CPU 50-50% PT, 22% PC: Why? 9173 Errors

[dougdude9]

Hey all,
So this is a side topic to an earlier post of mine at http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=363484

That thread talks about 4 different issues. This thread is to focus on 9173 out of cpu power.

I'm running what I would consider a small session. Blue Cat's Patchwork is hosting Lepou amp sims... 3 of them. MIXIR2 for the cab emulation... 3 of those as well of course. Then I have 2 instances of IK Amplitube 3 running for the bass. Those are the bigger plugins. The other plugins which is no greater than 5 instances are eq and compression.

I will loop a section of the session and it will always eventually end up getting a 9173 error. Sometimes after 5 minutes of looping sometimes it will go for over 20 minutes.

I have done all the optimization stuff on Avid's site for Windows 7.

I did have my asio buffer at 256, but I recently changed it to 1024 and I'm seeing no difference in the CPU metering in PT. Running at 256 is 50 to 60 percent and running at 1024 is the same.

What I don't understand is why is the CPU in PT so high? Looking at task manager it is only in the 20's.

Should I turn off hyperthreading? I thought for PT 11 it was ok to have it on?

I'm fed up with all the issues and don't understand what happened since going to PT11. I didn't have near the issues with 10. My pc is clean as a whistle. It is dedicated only to PT and I don't load anything else on it. No other background stuff running.

PT 11.3
Windows 7 64
Lenovo S20
Xeon 2.66 W3520 Quadcore (hyperthreading makes 8)
4gb RAM
256gb SSD (For OS and Pro Tools)
500gb (Samples)
500gb external usb (audio drive... what I record to)
Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 interface (3.4 MixControl Driver)

Thanks,
Doug D.

[Darryl Ramm]

What is the point of starting another thread?

Did you ever post a Sandra report folks were asking for in the other thread (sorry if I missed it)?

Start at the "Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!" link above on this and every other DUC page.

To get useful help you likely need to provide...

Sandra Report (especially run this with your all your drives attached.. many of these "CPU errors" involve IO issues).
Stop looking at CPU meters they are not going to tell you anything useful.
Is the system *fully* optimized... every last silly annoying thing done? Don't assume, go double check.
What are all the playback Engine settings?
Interface driver version?
What standard trouble shooting have you done? Especially for likely plugin related problems have you trashed prefs and DB, tried starting with new/empty sessions, have you tried unsinstantiating plugins to see if the problem goes away? Are all the plugins up to date? And have you tried carefully removing all third party plugin files from the plugin folder (and then reintroduce them to isolate what one(es) may be causing the problem). A plugin does not even need to be instantiated to cause nasty problems, just installed.
And yes, once you tried all this you could also try disabling hyper-threading, but by then you should know what plugins installed are suspect.
And if Pro Tools 11 is showing periodic freezes (it's not clear from your other thread if you see periodic (ones that eventually come back to life) or permanent freezes), make sure you have disabled any floppy disk in the BIOS or Windows device manager (yes even if you don't actually have a floppy disk) -- a serious bug in Pro Tools 11 that should have been fixed ages ago.

---

Please reply to this back in your other thread, where folks have been askign you for Sandra reports before, there is no reason to start yet another thread related to the same problem(s).

[dougdude9]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

What is the point of starting another thread?

Did you ever post a Sandra report folks were asking for in the other thread (sorry if I missed it)?

Start at the "Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!" link above on this and every other DUC page.

To get useful help you likely need to provide...

Sandra Report (especially run this with your all your drives attached.. many of these "CPU errors" involve IO issues).
Stop looking at CPU meters they are not going to tell you anything useful.
Is the system *fully* optimized... every last silly annoying thing done? Don't assume, go double check.
What are all the playback Engine settings?
Interface driver version?
What standard trouble shooting have you done? Especially for likely plugin related problems have you trashed prefs and DB, tried starting with new/empty sessions, have you tried unsinstantiating plugins to see if the problem goes away? Are all the plugins up to date? And have you tried carefully removing all third party plugin files from the plugin folder (and then reintroduce them to isolate what one(es) may be causing the problem). A plugin does not even need to be instantiated to cause nasty problems, just installed.
And yes, once you tried all this you could also try disabling hyper-threading, but by then you should know what plugins installed are suspect.
And if Pro Tools 11 is showing periodic freezes (it's not clear from your other thread if you see periodic (ones that eventually come back to life) or permanent freezes), make sure you have disabled any floppy disk in the BIOS or Windows device manager (yes even if you don't actually have a floppy disk) -- a serious bug in Pro Tools 11 that should have been fixed ages ago.

