Something is REALLY wrong with my Mac...!

[KingAce]

Greets to all,

Lately i've been experiencing a very, very annoying and out right pain in the a** situation with my Mac Pro.

I have a quad core Intel Mac Pro w/ 8 gigs of RAM that i bought in '06 that was going to be my 'Pro Tools only' machine, and had been using for such ever since. The first version of Pro Tools i had installed on this thing was 7.1, and have upgraded version by version to what i currently have installed which is 8.0.1 on an MBox 1 with OS 10.5.8. And prior to me installing version 8, wich was about 2-3 months ago, everything on this machine was working flawlessly. Not a problem in the world.

Now i have started to surf the web with this thing since maybe last July or so, but even in doing that i still didn't run into any problems until i installed version 8. 7.4.2 continued to do exactly what it was supposed to do even with the incorporation of web surfing, leading me to believe i had no viruses or anything that might harm my computer...

Fast forward to the installation of 8... Since then all hell has broken loose!

Now that 8 is installed, the only way i can launch Pro Tools is right after the computer has been restarted. So if i wake my computer from sleep, which is what i normally do, put it to sleep, and then surf the net or maybe do something else on my computer, walk away from it for a few hours and then attempt to come back to it and launch Pro Tools, i'll get the Pro Tools logo on my screen with it saying 'Loading Pro Tools' and the beachball. And it'll stay like that forever. At that point the only way i can get Pro Tools to launch is to turn the computer completely off and then restart, only then can i launch Pro Tools again. So in otherwords, if i don't launch Pro Tools as soon as i turn my computer on, forget about it, it's not happening.

Another buggy thing that's been taking place is with my external usb harddrives. If i plug one of those to the front usb ports and leave them plugged in for a few hours, walk away from the computer and then come back to it, the harddrives won't even eject when i try to eject them. If i drag the icon to the eject image on my dock, it'll just sit there as if i did nothing at all.

Same goes for my FW Lacie that i record all my audio to. I never unplug that thing as it turns itself on and off along with the computer. But ever since i installed 8, whenever i turn my computer on it'll say i unsafely removed my FW drive and can take up to 30 minutes to bring the icon back on the screen where it normally is.

Boy i tell ya, when i say this thing had been acting wacky since the 8 install, i mean it's been acting WACKY!

Now one thing i know could be causing problems with Pro Tools but shouldn't be causing problems with my whole entire computer, even when Pro Tools isn't launched, is some of the software i have installed. Or one piece at least.

For version 8 Digidesign says you should at least have version 5.9.7 Waves plug-ins installed, which i currently have 5.9.1 installed. They still work and haven't really been giving me any problems with Pro Tools that i can think of, but even if that was the case, should that be affecting my WHOLE entire computer, even when PT isn't launched?

I also have quite a bit of other Digi and third party plugs installed, but all of them are up to date with the exception of my Waves bundle. But like i said before, would that alone be the sole reason why my whole entire computer is acting buggy?! I have already ran a virus scan as to which nothing showed up and was considering taking it to a Mac shop and have them look at it, but i wanted to exhaust all my possibilities before doing so.

I apologize for the lengthy thread but i wanted to make sure i gave as much information as possible and covered everything.

I would really, REALLY appreciate if anyone can offer any advice or any possibilities as to what the problem could be.

.....again, thanks for any help.

Oh yeah, my DVD drive doesn't work either. Whenever i insert a disc it'll just keep skipping, and skipping and skipping...

__________________

[bfx]

Things to check:

0) General troubleshooting.

1) Remove the Waves plugins from your plugins folder, see if that makes a difference for Pro Tools starting.

2) Repair disk permissions.

3) Reinstall Pro Tools, clean install. Be sure to include the latest CS update.

4) Run Apple's hardware check. You should have it on your system installation discs. Your DVD drive not working should not be a PT problem after all.

5) Reinstall Mac OS X from the ground up.

Having said that I have to admit that I had issues with sleeping/waking my Mac Pro in regards to Pro Tools as well. Folks say it should not be necessary in general but being raised on a PC I feel safer switching my machine off over night. Rebooting has also helped me with Pro Tools beachballing in the past.

I guess people will follow up with more suggestions.

[KingAce]

Great. I'll give those suggestions a shot and see what i get.

...Thanks.

[bfx]

Rebooting has also helped me with Pro Tools beachballing in the past.

Just remembered that logging off and on again is also a (quicker) way to accomplish the same.

[KingAce]

Great idea, i never thought to log off and on vice restarting altogether.

...So i just completed a reparing of permissions and found a long list of things that got fixed. Also just completed an AHT run and it came back fine. Said no problems were found.

So i guess my next step is to re-install my OS and see if that does the trick.

Hopefully so.

[musicalavtech]

Originally Posted by KingAce

So if i wake my computer from sleep, which is what i normally do, put it to sleep, and then surf the net or maybe do something else on my computer, walk away from it for a few hours and then attempt to come back to it and launch Pro Tools, i'll get the Pro Tools logo on my screen with it saying 'Loading Pro Tools' and the beachball.
__________________

Sorry to hear about these issues. The 'computer goes to sleep' thing is a digi no no. A few basic & awesome mac features have to take the back burner to having a lean reliable PT setup. Do you have the latest cs update for PT8.0.1? You may find that repairing permissions takes entirely too long for v10.5.8 and always seems to have dozens and dozens and yet dozens more permissions "repaired" when all along, it's an apple bug that has been around for a while. It was supposedly fixed a few versions ago, but has resurfaced. Apple doesn't seem to really care though. They think it's not a big deal. I live with it, though I wish it was 'right'.

Have you tried the ProTools Prefs & Database Helper? It's helpful. Also run the Plug-In version generator twice per direction just to make sure of the plugins. As bfx posted, move the waves plugs into the unused plugins folder.
Good luck.

[bfx]

So i guess my next step is to re-install my OS and see if that does the trick.

I would spare that as a last resort in case everything else fails. You are aware that, in case of a OS reinstall, you will have to set up every last app you use, again?

Have you gone through General Troubleshooting? For example, your HD mounting issues could be due to some conflict with background services. Have you checked?

Also, did you try to reinstall PT first to get rid of any PT related problems?

As I understand it the only issue that cannot be resolved on a software level is your DVD drive. You might try to set up another one or check yours in another Mac, if possible. Again, this could be connected to the problems you are expiriencing with your HDs. Have you consulted Apple support?

[KingAce]

No, i have not contacted Apple Support, but i have tried everything inbetween...

I am currently re-installing my OS all the way from 10.5.0 to 10.5.5. I think i'm gonna stop right there vice taking it all the way to 10.5.8 like i once was. Once i do that and finagle with it a little, i'll see where i'm at and take it from there.

But at this point, i think that's my last bet besides a clean re-install...