Win 7/64 bit and 8.0.4 frustration...In need of help

[shade of many]

Hello all, I am having great frustration with Win7/64 and getting 8.0.4 le to record properly. I would very much appreciate any help from you. It's a bit ridiculous to have to pay $40 for customer support from Avid; the going rate for a ticket number!

Here's the story:

I recently purchased a new laptop with win7/64. I installed the software that came with my Mbox 2, 8.0.3 le, without connecting my hardware. I then applied the 8.0.4 update and plugged in the Mbox when prompted, to successfully install the drivers(this is the process that the Avid site says to use).

The software installs, and I can import audio in and play it back flawlessly. The problem comes when I record. Upon recording any audio through any of my mics, dynamic or condensor, I get sporadic bits of brief distorion. The distortion is more or less in the background, but it's disrupting and shouldn't be there. I also hear the noises through my head phones and monitor speakers when I'm listening to a track with record enabled, but not recording. I get the same thing no matter what I record. I have tried adjusting the gain very low and to the point of clipping, and i still get the noises. I have not installed the beta driver for win 7/64, so that can't be the issue.

The strange thing is that I borrowed a friends laptop with win vista/32 and installed 8.0.4 le. I have no issues recording using all the same equipment in the same room as with my win 7/64 pc with the vista/32.

I don't know what else to try and am quite frustrated. I bought a new mic cable just to rule out a bad cable. Any ideas my friends?

Thanks

[song22us]

Can anyone help me with this Pro Tools 8.0.4 and E-mu X board controller prob. X board 49 will trigger everything in Reason 4 and everything else unless it`s in Pro Tools. Using midi cables and it worked fine with PT for a while but I upgraded and it won`t trigger anything or even show up in midi studio. Am I going to have to get another controller from M- Audio? PT 8 has some great stuff to use if I could just get them to work with my midi tracks.
Bummer and need help! Please e-mail me at [email protected] if you have any info.

Thanks...

Greg

[albee1952]

song22us, you need to go start a new thread as your problem is unrelated to this thread.

Back to the OP, post a Sandra report as described here:
Help us help you - what you need to know before posting!
Until we have details of your computer, there's no way to tell if its compatible at all. In any case, what drive are your recording to? The system drive or a USB drive are both NOT recommended or supported. Firewire drives need to use an Oxford chipset, and your firewire port needs to use a TI chip(the Sandra report will tell that if you have firewire). eSATA drives should work well(even though they are not tested or supported).

[shade of many]

Ok, thanks for the help. Here are my Toshiba Satellite A665 specifications:

Processor*
Intel® Core™ i3-370M Processor
Operating System*
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Memory*
4GB DDR3 memory
500GB HDD (7200rpm)

I am just writing to my hard drive, nothing fancy. I should also add that I have made sure all other programs are closed including anti virus software as well as being disconnected from the internet while running pro tools. Any ideas?

[remis]

Originally Posted by shade of many

Ok, thanks for the help. Here are my Toshiba Satellite A665 specifications:

Processor*
Intel® Core™ i3-370M Processor
Operating System*
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Memory*
4GB DDR3 memory
500GB HDD (7200rpm)

I am just writing to my hard drive, nothing fancy. I should also add that I have made sure all other programs are closed including anti virus software as well as being disconnected from the internet while running pro tools. Any ideas?

Originally Posted by albee1952

Back to the OP, post a Sandra report as described here:
Help us help you - what you need to know before posting!
Until we have details of your computer, there's no way to tell if its compatible at all

System specs aren't enough for diagnosing potential problems. Like albee said, you need to post a sandra report

[sw rec]

"I am just writing to my hard drive, nothing fancy."
Therein lies the very first potential problem. Read those threads you've been given (twice) and you'll see that writing to your main (system) drive is NOT supported.
For this to work correctly, you'll have to follow the recommendations and not take any shortcuts. There's a very good reason for every single recommendation.

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by shade of many

Ok, thanks for the help. Here are my Toshiba Satellite A665 specifications:

Processor*
Intel® Core™ i3-370M Processor
Operating System*
Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
Memory*
4GB DDR3 memory
500GB HDD (7200rpm)

I am just writing to my hard drive, nothing fancy. I should also add that I have made sure all other programs are closed including anti virus software as well as being disconnected from the internet while running pro tools. Any ideas?

This is what is needed:


To enable other users to help you, please include all of your system details when posting an issue to the DUC; Pro Tools hardware,
Pro Tools software version, CPU, OS version, Motherboard make/model, chipset, amount of RAM, type of hard drives used, etc.

