Upgrading from PT 6.1 to 6.4 troubles!

[pedalboy]

I'm having some serious problems with my new digi002r setup. The problem seems to be with version 6.4 only. 6.1 seems to work like a dream (except I like some of the features of 6.4, so would like to get it working). I am trying to get the digi002r working on two different systems:

1) a homemade destktop. Athlong XP 2800+, Via KT600 mobo chipset, 256mb ram (i know, i know...), external firewire drive.

2) Dell C610 laptop. PIII 1.3ghz, 768mb ram, external firewire drive.

The problems I'm having in PT6.4 are the following...

1) On the desktop, either recording or playing a small session (or even a session with just one track with no audio) takes about 10 seconds to start, and then after a random length of time, I'll get a 9129 error and it will say something like audio tasks are interferring with operating system tasks. Completely unusable.

2) On the laptop, two different errors. Sometimes it gives me a 6089 "the operating system held off interrupts for too long" error when I try to play things. Other times I get the error "The audio device buffer underflowed. If this occurs frequently, try decreasing the 'H/W buffer size' in the playback engine panel or remove other devices from the firewire bus. (-6085)" The 6089 error wants me to increase the HW buffer and the 6085 wants me to decrease it. Can't win with this guy.

I've searched the answerbase for all the error numbers and none of the fixes helped. Does anyone know what is so different about protools 6.4 that it would cause so much trouble with a setup that works well enough in 6.1? What could i possibly be doing wrong here???

Thanks for the help. I would like to get this to a reliable state very quickly.

[djui5]

Originally posted by pedalboy
1) On the desktop, either recording or playing a small session (or even a session with just one track with no audio) takes about 10 seconds to start, and then after a random length of time, I'll get a 9129 error and it will say something like audio tasks are interferring with operating system tasks. Completely unusable.

2) On the laptop, two different errors. Sometimes it gives me a 6089 "the operating system held off interrupts for too long" error when I try to play things. Other times I get the error "The audio device buffer underflowed. If this occurs frequently, try decreasing the 'H/W buffer size' in the playback engine panel or remove other devices from the firewire bus. (-6085)" The 6089 error wants me to increase the HW buffer and the 6085 wants me to decrease it. Can't win with this guy.

You're running XP right?

It sounds like aproblem I've had working on pc lap-top's running XP also...

There's 2 many processes running. hit ctrl-alt-del and click on the processes tab, a long list should show up.

What you need to do is clean up your OS and streamline it. What's happing in both systems is that Pro-tools is trying to access resources that something in the OS is trying to access and causing the errors your having. As for what exactly, well...I can't say that without knowing exactly whats on your system and how you have XP configured.

[hammer]

your athlon needs another 256meg of ram....I reckon that's your problem. Tools LE is a bitch without at least half a
gig of RAM.

[pedalboy]

Thanks for the tips. I don't think its ram because I have similar problems on the laptop with 768 megs of ram. I'm not sure about the processes either... i've gone through and disabled almost everything i don't need in msconfig.

The real problem is that PT works like a dream in 6.1 and 6.1.1 (which i just tested), but the upgrade to 6.4 kills it. ONLY in 6.4 do I have trouble.

[djui5]

Check your IRQs and make sure pro-tools isn't interfering with anything else....

[pedalboy]

You mean check ti IRQs that the hardware is using?

[djui5]

Yeah..check that.

If everything is good there then open pro-tools and when you get an error stop and minimize the window...then go to the system information window and click the plus sign next to software environment. Then go down to the bottom and click Windows error reporting. It will refresh then a long list of windows errors will come up. See if you can find what on the list is having a conflict with pro-tools. If the pro-tools error is the last thing that happened on the computer it should be around the top of the list.

Just a thought...I could be on the wrong path....

[hammer]

another thought...How does it work WITHOUT the FW drive connected?

[manning1]

one thing to check is that you r drives are set up for high speed dma transfer. under 98 there was a check box in control panel.
if it was not set up - then any system would be S L O W !
another thing to try by process of elimination - down load ntrack
from fasoft.com. the demo will let you record multitracks but not save mixes. or the demo from pgmusic.com of powertracks that lets you record loads of tracks. if these two work - and they usually work with even difficult system set ups then you know the problem lies elsewhere other than your amd system.
there is an interesting test you can do in powertracks - in the menu bar it will tell you how many tracks you can record.
if you get a high track count result then your amd system is not the problem. in summary if other software / demoes work fine
then its something elsewhere other than your amd system.
you might also want to see how the demo of traktion works
as well.

[adamcal]

I also upgraded 6.1.1 to 6.4 with the 002R. also Win XP.

Pro Tools is not my primary DAW but for some jobs I have to use it.

Has been 100% stable here, mixed a 10 song album over a 3 week preiod on it (about 25 to 30 tracks per song-loads of plugins), not a single complaint from the software.

nothing special compter wise, P4 3Ghtz, 1 gig ram, Asus P4C800 delux.

I dont think its the 6.4 of LE thats causing your problems.

[GearGuy]

PT6.4 for WinXP and Digi002R
Total System RAM

384 MB minimum

512 MB (or higher) highly recommended

This is direct from Digidesign's website. Why do you think that your desktop system is immune from Digidesign's stated requirements. You said that PT6.4 is completely unusable on your desktop... here is one of the big reasons why. You say "I know, I know..." but apparently you do not know... since you are still fighting to make it work. Perhaps you should also wade through the pages of compatibility info to see if any other aspects of your systems are no longer on Digi's compatibility lists.

[pedalboy]

Hey now, GearGuy, if you want to point a little criticism my way, at least follow the train of thought here. There's two problems here, which appear to be linked. On is on an AMD desktop, another on a Dell laptop - with 768 megs of ram!!! Pretty easy to deduce that more ram is NOT a cure-all.

Thanks for the help though, everyone. I'm making progress.