OK, enough already...

[samwise]

Ok, this mess has gone on for too long.
First off, for the third time now in 4 months, I've had to reinstall Pro Tools to be able to play sessions because of the stupid "fixed" bug that causes my system to "pause" when I press play.
So what? Big deal, right?

Now after my latest (re)install, I can't run more than two Eleven plugins without my computer constantly [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]ting the bed and telling me "Lost communication with blah blah blah, press OK to reset the 002" I mean constantly, if I do ANYTHING after resetting the things, shy of moving my mouse two inches, take a quick guess at what I have to do again! Oh so fun.

2/3rds of my sessions use 3+ Eleven plugs, and now 1 takes up almost 30% of my CPU power. I can barely make it though disabling them without it taking almost 5 minutes.

Here are my non changing specs, for anyone who cares:
Macbook Pro 2.6
2GHz RAM
OSX 10.5.8
Pro Tools 8.0.1
Digi 002r, Rev G

All was fine before the dumb pause issue. Now this reinstall has slowed my workflow down and set it back about 3 days. Thanks.

[Obsidian Dragon]

A couple quick questions:
Are you recording to a separate hard drive? In the case of the Macbook Pro, an external firewire drive?. Have you set the number of processors in your playback engine from 2 to 1 to free up a processor core for non-realtime plugins? Have you installed any third party plugins? If so, are they on the Digidesign compatibility grid? Are they updated to the latest versions?

Also 2GB may be a little light for using larger plugins like Eleven guitar amp simulators.

[samwise]

Originally Posted by Obsidian Dragon

A couple quick questions:
Are you recording to a separate hard drive? In the case of the Macbook Pro, an external firewire drive?. Have you set the number of processors in your playback engine from 2 to 1 to free up a processor core for non-realtime plugins? Have you installed any third party plugins? If so, are they on the Digidesign compatibility grid? Are they updated to the latest versions?

Also 2GB may be a little light for using larger plugins like Eleven guitar amp simulators.

Yes (yes)
Yes, I've tried both switched to one and two
Yes, and they are all compatible, I've even removed a few that I was worried might not be
Yes, they are all updated

Be that as it may that 2GB is light, I've been tracking and playing back at 256 since 8 came out on this laptop, running multiple Elevens, up to yesterday afternoon before the "pause" bug destroyed my day, since the reinstall, I can run two Elevens max, even on a light plugin session.

[tamasdragon]

Can you doublecheck the plugin compatibility? (or post a plug version list)
Also, this can be easily some os related problem. First repair permissions, than try some more maintenance with onyx for example. Sometimes osx can eat so much that pt does not have enough to work.

[samwise]

I'll get a plug list soon, but I monitored my computer's actual usage several times while trying to figure out the problem, nothing has changed except for reinstalling Pro Tools, everything was fine before the pause glitch causing me to reinstall pro tools.

In the meantime I will repair permissions and what not...

[Obsidian Dragon]

Originally Posted by samwise

Yes, I've tried both switched to one and two

Thanks for your reply. I see that you've tried both 1 and 2 processors. Make sure as you proceed with the troubleshooting that you leave it at one processor. There are many know issues when it is set to 2 as it does not leave a processor free to handle the non-realtime plugins. This is a known issue until the RTAS engine can be rewritten (not a fast fix). Your problem is probably a combination of factors and this is one that seems to compound the others.

[samwise]

I will, but regardless, everyone is missing the point. This was NOT an issue until a reinstall. I went from having one eleven take up about 20%, with following ones taking up about 7-10%, to one Eleven taking up 45%, and subsequent ones taking up 20+%. NOTHING has changed. Aside from that pause glitch, I have NEVER had this problem, and I've reinstalled this garbage software 3 times in the past! I'm not an idiot with this program, I've been using it for 5+ years, I've trashed my prefs, checked for non compatable plugs and repaired all my permissions for those past 5 years, are these my only answes to why the software works fine, [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]s the bed, works fine, then [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]s the bed even more? C'mon, I feel like I'm paying for fail...

[midi sordino]

Originally Posted by samwise

I will, but regardless, everyone is missing the point. This was NOT an issue until a reinstall. I went from having one eleven take up about 20%, with following ones taking up about 7-10%, to one Eleven taking up 45%, and subsequent ones taking up 20+%. NOTHING has changed. Aside from that pause glitch, I have NEVER had this problem, and I've reinstalled this garbage software 3 times in the past! I'm not an idiot with this program, I've been using it for 5+ years, I've trashed my prefs, checked for non compatable plugs and repaired all my permissions for those past 5 years, are these my only answes to why the software works fine, [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]s the bed, works fine, then [bleep][bleep][bleep][bleep]s the bed even more? C'mon, I feel like I'm paying for fail...

Seems obvious that you're the one missing the point. You need to reinstall your attitude.

[samwise]

I'm sorry, I just feel upset that these random problems arise, and it's not been the first time

[daeron80]

Hey! A fellow LotR-named PT user. Namarie!

Pleeeeease don't tell me they haven't really cured the play-pause plague yet! Argh. That's one of the main things pulling me toward upgrading to 8.x once it gets working right in a few other areas.

I'm gonna go back to Menegroth and play my flute in the dark.