My CPU Downward Spiral

[timmy4402]

Does anybody have this issue.

I have sessions that I have worked on for months, many tracks, many plugins, but they hummed along just fine.

Slowly over the last few weeks, I can barely play 1 or 2 measures before the CPU quits and wants me to either change the HW Buffer, remove Plugins, etc.

WHY???

It played just fine weeks ago.

I always keep my drives clean and defragment about once a month. So, I think as far as maintenance, I'm on top of things.

It is just frustrating because I experience this cycle every couple of months and the interruptions make composing virually impossible.

Any ideas?

Tim.

[nightshadecrisis]

Hey,
Whats your system setup?

ev

[timmy4402]

Sony Viao - 24.mghz, 768 RAM - 7200 Firewire external drive. XP, not SP2 yet.

Don't blame the Viao though! Again, these sessions seem to work and then not work - work and then not work...etc

[DigiTechSupt]

Hi Tim,

Digidesign does not recommend using any software defrag routine for drive maintenance but instead to backup your data and reformat the drive. Running a software defragger can scatter your audio files all over the surface of the drive making it more difficult to stream them and potentially cause the errors you're trying to get rid of.

You could try going in Pro Tools to File>Save Session Copy In (be sure to include all audio files). This should cause all the audio to be written to contiguous drive space (assuming you sufficient contiguous space available). If this session plays normally for you, backup your data and reformat the audio drive.

You may also want to consider what changes you've made to the system recently (like new hardware/software) and try reverting to the system config as it was when everything was playing ok.

Regards,

Digidesign Technical Support

[rchaffin]

I had the same thing happen to me. There may be an easier solution, but I ended up having to replace my system drive. It has been stable for 2 years since then.

[neatguys]

Excellent reply digi!!!
I always thought that defrag was the answer