!Running Protools 6.9.2 on a G4 Powerbook 1.67 HELP!

[steak/eyes]

I have been running Protools 6.9.2 on my new Powerbook (G4) successfully for the past few months, but as of recently, I have started getting errors in protools where it's telling me that "CPU tasks are conflicting with audio processing (-9136)" and "USB audio is holding off (-9129).

I am running 1.5 gig of ram, so this should not be an issue. I have also had my popwerbook checked out and there is nothing wrong with it. It only ever crashes when running protools.

The main problem here is that I have 3 months of multiple-tracked songs that currently only exist as Protools session files, as protools won't keep it together long enough for me to bounce them down.

If anyone can help me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Cheers

 

[WinterMute]

It might be a buffer issue, increase the size of the buffer for mixing, decrease it for recording, otherwise you get latency problems.

I'd try increasing the buffer.

Have you repaired permissions and run fsck -y lately? If not, do so.

Are you running the audio from the system drive? Not a good idea, get a firewire drive to run all the audio from.

I'm running the same version on my 1Ghz G4 PowerBook with no stability issues under 10.4.4.

 

[steak/eyes]

It might be a buffer issue, increase the size of the buffer for mixing, decrease it for recording, otherwise you get latency problems.

I'd try increasing the buffer.

Have you repaired permissions and run fsck -y lately? If not, do so.

Are you running the audio from the system drive? Not a good idea, get a firewire drive to run all the audio from.

I'm running the same version on my 1Ghz G4 PowerBook with no stability issues under 10.4.4.

See I don't really know anything about running Macs (this is my first one), and when I try and load my files from my external hard-drive, protools tells me it is not a suitable audio drive, even though it is a firewire and has it;s own power-source. How do I set this external drive as the primary audio drive?

With the buffer size, when just mixing, I'll increase the buffer size, and it gives me one error message telling me to decrease the buffer size, but when I decrease the buffer size, it tells me to increase it. It does this by freezing the project in mid-motion with one of those error messages (-9129/-9136).

I really appreciate your response to this, as I don't know anybody who knows how to use a mac who I can talk with about these things (all of my friends are on PCs and laugh at my inability to run this Mac properly). Could you explain more about running fsck -y? What is it? Please excuse my ignorance in regard to all this! I have only had this mac around 3 months and recording is all i've been doing.

Again thanks for your response - I had seriously almost given up as of last night, and to know you're running PT fine on your 1Ghz gives me hope!
Cheers again,
Pascal

 

[zimv20]

I had seriously almost given up as of last night, and to know you're running PT fine on your 1Ghz gives me hope!
Cheers again,
Pascal

pro tools is actually pretty light-weight, i've run it on much weaker systems. it's the plugs and stuff that need more power, but simply recording and playing back requires hard drive speed, not cpu speed.

regarding keeping audio on the external drive, the simplest way is to put your session file there and let PT automatically pick the AudioFiles directory there, too.

for fsck, reboot your machine into single user mode and, once at the prompt, run the command (leave out the %):

% fsck -y

once it's done, type 'reboot' and it'll reboot back to the normal login screen.

 

[WinterMute]

See I don't really know anything about running Macs (this is my first one), and when I try and load my files from my external hard-drive, protools tells me it is not a suitable audio drive, even though it is a firewire and has it;s own power-source. How do I set this external drive as the primary audio drive?

This from : http://www.digidesign.com/

"Check drive designation in the Workspace window. To do this click on the "Window" menu in Pro Tools. Choose "Show Workspace". You will see all of your drives listed on the left side of the Workspace window - immediately to the right is a column labeled "A" and a letter for each drive. The letter for the drive you are using to store that session must be "R" if it is T or P click on the letter and select "Record" this will change the letter to R. If you are unable to change the volume designation this way you may need to backup the data on the drive and reinitialize the drive using the correct file system for your operating system.

Once you have changed the volume designation to R close and open the session."

With the buffer size, when just mixing, I'll increase the buffer size, and it gives me one error message telling me to decrease the buffer size, but when I decrease the buffer size, it tells me to increase it. It does this by freezing the project in mid-motion with one of those error messages (-9129/-9136).