---

Please reply to this back in your other thread, where folks have been askign you for Sandra reports before, there is no reason to start yet another thread related to the same problem(s).

Sandra Report done! I will go back to my original thread and post it there as well. They reason I made this one was to focus on the 9173 error. The other thread has 4 things total going on.

Anyway, I did briefly try turning HT off. Didn't do me much good... same session froze after about 30 seconds.

SiSoftware Sandra

ID
Host Name : ProTools
Workgroup : WORKGROUP

Computer
Model : Lenovo 4157AE8 NONE
Serial Number : MJ0****
Chassis : Lenovo Tower
Mainboard : Lenovo LENOVO
Serial Number : NO**
BIOS : Lenovo 60KT47AUS 01/15/2014
TPM - Trusted Platform Module : 1.02, BRCM
Total Memory : 4GB

Processors
Processor : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU W3520 @ 2.67GHz (4C 8T 2.8GHz/2.93GHz, 2.8GHz IMC, 4x 256kB L2, 8MB L3)

Chipset
Memory Controller : Lenovo X58 I/O Hub 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz), 4GB 1GHz

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Samsung M391B5673DZ1-CF8 2GB ECC DIMM DDR3 PC3-8500U DDR3-1066 (7-7-7-20 4-27-8-4)
Memory Module : Samsung M391B5673DZ1-CF8 2GB ECC DIMM DDR3 PC3-8500U DDR3-1066 (7-7-7-20 4-27-8-4)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : ACR S271HL
(1920x1080, 27.2")
Video Adapter : NVIDIA Quadro FX 380 (2CU 16SP SM4.0 1.1GHz, 256MB DDR3 1.4GHz 128-bit, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
CUDA GP Processor : NVIDIA Quadro FX 380 (16SP 2C 1.1GHz, 256MB DDR3 1.4GHz 128-bit)
OpenCL GP Processor : NVIDIA Quadro FX 380 (16SP 2C 1.1GHz, 256MB DDR3 1.4GHz 128-bit)
Compute Shader Processor : NVIDIA Quadro FX 380 (16SP 2C 1.1GHz, 256MB DDR3 1.4GHz 128-bit)

Storage Devices
Samsung SSD 840 Series (250GB, SATA300/600, SSD) : 233GB (C:)
Seagate ST3500418AS (500.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (Y:)
Seagate ST9500424AS (500.1GB, USB2/SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (Z:)
ATAPI DVD A DH16A6S (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (D:)
TSSTcorpDVD-ROM TS-H353B (SATA150, DVD+-R, CD-R, 198kB Cache) : N/A (E:)
Disk (, DVD+-R, CD-R, 512kB Cache) : N/A (K:)

Logical Storage Devices
System Reserved : 100MB (NTFS)
Internal HD (Y:) : 466GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST3500418AS (500.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache)
StudioDrive (Z:) : 466GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST9500424AS (500.1GB, USB2/SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, 16MB Cache)
Hard Disk (C:) : 233GB (NTFS) @ Samsung SSD 840 Series (250GB, SATA300/600, SSD)
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ ATAPI DVD A DH16A6S (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
Optical Drive (E:) : N/A @ TSSTcorpDVD-ROM TS-H353B (SATA150, DVD+-R, CD-R, 198kB Cache)
Optical Drive (K:) : N/A @ Disk (, DVD+-R, CD-R, 512kB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Intel LPC Interface Controller
Serial Port(s) : 1
Disk Controller : Lenovo 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
USB Controller 1 : Lenovo USB UHCI Controller #4
USB Controller 2 : Lenovo USB EHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 3 : Lenovo USB UHCI Controller #1
USB Controller 4 : Lenovo USB UHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 5 : Lenovo USB UHCI Controller #3
USB Controller 6 : Lenovo USB UHCI Controller #6
USB Controller 7 : Lenovo USB EHCI Controller #1
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel ICH SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet #2 (Ethernet)
Wireless Adapter : Compact Wireless-G USB Network Adapter (802.11g (ERP), AES-CCMP, 24Mbps)

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 6.01.7601 (Service Pack 1)
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 5.6

[dougdude9]

Is the system *fully* optimized... every last silly annoying thing done? Don't assume, go double check.
Yes

What are all the playback Engine settings?
256 buffer with dynamic turned on. ALso tried 1024.

