Brand new AMD system locking up at Launch

[analogboy]

Hi everyone,

I just got a new PC for pro tools that consists of:

AMD X2 6000+
2 GB DDR2 Ram
Geforce 8800
300 Gb HD

Anyways, I installed windows XP (32 bit) and Pro Tools, so I don't have alot of junk on this PC. However, when I go to start Pro Tools, it loads my plugin's and such, then just stops responding. I got AMD's dual core optimizer, thinking that would do the trick, but no luck. Am I missing a driver for Pro Tools that allows it to support duel cores in XP? Any advice would be great. Thanks.

[8dB.co.uk]

I would first check the chipset compatibility.

I have been running PTLE7.4 cs2 on an AMD Dual Core sice it was released (7.3.1 before) with no problems. You will need the dual core optimiser and windows XP dualcore hotfix, but if this system was supplied with the OS installed already, then this should have been done already.

Are you running an antivirus? I know that ZoneAlarm will let PTLE boot up so far, then it stops. Your best bet is to use a "hardware firewall" (ie, unplug the internet connection) while running PT, and disable any antivirus software while running. AV software only saps the processing anyway. I use my laptop to download stuff from FTP sites etc, scan the material using that, then tarnsfer it across a secure network to my PT PC. It's the safest way, and guarantees optimum performance. Some unmentionable antivirus suites make it purposefully hard for you to uninstall or disable, which is why the same people offer a proper uninstall program on their website, but hidden away.

Once you sort these out, I have found my PTLE on an AMD DualCore to work faster and more reliably than on a dual-processor pre-Intel Mac G5.

Good luck! It's worth persevering.

Alan

[albee1952]

Update your PACE drivers. Check the compatibility pages to see if your motherboard has an approved chipset. I run the same cpu and a GeForce 7300 so those parts are fine with protools. Turn off networking(except for firewire). Turn off any anti-virus software that might run in the background. Review the Getting Started Guide and make certain you performed the required system tweaks.

[sunburst79]

HMMMM, What's PT loading when it stalls? Thats often the culprit.

if your using a 002, 003 or MBOX2 Pro and it stalls it quite likely that your FW chip is not compatible. If thats the case using a Digi approved FW card often solves the problem.

All of the other suggestions are good places to start.

[scoobydoo]

I had problems too. Things that solved my problems are:

Installing the AMD optimizer again.
Installing the Windows hotfixes listed in the support section.
Ad-On firewire card.


Now I'm rolling along without a hitch. Did take me awhile o figure all this out though. Very frustrating. They should just put these things in the literature.

[albee1952]

You never mentioned what motherboard so are you POSITIVE that it is compatible?

[scoobydoo]

I'm not trying to start anything when I say I don't really think the fact that the Mobo is compatible is as big a problem as people make it out to be sometimes. I think that there are many more chipsets and cpu's that run PT fine that Digi doesn't bother to "qualify" for whatever reason. In fact if you look that their list (if you can find it) you'll only see a few chipsets.

I've run PT on 6 or 7 pc's at this point, most with "unqualified hardware" and only have a problem with chipset compatibility once and that actually wasn't PT's fault, it was an incompatibility with how the chipset handled a Soundblaster card. I've installed LE 5.x, 6.x and 7.x and M-powered 7.x on several PC's with "unqualified" chipsets and CPU's and ran it just fine thank you very much. Matter of fact I'm doing it right now on a laptop and a desktop. One even has an "unqualified" firewire card and it's running great! I'm sure there are chipsets that will cause you problems and I think you'd be better off searching for a list of hardware with known incompatibilities.

It's a gray area to me and very frustrating that Digi takes this position (one of many frustrating Digi positions). Especially when it comes to tech support. I mean, who else in this industry qualifies only 3 or 4 types of hardware and tells everybody who calls in for tech support "sorry, we don't have to give you support cause we don't want to bother either engineering for this other popular hardware or don't want to bother testing on this other popular hardware." I've never seen that with any other audio software company. Nore have I had so many problems with any companies software.

anyway, sorry to rant but I wanted to put that out there. Can we get a good list of hardware with known problems instead of this tiny list of only the stuff they'll support?


And one more thing, why should anybody have to turn their lan adapter off to use an unrelated peice of software?

/rant off