Possible fix for -9073 errors

[righton041]

I know this might not be everyone's exact set of circumstances, but I've been getting the familiar -9073 firewire bandwidth errors just recently on both my native remote recording Pro Tools systems which I'll outline below. And I think I've found a solution... so far the system is stable.

System 1:
Digi 002 Rack
Dual 2.7GHz PowerPC G5
6 GB SDRAM
200GB Lacie FW400 External
1TB Lacie FW400/800 External

System 2:
Digi 002 Rack
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro
2 GB 667MHz SDRAM
200 GB Lacie FW400 External
1TB Lacie FW400/800 External

At first I was running the 002 and my old 200GB drive off Firewire 400 ports, and the newer 1TB external off the FW800 port. I know it seems like a simply thing, but piggybacking both external drives of the one Firewire 400 port seems to have solved my problem. Initially I thought the issue was with the 1TB drive itself since it was the newer component in the system, but now running everything off FW400 ports, I have a stable system.

It's a pity this situation has not been totally cleared up by Digidesign as lots of people seem to be running into this problem with a huge variety of system configurations. As for myself, these errors started during an extremely high-pressure and high-budget situation with a high-profile artist at a remote recording location, and the clock was ticking as I fumbled to try and explain why my system was freezing for no apparent reason every time I tried to press play or record. And this was with what had been (up until then) a tested, stable, reliable system.

Hopefully this helps someone with similar problems. But I'm also skeptical that I've actually found a "solution" because it can't be this simple and I'm sure others don't have the same system configurations and are still getting these errors.

[Rob0214]

Out of curiousity:

1) why do you need both drives at once?
2) are you doing 002 -> 200 gb -> 1Tb on one firewire port, or 002 on its own fire wire port, and the drives piggy backed on another?

Although it would seem like it would make sense that putting the drives on separate busses would cause less throughput errors.

[righton041]

Yo.

So I use the 200GB drive because it contains my extensive sample library. And the 1TB

I've tried different combinations with placing the 002 in the chain. With the MacBook Pro is pretty much has to be as per Digi recommendation (FW Port -> External drive(s) -> 002Rack) but I've also tried putting the 002 on its own FW port on the G5 which works fine.

[jrtme]

How is the TB drive formated one partition?

[righton041]

Yep single partition.