Logic 9 "Disk too slow or system overload"

[matt thomas]

Got me stumped sorry. It does sound like a bug. Have you tried reinstalling a back up from before it started?

matt

[Padje]

Haven't tried that yet, don't have the time, some deadlines for thursday. I hope it doesn't bother me too much. I'll try on friday to do some more troubleshooting. Too bad, my rig was VERY stable.

Thanks for your input matt. Much appreciated.

[brianellefson]

I had that problem pop up 2 or 3 times when trying out a new plugin. I dumped it and never had the problem again. I think it was Acustica? something like that. Check and see if it may be a plugin.

[Padje]

No new plugz here, happy with what I have. And "Acustica-something-like-that" is not one of them.

Thanks for the input. As always much appreciated.

[rids]

This seems like a bug because when I search on the internet, it looks like there is a lot of this happening, even to Macs that are already dang fast and it shouldn't be happening on. I've been getting this same error a lot when I playback. I was thinking I'm using too many plugins that are too CPU intensive. At only 7 or so tracks on a 2.93ghz MBP, it doesn't seem like I should be getting this error.

[banks music]

This problem has driving me mental! I have a Mac Pro Quad-Core 3.2ghz 16gb RAM, running in 32-bit mode (as I can't deal with the unstable bridge) with 2 internal 7200 drives.

I've tested my setup quite extensively and can't seem to find out what causes the error to appear. On some projects it will work absolutely fine with 80 tracks of audio and loads of plug-ins, then randomly another project which is far less CPU demanding will cause the error to appear. It seems more likely to occur when in cycle mode but can still happen when not.

I've discovered that saving the project to a new folder (including assets) will sometimes temporarily eradicate the problem, only for it to return the next time it is loaded, even if the project is saved onto the same drive as the OS.

It can sometimes occur when a project has no plug-ins whatsoever so I'm sure it's not plug-in related.

It never used to happen on my MPB 2.2ghz so am very frustrated that having upgraded to an almost top of the range Mac that my system is less stable than my 5 year old laptop was!

I've spoken to Apple about it and then deny all knowledge of the problem...I'm just hoping that a new update of Logic comes out soon and fixes it as I can only imagine this is a software bug.

[MinoCan]

When I adjusted "processing threads" to some number (other than auto) I've encountered this error. Maybe setting it on auto will fix things.

[mamabuna]

There is something with the mac machines. I have the same problem.I have done many researches over web, forums, apple sore...I found nothing ..... My solution is to actually restart the audio interface, then it works. ..for a while. Funny it never happened while recording.
In my case I thought than I am going crazy It is not related to the DAW (I have Logic 9 and Studio One v2) or to the connection type firewire vs. USB. I have RME UFX as audio interface and their drivers are rock solid. Before the RME I had TC Impac Twin..same problem and I am not running a huge amount o VST instruments or tracks.
So yeap each time I have a slow system error..restart the audio interface.

[LeibnizLover]

sigh... i'm having something similar happening.

I'm using Logic 8! so it's not a 9 thing.

I have an older imac. but it's handled similar sized stuff before no problem. Kind of baffled. And annoyed. Played with the buffer etc.

I hope this isn't the result of some virus spreading through the webz onto my mac.....

[mamabuna]

Is this happening with the iMac as well or is just related to Macbook pro ?

[LeibnizLover]

it's happening with imac. it's probably that crappy new itunes update.

[LeibnizLover]

another weird thing. i just removed some audio units from my components drive that i never use anymore -- none of them original with logic. and when i later rebooted logic, i got the screen to register my copy. (which I did years ago when i first bought it in 2009.) is my system breaking down?????

[Reptil]

you can install quicktime 7

I got the same message, but it's not disk related or a memory problem in my case, it was a plugin resource distribution around the cores that didn't work. 1 core on overload while the rest is at less than 20%. Only happens with some plugins.
I think I'll trash that pref, yeah. The whole thing needs a fresh install anyway.

[LeibnizLover]

This is probably a very dumb question, but what are the risks of trashing the preference file?

[valis]

Having to adjust your preferences if you don't like the defaults.

[LeibnizLover]

Originally Posted by valis

Having to adjust your preferences if you don't like the defaults.

that seems like a pretty minimal risk.

to the O.P.: one thing i tried just a bit ago that seemed to help a lot was to go to the audio bin, selected and removed unused audio files. I didn't actually delete them from the H.D. just from the bin. Like you (i think) I had a ton of files in there, many from comps that were later flattened and merged, and then all the original recordings re-rendered with effects printed. (I use nebula and can't handle too many instances, so I print all the tube/tape/console stuff and then mix with those.) Now I've only did this with one song, but it was a song that was crashing every other second, and the problem (for that song) seems to be fixed.

