Getting random 9073 errors

[tedcanman]

I have an MBox3 Pro, and PT9, and a "pretty well" optimized Dell Laptop. PT has it's own Booting Partition, and all the major optimizations done. No networks, internet or anti-virus.

I successfully recorded a few hours of 4 simultaneousness tracks, recording to an external eSATA Glyph 1TB drive.

Then, when playing back those, or any other PT files that I have made with a previous PT system, I am getting a randomly spaced error, stopping playback and giving me the "DAE can't get audio from the drives fast enough... (-9073)" error message. After the freeze, I can continue playing back. This error may not come for 20 minutes, or 2 minutes. Never at the same place in the playback. I have tried multiple drives/cords that I know are good. And it plays back that high track-count Demo without a problem. The demo is short enough that the error has yet to hit it.

So I am thinking that the error is not the drive or the cord, but that PT is having a conflict with something (Windows related?) running in the back ground. I know Dell is not the most PT compatible, but with all the preparations with the multi-boot, and the optimization, and installing flawlessly, and RECORDING for hours without a glitch, I though I was home free. It is a Dell Studio 17 with I-7 processor and 8GB of RAM, a second internal hard drive, and I have tried using the second internal drive for playback, several external eSATA hard drives, the native Firewire 400 port (where the Mbox3 Pro is connected, and I have tried a Siig firewire expansion card with two Firewire 400 Texas Inst ports, and tried every conceivable combination of Firewire Drive, and the MBox in or out of the same Firewire chain etc. Always get the error sooner or later. I have the playback buffers all set to the highest settings, and have tried both with and without the MBox Pro's software "taking control from the host".

any ideas? thanks for reading. TCM

[cwsand]

What are your Playback Engine settings - what buffer? You should post a SANDRA report too.

[tedcanman]

CW, thanks, I was afraid someone would say that. Could you please point me in the proper place to learn what a Sandra report is, and how to run one.

I will note those output settings and post. (see below). I raised what seemed to be the appropriate ones to their highest values. all this is new to me. I have run a system for the last 5 years that was all set up by Sweetwater, and I never needed to adjust virtually anything.

BTW, I am also setting up a new Sweetwater computer with PT9 and it is doing very well. I need this laptop studio B for my dayBed, when my back is flaring (daily), and I can lie down and learn more about all this, and gather up a lifetime of recording.

I have the PT performance meter window turned on, and the CPU and Disk monitors hover at 1 - 2 %.

Here are the settings:
HW Buffer 1024
8 processors
90% CPU Limit
Ignore Errors during playback
Delay Comp Engine: None

DAE Playback Buffer Level4
Cache size Large

Plugin Streaming Buffer Level 2

thanks to all
TCM

[albee1952]

Info on the Sandra report is right here
Help us Help You - READ THIS Before Posting!

[tedcanman]

Next problem: I am not sure which exact version of Sandra Lite I should get. I am running Win7 64 bit (PT obviously runs in 32 bit). And I have an i7 intel processor. The Sandra site thinks that I should use a download for:

◦Windows XP/Server 2003/Vista/Home Server/Server 2008/7 (32-bit x86)
◦Windows XP/Server 2003/Vista/Home Server/Server 2008/7 (64-bit AMD64/EM64T)

It is the AMD64/EM64T part that is making me wonder if this is what I need for an Intel i7 system.

I want to get off on the right foot here; so I need a little advice on this.

thank you!!

[tedcanman]

I have egg on my face for not remembering that the Sandra Report info was on READ THIS FIRST. I have literally been trying to digest thousands of pages of documentation over the last few weeks...

Please recall, as outlined on the first post that I am getting random 9073 errors.

Today I found the Avid Videos on utube, and have done some few optimizations that I had not done. I am still getting the error.

