Operating system held off... apparently forever?

[kirkbross]

I'm running PTLE 8.0.5 on Lion 10.7.6 and all my sessions are suddenly throwing the "Operating system held off for too long..." message all the time now.

I have PT set to use 3 processors @ 99% and 1024 samples (but no setting helps). Even small sessions with minimal plugins won't play for very long before stopping and throwing that message.

Clues?

[Ben Jenssen]

I'm pretty shure PTLE8 on Lion isn't officially supported so... you're on your own I guess...

[sunburst79]

Have you tried 2 Processors?

[kirkbross]

@Sunburst... Not sure I've tried two, but probably. I will definitely try that when I get home tonight. Considering upgrading to PT10 but I almost want to wait for PT11 in the hopes that it will be a complete source rewrite and fully 64 bit... and massively multi-threaded, completely able to fully utilize 12 cores.

@Ben... Yeah, I know Lion isn't officially supported... and I think this started happening after the last Lion update... 10.7.6 I think. Even when things are running smoothly, it's hard to resist a new OS update. Lessons learned!

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by kirkbross

@Sunburst... Not sure I've tried two, but probably. I will definitely try that when I get home tonight. Considering upgrading to PT10 but I almost want to wait for PT11 in the hopes that it will be a complete source rewrite and fully 64 bit... and massively multi-threaded, completely able to fully utilize 12 cores.

@Ben... Yeah, I know Lion isn't officially supported... and I think this started happening after the last Lion update... 10.7.6 I think. Even when things are running smoothly, it's hard to resist a new OS update. Lessons learned!

The whole thing about balancing processors to the machine seems to be pretty emprical as far as finding the right setting. Depending on the Modal Mac, The OS version, Which processor etc can all have an effect on this. Certain versons or combinations don't like HyperThreading. So if you had a dual core with HyperThreading it would appear as 4 cores. Setting it to 3 would still leave code running on the second core. Sometimes things will run better with one core completely free. In this case that would be two threads or one physical core. Its worth a shot.

[kirkbross]

@sunburst79 Thanks for all the tips. My Mac Pro has 2 x quad core 2.8 GHz Xeons... so 8 total cores.

I have tracked this down to my Omnisphere plugin. The curious part is that Omnisphere was having no problems until recently. I could have a session with 40+ audio tracks, half a dozen virtual instruments and a fully loaded instance of Omnisphere (as well as reverbs and everything else) and not have any CPU issues with it set to 3 cores @ 99%.

I will continue to tweak settings...

[sunburst79]

Originally Posted by kirkbross

@sunburst79 Thanks for all the tips. My Mac Pro has 2 x quad core 2.8 GHz Xeons... so 8 total cores.

I have tracked this down to my Omnisphere plugin. The curious part is that Omnisphere was having no problems until recently. I could have a session with 40+ audio tracks, half a dozen virtual instruments and a fully loaded instance of Omnisphere (as well as reverbs and everything else) and not have any CPU issues with it set to 3 cores @ 99%.

I will continue to tweak settings...

You might check with Spectrasonics to see if theres a update.

Some one just posted a link from the Logic forum on how to turn of hyperthreading on a Mac. I think you need to instal XCode and then run a terminal command. It would be interesting to know what if that helps your issue. If I can find the thread I will post a link back.

I would check with Spectrasonics though. They may be aware of some late breaking issue.