Random Freezing with MacPro and 002R w/ PT 7.3 and 7.4

[ethosproject]

Greetings...

As it says in my subjectline, I have a MacPro (intel Xeons 2.66 w/ 2gb of ram,internal 250gb system Drive and 500gb audio drive) with a 002R (good serial number) running Pt 7.4 (formerly running PT 7.3).

Ever since i got my MacPro about a year ago it has frozen while using ProTools on an average of at least once per day. The freeze is complete, no mouse movement and no response from the computer at all. I always have to hit the power button and just turn her off. Then she starts back up right as rain like nothing at all happened.

I have tested the mac not running pro tools... running itunes random shuffling through the onboard soundcard for 24 hours straight, running rember RAM tests for 12 hours at a time and she has never frozen. It only freezes when using pro tools. It also has frozen once months ago when i was just running reason 3.5 through the 002 with CoreAudio.

I have done the entire DUC troubleshooting list a couple of times. I thought maybe 7.4 would fix it, but it is all the same. Yesterday i did everything on the list including a complete uninstall and reinstall of 7.4 with no third party plug-ins, a seperate completely clean user account. Literally everything on the list.

I am somewhat at my wits end. I can run 32 tracks of audio w/ urs channel strips on everyone w/ reverbs and delays etc. No performance issues! And then i can be playing back a single mono track after one minute and it will just randomly freeze, no rhyme or reason to it.

I have thirty days of digi support because of the 7.4 upgrade and i have a 3 year apple care plan (but there seems to be nothing wrong with the mac from all the mac testing i have done)

Any ideas out there???

Many thanks in advance just for reading even...

-Brian

[soundonsound]

Throwing some ideas out there...

Running 002r off BACK 1394 port and not through any other devices? New 1394 cable?

Still freeze even if you disconnect all other usb / 1394 devices off the machine (minus wired mouse/keyboard)?

tried moving all your plug-ins out and seeing if PT still freezes with just the session?

002r shows up fine in system profiler? and not unknown device or else.

Zap Pram?

[ethosproject]

hey soundonsound thanks for the reply...

I removed all plug-ins except the ones that came w/ pro tools.
Not sure if you meant something else.
I've used the computer w/ both bluetooth and wired keyboard and mouse. pro tools froze w/ both...
I just changed the firewire cable and am running a looped playback in pro tools and it froze after a half hour.
... i have been running the 1394 off the back with nothing else plugged in.
gonna try zapping the PRAM

[ethosproject]

Hey fellas,
I tried everything in the above post on top of everything on the DUC troubleshooting list. The system crashed twice yesterday during an 8 hour session. Luckily, my client didn't lose anything we couldn't save. Anyone have any other ideas?

[ethosproject]

Hope everyone had a great holiday.
I went to hang in CT and left my mac on for three days straight just shuffling through itunes with the visualizer on, so now i am sure 100% that the crashing is caused by pro tools and/or the digi 002. What would you think my next step should be?

[KingFish]

What OS X ver. Are you running ?

[Meko511]

I'm trying to see if there is an Error log and a Debug log being created when the crash happens. A file that you can go in and see all these weird looking codes after you re-start the computer. The thing is we'll have to disifer what it means, to see what's causing the crash. Or we can send that log to the developer or someone who knows about that at Avid/Digidesign.
Let's try to find that first. I'm checking my own computer to see if I find anything.

I'm having a problem my self. I can work a session for hours at a time and I"m ok and then sometimes out of nowhere I get this:

"Lost communication with the audio interface. Please try increasing "H/W Buffer Size" or removing some plug-ins, and make sure you have a valid clock source. Press OK to reset device. (-6097)"

And I don't have any problems recording or playing back with 21 plugs on this one session. And I have tried everything.
But out of nowhere even when I"m not playing the session it'll just pop up with this error message. It's getting anoying!
And it started after upgrading to 7.4 a few days ago.

It does sound like you have a bad plug-in though. And it could be an included one. Have you tried completely removing pro tools and re-installing it, and then running it without any add-ons?

That may solve your problem. I have completely re-installed my operating system and then pro-tools to solve issues in the past.
In your situation I probably would have done that already. But anyway, there are so many ways to go about this.

If I remember correctly even at one point like 2 years ago even REASON was giving me similar problems. And actually now that I remember my partner from next door who has a new quad G5 is having the same exact problem as you....!!! He just came over and told me about it yesterday. The same exact problem! He's working on it today. I'll keep you posted, being though that he is running kind of a fast pased studio he needs to get this fixed right away. And his is locking up just like yours.
we'll talk soon.
May the power be with us...!!! Good Luck!

Meko

[Forum Member LE]

a 002R (good serial number)

History has proven there is no such thing.
Even people with the later s/n's have had the harness/power supply problem, so it could still be part of the problem.

[KingFish]

Yeah... I'd recommend "Combo OS X updates" from Apple Site, as well as Clean Un-Install of pro-Tools, and a re install AFTER combo update. Still don't know OS Ver - so... if 10.4.x - earlier then 9 - use the 10.4.9 Combo Update - if you're already at 11 - then use the 10.4.11 Combo update.

[Meko511]

I would even stay away from the .11 version since it's not supported by pro tools yet officially.

What version are you running? Oh yeah, meant to tell you...

After your next crash..Go to "About this Mac" click on more info and click on "Logs"

then click on "system.log" or "error.log" and check if you see anything relevant to the date and time of the crash.