Interface driver version?
Latest for Focusrite Saffire 56. MixControl 3.4

What standard trouble shooting have you done? Especially for likely plugin related problems have you trashed prefs and DB, tried starting with new/empty sessions, have you tried unsinstantiating plugins to see if the problem goes away? Are all the plugins up to date? And have you tried carefully removing all third party plugin files from the plugin folder (and then reintroduce them to isolate what one(es) may be causing the problem).
I have bypassed plugins, I have completely removed plugins (originally thought recabinet was the issue and then Guitar Rig 5... both are no longer in the session. Plugins are up to date as they can be. I haven't removed plugins from the folder... I will do that next. I also plan to start a new session and load just 2 tracks with Patchworks hosting Lepou plugins and seeing what happens.

once you tried all this you could also try disabling hyper-threading.
Tried turning off Hyperthreading. Didn't help... actually it froze quickly (30 seconds of playing session). My freezes are hard freezes. Nothing works. No mouse, no keyboard. It is hard freeze where I have to shutdown the pc by holding in the power button.

And if Pro Tools 11 is showing periodic freezes (it's not clear from your other thread if you see periodic (ones that eventually come back to life) or permanent freezes), make sure you have disabled any floppy disk in the BIOS or Windows device manager (yes even if you don't actually have a floppy disk) -- a serious bug in Pro Tools 11 that should have been fixed ages ago.
They are permanent freezes. It never comes back and I have to shutdown via the power button. I have always had floppy disabled even though this computer doesn't have one. ---

I also tried the legacy firewire driver as suggestiong in Windows 7 troubleshooting.

The one thing I haven't tried is clearing prefs and db. I need to look into this. Does this mean all my PT preferences I setup would go back to default? Just curious.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone to help me! I'm about to throw the computer through the window!

Thanks,
Doug D.

[Southsidemusic]

We have been mixing a session all night with 122 tracks all audio since all Vi are bouced down to audio and approx 165 plugins including 89 Console1 plugins and 44 UAD-2 plugins via Apollo Quad and Satellite Quad.

Everything was peachy and all of a sudden errors galore -9173 time n' time again. Hard freeze with a lovely electric harsh chainsaw sound and force quit everytime. Our speakers almost puked with them sounds after freeze

Trashed preferences, plists, delete a few older plugins and crash after crash.

This is on a Macbook pro retina 8GB ram and one external Samsung 850 Pro SSD with case so I can see why the CPU errors come out with all this but it worked for a long session tonight until ..

We then printed ALL the plugins except for the Console1 instances and still crap.

I started running around the Hotel in anger, kicked a cleaning carts right wheel by mistake and my small right toe started gushing blood and now looks like its broken. Started screaming about that too and my friends in the hotel room thought I was shot or something all bloody and sweaty with a red face in anger.

After I calmed down the DJ (Probably the Biggest in the world right now) who I am writing the song and producing with patched up my toe and rubbed my belly as he was fixing my foot True Story!

Called room service for coffee and toast and some sweeeeet jam etc and ate that in peace. As we were eating our snacks we realized we had ONE track all forgotten about where we have a automation written left right left right with a UA Mixcube delay all the way at the bottom of the session.

Somehow that track was forgotten among all the blood and bones sticking out so I bounced that track after agreeing we Loved the automation and panning and delay on it and. ......... YaYaYaYaYaY

122 + 1 tracks now and 166 plugins as we forgot the Cooper mixcube and PTHD11 runs like a fluffy Huggy Bear now.

It was the automation that managed to crash the session with the -9173 errors and after that was bounced into audio everything worked again even though we are pushing that poor laptop to the brink with plugins and automations and track count.

