ProTools error message after upgrading

[rshook]

Hell all,

I am hoping someone might be able to assist with this one.

I have a DIGI 001 and was using the following setup:
-PT LE 6.2
-Mac G4 450MHz dual processor
-OS X 10.2
-2GB of RAM
-2 video cards for dual display
-external firwire drive
I had no issues with this setup and PT LE, and could easily have 24 audio tracks up and running with a 256 sample setting for low latency. ProTools was rock solid, and I never experienced any crashes.

However, because of a new session I'm responsible for that requires the use of DrumCore, I had to upgrade to OS X 10.3 as 10.3 is the earliest OS X version that is compatible with DrumCore.

Before upgrading my dual proc 450MHz G4, on the advise of other PT owners, I decided to use a different Mac available to me. The new system is:
-ProTools LE 6.4
-G4 1.25GHz single processor
-OS X 10.3.4
-2GB RAM
-2 video cards for dual display
-3 interal Seagate 250GB drives with fast seek times.

I was told that the 1.25GHz G4 with its faster PCI bus would be a better choice over the older G4 dual proc 450MHz computer. So I installed OS X 10.3.4, installed PT 6.4, configured all of the system preferences outlined on this board and in all of the ProTools books I can get my hands on to make my PT system run well, and I get the dreaded "Operating System Held Off Interruptsfor Too Long, Increase the hardware buffer size..." even when running NO PLUG-INS. Keep in mind this is a clean install of the OS, followed by the PT LE install, and nothing else. This computer is a dedicated protools rig.

This happens even with sessions with as few as 1 track count! I always have the system usage window displayed, and the CPU usage is below 25%, the PCI bus is always around 50%, and the disk is always around %25. When I get this error, the Processor quickly spikes into the read zone. Increasing the hardware buffer size seems to help a bit, but I still get the error often even if I increase it to the max setting.

Should I go back to the old 450MHz dual proc G4? Is Protools 6.4 a bigger resource hog than 6.2? Is it the alignment of the planets?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,

Robert

[Spindrift]

PT 6.4 shouldn't be any heavier on system resources than 6.2. OS X 10.3.2 and 10.3.4 are both approved for PT 6.4 with the Digi001, so you should be good there. It would be worth downloading the 6.4cs9 update from here:

http://archive.digidesign.com/download/cs/

The first thing I would look at is airport. If you have an airport card, turn it off. Even on a dual core machine, if I have airport turned on, I get the same error message. Beyond that, make sure that your Energy Saver settings are all set to "never", that your screen saver is turned off and that you have no anti-virus or utilities running and turn off bluetooth as well.

If that is not your problem, I would pull all the plugins out of the plugin folder and try running just some audio.

If all of this hasn't cleared your issues up, I would also trash your preference files, located in MacHD > User > 'your user name' > Library > Preferences.
These files are 'com.digidesign.protools.plist', 'DAE Prefs' (folder), 'DigiSetup.OSX', and 'Pro Tools Preferences'.
At the same time, delete the Digidesign Database file on the root level of all your drives.

Adam

[allbaldo]

You might also make sure your record allocation is set to something lower than happens with a new install. Maybe 20 minutes or so. Have you added plugins besides the stock Digi ones?

[Spindrift]

If that is not your problem, I would pull all the plugins out of the plugin folder and try running just some audio.

I should add, that if this does alleviate the problem, you should then go through the tedious task of adding back plugins one by one (or even developer by developer) and testing again each time until you find the culprit.\

a.

[rshook]

No airport card is installed.
I'm only using the stock plug-ins that get installed with ProTools. I also get the error even when NOT using any plug ins.
Error happens even when not using Drumcore (which is basically a software midi instrument that uses Rewire to play notes from MIDI data within protools.)

You might also make sure your record allocation is set to something lower than happens with a new install. Maybe 20 minutes or so. Have you added plugins besides the stock Digi ones?

I will try this. I guess I could also try contacting DigiDesign. I just figured that since the Digi001 is so old, that I really wouldn't get much in the way of in depth support for this issue. I may also try updating to Mac OS 3.9 (with the correct version of QuickTime). Ack, so damn frustrating to move to what should be a faster system, only to have it operate worse that my old ProTools 5.0 running on Mac OS 9 did.

Thank you all for the suggestions. If you have more, keep 'em coming and post any progress I've made with the previous suggestions.

[Spindrift]

I'm only using the stock plug-ins that get installed with ProTools. I also get the error even when NOT using any plug ins.
Error happens even when not using Drumcore (which is basically a software midi instrument that uses Rewire to play notes from MIDI data within protools.)

Plugins that are in the plugins folder can still cause problems whether or not you're using them in them in the session. This is why it's worthwhile to pull them out of the plugin folder and launch PT with no installed plugins at all. It's possible that you have an incompatible plugin version or corrupt plugin file causing the problems. Takes two seconds and lets you know whether or not that is the issue. Most plugin issues do show up when you actually use them, but I've seen many cases where just having them load up in PT on launch can create issues.

a.