CPU maxed out - mystery solved

[KEVORKIAN]

The other possibility is that your crash log references the CoreAudio "AudioToolbox.Framework" in Mac OS X:

http://homepage.mac.com/psychesine/.Pub ... eworks.txt

[songsmith]

The other possibility is that your crash log references the CoreAudio "AudioToolbox.Framework" in Mac OS X: http://homepage.mac.com/psychesine/.Pub ... eworks.txt

Thanks so much for doing that research! I should have thought to check Google. From what you found -- AudioToolbox.Framework appears to be a component of OS X and not a 3rd party-installed device.

Also, the crash last night seems to disqualify the idea that MOTU's Dynamics plug-in is the culprit. (It was the only plug-in turned off). I should try running the big session for a while without any plug-ins, now that I'm not overloading the CPU anymore. I'll do that tonight.

By the way, MOTU just asked me for a copy of my session file. Hope is higher, and I'm happy to be getting some serious attention.

[Umbrella]

The other possibility is that your crash log references the CoreAudio "AudioToolbox.Framework" in Mac OS X: http://homepage.mac.com/psychesine/.Pub ... eworks.txt

Also, the crash last night seems to disqualify the idea that MOTU's Dynamics plug-in is the culprit. (It was the only plug-in turned off). I should try running the big session for a while without any plug-ins, now that I'm not overloading the CPU anymore. I'll do that tonight.

Do the crashes happen as frequently when you're using the mac's built-in audio as when you're using your MH 2882?

Also - I just noticed in your signature that you have it: "core audio" for headphones.. I think you mean "built-in audio" because Core Audio is a software layer that interfaces with your Metric Halo as well as any other interfaces/audio devices connected to your mac (such as your "built-in audio" i/o). It's just a matter of semantics but it can make things clearer to have the right terminology..

[James Steele]

Glad you found a solution to your problem. I don't have time to go over it detail by detail with you, but I will say that this forum is privately run... not by MOTU. I do this out of a desire to help the community and have a good time here with other DP users. It's easy to be frustrated, but a bit of restraint is good. As it turned out, at least in the case of DP 7.02, the problems weren't with DP it seems, but instead it was a "user" issue. Yet DP comes under attack very publicly here. I'm glad Magic Dave was able to help you. Fact of the matter is, you get more help in these forums if you take it down a notch when looking for help, because some of us here-- when we see someone getting angry-- will just skip past a thread and tune out rather than take our time to try and help.

Any way... you did get the attention of someone at MOTU and you got a resolution. I'm just hoping more people don't decide to go ballistic on this board as a method to get to the "front of the line" with MOTU. Oh well...

[davinci53]

I don't know if the file imports cause the crash ..because I am crashing sitting idle as well and I have a fast MAC-PRO and plenty of RAM all systems are up to date.. i was just talking on the phone and DP crashed and said not enough memory and shut down my hardware set up..
I just upgraded from DP5 skipped 6 and went to 7 and now I am having more crashes in a month than I did in the last year.


MAC-PRO G5- DP7.2- 2408MK3- OS 10.6.2
2x2.66 Ghz -8Gb 667 Mhz

[James Steele]

You're talking DP 7.02 right? Your sig says 7.2. Don't know why... I'm back on a PPC machine. There's always someone that's going to have crashes. You pulled the short straw and I don't know why.

[newrigel]

I don't know if the file imports cause the crash ..because I am crashing sitting idle as well and I have a fast MAC-PRO and plenty of RAM all systems are up to date.. i was just talking on the phone and DP crashed and said not enough memory and shut down my hardware set up..
I just upgraded from DP5 skipped 6 and went to 7 and now I am having more crashes in a month than I did in the last year.


MAC-PRO G5- DP7.2- 2408MK3- OS 10.6.2
2x2.66 Ghz -8Gb 667 Mhz

Time to clean the cobwebs out of that machine sounds like... Crash on import??? Ha ha ha... you have some other issues on that machine besides DP... you have some definite corruption.
I say do a clean install of everything and then come on back and let's see what's really going on...
I have NEVER, EVER had a crash on an import... NEVER! Just because you have a fast MP don't mean it can't crash if there's file corruption involved... oh yeah, and while your @ it, once you've completely installed everything one by one and test it after each piece of SW is installed, use Carbon Copy Cloner (it's FREE donations excepted) and clone your system drive (with that fast MP you should have a few drives there to back up to) then you ALWAYS have a fresh system restore image to revert back to. Get some file corruption? Forget trouble-shooting, just restore (12 to 15 minutes) and your back up and crankin'!!! Just make sure you don't do the same things you did before the system went belly up... like installing some beta or trial SW or something. The only REAL way to have a solid box is to run it lean and mean!
Crash while idle???? You have more issues going on than DP my friend he he.

[davinci53]

THANKS..but i was commenting about the imported file bug to the person that started the thread...back on page 1..but i will listen to what i read by all of you..

[songsmith]

Glad you found a solution to your problem. I don't have time to go over it detail by detail with you, but I will say that this forum is privately run... not by MOTU. I do this out of a desire to help the community and have a good time here with other DP users. It's easy to be frustrated, but a bit of restraint is good. As it turned out, at least in the case of DP 7.02, the problems weren't with DP it seems, but instead it was a "user" issue. Yet DP comes under attack very publicly here. I'm glad Magic Dave was able to help you. Fact of the matter is, you get more help in these forums if you take it down a notch when looking for help, because some of us here-- when we see someone getting angry-- will just skip past a thread and tune out rather than take our time to try and help.

