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Old 01-18-2011, 07:07 PM
Rhinosaur Rhinosaur is offline
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Default choppy graphics (meters, counter) after a HW failure

I'm experiencing slow choppy graphics in PT HD 8, which had been working fine up until a particular event (which I'll explain in my next post).

Now when a session is playing, if I'm zoomed out far enough to see the whole song there seems to be no issue. As I zoom in (or out) the meters and counter slow right down, almost to a halt, until I'm done zooming - maybe that's normal? OK.

The main problem is once I've zoomed in, the meters and counter are no longer reliable... they seem to struggle to keep up. This is most evident on the click track, which becomes quite sporadic.

It's the same during either playback or record. I have window scrolling set to 'page'. It's not specific to any one session, and it occurs without any plugins in use (except click).

If I'm to zoom in even further to the point the wav becomes just an outline (I doubt I'd ever work like that during normal playback...) the scrolling jerks and then stops, and I have to zoom back out until the playback head is visible before it scrolls again.

There doesn't seem to be any other symptom - no audio glitches, error messages, or other sluggishness.

This was occurring on PT HD 8.0.3. After searching online I've tried disabling bluetooth, disabling airport, calibrating the monitor color profiles and using the defaults. I uninstalled Pro Tools (safe option, retaining plugins and settings), re-installed 8.0.3 and tested, then updated to 8.0.4 and tested, then to 8.0.4cs2 and tested, with no change.

The system:
OSX 10.5.8 Leopard
Late 2007 Mac Pro
dual-core Intel Xeon 2.66 (2 processors, 4 cores)
4GB RAM
separate SATA system and audio drives
GeForce 7300 GT with
1x Cinema HD 30" @ 2560x1600
1x Cinema HD 23" @ 1920x1200
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  #2  
Old 01-18-2011, 07:25 PM
Rhinosaur Rhinosaur is offline
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Default Re: choppy graphics (meters, counter) after a HW failure

As for when this first occurred...

I arrived at the studio (first day of a session with new clients!) and the Mac wouldn't boot. It was freezing on a pale blue screen after the grey loading screen. I was able to boot it in safe mode, so I tried a few suggestions I found online - mainly trashing preference files, but nothing helped.

Eventually I had to give in and rush it to the local Mac service centre, where they were able to determine that the graphics card had fried. They were good enough to lend me an identical graphics card from their 'spares' bin to get me through the session, while a replacement card was ordered.
This is where the aforementioned problem first appeared. Despite the graphics chugging slowly I was able to get through the session without any other Pro Tools issues.

Recently the brand new card arrived and was installed (again identical to the original), but the problem persists.

I have ran TechTool which came with the APP, and all hardware passed the scan without issue (including the replacement card).

Basically I have no idea if the problem is OSX or Pro Tools related (perhaps due to my initial attempts to get the system to boot), hardware related (maybe something else failed when the gfx card did), or just a combination of the gear I'm using (which I refuse to believe as it's been working fine for 3 years until now).

FWIW the only other recent change: I upgraded/crossgraded to a PT9 license which I've been using on a laptop when not at the studio, but the studio computer has remained on PT 8 HD and 10.5.8 (see previous post), which the PT9 license on the iLok seems to allow for.
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  #3  
Old 01-18-2011, 08:07 PM
Craig F Craig F is offline
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Default Re: choppy graphics (meters, counter) after a HW failure

try booting from the OS install disk
run Disk Utility form the install disk
run Verify Disk or skip to Repair Disk

I have a rig that is doing something similar and Repair Disk finds miss matched file and folder counts
I fixes them and all is well
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Thank you,

Craig
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Old 01-18-2011, 09:33 PM
the dude's Avatar
the dude the dude is offline
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Default Re: choppy graphics (meters, counter) after a HW failure

been there done that
same problem that logs a graphics card error but
once it turned out to be RAM ( pulling all but 2 sticks fixed it )
and second was a core card ( or accell ) failure
but the card passed all digi-test but once out out every 20 tests it showed a failure
in fact it only failed after the card got hot after repeated testing
I'll bet it only affects protools operation no other functions or apps have the clunky feel do they ?
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  #5  
Old 01-21-2011, 03:04 PM
Rhinosaur Rhinosaur is offline
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Default Re: choppy graphics (meters, counter) after a HW failure

Thanks Craig I'll try that this afternoon.

Yeah dude, it only seems to affect Pro Tools. But to be fair there's not much else that computer gets used for. Don't tell me it's a core/accel card failure!
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Old 01-21-2011, 04:04 PM
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Default Re: choppy graphics (meters, counter) after a HW failure

Quote:
Don't tell me it's a core/accel card failure!
until your ready to accept this possibility keep looking around till all other conclusions fail to present

in your case failure to accept any possibility...no matter how remote you think it may be will likely result in you not finding a conclusion to your issue at hand

I can only tell you that the same exact problem you have now was fixed prior
by either bad ram or a HD card
it doesn't mean the entire ram stick or HD card is bad but merrily one component of it, that only shows up when that component on that
card is used
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าำ
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HD192, 192, Omni, Control Surface, Pre, XMON, 192HD AD & DA / Accel Cards, Everything

ALL NEW HD192 AD -DA modification. the difference is incredible... no need to ship the entire unit , fast turn around

inquiry using link above
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