Unbelievable Crashing 2 !!!!

[dubaifox]

[QUOTE]Have you gone into user > "name" > library > preferences and deleted the whole motu folder and all the com.motu.* prefsQUOTE]

Hey Brian, any idea of what this does, or why you would need to do it?

The reason I ask is I have tried it, and an older session with GPO has been running fine for the last two hours, and this even with all of the plug and VST's put back in the Plug-ins folder.

Just trying to make sense of all of this. Not saying yet that the problem is gone, but this does seem to have fixed something, for the moment anyway.

[Dfab020]

Well ..

When I read your post I saw that MIDI only worked fine .. so I suspected that it something to do with MAS. A lot of these prefs that you deleted are related to the audio system. Basically, by deleting these prefs, you are reseting your MAS system.

Sometimes these prefs get corrupted and cause these kind of problems in DP. So, after deleting all these files, you are starting up DP void of any prefs that you specified while you have had DP running on your system. A clean slate, what have you. Hope that explains it

--Bryan--

[dubaifox]

Well it crashed after 3 hours of solid use, but it crashed when it had been sitting unused for about ten minutes.

Just sitting.

Strange................

[croyal]

Dfox,

is your system setup to do any work in the background automatically- like check email, backup drives (with retrospect for example) or check for software updates? Network activity and internal modems can cause problems too IF they're causing your Mac to poll for status of a server or trying to send some unsent fax from 1947 in the background.

Might be a good idea to check that such things are not causng the problems- since these timed actions will repeat (and possibly cause future crashes) if not cancelled.

A theraputic approach might be to run DP for a little time with a virgin machine setup- no non-apple external hardware- excepting your MIDI and Audio interfaces. No trackballs or special keyboard. Disconnect ethernet, telephone cables. And turn them off in the sys prefs panel. Get rid of any hubs and firewire drives and see how stable things are. Internal cards- pull them unless they are your main audio connection. Same thing with non- DP plugs and VI's (even Mach five)- pull them out of the plug-ins folder.

If you want to go one step further- reinstall the OS from this virgin hardware setup. There has been some talk of corruption during installs when external hardware (USB or firewire) is connected. Your apple keyboard and wired mouse are excepted USB devices.

Get things working 100% and only then start adding stuff to your setup bit by bit. I recommend making sure virgin DP works crash free with all of your hardware before you you think of adding software enhancements (such as plugs, VIs, rewire, samplers, wrappers, etc)

Clean system and hardware configs should get you stable. Try to use DP alone for a while to see what's up.

Maybe a PITA but still the best way to diagnose your particular woes.

Chris

[croyal]

BTW Dfox,

I see on a previous post that you're also running PT on your Mac. Which type and interface? LE (firewire or Mbox) or TDM? Those drivers may be great for Digi software but I always suspect non-Motu hardware drivers with Motu software.

When you say you've done nothing and it starts crashing,don't forget that a sick system will further corrupt itself through regular usage.

<small>[ March 25, 2005, 04:24 PM: Message edited by: croyal ]</small>

[dubaifox]

Thanks Chris:

I don't have much running on this computer other than audio programs. No internet, printers, cameras etc. There are no background timed checks happening.

I do use Pro Tools, but when I use DP I am trying to keep it simple and am only running it using internal audio on the Mac.

I honestly don't think it is a sick system. Disk warrior and a ram check find nothing, and I can mix for hours on a heavy Pro Tools session with Reason and other Virtuals.

There has to be some corruption with DP?

Well, off to Italy for a week so I wont be able to try anything until I get back.

Will pick up when I return.

Thanks for the help everyone!

[croyal]

Dfox,

I only mean to say that a PT "mainly" setup may use drivers that DP doesn't like too much- depending on your flavor of PT. This will make PT run just fine but the DP/PT hardware and drivers (still installed and active BTW) sometimes cause problems unless optimised for DP specifically. For instance, under OS9 we had to use a certain DAE driver with DP even though it wasn't the most current driver for PT hardware. OSX follows similarly , with some versions reportedly more stable for DP than others. More stable for DP- not Word, Logic, PT, or web surfing.

There is some inconsistency from system to system as some folks have no problems at all while others crash their PT rigs- but DP (all versions BTW) runs fine (?)

In a perfect world- install the OS- install your DAW (or DAWs) software. It works,- case closed. My experience however has been that these systems work best when optimised for the tasks- and software-being used.

****Another idea; try a different account for DP only,with newly installed drivers for your hardware. You may have to install/move them to your new user account library folders instead of the root library folder. This way you could tailor the drivers being used for DP without upsetting the PT stability while you test. If DP still crashing try older/newer drivers and configs until you find ones that work with your setup. The Digidesign recommendatons are not necessarily the best for your DP experience. The main thing is to get DP stable on its own in order to ascertain what DP requires in YOUR rig.

Have a good trip. Maybe some idea will come to you as you travel.

Chris