Here is the infamous Sandra Report:


SiSoftware Sandra

Computer
Model : Dell Studio 1747
Workgroup : WORKGROUP
Host Name : Studio17
User : Ted

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 840 @ 1.87GHz
Speed : 2GHz
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 2 Unit(s)
Type : Mobile, Quad-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 4x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L2 On-board Cache : 4x 256kB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L3 On-board Cache : 8MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 16-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size, 8 threads sharing

Computer
Platform Compliance : Intel Centrino Mobile Technology
Mainboard : Dell 0J509P
BIOS : Dell A11 07/13/2010
Bus(es) : PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 8GB DDR3 SO-DIMM

Chipset
Model : Dell Core (Clarksfield/Lynnfield) DMI
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz)

Chipset
Model : Intel Core Mobile (Clarksfield) UnCore
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz)
Total Memory : 8GB DDR3 SO-DIMM
Channels : 2
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 665MHz (1.33GHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Samsung M471B5273CH0-CH9 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-10700S DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M471B5273CH0-CH9 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-10700S DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Video Adapter : ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 (SM4.1, 1GB DDR3, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor
STREAM Processor : ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 ()

Storage Devices
TOSHIBA MK5056GSY (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (C:)
TOSHIBA MK5056GSY (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (J:) (K:)
Seagate ST31000528AS (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ) : 932GB (D:)
HL-DT-ST DVDRW/BDROM CA10N (SATA150, BD-R, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 4MB Cache) : N/A (F:)

Logical Storage Devices
P T Basic (C:) : 146GB (NTFS) @ TOSHIBA MK5056GSY (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
P T Audio (J:) : 233GB (NTFS) @ TOSHIBA MK5056GSY (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
Glyph1T32MB (D:) : 932GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST31000528AS (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ)
Data (K:) : 233GB (NTFS) @ TOSHIBA MK5056GSY (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
Optical Drive (F:) : N/A @ HL-DT-ST DVDRW/BDROM CA10N (SATA150, BD-R, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 4MB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Dell PM55 LPC Interface Controller
Audio Device : Dell P55/PM55/3400 High Definition Audio
Audio Codec : Integrated Device Tech 7675h
Audio Device : Dell RV730XT Audio device [Radeon HD 4670]
Audio Codec : ATI (AMD) HDMI Audio
Disk Controller : Dell P55/PM55/3400 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
Disk Controller : Dell O2Micro Integrated MMC/SD controller
USB Controller 1 : Dell P55/PM55/3400 USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
USB Controller 2 : Dell P55/PM55/3400 USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : Dell 10F7h
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)
Printer : Canon Inkjet PIXMA iP5000 (600x600, USB, Colour)

Network Services

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line
Battery No 1 : 100%

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7600
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 4.3


Thank you for your help. I am not making any progress on my own. I do not understand how I could record perfectly, but have issues on the playback. And, i can play back that Demo Song with all the plugins, and tracks. Oh well, thus is the complications of Pro Tools.

TCM

[Doubleimpact]

We experience the same error over and over again. We're getting really frustratted anyone know a sollution yet!!
We can't really work right now because of the many DAE (-9073) errors.
So someone please a solution!
Already contacted Avid costumer service but got no response yet.

[tedcanman]

Double; and any others who may come this way: I have been able to (I think) solve my problem.

Rather than turn UP the various buffer sizes (see post #3 above) things have improved dramatically (no errors in 12 HOUR!!) by lowering all of the buffers. The first error I got in all this mess suggested increasing the playback buffers, and I did. All the way up. well, after getting nowhere for a few days, I tried lowering them; ALL the way, and it seems to be working.

Here is where I think they are now set (one obvious "problem" with the dual-boot system is that I can't just go there and peek at a setting from the outside world).

HW Buffer: 64
DEA Playback Buffer: Level 1
Cache Size: Small

Perhaps I was choking something with too much data...

So... If you are not having better results by raising the various playback setting, try lowering them...

Good luck to all, and let me know your story.

TCM

[Doubleimpact]

Hey thanks for the tip!
We had de DAE buffer to its fastest en bin recording the whole weekend.
Stil got dropouts but just a couple a day instead of every minute.
But the problem stil isn't fixed, but a lot better.