Excessive CPU Usage In Pro Tools

[DagTEK]

Im having some serious Pro Tools issues. started getting;

you are running out of CPU power. Remove some RTAS plug-ins or increase the CPU usage Limit in the playback

with barely any plug ins used. just recording 1 track.

Assumed this was due to the influx of plug-ins I had recently used, so uninstalled all plug ins. but problem still there if not worse.

Played around with differend Playback/recording settings i.e buffer size CPU usage etc etc.

Really struggling to work out what has changed as 2 weeks ago it was working fine. Hardware? need a better PC? Im baffled

[LOK]

Whats your computer set up and Gear?

[Charlie_M]

I used to have a similar issue from time to time with PTLE, although I'm pretty sure I never had it with just one track.

It has been a while since I used that program so I can't remember exactly how I addressed it.

Are you saying you're recording a single track or are you saying your entire project is just a single track. If the former, take a look at all the plugs you have going and see if any of them are cpu hogs (like reverb for example) or ram hogs (for example reason as a rewire app may consume a lot of ram depending what you're using it for).


Has is been a while since you did a defrag? Is there a security (anti-virus) thing running on your machine? Those things can sometimes be a pain. Maybe do a ctrl-alt-del and take a look at the processes to see if maybe something is consuming CPU in the background.

Good luck. Post back with additional details if none of that helps.


Charlie

[playsguitars]

it can be any number of problematic issues. too much cpu being drained by background services? close out unused programs. change your desktop to a straight blue or black background to save a little cpu processing. you should change your power management settings to never let your computer even think about shutting down or sleeping, and your hard disks need special attention, too. make certain they're operating in tip top shape. another thing you can do is limit your graphics card to minimal (for your purposes) use. that will save a TAD more cpu. generally just make sure it's ready to read/write without interuption. with lower end digi software, though, you need to always be thinking about your CPU FIRST.

[rtr]

Im having the same problem all of a sudden...Im using pro tools 8 mpowered with a maudio 610. never had this problem ever, it just started happening, I have tweaked my computer a long time ago so that is not the issue...I don't know what the problem is

[Crazy8lp]

Im having some serious Pro Tools issues. started getting;

you are running out of CPU power. Remove some RTAS plug-ins or increase the CPU usage Limit in the playback

with barely any plug ins used. just recording 1 track.

Assumed this was due to the influx of plug-ins I had recently used, so uninstalled all plug ins. but problem still there if not worse.

Played around with differend Playback/recording settings i.e buffer size CPU usage etc etc.

Really struggling to work out what has changed as 2 weeks ago it was working fine. Hardware? need a better PC? Im baffled

For me its hit or miss with this message.... sometimes I can run 20 tracks each w/ multiple plug ins w/o problems, other times, when i start a new session and attempt to record to one track, i get this message. Over the years I have determined it has to do with the above mentioned items, and basically how much "juice" my CPU has at the time. Generally, a quick shut down and restart will do the job.

FYI, i'm running a Powerbook G4 lap top w/ 1 Gb ram and MBOX II via USB.

[rtr]

OK..found my problem...My 2nd. HD I use for PT was dieing. I bout a new HD and it's working great. Funny thing is that PT never said my HD was the problem, it always said I was running out of CPU ...SO It took me a minute to figure out it was my HD...hope that helps!!!

[vaultinguitar38]

I'm having a very similar problem- do you think its my hard drive also? I recently got Pro Tools le 8 and also some plugins and it keeps giving that same error message that the cpu is holding off usb audio and such. I tried messing with the bit rate and buffer rate and cpu percentage, also optimizing my computer for performance, nothing works. Whenever I use even just one plugin in a session with only one track it stops playing after a few seconds. However, I have a usb hard drive which could be a problem as I've heard that firewire ones are generally faster. My computer is pretty fast though- macbook with 2gb of ram and a 2.4 Ghz intel dual core processor.

[Crazy8lp]

While I still have the problem here and there, there was one main thing that helped avoid this problem: I purchased an external 48V Phantom Power Box... i was using the Phantom power switch on my MBOX2 but now i use the external box, and usually Protools works fine. This may be the issue (if you are using phantom power). Also, I am running my sessions off an external hard drive, but using firewire, however, your machine seems strong enough that it shouldn't be that big of deal. Have you tried running a session withing your laptop's hard drive?

hOpe this helps!

[vaultinguitar38]

I think I pretty much fixed it by configuring the cpu/buffer sizes better; I didn't realize that I had 90% of my cpu going strictly to plugins and only 10 for everything else, so I made one processor be used almost entirely for plugins and left the other completely free for everything else. I don't really know what you're using phantom power for- isn't that for microphones? Do I need it for any playback function? Also I'm definitely getting a better, faster firewire hard drive cuz I did some research and realized mine really sucks and isn't supposed to be used for recording.