Pro Tools 10.3.7 Hard Freeze Computer Randomly

[Darryl Ramm]

And I'll chat to myself a while longer.

The clue here may be the other error in the event log, "The Software Protection service has stopped" and that is likely not related to the SxS errors.

There has been bugs in Windows in the past (one fixed in SW7 SP1) with that error and the system then appearing to hang similar to what has been described here. (In that case you could still ping the PC, a handy test which you might also want to try).

So other things to try...

In the standard optimization steps did you update your Radeon graphics driver as you are supposed to do? That means going to the ATI web site, checking what the latest stable version is for your system and installing it. Don't rely on Microsoft Update (Muckupdate...). What version driver are you now running? I am pretty sure there have been ATI graphics driver bugs that will cause problems do very similar to this.

Double check with ASUS if there are any known bugs/fixes with this motherboard.

Maybe the PC does have a virus (try other possible thing first).
If you do have an AV software installed enable it and run a full scan.
If you don't have any AV software installed then install Microsoft Security Essentials and do a full scan and then if the PC is OK disable it.

Do these all fairly quickly as the next step if they don't work is to reinstall Windows 7 from scratch. A full clean install off optical disk and clean reinstall of pro Tools, Pace iLok Manager, Interface drivers etc. Do not drag anything except user docs over from the existing boot/system drive. Install only the bare minimum third party drivers needed (e.g. Graphics) and no crapware, other apps or AV software. This is all much easier if you have a spare/unused disk drive to install to (a 1TB WD Caviar Black at ~$80 makes a great disk to to a test install to).

[pettah93]

Hey Darryl and Atlandia. Thank you for your answers!

@Darryl

I am not going to worry much about these errors since they seem harmless. The wierd thing though, is that they occur at the same time as the freezes!

When I said that I "delete prefs", I meant deleting the prefs and databases. And cleanse the roaming folder in %appdata%. Sorry for not being clear at all!

I have went through all the Optimization steps very carefully! All the drivers that were to be updated were updated correctly from the sites, and not from Windows Updater. Catalyst drivers is v.13.9 (ATI)

I have actually disabled composition. Which makes it even wierder that I am getting composition errors.

The one thing I might need to check extra carefully if there is one of microsofts antivirus program left enabled. Which I am going to do right now.


The thing is that I have tried reinstalling Windows allready. The problems started when I had Windows 8 installed. I have tried switching between Windows 8 and Windows 7. Clean installs with only the essential: PACE, PT, Mbox Drivers etc. So I am not sure that this will solve my problem. I will of course try it again and again if that is what it will come to! And I have had the same problem on to different computers!


(In that case you could still ping the PC, a handy test which you might also want to try).
How do I go about doing this? That error seems really wierd, so if this is the source of the problem that might be good to try!




@Atlandia
"You know how to get into your services window? It's in control panel/ admin tools/ services. Desktop Window Manager is in there and should be set to Auto startup, and U can force start it there also. Re-open the session after and see what happens."

I will definetly try this! I am runnig as an admin. I will try to allow themes to change desktop icons. And I will try to use your scan command!










@Darryl and Atlandia
So this is my next steps:

-Try to force the freeze, to check the event log again.

-Triple check the Optimization, all though I am almost entirely sure that I have not missed anything.

-Check extra carefully if there is one of microsofts antivirus program left enabled.

-I am going to install Microsoft Security Essentials and scan my computer, and then disable it of course.

-Check with ASUS if there are any known bugs/fixes with this motherboard.

-"ping the PC, a handy test"

-Set Desktop Window Manager to Auto startup

-Allow themes to change desktop icons

-try out "sfc /scannow"

-If nothing of these things work I will try to reinstall my OS again!

[cyco roboter]

Hi. Sorry my english isnt the best but I'll try to help. I've had the same problem and I have solved that. The session was saved wrong, I couldnt turn off the delay compensation from max to none!! When I tryied to do that...freezing!! So what I've done: I saved session with tracks, close PT and I opened that new one...works fine...
And that happend to me second time, something wrong is going on with saveing...
Regards!
P.s. 16 ram, i7 4770k, ssd so new setup.

[uQbar]

I've been getting the same issue intermittently since upgrading to 10.3.7. It only seems to happen when I have certain NI plug ins active on a channel (and it's these NI plug ins that cause me to upgrade, oddly enough).

Anyhow, I've lost a few takes already over the last week, so I might be downgrading PT and my NI plug ins, at least until I can move to PT11 (which won't happen until Massey is done with their AAX release!!)

If I figure anything else out I'll post it.

[Shut The Daw]

I had the same problems after updating to 10.3.7. Previous versions were working OK with the same hardware. Plugins were more or less the same too! I was pulling my hair out! Finally found a work-around (Works fine for me anyway). I created an empty session (nothing in it) called it "dummy" and saved it. Everytime I open PT, I first load the "Dummy" session, close it again (The session, not PT) and then load my main session. I have not had another freeze for 4 weeks now, so I can live with the small hassle. The problem could be due to the way PT initially addresses ram.

[Drywsef]

Originally Posted by Shut The Daw

I had the same problems after updating to 10.3.7. Previous versions were working OK with the same hardware. Plugins were more or less the same too! I was pulling my hair out! Finally found a work-around (Works fine for me anyway). I created an empty session (nothing in it) called it "dummy" and saved it. Everytime I open PT, I first load the "Dummy" session, close it again (The session, not PT) and then load my main session. I have not had another freeze for 4 weeks now, so I can live with the small hassle. The problem could be due to the way PT initially addresses ram.

I am having the same problem as the OP, so I will interject too. I tried this solution, and it didn't work for me. When mixing, the freezes came back on.

To the OP: have you noticed that when this happens to your session, the whole session seems to become corrupted? When the freezes happen to me, I have a lot of trouble opening the session that froze, and that session (even previous versions of it) seem very prone to freezes. Also, I've noticed that opening the session with plugins inactive seems to restore stability... Let me know what you find! I'm sure this issue is driving us both nuts - to the point of dumping PT10 altogether.

[cyco roboter]

Export with selected tracks, close old session, open new, should work fine.

[Drywsef]

Originally Posted by cyco roboter

Export with selected tracks, close old session, open new, should work fine.

Unfortunately not. I have obtained an Avid Support Code. I will see what they can do for me and I will report my findings.

[Drywsef]

Alright... Let me take a quick poll here: how many of us experiencing the freezes are using native instruments plugins?

[uQbar]

Originally Posted by Drywsef

Alright... Let me take a quick poll here: how many of us experiencing the freezes are using native instruments plugins?

I'm one as mentioned above. Taking them out of projects removed the issue entirely.