"Some large drives (40 gigs or more) that do not have DMA as an option may display this error if recording more than one track. This is caused by long seek times.

To solve this problem go to Pro Tools preferences > operation > open ended record allocation and set the limit to the length of the project. The record limit will need to be a time of under 20 minutes to really increase the performance (preferably 10 minutes or less).

Some systems that have IDE drives with no DMA options under settings may already be DMA enabled. These drives will record tracks without error."

and:

"-9136 error messages can be caused by a few issues in OS X with Mbox:

1) You may have added more RTAS plug-ins than your Pro Tools system can handle. Pro Tools LE systems use the host processor in the computer to process RTAS plug-ins. At some point, the host processor will be maxed out in it's duties and throw a -9136 error message. Remove a plug-in or two to resolve this. Keep in mind 3rd party plug-ins use a lot of processing power and you may not be able to use too many of them (including software synths).

2) Recording to your system hard drive can bog down system performance and cause a -9136 error message. It's ALWAYS better to record to a secondary hard drive. When you launch your Pro Tools sessions, save the session to a different (supported) hard drive other than your system drive. This is recommended for all Pro Tools systems, but is more highly recommended for Mbox systems for a couple of reasons. Firstly, many Mbox users run their Pro Tools systems on an Apple laptop or iMac. These system hard drives are slower than 7,200 RPMs, which is required for recording a Pro Tools session. A supported firewire drive would be ideal in this case. Secondly, slower processor systems are greatly affected when recording to the system drive. There is always better performance when recording to a second hard drive. For information on supported hard drives see: http://www.digidesign.com/compato/osx/stg/le.cfm

3) Raise the hardware buffer size above 256 samples during recording to help prevent -9136 errors. (Setups menu > Playback Engine).

4) Playing a QuickTime DV movie via a Canopus converter can throw a -9136 error message over time. This is a known issue and has not been resolved.

5) Sometimes updating the firmware on Mbox can fix an unresolvable -9136 error message. To download the Mbox firmware update rev 20 for OS X from the Digidesign website: http://www.digidesign.com/download/mbox/
Download and run the Mbox firmware update for possible resolution of -9136 error.

6) An unresolved -9136 error message can sometimes mean hardware failure and Mbox would need to be repaired. Call Digidesign Tech Support for an RA."

I really appreciate your response to this, as I don't know anybody who knows how to use a mac who I can talk with about these things (all of my friends are on PCs and laugh at my inability to run this Mac properly). Could you explain more about running fsck -y? What is it? Please excuse my ignorance in regard to all this! I have only had this mac around 3 months and recording is all i've been doing.

Again thanks for your response - I had seriously almost given up as of last night, and to know you're running PT fine on your 1Ghz gives me hope!
Cheers again,
Pascal

No probs pascal, we were all in this position once, it's not an easy thing to do straight out of the box.

I think Zim answered your FSCK question, but do run your permissions regularly.

Good luck.

 

[steak/eyes]

This all makes sense - it's now certain I need to make my external hard-drive the primary audio drive, but due it being setup on a PC (f*%%#ng s*%@t) I'm gonna have to back up the 40 gig of data on it and re-format it (I'm pretty certain this is why PT won't recognise it as an audio-drive.

Wintermute, I thank you prefusely. Digidesign should be paying you for this kind of work.

Maybe we will speak soon (hopefully in regard to a diferent matter!).
Regards,
Pascal

 

[WinterMute]

This all makes sense - it's now certain I need to make my external hard-drive the primary audio drive, but due it being setup on a PC (f*%%#ng s*%@t) I'm gonna have to back up the 40 gig of data on it and re-format it (I'm pretty certain this is why PT won't recognise it as an audio-drive.

Wintermute, I thank you prefusely. Digidesign should be paying you for this kind of work.

Maybe we will speak soon (hopefully in regard to a diferent matter!).
Regards,
Pascal

No problem at all, I do actually get paid to do this kind of work anyway.

Glad to help.