CPU Spikes in Pro Tools 12.4 [solved]

[Rob Hannon]

Hi guys

Hope you can help.

I've recently been getting CPU spikes in most of my sessions causing CPU overload errors. Even if the CPU usage hovers around 10% all of a sudden it will jump up to 100% even when there is nothing playing, i.e after hitting stop play, leaving it for a few minutes and just watching the system usage.

My computer is a PC running windows 8.1 with an i7 processor and 32GB ram so didn't anticipate this happening.

I have tried the following.
Every combination of HW buffer size and cache allocation with no effect
I have disabled the hyper threading on my CPU using only the 4 cores and not the 8 virtual cores. Made no difference
I have bounced all virtual instruments and midi tracks, and selected hide and make inactive. So only audio and aux tracks used.
I have systematically removed each type of plugin to monitor any difference and even with no plug ins it still spikes. Not as much admittedly but even so with no plugins?? My main plugins are by Waves and Izotope so no cheap ones or freebies.
I have turned off all power saving systems and potential graphic loads on the main CPU.
I have turned off the CPU turbo boost and disabled the C-state functions within my bios.
My interface is connected to a MOTU PCie 2410.
I've tried to read through all the Avid advice on system configurations but to no avail.

Am I missing something?

Cheers

Rob

[Rob Hannon]

I have resolved this issue and thought the solution might be applicable to others.

I loaded a hardware monitor and opened pro tools cpu monitor. I noticed the cpu spikes in pro tools were occurring at about the same time as my cpu was throttling back from 4000mhz to anything between 800mhz and 2000 mhz. I also noticed that this coincided with a cpu temperature increase.

It transpires that the cpu overheating caused the cpu to throttle back thus reducing the available cpu power for pro tools.

I fitted an upgraded cpu cooling system which has stabilized the cpu temperature preventing it from throttling back and now pro tools runs without any cpu spikes and I've noticed it running a lot smoother.

If you are having cpu spikes in pro tools maybe check this out to see if the same thing is occurring on your system.

Hope it helps

[DJ Hellfire]

I've said this countless times. The fact the Pro Tools is working flawlessly for some people and terribly for others has to be an issue with a users hardware configuration or other software on their computer. The average user would not have figured out this CPU overheating issue and thus would have continued to blame Avid. Not saying the software is perfect, but when a person completely can't run PT at all like some people are complaining, it has to be an issue on their system.

Anyhow, nice find!

[Wizzoboy]

I agree DJ. Some time ago I started having problems. It turned out to be an external hard drive starting to fail with small errors and an increase in running temperature. This was enough to affect the usb buss and PT. New drive, no more problems.