Consistent Errors

[DJ BFunk]

I keep getting errors and at my wits end. It happens about every 60 seconds, sometimes its not that bad, sometimes I can work and sometimes I cant work at all.

Errors :

1. The Operating System Held off interupts for too long, if this occurs frequently, try increasing the "H/W Buffer Size" in the Playback Engine panel

2. You are running out of CPU Power, Remove some RTAS Plug Ins or increase CPU Usage Limit in the Playback Engine.

I always thought it was too many plug ins, well today I started a new project, only using 1 plug in which was Massive. Please don't say its Massive because I just bought it and I been having this problem for months now. I normally Rewire in Reason 5 with Protools 7.4.2 LE, with a few plug ins such as sugar bytes, and a few protools ignition pack came with. I have tried what each error said, changing the settings connects my 003 back online, because each time the error happens my 003 goes offline, but anyways i consistently have to keep going back and forth between 1 or 2 processors, CPU Usage, etc, this should be happening. Please Help?


Hardware Overview:

Didi Design 003 / Firewire
Protools 7.4.2 LE
Reason 5

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system): 1.20f4

[nst7]

Are you using an external drive for your audio? If not, that's the most likely problem.

[DJ BFunk]

No I don't use an external hard drive, my computer wont open projects from my external hard drive or at least the one I have. I bought a 500gb western digital from best buy for $75. I work on the project right from my apples hard drive, then once its finalized, i move to external, so I really only have 3 projects saved at a time on my computers hard drive which still has over 75% free space. what about artist who travel and work on the road with their macbooks?

I would love to work right from my external hard drive but I get some error, not sure what that is at the moment.

[AfterJohn]

I've had more problems recording to external drives than the internal system drive.

Although I use external drives, in 13 years I've never had a single issue recording to the system drive.

[DJ BFunk]

so, your saying the reason why Im getting errors is because I am using my computers internals hard drive, i mean this is really bad, sometimes it works and sometimes it crashes every time i hit the play button, 003 then goes offline until i change the cpu usage settings , etc in the playback engine.

[DJ BFunk]

I never use external hard drives , i work from my internal drive

[Craig F]

system drive is never a good idea, I have seen the System folder get overwitten by Pro Tools killing the OS and requiring a full reinstall of the OS

I am going to guess that your performance problems are do to using the system drive,
the drive can not provide audio data fast enough with all the OS queries to the System and Library folders

most drives bought from most stores come formated FAT32 or NTFS and need to be reformatted HFS+ so Pro Tools on Mac can use them

[DJ BFunk]

If I reformat, will I lose all the data saved on the hard drive?

[Craig F]

yes but, you could store it on your system drive them move it back

[DJ BFunk]

Thank everyone:) Ill try this and see