error (-9403), lagging mouse and distorted audio on new system

[Jenny Jo]

Dear forum,

I recently bought a new computer in December (CS200) (specs w/Sandra report below this email), and in the last few days have run into a wall with errors, and can no longer record due to them. I am using PT LE 8.0.5 with the mbox2 and windows 7, recording onto an external firewire hard drive with oxford chip with 300GB memory (computer specs provided below in sandra report)

In the last day or so, when I leave protools open for an extended period of time and come back to the computer after being away, my mouse experiences a 'lag', which makes it almost impossible to navigate around my monitor. Also In the middle of a recording session, my mouse has begun to lag...and says 'protools not responding'...and then this error box comes up saying:

' you are running out of CPU power. Elastic Audio Processing could not keep up. Please switch Elastic Audio tracks to render mode, disable Elastic Audio processing, or remove some RTAS plug-ins (-9403)'.

The recording session this occurred during is not very large: only 9 tracks at 9 minutes duration. Just a simple Spring Reverb on 4 of the tracks. Nothing to cause such glitch, one would think. I've recently begun to record my sessions at: Sample rate: 44.1 Khz (previously at 48khz) 16 bit (previously at 24 bit). not sure the sample and bit rate could have anything to do with this problem. I record at a buffer size of 256 in the playback engine, and set it at 1024 for playback. Another thing to note is that the audio becomes completely distorted and 'garbled' sounding during playback before the above warning box about the CPU power running out pops onto my screen. I had to close my session and restart it 5 times just to get it working 'temporarily' enough to do a bounce of the session.

I would also like to add that many of the times I've had distorted audio issues while recording, have been when I've had my digital piano plugged into the Line 2 TRS, along with my condenser also plugged into the back into the mic input 1 w/phantom power. There seems to be a correlation here, but logically it doesn't make any sense to me that I can't utilize both inputs on my mbox for recording, since they are two separate inputs/channels.

I contacted technical support at Sweetwater, where I purchased my computer in December. This was his advice about the situation:
Hello Jenny,
>
> You might try the following:
> • Right-click the Pro Tools icon on your desktop or Start menu.
> • Choose Properties.
> • Click on the Compatibility tab.
> • Check the box that says ‘Disable desktop composition.’
> • Click Apply and then OK.
> • Upon launching Pro Tools, you will get a notification at the bottom
> of your screen telling you that the graphics theme has changed. Click
> on that message and then check "Don't show this message" to prevent
> this message from popping up every time you launch Pro Tools.
You can try deleting the preferences according to this guide:
> > > - http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...411?popup=true

I followed the instructions from the link he directed me to for 'deleting protools preferences'. Emptied my trash on the desktop of deleted folders. Restarted computer. Opened pro tools.
*created blank session. settings at 24 bit, 48 kHz
*created new track
*plugged a condenser mic into the input in back of mbox with the phantom power selected. when I armed track for recording, the gain/trim level went all the way to the top in the red, even though nothing was being recorded yet. I closed this session and opened a new one. Followed the same steps, and the same thing happened. even though it shows a solid dark area while recording that would normally indicate audio, nothing is being recorded at all.

Opened a troubled file from a few days ago to test it.
realized that the 'speaker' icon on my desktop had been on 'mute' ( this happened without me doing it, I'm not sure why it was now muted). I opened it up and saw that Digidesign had somehow been deselected as the default device (I also did not do this). I selected 'digidesign Mbox2 Analog' as the default audio device, unmuted the sound icon on my desktop, and attempted to listen to the protools session. There was still no audio heard. I adjusted the trim and volume knobs on my mbox 2, still no sound.
So now there appear to be two new problems after I 'deleted preferences', (in addition to the 'garbled sounding audio' that I hear upon playback of my files. )
1. no audio can be heard
2. recording is at the maximum gain level, regardless of how low I turn the trim/gain nob. It doesn't even appear as if it's recording audio at all, just some sort of solid 'input' from something other than my mic.

