I've fallen and I cant get up! (PT LE playback problem)

[Mils]

hello to all,
I'm having a rather frustrating morning with PT LE!
I just got a new computer, did all the pre-pro-tools setup, and now when i load my sessions they take foreeeevvverrrrr to start playing back. I can hear my machine just a working away and then half the time i get a cpu conflict error. But heres the thing. My cpu/memory meter doesnt even register 1/4 of it being used! heres my config:

Processor Type AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Processor Speed 2.2GHz
RAM 512MB DDR Expandable To 2.0GB
Hard Drive 160GB
Optical Drives Double Layer DVD+/-RW
Graphics Card ATI Radeon Xpress X200
Available Expansion Bays 2 x 3.50", 1 x 5.25"
Available Expansion Slots 2 x PCI, 1 x PCI-Ex16
Cache 512KB L2
Disk Drive No
Fax/Modem 56K V.92
Network Card 10/100 Ethernet
Other Control Devices No
Preloaded Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Sound Card Integrated Sound Card
Speakers Stereo Speakers
System Bus 1600MHz

Is my computer defective, or is it something i'm doing? not enough ram?

thanks in advance!
peace
MILS

[max cooper]

I'd get more RAM no matter what. I'd think you need at least 512 for the OS.

[Mils]

Originally Posted by max cooper

I'd get more RAM no matter what. I'd think you need at least 512 for the OS.

Thank you sir! I increased the ram by another 512 and my comp is smokin!

I was afraid that something mighta happend in shipping and my new computer was pooched

[manning1]

MILS....
if your running one hard drive...are you ?
get a second hard drive WITH 8MB CACHE....keep windows running on your current drive and use the second hard drive for recording to.
youll find your daw/amd will run more efficiently.
MAKE SURE DMA is enabled on your drives.

[Mils]

yup I'm running it all from 1 hard drive. By a second drive do you mean a physically separate drive or will i get the same results from partitioning? Either way thats something i'll def look into. Thnks.
peace
M

[cbjmusic]

you definitely want a seperate hard drive, not a partition. go with an 8 MB cahce, 7200 RPM drive..maybe even look at an external drive via firewire. portability is always nice..

good luck

paul

www.myspace.com/cancerblackjack

[manning1]

Mils....
yes ....a PHYSICALLY seperate hard drive.....

[Shan]

Setups > Preferences > Operation > Open Ended Record Allocation > Limit To: XX minutes

Set this to 5 or 10 minutes. That should do it for you.

The DUC is probably better for questions like this.


Shane

[max cooper]

Yeah, basically you want your operating system and applications on one drive and then you want to record to another, separate drive. I go the extra step of offloading the record drive before a session. If it's starting to get full, write time goes waaaay up.

And there's a whole slew of Pro Tools LE setup pointers at the digedesign.com site.

It pays to take the necessary time to get the machine optimized. You'll be glad you did.

[garymusic]

Just some basic DAW tips:

No matter what computer audio software you are using you need at least 2 drives. One for the OS and the other for your data. Get big 3rd drive for your backups of your OS and your data. Buy Norton Ghost to do system backups as when you get your system stable you will want to make a copy of the system drive. Get a good defrag program too. PerfectDisk is a good choice. Do daily backups of your data.

-Gary

[Mils]

Originally Posted by Shan

Setups > Preferences > Operation > Open Ended Record Allocation > Limit To: XX minutes

Set this to 5 or 10 minutes. That should do it for you.

The DUC is probably better for questions like this.


Shane

I'll have to try the preferences change asap...

Actually I did post there(DUC) and I only got 1 reply....So once again Gearslutz proved to be a superior resource! Thanks for all the info everybody.