Can a PC user help me find PC Laptop that works w/ProTools!?

[chillax69]

Please someone who knows the answer to this please tell me. I want to use protools on a PC Notebook but have not had good luck in the past. I had a Dell inspiron PC which I tried to use protools on. It messed up giving me errors about my buffer capacity needing to be increased/decreased - adjusting either didn't work.

I did some trouble shooting:

Replaced VISTA with Windows XP -- didn't work!

Made sure I had enough RAM and Harddrive space that was specified in the "system requirements"...again these did not work either.

In other posts I had asked people about this and they either referred me to the system requirements section again (already checked it plenty of times). People have suggested that maybe my computer needed 7200 RPM Harddrive to make it work right. They said I should get an external harddrive that has a whole bunch of other specifications to worry about. I don't think my harddrive speed/size is the problem being that I have had both ibook and macbook pro in the past, both of which ran at below 7200 RPM. Protools worked find on those Mac Laptops as long as I had enough RAM. So I don't want to spend money on an external harddrive that I don't need. And I don't want to spend anymore time experimenting, wondering if the computer I spend lots of $$ on will work with protools. ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN ABLE TO MAKE PROTOOLS/MBOX1 WORK ON A PC LAPTOP (without additional peripherals)...PLEASE CHIME IN! I basically want to buy a PC laptop with the right specifications to work with Pro tools and M box with no external harddrive. Pleeease, I am dying to start making music again! Thanks!

[77pro]

Check out this thread

[albee1952]

My Gateway MT6821 worked fine with my 002 after I dumped Vista and installed XP. It took a while to get drivers for everything as this laptop was never offered with XP.

[chillax69]

Guys, is it really true that Mbox 1 does not work with ANY PC laptop?

Has anyone out there been able to use an Mbox 1 with a PC laptop?

It's hard to believe that digi would design it only to work on Macs

thanks very much for your thoughtful answers!

Much Appreciated

[spkguitar]

Guys, is it really true that Mbox 1 does not work with ANY PC laptop?

No.

Has anyone out there been able to use an Mbox 1 with a PC laptop?

Yes.

[chillax69]

Thankyou for telling me that. Could you tell me what kind of PC laptop/What "Specs" caan support Mbox 1 and Protools with PC Laptop.

So, if you have been able to do it, can you tell me what the laptop you had and it's specs so I can go buy it?

I'm eternally greatful!

[chillax69]

If you can tell me the make/model of the computer that worked (and specs) I would like to buy it...

it was able to work without external harddrive or with one?

[spkguitar]

If you can tell me the make/model of the computer that worked (and specs) I would like to buy it...

It was the EMachines M6811... but that was years ago, and that laptop is no longer available, and not really powerful enough for the current version of Pro Tools.

it was able to work without external harddrive or with one?

The Pro Tools software requires a seperate hard drive, no matter if it is a desktop or a laptop; pc or mac. For laptops, that means an external firewire drive with the Oxford 911 chipset. I honestly would never use or rely on the internal drive on any laptop, although I have tried and every single one fails with buffer errors (which is why Digidesign requires a separate drive for audio in the first place).

[chillax69]

Interesting. I consistantly had smooth sailing with every mac laptop i've used as long as i had enough RAM. Maybe the external drive neccessity is unique to PC/windows laptops?

Now I know that current PC technology is different from the nice, simplistic laptops/operating systems of the past. Anyone able to use a PC Laptop with current technology (or not too old technology) together with Mbox 1??

special bonus if you were able to use PC Laptop with Mbox1 without External Drive.

[spkguitar]

Interesting. I consistantly had smooth sailing with every mac laptop i've used as long as i had enough RAM. Maybe the external drive neccessity is unique to PC/windows laptops?

Nope. The dedicated Hard Drive Requirement by Digidesign extends to both platforms.

I have a MacBook, and can confirm this requirement, running both OSX and Windows XP on it. While very small sessions can be run on the system drive (on both platforms) any serious session with either high track counts or high processing will require the external drive.

special bonus if you were able to use PC Laptop with Mbox1 without External Drive.

Seriously, I would give up on that hope.