It could be a coincidence; I don't know much about how logic works under the surface. But could cleaning out the audio bin of files not in use be what made a (big) difference? There were probably over 100 files in the bin that got removed, maybe more....

[clambake]

I'm getting the same error regularly with track counts of only 2 or 3!!! I am using Altiverb, Relab 480 and some PSP plugs but this really feels like some recent update broke Logic.

Seems to be happening on Snow Leopard and Lion, iMacs and Mac Pro's, Logic Logic 8, Logic 9 , Apogee, RME hardware . . . all over the place.

I'm running MacPro Quad Core 2.8Hhz/6 GB RAM, 10.6.8/Logic 9.1.6 with a dedicated internal drive for audio.

I was doing projects before Xmas with tons more processing and track counts and all was fine.

What's the culprit?

[mamabuna]

Seems to be happening on Snow Leopard and Lion, iMacs and Mac Pro's, Logic Logic 8, Logic 9 , Apogee, RME hardware . . . all over the place.

I agree. There is something wrong with the Snow / Lion last update.I didn't have this issue before last December ..

[T S]

Same issue here, getting the error message:

Disk is too slow or System Overload.
(-10010)
The Sudden Motion Sensor may have parked the hard drive head, or the disk performance is not sufficient to read or write all audio tracks, or the system was not able to process all data in time.

Never had issues before, most of my plugins in the session are UAD so should take the strain off, I'm running a 67 audio track mix session at 96kHz 24bit, I've even set the buffer size to 1024 and deleted all plugins and still no luck, Logic is running at 64bit.

Running 3 separate internal drives: startup/ project/ video
OSX 10.6.8, 10GB RAM, 2x2.8 GHz quad-core mac pro, Logic 9.1.7

[Tvanbeat]

Hi, I get this same message with some projects that have worked well before.

"Disk is too slow or System Overload.
(-10010)
The Sudden Motion Sensor may have parked..."

Example I have a project where is 270 tracks (audio 200 & instruments 40 and 30 midi tracks) with many plugs. There is no hiccups or errors at all. Then another project I can´t play even 9 audio track without (-10010) error. Both projects are in the same external HD.

Sometimes saving the project with a different name will solve the issue, sometimes not. Like banks music said, next time you open the project, the problem will come back. Very annoying.

I have now iMac 3.4GHz i7 with 16GB RAM running latest updates (10.7.3 and Logic 9.1.7) and 7200rpm external hard drive for samples.

Never happened with 13" 2009 MBP and OSX 10.5.8. I really wish we get a solution to this problem.

[hppnq]

Quit all programs except Logic. The screenshots provided by the OP show Firefox running and considerable disk activity. Running something like Firefox along with Logic is a reliable way of triggering the overload message, even on powerful systems.

If you see Logic's CPU and/or disk monitors go into the red, then the message is most probably simply correct. If not, then something fishy might be going on, but this did not seem the case for the OP. In the absence of performance related data I can't say anything reasonable about the other posters' problems, but quitting all programs except Logic can't hurt.

[valis]

Originally Posted by Tvanbeat

Hi, I get this same message with some projects that have worked well before.

"Disk is too slow or System Overload.
(-10010)
The Sudden Motion Sensor may have parked..."

Example I have a project where is 270 tracks (audio 200 & instruments 40 and 30 midi tracks) with many plugs. There is no hiccups or errors at all. Then another project I can´t play even 9 audio track without (-10010) error. Both projects are in the same external HD.

Sometimes saving the project with a different name will solve the issue, sometimes not. Like banks music said, next time you open the project, the problem will come back. Very annoying.

I have now iMac 3.4GHz i7 with 16GB RAM running latest updates (10.7.3 and Logic 9.1.7) and 7200rpm external hard drive for samples.

Never happened with 13" 2009 MBP and OSX 10.5.8. I really wish we get a solution to this problem.

Also consider that an iMac offers a lot of vertical surface area to resonate with speakers. How close are the monitors and subs to your system? When I use a polarized filter on my DSLR and look through the viewfinder at my LCD monitor I see a surprising amount of low frequency response, you might consider trying that with your iMac when you're having the issue. I mention this specifically because it's potentially project specific (frequency response).

Another thought is that a given project may be presenting a disk load in a way that other projects (which aren't showing the issue) are not. Ie, this is another project specific reason I can think of.

I'm sure I could come up with a few more...and ways to test and resolve these issues (if I wasn't busy working atm).

[mattqualls]

This error happens to me from time to time. Mostly during tracking, but the kicker is that I usually never have more than 10 tracks going into Logic at the same time. This only started happening recently. In example last night I was tracking my bands practice, my set up is all in the same room. After about 1:30 of recording 7 tracks at once.. this message popped up. I've shut off the motion sensor but it keeps happening.