Hard drive/Pro Tools Le questions...for MBox

[DMansky]

First off, I have a Dell Inspiron 4150 Intel Pentium 4 laptop computer. It is about 2 years old and has 256MB of Ram, 1.60 Ghz. It said at the store that 256MB of ram was the minimum, but on the website, it says that 512MB ram is the minimum. I am connected through the USB cabel.

The software and mbox were installed smoothly, and I even changed a bunch of my windows XP settings to make the computer a lot faster, but when I try to record, not only do I get the crackling and the delay, but I also can only record for about 5 seconds and then play it back for about 3 seconds on average. Each time, it gives me the H/W buffer message either needs to be decreased or increased, and when I follow it's directions, it doesn't help.

I realize that I probably either need to upgrade the hard drive or even get a new computer to run protools. I do not have a separate audio drive and I assume that this is another part of the problem. I have followed all of the steps but nothing is helping, and I think it may be because my computer is too old or I have to do some major upgrading.

My question is, how would I go about upgrading? Do i need to actually buy a new hard drive and install it, something like digidrive? Can I buy more Ram so that it will work? Sorry for my lack of knowledge about computers. If you have any time at all please let me know what you think I should do. I feel pretty stuck because I don't want to buy a new computer, but I really want to record some music! Thanks so much

David

[Paul14]

David-
You didn't mention if you're running PT5 or 6... 6 takes more memory to run than 5 did, and 256 won't cut it at all for version 6.
Also, running with your audio on the same drive as your OS doesn't work well, and it doesn't work at all on a laptop.
You're processor is ok to run PT, though faster is always better. If you don't want to take that big of a leap yet, definitely upgrade your RAM to at least 512MB, if not a Gig. Then get an external drive, firewire preferred but at least USB 2.0. Your laptop probably doesn't have a 2.0 USB controller on it, though, so you're gonna need to buy a pcmcia controller - may as well go firewire. You can keep your internal drive.

Hope that helped,
Paul

[DMansky]

Paul

Thanks a lot for your comments, they were very helpful. I am running pro tools version 6.1.1 so I am sure my laptop is not currently able to handel all of this at 256 ram and using the same hard drive as the rest of my computer. How much do you think all of this new stuff (extra ram, external hardrive, converter for usb 2 thing etc) is going to cost? Is it worth it for me to get a new laptop and not have to deal with all of this stuff?
Thanks

David

[Paul14]

David-
You're going to need something like this: 1394 Cardbus
and then an external drive.($150-$200) Also, a memory upgrade shouldn't be more than $100-$150.

So, you're lookin' at under $400 total, and you can always keep the fw card and external drive if you get a new laptop.

Good luck,
Paul