constant CPU Overload and cannot play nor record

[franklebel]

I've been getting this pretty often these past few weeks and its getting annoying to be honest.

the message tells me CPU OVERLOAD Must increase H/W Buffer playback engine or disable plugins or something in the looks of that and i can't even playback my recordings

i've got a few plugins but nothing too extreme, a few Air plugins and Smack on a few tracks. i've disabled my instrument tracks while recording and it keeps popping back up and stopping my recording session or playback session after a few seconds.

i use an macbook pro 17'' 2.5 Ghz Intel core Duo, 4 G RAM ,with an Mbox 2 Pro and recording to a LaCie usb 2.0 1To Harddrive running PTLE 8.04 on Mac OSX 10.6.4

should i get a mac pro to solve the issue or is there a way to get more power from my CPU. (i've disabled Dashboard BTW)

Any help will be very helpful.

[lincol1]

Originally Posted by franklebel

i use an macbook pro 17'' 2.5 Ghz Intel core Duo, 4 G RAM ,with an Mbox 2 Pro and recording to a LaCie usb 2.0 1To Harddrive running PTLE 8.04 on Mac OSX 10.6.4

USB drives are not supported, but as mentioned do post your buffer settings.

[lemonkid]

My opinion:

Cut the USB drive and replace with firewire...

[mhelm01]

wait, are you running protools off of your external usb drive?

[nst7]

Just to be clear, you shouldn't be recording to a usb drive, and the actual protools program should be installed on your main system drive, with only the audio recording to a proper firewire drive.

[lemonkid]

nts 7 gave important advice..... mhelm asked an important question...

[franklebel]

Originally Posted by lemonkid

nts 7 gave important advice..... mhelm asked an important question...

SOrry for the late reply, i've been out of town andf had a million things to do.

PLAYBACK SETTINGS

H/W Buffer size: 1024
Host processors : 2 (2 is the max i have)
CPU Usage limit: 90%

DAE Playback Buffer
Size: 3000ms Level 4
cache size : Large

Plug-in Streaming Buffer
size: 1000 ms Level 8

RECORDING SETTINGS

H/W Buffer size: 64
Host processors : 2 (2 is the max i have)
CPU Usage limit: 90%

DAE Playback Buffer
Size: Level 0
cache size : minimum

Plug-in Streaming Buffer
size: 60 ms Level 0


BTW i'm running protools on my system drive and recording to my lacie big disk
thanks all

[mhelm01]

Ok, A few things.

1. Is your Lacie drive connected to your computer using USB? That's what it says in your OP. USB is NOT supported. Yes sometimes they work, but it might cause problems.

2. I'm not sure about external drives, but internal drives should have a 32 MB Cache. This one has a 16 MB Cache.

3. Raid drives are NOT supported.

4. Try setting only one core set to 99%.

5. Yes get a Mac Pro. They're awesome.

[franklebel]

my lacie 1TB Big Disk is 7200 RPM and i plugged it firewire.

dunno about the cache though.

I'll try the cpu settings

thanks

[mhelm01]

Fwiw, the cache size was referring to the hard drive.