running out of cpu power!!!???!!!

  • Thread starter Thread starter didgijimmy
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didgijimmy

didgijimmy

vexed
ok, so i know a bit about recording(enough to be dangerous), but when it comes to computers im somewhat illiterate. i can usually find workarounds, but to save myself sometime figured id post this question. while running a simple loop on protools mpowered so that i could improvise over some rhythm chord stuff, i got a message saying that my computer is running out of cpu power and the loop stopped. it also mentioned adjusting the playback engine or something. What is the best way to get more power, save power, or allow more cpu to be used? which would u suggest of the three mentioned? i currently have my mobilepre usb audio interface running off of a usb, an 80 gig external harddrive running off of usb, and a 4 usb hub running with my ilok key, a wireless mouse reciever, and an mp3. it also suggested getting rid of some plug ins, but i dont have much besides the stock ones. i want to add more in the future, will i not be able to? its a dell e1505 inspiron laptop. thank you so much for your input.

ps, nothing has ever occured like this before and ive been recording with my current setup for two years
 
I would disable all power saving schemes. Some cpu's dont deal well when coming out of power saving modes. Also defrag all your drives, even the external. Since you said you have been using this with no problems before, then the mentioned defrag will probably help alot. Also if you do use this for internet browseing, then I would run a few malware or spyware checkers.
 
thanks ill give all of these a try and post the results, which i guess will just be if im able to open pt for more than 10 mins without that message
 
Were you always running with a USB interface and USB hard drive? Did you add any new programs to your laptop that might have stuff running in the background?? You want to kill as many background processes as you can to free up cpu cycles. How much ram do you have? turn off any anti-virus while recording. What sample rate are you recording at? If you're over 44.1khz, you can save processing time by using 44.1khz.

There's also some Windows tweaks you can make to improve performance. Don't have a link handy at the moment, but do a search.

peace.
 
I want to give you an answer, I really do.

I had this issue with ProTools LE7 the entire time I used it.

First i had an iBook G4. that didnt cut it. Sold.
iMac G5. That didn't cut it. Sold.
Macbook Intel (singlecore).. Didn't cut it. Sold

then i bought a real computer...

Dual G5 Powermac. and guess what. I still got the error message once in a while, but only while tracking 8+ simultaneous.

for the life of me, I don't know. I tried everything over a 1 year period. The powermac really gave me the best results. The thing I dont understand is that pro studios were using Digi HD systems with basically the EXACT computer I had. In all actuality, its not a CPU problem, but more likely a firewire bus issue. (which also has its own error message that you'll somtimes see while using an external HD).

the last time i recorded was with my Macbook Pro- the dual core intel processor made a huge difference and I had no issues.

Best of luck, please share any results.

**one more thing.. I really am struggling to recall, its been over a year since i worked with protools, but I believe your recording/playback settings CAN diminish (or hopefully eliminate) the problem.. I just don't remember what the solution was! If you search, someone made a great post that fixed it for me when I was using my powermac.
 
i fogot about this post.

i tried the defragging and it seems to have done the trick, either that or i haven't triggered the issue yet. also i leave my external harddrive unplugged, since it is for my zune and unrelated to pt. thanks ill post if i have further issues, and reps to everyone.
 
didgijimmy said:
i tried the defragging and it seems to have done the trick, either that or i haven't triggered the issue yet. also i leave my external harddrive unplugged, since it is for my zune and unrelated to pt. thanks ill post if i have further issues, and reps to everyone.
Click to expand...

Very cool. Good luck.
 
TragikRemix said:
for the life of me, I don't know. I tried everything over a 1 year period. The powermac really gave me the best results. The thing I dont understand is that pro studios were using Digi HD systems with basically the EXACT computer I had. In all actuality, its not a CPU problem, but more likely a firewire bus issue. (which also has its own error message that you'll somtimes see while using an external HD).
Click to expand...

Considering that the original poster was using a USB-based interface, it's safe to say that this has nothing to do with FireWire bus contention....

Things to try:

1. If you have a motherboard with an Intel chipset, buy an OHCI USB card or two and move all your USB hardware off the stock UHCI controller. Disable the UHCI controller. :)

2. Get a FireWire card and a FireWire hard drive case. Move your hard drive to FireWire. USB mass storage is really just not suitable for audio purposes. The latency is too high and the CPU overhead is too high.
 
i like the first idea.

if i continue to have problems, so far none(fingers crossed) then ill try the first idea. i don't use the usb mass storage for recording, it just hold all of my songs for my zune mp3 player, i mainly use this pc just for recording so i just use its memory we will see how long that lasts me. thanks
 
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