Any way... you did get the attention of someone at MOTU and you got a resolution. I'm just hoping more people don't decide to go ballistic on this board as a method to get to the "front of the line" with MOTU. Oh well...

Perhaps if MOTU responded to technical support inquiries more reliably they wouldn't have people hollering in this forum, but I agree with your main point about a bit of restraint for the sake of getting reasonable assistance from colleges like you.

I edited my first post and removed all references to a file import bug. I don't want to confuse anyone. I have learned that there is no import bug. There's only a buggy way of hiding the background CPU processing that will make your computer hot and scary for a while. Yes, it was "user" error that caused me to panic and decide it was a serious bug, but I also acknowledge how easy it is to be mislead by the factors I described, and I imagine a lot of other users will have a similar response to the overloaded CPU and fan kicking on.

I have no desire to disreput MOTU. I've been a user since 2.5 and OS 9. I wanted more tracks with my faster computer, but that's really the only reason I moved on past OS 9 on my music machine. I don't care for time stretching, auto tune or a built-in tuner on my computer. I'm happy with 24-bit/44.1 kHz recording. Virtual instruments had better be rock solid and have low latency for me to want to replace any MIDI hardware.

Currently, one issue currently has the attention of Magic Dave and a tech at MOTU. The crashes on my system. I'm finally getting a professional review of the situation. The crashes happen in both 7.02 and also in 7.1. It's pretty easy for me to reproduce them. I just play around with my session for 20-30 minutes and it will crash at some point, usually as I'm switching from one chunk to another.

I just experienced the crash with 7.1 and all plug-ins disabled. I just sent another crash report to MD. This crash makes my system unusable.

[KEVORKIAN]

Songsmith,

Do you have an external drive that you can install a fresh copy of the OS on and DP alone?

I would give that a try, boot from it and see if you can duplicate this crashing behavior.

Also, what OS are you currently running and did you upgrade to it from an older version? (ie 10.4 to 10.5; 10.5 to 10.6; etc)

[songsmith]

Do you have an external drive that you can install a fresh copy of the OS on and DP alone?

I would give that a try, boot from it and see if you can duplicate this crashing behavior.

Also, what OS are you currently running and did you upgrade to it from an older version? (ie 10.4 to 10.5; 10.5 to 10.6; etc)

Thanks for the suggestion. I just ordered a new drive for archive purposes. I could probably put Leopard on it (might not hurt to have a bootable drive anyway), but I'm not sure it's a good idea to load another copy of DP on it. I think that would lower my authorization count. I'm not sure how the authorizations work in DP. I asked about that (quite calmly ) in another thread and never heard anything back about it.

I'm running 10.5.8 (see my sig). It's the only OS I've had on this MacBook Pro. Thanks!

[KEVORKIAN]

Thanks for the suggestion. I just ordered a new drive for archive purposes. I could probably put Leopard on it (might not hurt to have a bootable drive anyway), but I'm not sure it's a good idea to load another copy of DP on it. I think that would lower my authorization count. I'm not sure how the authorizations work in DP. I asked about that (quite calmly ) in another thread and never heard anything back about it.

There is no authorization count for DP so you will have no problems creating a test volume.
I have one on my system. You can actually partition the drive and make a small partition for testing. I'd recommend you install 10.5.8 and DP7 there and open some files to see if the crash presents itself.

I'm running 10.5.8 (see my sig). It's the only OS I've had on this MacBook Pro. Thanks!

Sorry, I overlooked your sig.

[songsmith]

There is no authorization count for DP so you will have no problems creating a test volume.

Ah. That helps. Oh wait... the drive I ordered is a RAID-1 Mirrored redundancy setup (OWC Guardian Maximus). That's probably not a good drive to test with because it's slower a normal 7200 RPM drive. Is that right?

[James Steele]

Perhaps if MOTU responded to technical support inquiries more reliably they wouldn't have people hollering in this forum, but I agree with your main point about a bit of restraint for the sake of getting reasonable assistance from colleges like you.

Well of course it's MOTU's fault. And hollering here isn't exactly the right place as this isn't MOTU, but it's the only place it seems people can find to holler so I have to live with it. Fortunately, it helped inspire me to create a separate forum for surrogate tech support so I don't have to be assaulted by it daily.

There's only a buggy way of hiding the background CPU processing that will make your computer hot and scary for a while. Yes, it was "user" error that caused me to panic and decide it was a serious bug, but I also acknowledge how easy it is to be mislead by the factors I described, and I imagine a lot of other users will have a similar response to the overloaded CPU and fan kicking on.

I didn't know it was a "buggy way of hiding" it... I was under the impression it was simply a preference you weren't aware of.

[FMiguelez]

There's only a buggy way of hiding the background CPU processing that will make your computer hot and scary for a while.

Going through an app's Preferences is a great way to become acquainted with it.
Reading the manual, is the ONLY way to become proficient at it and unleash its full potential.
Using it every day is the only way to become a power-user.

To the OP: you really need to read the manual. Thoroughly.