- Please - Use SiSoftware's Sandra Lite application to generate a full system profile:

CLICK HERE---->Sandra Report<----CLICK HERE


Under SiSoftware Sandra, click on "Download & Buy" to download the FREE Sandra Lite version or purchase other versions.
After installing Sandra, click on the 'Hardware' tab and run the 'Computer Overview', then copy and paste into your post here on the
DUC.
Help Us Help You

[shade of many]

Ok, I figured that much out! Here is the Sandra report. Also, I'm a little confused as to what you mean by recording to my hard drive as not being supported. I had an Mbox original and it worked perfectly. Are you saying that I need an external drive to record to? Thanks:)

SiSoftware Sandra

Computer
Model : Toshiba Satellite A665

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM) i3 CPU M 350 @ 2.27GHz
Speed : 2.26GHz
Cores per Processor : 2 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 2 Unit(s)
Type : Mobile, Dual-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 2x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L2 On-board Cache : 2x 256kB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L3 On-board Cache : 3MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 12-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size, 4 threads sharing

Computer
Platform Compliance : Intel Centrino Mobile Technology
Mainboard : Toshiba NWQAA
BIOS : Toshiba 1.20 05/14/10
Bus(es) : PCI PCIe IMB USB i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 3.8GB DDR3 SO-DIMM

Chipset
Model : Toshiba Core (Auburndale/Havendale) DRAM Controller
Front Side Bus Speed : 1x 133MHz (133MHz)
Total Memory : 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM
Shared Memory : 34MB
Channels : 2
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 532MHz (1GHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Samsung M471B5673FH0-CF8 2GB DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-8500S DDR3-1066 (7-7-7-20 4-27-8-4)
Memory Module : Samsung M471B5673FH0-CF8 2GB DDR3 SO-DIMM PC3-8500S DDR3-1066 (7-7-7-20 4-27-8-4)

Video System
Video Adapter : Intel(R) HD Graphics (12 SM4.0 667MHz, 64MB DDR3 2x533MHz, Integrated Graphics)

Graphics Processor

Storage Devices
Seagate ST9500420AS (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache) : 466GB (C:)
HL-DT-STDVDRAM GT30F (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 1MB Cache, 192kB Flash) : N/A (D:)

Logical Storage Devices
TI105835W0N (C:) : 454GB (NTFS) @ Seagate ST9500420AS (500.1GB, SATA300, 2.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 16MB Cache)
System : 1GB (NTFS)
Optical Drive (D:) : N/A @ HL-DT-STDVDRAM GT30F (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 1MB Cache, 192kB Flash)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Toshiba HM55 LPC Interface Controller
Audio Device : Toshiba P55/PM55/3400 High Definition Audio
Audio Codec : Realtek Semiconductor High Definition Audio
Disk Controller : Toshiba P55/PM55/3400 4 port SATA AHCI Controller
USB Controller 1 : Toshiba P55/PM55/3400 USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
USB Controller 2 : Toshiba P55/PM55/3400 USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Printer : HP Deskjet 5150 series (1200x1200, USB, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek PCIe FE Family Controller
Wireless Adapter 1 : Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6200 AGN (802.11g (ERP), WEP n-bit, 54Mbps)

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : Off-Line
Battery No 1 : 14%

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

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 4.6

ps: I also went through and optimized my windows 7 settings according to the Avid help page. I am still having the above mentioned problem with recording audio, although, oddly enough, the distortions seem to only occur about 50% of the time as compared to before I made the optimizations. I am not particularily computer savy, but I'm doing my best! i have never had to work so hard to get a program to work! I appreciate your help and patience. Thank you!

[remis]

In relation to your confusion about your hard drive, it appears you only have 1 hard drive. In order to get pro tools crankin you need at least 2 hard drives, 1 as your system drive with windows and pro tools installed on it and another physically seperate hard drive to record your pro tools sessions to. This way your computer doesnt have to try read/write multiple things onto the same drive at once, thus easing the strain on the system and making it play nice. (at least this is my understanding, someone else feel free to correct me if im wrong). Both hard drives need to be at least 7200rpm and higher cache is ideal, generally aim for around 32mb, higher if you can. Also, the pro tools session drive should be connected to a sata port on your motherboard to work with pro tools. Some are using esata connections with good results, but esata is not technically supported by avid. Usb drives must be avoided for session drives.

[albee1952]

remis is right on the money regarding hard drives. Also, the i3 is not a powerhouse processor as its really the new version of the celeron(which was not approved for Pro Tools). I also see integrated graphics, which is also a potential problem. You said your friend's laptop records great, so what specs are that computer? Maybe you need a different laptop(or maybe someone using the same model as you can offer advice on how to configure). Pro Tools is very finicky regarding hardware. No matter what computer you have(or get) you need a separate recording drive for any decent performance with more than a handful of tracks. As for the "noises", that comes under the heading of "odd behavior" and trashing prefs can often help(read the General Troubleshooting sticky thread for info on that).