So after all these horrid events and a night snack we are back up mixing and all that was causing this carnage was a small automation track in mono no less

Sorry to hijack the thread but as we have been thru all this and come back from a world of hurt I wanted to share in case you or someone else has an automation that might be the culprit for the 9173 error messages

Best Regards and again sorry for the hijack

Christopher (still in pain after 3 hrs)

[dougdude9]

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

We have been mixing a session all night with 122 tracks all audio since all Vi are bouced down to audio and approx 165 plugins including 89 Console1 plugins and 44 UAD-2 plugins via Apollo Quad and Satellite Quad.

Everything was peachy and all of a sudden errors galore -9173 time n' time again. Hard freeze with a lovely electric harsh chainsaw sound and force quit everytime. Our speakers almost puked with them sounds after freeze

Trashed preferences, plists, delete a few older plugins and crash after crash.

This is on a Macbook pro retina 8GB ram and one external Samsung 850 Pro SSD with case so I can see why the CPU errors come out with all this but it worked for a long session tonight until ..

We then printed ALL the plugins except for the Console1 instances and still crap.

I started running around the Hotel in anger, kicked a cleaning carts right wheel by mistake and my small right toe started gushing blood and now looks like its broken. Started screaming about that too and my friends in the hotel room thought I was shot or something all bloody and sweaty with a red face in anger.

After I calmed down the DJ (Probably the Biggest in the world right now) who I am writing the song and producing with patched up my toe and rubbed my belly as he was fixing my foot True story!

Called room service for coffee and toast and some sweeeeet jam etc and ate that in peace. As we were eating our snacks we realized we had ONE track all forgotten about where we have a automation written left right left right with a UA Mixcube delay all the way at the bottom of the session.

Somehow that track was forgotten among all the blood and bones sticking out so I bounced that track after agreeing we Loved the automation and panning and delay on it and. ......... YaYaYaYaYaY

122 + 1 tracks now and 166 plugins as we forgot the Cooper mixcube and PTHD11 runs like a fluffy Huggy Bear now.

It was the automation that managed to crash the session with the -9173 errors and after that was bounced into audio everything worked again even though we are pushing that poor laptop to the brink with plugins and automations and track count.

So after all these horrid events and a night snack we are back up mixing and all that was causing this carnage was a small automation track in mono no less

Sorry to hijack the thread but as we have been thru all this and come back from a world of hurt I wanted to share in case you or someone else has an automation that might be the culprit for the 9173 error messages

Best Regards and again sorry for the hijack

Christopher (still in pain after 3 hrs)

Funny story! I feel your pain... well not the foot pain, but the pain of PT not working well!

I don't have any automation... yet. This session is still in the early stages... that's what really sucks about it.

Thanks,
Doug D.

[Darryl Ramm]

The most useful thing you can try now is to get every last third party plugin out of the Pro Tools folder and confirm if this is or is not an issue related to third party plugins. Just move out every last .aax file to some other temp. folder and Pro Tools 11 will put back the standard ones automagically when you start it.

And as others pointed out several times where is your 8GB or more RAM? That you promised you would upgrade to in the past...

[YYR123]

I don't like 4gb of ram

Why the latest Saffire mix software? What did it fix from earlier versions?

Run the session in aiso4all (ie w/o the interface - change the playback engine)

What is the code for the -9173 error

And which version of PT11

[Southsidemusic]

Usually 9173 error ceode is running out of CPU.

[dougdude9]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

The most useful thing you can try now is to get every last third party plugin out of the Pro Tools folder and confirm if this is or is not an issue related to third party plugins. Just move out every last .aax file to some other temp. folder and Pro Tools 11 will put back the standard ones automagically when you start it.

And as others pointed out several times where is your 8GB or more RAM? That you promised you would upgrade to in the past...

I have to order the RAM... that was just this last week and then the weekend hit. I wish I could RAM instantly, but I lost my genie bottle, so I will have to order it.

I'm currently running a new session with 3 tracks of audio and patchwork with lepou. It has neen playing in a loop for over 20 minutes.

I'm almost starting to wonder if it could Reaper Rewire causing the issue.

Thanks,
Doug D.