Pro Tools to just playback and do what my client needs LOL!?