Pro Tools is Critically Low on Memory

[MJarzabek]

Hi everyone,

Pro Tools 9.1
Mac OSX Latest
8 Gigs Ram
2 MC Mix
1 MC Control
1 MC Transport
MOTU 828 mkII


I was getting these "Pro Tools is Critically Low on Memory and could not save the session." and "Pro Tools is Critically Low on Memory and needs to quit."

So, I reinstalled OSX on a new SSD Drive, transferring nothing from the old Drive. Installed Pro Tools 9.1 from the Full Install download. All plugins are latest versions.

The session is stored on a seperate SSD internal drive.

After all I have done, the errors still come up. Nothing is running in the background according to Activity Monitor.

I have adjusted the Playback Engine settings and nothing helps. H/W Buffer Size 1024. 12 for Host Processors instead of 16, Long for Delay Compensation, 80% CPU (I've tried 70 - 99).

The DAE Playback Buffer (disk buffer) settings are Level 2, Cache Normal.

The Plug-In Streaming Buffer is Level 0.

What could be causing this problem. It never happened in PT 8.

Thank you all in advance.

Mike

[Carl Lie]

This happened to me when I opened a version 8 file in PT9. I imported the session into a new balnk session and I worked out fine.

Carl

[MJarzabek]

Carl,

Thanks for your reply. I tried to import the session again but still, the memory error happens. There was a thread on here that someone posted which stated to hold down "N" on Pro Tools startup. Then select the interface and adjust playback settings. This has helped for a while but eventually the error returns.

Any other ideas?

Thanks again!

Mike

[Park Seward]

Digi says:

"Solid State Drives (SSDs) have not been tested or qualified for use with Pro Tools, either as system or audio drives."

What happens if you record to another drive?

[MJarzabek]

Thanks for the reply Park,

I had the session on different hard drives It happens regardless of the drive being recorded to. It does happen more frequently when data is imported from earlier versions of Pro Tools.

EuControl is running in the background for an MC Control, MC Transport and 2 MC Mix's. Could that be causing memory conflicts?

Thank you again,

Mike

[Park Seward]

You haven't listed your Mac OS version. If it is 10.6.7, some users have reported problems. That version isn't approved yet.

What does the Activity Monitor say? Do you have other programs open? Is performance any better after a restart?

Have you done any RAM tests?

[MJarzabek]

The previous OS was 10.6.6, after the clean install it was upgraded from 10.6.3 disk to 10.6.7 with the download.

The Activity Monitor starts at 1.23 - 1.33 Gb of RAM. Then it slowly increases. It sometimes appears when it reaches the 1.7 area. If it passes 1.7, then it will run out of memory at 2.7 - 2.15. 2.15 is the crash.

The only other program open is Eucontrol. After a restart things vary. They are usually better or cause DAE Playback errors 9091. There is another error, It's 9031 or 2, I can check next time it happens.

I have not done any ram tests. How do I run a ram test?

Thanks!

Mike

[Park Seward]

You should have a set of disks that came with your Mac. One has hardware tests on it.

[MJarzabek]

So..... I reinstalled OSX 10.6.6, Pro Tools 9.0.2 from the full installer download and Eucontrol 2.5.7.....latest driver-software for Euphonix Hardware and MOTU's updated driver for an 828 mkII. I also removed all 3rd party plugins from the plugins folder.

When I run the PT Session with no Euphonix controllers or Eucon Software, there is no memory problem.

But when the session is launched with one or more controllers, memory does not discharge from Pro Tools. Watching Activity Monitor, Pro Tools Real Memory keeps going up and up. At around 1.7 Gb it gets shaky and at 2.02 Gb it crashes.

Any ideas??

Thanks again!

[MJarzabek]

Still having the memory problem. Any help?