Help hw buffer errors during playback....

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SLIK_85

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Hey guys this a re-up of my last plea for help, Last time i think i didn't put enough details, Anyways,
I'm using a LAPTOP ASUS M51Sn 2.5ghz core2duo, 3 gb ram, 250 gb harddrive. MBOX2 pro tools le 8 Windows vista..

Well my problem is during playback i keep getting the error which reads = operating system held of too long ...try increasing H/W buffer...
But its weird cause it only does this during playback, But if i record i don't get the errors...
I could have one track no plugins and still get that error...Ok i will let you guys know what i've tried

I've turned of all un-needed services, Network cards, start ups, tried all combinations of HW buffer, DAE, CACHE, tried using one Processer instead of two..... Turned all the eye candy of for vista... THATS about it, So is there anybody out there who can help me PLEASE, its really starting to kill me, I can't find a solution anywhere. Who ever can i will be very much thankful and appreciative thanks guys....
 
More details.

How big is the session? How many plugins are running? What is the hardware buffer size set to? Have you tried increasing it?
 
Have you tried a completely fresh install? Also try uninstalling any 3rd party plugins you've installed.

Check in the sticky at the top of the forum for the link to digi's compatibility page and check every single component of your computer to see if there's an issue there.
 
to echo what dreams is saying, and what i said last time,,

did you try temporarily removing all the plugins?

i don't meant removing them in the session,,,,i mean removing the actual plugins.


the point of this is to determine if you have a problematic plugin, or if your system is having trouble keeping up with processing.
 
a simple mans answer....

i have been using protools for around 3-4 years. started with 7.1 or whatever and the old mbox , now using 8 and mbox2 pro.... anyways, my first thing would be to ditch the laptop for one, and vista for another. my experiences with both mbox's and all the different versions point to my conclusions. when we ran 7.1 on my old computer and now 8 on my newer computer , i do not get h/w errors. neither are laptops.

in the past when we had the old comp down and started using a very well sys req capable laptop we started seeing errors left and right. even after we upgraded even more on the laptop itself!

now on my new sys with 8, no errors either, but actually my current project required me to use our new laptop(different than past one i was speaking of) to go on site to record this band at their place, it having the highest 7+ ver and being sys req capable and beyond, i had many instances i felt like a jackass cuz i had to stop a tracking session cuz i got an error.

fact is in my practice and experiences, laptops are not suitable no matter how beefy they are, for running protools properly. had 2 laptops that couldnt run any versions right, and have had 3 desktops that run it flawlessly.

also to add, recently we tried upgrading the newer laptop and a secondary mini studio comp to vista and protools 7+ and 8 and neither worked properly on either system or versions. vista sucks the big one as far as i am concerned and i will never try to even install it on my main studio computer for fear of losing anything since it flopped on both the others terribly.

now i am sure you don't want to hear either of those , because you probably don't wanna lose your laptop, and same with vista, especially if you actually bought a copy, but those in my experiences are the breaks and you will not make it past the errors until you do so... in my simple eyes. and i don't see any other better explinations posted so.... learn from anothers mistake and experiences if you wanna keep protooling it! hope this helps even though it hurts!


ooohhh and to add, on all our protools system computers they are xp with absolutely nothing else installed, no games, windows extras, no internet, nothing. completely used for one purpose - pro tools! you may not have this luxury but i also think this has helped any system we have ran it on cuz the only extra thing on them is maybe some girly pics for a background! oh and disable and hibernation, screensavers, etc as well. it helps!
 
Last edited:
Sorry bout the lifetime it took me to reply, I forgot all bout this post...

Anyways guys appreciate all the input, Well, since my last post, I've downgraded to windows XP, and it was running quite good actually, And when i got a copy of windows 7, i was so eager to install to have the latest OS, ( without no thinking-STUPID ON MY BEHALF) Now i'm totally back to square one, every 2- 10-15 seconds i'm getting the buffer errors, Pro Tools is updated to the latest 8.o1cs1 and no luck, Tried using external drive to record on, No luck,
Done all the CPU fix like use 1 instead of two, no luck...
This is going to sound stupid, But the weirdest thing that i've done to have no buffer errors is this, One time i left winamp music player running in the back ground, And had no idea, and For some reason, Pro Tools wasn't getting Buffer errors every second, I started wondering, Noticed winamp in in the tray so i turned it of, And once again, the HW errors returned,
So out of curiosity, i turn Winamp back on and let it play in the background, but muted, And pro Tools was running fine again.....
Could anybody, tell me why is this so.... WEIRD. But it seems to be the only thing thats working for me...lol
So if anyone, comes up with any other work around, thats new to whats been posted over and over, Please share, Even a hack, i'm willing to try it atleast once... Thanks GUYS
 
Your best bet is to wait until Windows 7 is officially supported by Digidesign. Anything else you hear will be purely anecdotal evidence.

Alternatively set up a dual boot so you can still use Windows XP, and set it up the same as before.
 
Are you writing your audio files to a separate firewire drive from the one your OS is running on? If not you should be, PT will run much smoother. When I made this change the HW buffer problem was greatly reduced, particularly when the session was quite large.
 
tanacea said:
Are you writing your audio files to a separate firewire drive from the one your OS is running on? If not you should be, PT will run much smoother. When I made this change the HW buffer problem was greatly reduced, particularly when the session was quite large.
Click to expand...

this is important
 
Hey guys thanks for the input, well, i actually don't have firewire, so i just had to settle for USB, harddrive, but its running like 10,200rpm or 10??? something so its pretty fast, And it was the smoothes ride when i had it running with windowsd XP, I should of stayed and not jump to WINDOWS 7, don't get me wrong its a really good OS, but compatibility wise ain't that great with my MUSIC PRODUCTION, even the COMPATIBILITY AGENT won't help, SO my LEARNINGZ= IS to stick to windows XP for music Production, WHich is the best for it, FAST RESPONSIVE, SO thanks anayways guys, But if someone does come up with a FIX or a HACK, Let me know, i'll be sure to try it...
 
well protools doesn't support USB and thy say it is known to be problematic w/ protools
 
HI,

When you do a OS update use the combo update link on the DIGI website, make sure you have the latest cs update.

Also, delete all DAE preferences, delete all protools preferences, delete Digidesign database folders, delete plist, delete Digi setup.OSX. After you delete all this restart protools.

Hope this helps...
 
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