Another thing to note: In the past when I've launched protools, it has taken at least 2 minutes for the computer to load all the plug-ins and settings before prompting me to plug in my hardware/mbox. During these 'corrupt' sessions, the wait time before the program prompts me to plug in my mbox is much shorter...sometimes as little as 10 seconds.

Thank you to anybody who can shed some light on this....I would be really grateful.

Below is the Sandra report I just took from my computer:
Gratefully :) ~ Jennifer


SiSoftware Sandra

ID
Host Name : CS200-PC
Workgroup : WORKGROUP

Computer
Model : Sweetwater Sound CS200
Serial Number : 020014L101020
Chassis : Desktop
Mainboard : Intel DH67GD
Serial Number : BTGD1350026A
BIOS : Intel BLH6710H.86A.0132.2011.1007.1505 10/07/2011
Total Memory : 3.91GB DIMM DDR3

Processors
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2120T CPU @ 2.60GHz (2C 4T 2.6GHz, 2.6GHz IMC, 2x 256kB L2, 3MB L3)

Chipset
Memory Controller : Intel Core (Sandy Bridge) DRAM Controller 100MHz, 2x 2GB DIMM DDR3 1.33GHz 128-bit, Integrated Graphics

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Micron 8JTF25664AZ-1G4D1 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Micron 8JTF25664AZ-1G4D1 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Video Adapter : Intel(R) HD Graphics Family (6 SM4.1 650MHz/1.1GHz, 64MB DDR3 1.33GHz 128-bit, Integrated Graphics)

Graphics Processor
Compute Shader Processor : Intel(R) HD Graphics Family (6SP 650MHz/1.1GHz, 64MB DDR3 1.33GHz 128-bit, Integrated Graphics)

Storage Devices
Seagate ST500DM002-1BD142 (500.1GB, SATA600, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (C:)
Seagate ST932042 3AS (320.1GB, FireWire/1394, 2.5") : 298GB (F:)
ATAPI iHAS224 B (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (D:)

Logical Storage Devices
System Reserved : 100MB (NTFS)
evm (F:) : 298GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST932042 3AS (320.1GB, FireWire/1394, 2.5")
Hard Disk (C:) : 453GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST500DM002-1BD142 (500.1GB, SATA600, 7200rpm, 16MB Cache)
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ ATAPI iHAS224 B (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Intel H67 LPC Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : Nuovoton LPC
Audio Device : Intel Cougar Point High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semi High Definition Audio
Disk Controller : Intel Cougar Point 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
USB Controller 1 : Intel Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2
USB Controller 2 : Intel Cougar Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1
USB Controller 3 : Intel Renesas Electronics USB 3.0 Host Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : Intel VT6315 Series Firewire Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : SMBus Dev Drv 1

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Intel(R) 82579V Gigabit Network Connection (Ethernet, 100Mbps)

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7601 (Service Pack 1)
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 5.1

[albee1952]

Were you told this machine is compatible with Pro Tools? I see a few red flags to deal with(starting with the fact that firewire drives are NOT supported on Windows 7). Please read the entire thread and don't panic just yet

Integrated graphics are often a show stopper for Pro Tools(solveable?)
The i3 is a budget processor(PT needs POWER)(maybe okay)
4GB of RAM is dead minimum for running Windows 7(never mind PT)

Since the FW drive is a "no go", changing that may help for 2 reasons. 1-because its not supported, and 2-because you MAY have an incompatible FW controller(Pretty much all audio systems work best with TI chipset FW controllers). Now move on to some other changes. If the external drive has a USB connection, try it(and cross your fingers). If that helps, the next move(for me anyway) would be to either add 2 more of the exact same RAM modules, or remove the old pair and install a new 2x4GB dual channel kit, referring to the motherboard website for the fastest RAM you can use. Next step would be to install a modest nVidia graphics card and disable the onboard graphics in BIOS. Then I would review ALL the system tweaks(yes, they really do matter), and set Pro Tools to always Run as Admin, and disable desktop composition.

