Very dead system, help/advice needed please.

[Ru_C]

Hi all, have been running a hackintosh system (specs below) with very few issues the last five years. In fact i'd go as far as to say its been the most stable/reliable DAW setup I've used.....anyway

So this last week lots of different 9060/9061 errors, freezing when changing plugins...force quitting protools...general misery.

Ive changed pretty much everything to try & get to the bottom of the problem.

So far I've tried.

* Trashing all prefs
* Booting into both 10.6.x/PT8 HD & 10.7.x PT10HD (both have been used regularly before with no issues, & are on separate boot drives)
* changing the drive the session plays off (multiple times)
* Running digitest on the HD3 PCI cards (all passed)
* Using just in single 192D
* Swapping ALL THREE cards out for a spare set I keep
* Tracking with no plugins on

Basically, the only thing that works is booting into native on PT10, which at least allows me to mix & monitor via the Spdif out on a little USB interface I use for iTunes playback, & my pro control still functions.

So in essence, the TDM side seems totally F****d.

The only thing I've not been able to try is swapping the ribbon cables that connect the cards, as I don't have spares.

Any one any bright ideas? Could the motherboard be screwed on the PCI slots?

PT10 running natively with ZERO issues. btw, so the mac must be fine at a basic level.

Any help VERY appreciated :):)

[albee1952]

I hope you get better advice than mine. When you mention that everything passes DigiTest, I would THINK that means the ribbon cables are good, BUT, it may still be worth trying just the core card(remove the other cards for testing). If its still bad, try moving the core card to another slot. Point being, if the core card works in another slot, that helps to pin the blame on the motherboard. Troubleshooting a system this complicated(and it really is when you think about it) can be a PITA Hope you get to the bottom of it!

[Ru_C]

Originally Posted by albee1952

I hope you get better advice than mine. When you mention that everything passes DigiTest, I would THINK that means the ribbon cables are good, BUT, it may still be worth trying just the core card(remove the other cards for testing). If its still bad, try moving the core card to another slot. Point being, if the core card works in another slot, that helps to pin the blame on the motherboard. Troubleshooting a system this complicated(and it really is when you think about it) can be a PITA Hope you get to the bottom of it!

Yeah, thanks for the reply...swapped to Core+1 Accel earlier & it seemed to work for a while...which points to either the 3rd PCI slot or ribbon cable...but then had a crash...aggh...i should have been a plumber..

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by Ru_C

Yeah, thanks for the reply...swapped to Core+1 Accel earlier & it seemed to work for a while...which points to either the 3rd PCI slot or ribbon cable...but then had a crash...aggh...i should have been a plumber..

You ARE a plumber Working on a stopped up audio toilet

[Barry Johns]

You probably have an issue with one or more of your cards. You need to start doing a process of elimination. Start with your Core Card see how things work with that. Then start adding another card see how things work then. And so forth until you can isolate where the issue lies.

[tonwurm]

I had similair issues with my tdm system last year.

digitest said all was well, but finally I found out, that one of my accel cards had a defect, depending on the temperatur in the mac. That made it very difficult to locate the error, because when the mac was "cold" all was running fine.

[the dude]

I one your over the other side of the pond
but we get cards for repairs from your side regularly

so if you think you would like that card repairs please contact me