PT hangs before playback or recording

[zboy2854]

I'm setting up a system for a buddy with a 001, and everything is installed and working, however when I try to record or playback in a session, nothing happens for anywhere from 5 to 10 seconds, then it goes into play or record. This even happens in a new session with blank tracks with nothing on them! When I press play I can see the hard drive LED on the chassis light up and show activity, but it takes about 5 seconds before the position line and the counters start moving and playback actually starts.

Obviously this system shouldn't be taking this long to go into playback or record. Any ideas what could be the issue? I've done all the Digi recommended tweaks as well as the ones at musicxp.net. Here are the system specs:

Asus A8N-SLI deluxe motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ CPU
512 MB Kingston DDR400 SDRAM
WD 60 GB 7200 rpm PATA system drive (primary master)
Maxtor 200 GB 7200 rpm PATA audio drive (primary slave)
Pioneer DVD-RW drive (secondary master)
Win XP SP2

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Dogcode]

Seems low at 512 memory. It is recomended that you have at least 1 gig for Protools.

Roy

[Aussie169]

Have you limited your total recording trime in the options?

[Aussie169]

Another thing I suggest is making your audio drive the secondary master.

[AREED]

Check the count off on the transport window

[Aussie169]

Yes, preroll, good suggestion.
Make sure your preroll is not on.

[zboy2854]

Have you limited your total recording trime in the options?

Yeah, I've tried that but it didn't seem to help.

Check the count off on the transport window

No, there's no preroll, if there were I'd at least see the counter moving when I press play. As it is everything is sitting completely idle for 5-10 seconds before anything at all happens.

I guess I'll try putting the audio drive on the secondary channel and see what happens.

[zboy2854]

Well this is just the damndest thing. I tried putting the audio drive as the secondary master, with no luck. Now I've noticed that even going into the Playback Engine dialog and changing the buffer causes PT to hang for several seconds before the change actually "takes" and I can go back to doing other tasks. It's almost like PT needs "permission" from the hard drive before it will do anything, as every time I try to press play (even in a blank session with no tracks at all) I can hear the hard drive grinding away and the HDD LED lighting up nonstop, then 5-10 seconds, then finally PT kicks in and starts playback.

Could it really just be needing more RAM?

[rparts]

I have the same problem and I have 2 GIGS. I have done everything I have been told to do via Digidesing setup. Could it be that I have bad RAM?

[zboy2854]

Actually it looks like I fixed it. In the Setups->Playback Engine dialog under the DAE section there was a check box to "minimize memory usage" or something to that effect, requiring a restart for it to take effect. I checked the box, restarted the computer, and everything was fine after that.