BTW, adding another internal SATA drive is fairly cheap and will net the best performance over any other drive connection(I only use my external drives for backups, archival and transporting sessions to other studios)

[solidwalnut]

I've purchased a Creation Station in the past from SW, and I know they spend time tweaking their stuff to make sure it's PT compatible. I'm really surprised that this new generation of CSs are going with on board video on the low end model (CS200) when, like Albee said, this is usually a PT showstopper.

And for SW to sell a system with the audio drive as an option is really a head-scratcher. This tells me the system is sold for those who want to use external FW or eSATA drives, while they well know that external FW drives are not supported for PT + Win7.

Not tearing them down, I just want to understand their logic.

Fortunately, these motherboards have a PCIe 2.0 x16 graphics slot where you can install an inexpensive graphics card as an upgrade at some point.

I'd try and eliminate the FW drive completely and install a second harddrive just to make sure that it's not a FW related issue. If this is an issue, then either there's uncertainty due to FW drives not being supported in PT or you may have inadvertently 'hot swapped' a FW drive (hot swapping supported? is a good question to find the answer to).

If you wanted, this system has an eSATA port so you could insert an external hard drive.

On the audio problem (and perhaps this is also related to the other problems). This motherboard has the Cougar Point chipset (problem with a small amount of units developing 3Gb/s SATA communication problems down the road). Communicate this with SW and see what they have to say.

Perhaps all in all, SW would be willing to swap units with you. They're good people to deal with.

Steve

[Jenny Jo]

Thank you for your replies, Steve and Albee. Before buying the CS200, I specifically asked Sweetwater if the CS200 would be compatible with PT LE 8.0 and my external firewire drive (which I bought recommended by pro tools, as it's go the oxford texas chip they suggest). They said 'yes'. When I first got the computer, I immediately ran into some problems, and was told by Sweetwater I could upgrade to the PT LE 8.0.5, which I did. I've been recording for about 3 or 4 months without problems since switching to the higher PT version. Suddenly I'm unable to record, and swamped with the errors and problems I listed earlier. Currently I'm unable to record anything at all. Unfortunately, I have such little knowledge about operating systems, that even your advice has left me a bit confused.

so far I have had nothing but positive experiences with Sweetwater, they are always really helpful when I've called for help and seem like a great company. But if this is something they could have foreseen, I shouldn't have been recommended to buy this system by them. I have set up a tech phone appointment about all of this on Monday, so hopefully I'll get to the bottom of it. I'll also point out the information that the two of you have kindly given me. I'm hoping they'll do the right thing and try to help me out with this...not sure what the result will be. So frustrating, but I'll find out in a few days :) Thanks again to both of you~

~Jennifer

[albee1952]

We're pulling for you on this one. Remind them that Avid says firewire drives are not supported under Windows 7(if the drive has a USB port, give it a try).

[solidwalnut]

Yep, Jenny Jo, please let us know what becomes of the conversation with SW.

Steve

[Jenny Jo]

UPDATE: had my tech call with SW. And wouldn't you know it? Not a single problem occurred. Everything recorded fine. Just fine. I ordered an esata cable for my external hard drive and got it today. When I attempted to record with it (I have not attempted any recording since the sweetwater tech call a week ago...have been waiting for the esata cable, and just been so perplexed and stressed about it all), the same thing happened as before. Had my condenser mic set up. Armed a track, and began recording. 30 seconds in, all sound dropped from audio track, though it continued on as if still recording (the red bar kept moving on the track), though visually it looked like nothing was there (no dark audio record data showing on track...all dropped out).

I just really don't know what to do about this. Could it be my audio interface, my mbox2? Maybe a bad connection with the mic cable? But funny things have happened with the digital piano tracks, too. I am so stressed out by this. If I had the money, I'd just buy another audio interface. Damn.

ps: I mentioned to sweetwater about windows 7 and firewire via email, but never did get an answer about that (that I remember). during the phone conference, I was so preoccupied with testing the recording, that I forgot to bring it up again. Plus, the recording test over the phone went without a hitch.

I can't be the only person to experience these problems....can I? Faulty interface? Faulty computer? Faulty ME?

ps: just sent a request to set up another phone tech call with SW. I won't give up.

~Jenny

[solidwalnut]

I just don't know, Jenny. Sounds strange. It certainly sounds like something to do with the interface/driver. But, hard to say. I wonder if it would be beneficial to uninstall/re-install PT and the driver. The next time it happens, just document it meticulously. And if you have to, make SW send you a new unit. They will do it.

It still makes me wonder why in the world they are selling units that have on-board graphics and advocate that this is ok for Pro Tools. This, and the other two points below, would be enough for me to ask SW for a replacement.

Ask SW about the firewire if you think about it during the next conversation. Also, be sure to mention that this system has a Cougar Point chipset and that there are known problems with this (Intel had a huge recall of these). This could be important.

If you decide not to get a new unit from them, I'd still consider getting an inexpensive video card. The on board graphics from Intel from this generation of processor (Sandy Bridge) really might be adequate, but since Pro Tools is not recommending the use of on board graphics, then that would be good enough for me today.

On the other hand, I'll take a chance with the next generation (Ivy Bridge) onboard graphics, which has a marked improvement (just out now). The following generation, Haswell due in 2013, will be even better.

Steve

[solidwalnut]

I just had another thought on what you might try...Albee, correct me on this if I'm wrong. I don't know MBox's.

Since you started off with PTLE 8.0, had problems, and then were told to upgrage to PTLE 8.0.5, I think you could have had a problem all along by running Win7 with PTLE 8.0. To find out if this is true or not, uninstall PT. Re-install 8.0, but when it asks for interface connection, ignore and DON'T plug in the interface. Finish the PTLE 8.0 install, then upgrade to 8.0.5, and THEN plug in the interface when it asks you to.

Steve

[Jenny Jo]

Originally Posted by solidwalnut

I just had another thought on what you might try...Albee, correct me on this if I'm wrong. I don't know MBox's.

Since you started off with PTLE 8.0, had problems, and then were told to upgrage to PTLE 8.0.5, I think you could have had a problem all along by running Win7 with PTLE 8.0. To find out if this is true or not, uninstall PT. Re-install 8.0, but when it asks for interface connection, ignore and DON'T plug in the interface. Finish the PTLE 8.0 install, then upgrade to 8.0.5, and THEN plug in the interface when it asks you to.

Steve

I will try this, Steve...and thanks for the suggestion. I'm just so confused as to why everything suddenly stopped working. The only thing I did differently before the problems began, was that I recorded one session for a friend at 16 bit 44.1 khz, whereas previously I was recording at 24 bit, 48 khz. (but since then, I've done tests at both sizes, and the same problems happen) I also notice that when I have my digital piano plugged into the mbox, things often get messed up with distorted audio and error messages...and this is usually after I've recorded a track with my condenser mic beforehand. I've even tried unplugging my condenser before plugging in the piano, but the two don't seem to play nice together. And I'll often get 'cpu has reached limits' error messages, as well as one about 'elastic plugins?....' Looking at the system usage info box when the cpu error comes up, it shows it isn't even close to the max yet. It's just a mess. I did just think of something, though it's probably not relevant: I'm using a kawai mp8 I brought back from Australia, with a power converter. I doubt that has anything to do with anything, but at this point, nothing seems to be making sense....

The dilemma is, I don't know if it's my computer, the audio interface or maybe the protools version itself that I'm using.

Excellent advice to reinstall ProTools, Thanks for that Steve. I did read on a site that other people have been waiting for a windows 7 driver for firewire (I think I've got the terminology correct), so it seems I can't be the only one in this position.

I'll post an update after my next help call from Sweetwater, and I really REALLY appreciate the help you guys have given me.

Best~Jennifer