Pro Tools 8 and Vista - H/W Buffer Problem!

[Fleaman08]

320 GB (2 x 160 GB) SATA Hard Disk Drive 5400 rpm
RICOH firewire...

[MurderousOne]

I Had The Same Hanging & HW/Buffer Issue Happening To Me Also... I Installed LE8 & When Ever I Would Load Up Reason In Rewire Into It, It Would Hang.. Played for about 1 min @ most & the H/W Buffer Error would come up or It would jus hang audio... I Had To Change Some Windows Setting & The Hangs Are Gone Now..

Vista Business & Ultimate Seem To Work Ok Wit Pro Tools 8..
Im On Vista Ultimate. Here What I Did To Remove All The Hangs...

With Some Poking Around With Installing & Uninstalling Software & Drivers.. I Noticed That My NVIDIA 8800GT Graphic Card Drivers Seems To Be The Problem With Pro Tools Hanging....... Unistalled & The Hangs Stop... Re-Installed Windows Update Nvidia Video Driver Via Update & I Also Tried Installing With Nvidia Driver CD & It Started 2 Hang Again.
Without The Nvidia Drivers Whenenver I Use PT8 It Runs Without A Skip..

I Def Think The Nvidia Drivers Is Da Problem Here...

Anyone Else Experience This With NVidia Video Cards??? Anyone Know How To Fix Other Than Uninstalling The Drivers..

Heres My Sandra Report.

SiSoftware Sandra

System
Host Name : MURDEROUSONE-PC
User : MurderousOne
Workgroup : WORKGROUP

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
Speed : 2.40GHz
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Quad-Core
Internal Data Cache : 4x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size
L2 On-board Cache : 2x 4MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 16-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing

System
System : XFX XFX Nforce 680i LT
Mainboard : XFX XFX Nforce 680i LT
Bus(es) : ISA PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
System BIOS : Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG
Total Memory : 2.75GB

Chipset
Model : Nvidia C55 Host Bridge
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 267MHz (1.07GHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : OCZ OCZ2VU8002G 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5.0-6-6-18 3-24-6-3)
Memory Module : OCZ OCZ2VU8002G 2GB DIMM DDR2 PC2-6400U DDR2-800 (5.0-6-6-18 3-24-6-3)

Video System
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT (512MB DDR3, 557MHz/1.29GHz/2x900MHz, PCIe 1.00 x16, SM4.0)

Graphics Processor
Adapter : GeForce 8800 GT (1.01, 512MB, 1.5GHz)

Storage Devices
Hitachi HDP725050GLA 500GB (ATA, NCQ) : 466GB (C
WDC WD1200VE-00KWT0 120GB (USB) : 112GB (I
Generic USB SD Reader (USB) : N/A (E
Generic USB CF Reader (USB) : N/A (F
Generic USB SM Reader (USB) : N/A (G
Generic USB MS Reader (USB) : N/A (H
SONY DVD RW DRU-190A (ATA66, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (D

Logical Storage Devices
Hard Disk (C : 466GB (NTFS) @ Hitachi HDP725050GLA 500GB (ATA, NCQ)
CD-ROM/DVD (D : N/A @ SONY DVD RW DRU-190A (ATA66, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
Hard Disk (I : 112GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD1200VE-00KWT0 120GB (USB)
Removable Drive (E : N/A @ Generic USB SD Reader (USB)
Removable Drive (F : N/A @ Generic USB CF Reader (USB)
Removable Drive (G : N/A @ Generic USB SM Reader (USB)
Removable Drive (H : N/A @ Generic USB MS Reader (USB)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Nvidia MCP55 LPC Bridge
Audio Device : Nvidia MCP55 High Definition Audio
Audio Codec : Realtek Semiconductor Realtek 885 High Definition Audio
Disk Controller : Nvidia MCP55 IDE
Disk Controller : Nvidia MCP55 SATA Controller
Disk Controller : Nvidia MCP55 SATA Controller
Disk Controller : Nvidia MCP55 SATA Controller
USB Controller 1 : Nvidia MCP55 USB Controller
USB Controller 2 : Nvidia MCP55 USB Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : Nvidia TSB43AB22 1394a-2000 OHCI PHY/Link-Layer Controller
System SMBus Controller 1 : nVidia MCP5+ SMBus 1
System SMBus Controller 2 : nVidia MCP5+ SMBus 2

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)

Scanners and Cameras
Digital Camera : USB CF Reader (USB)
Digital Camera : USB MS Reader (USB)
Digital Camera : USB SD Reader (USB)
Digital Camera : USB SM Reader (USB)

Network Services
Network Adapter : NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller #2 (Ethernet, 100Mbps)

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line

Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate 6.00.6002 (Service Pack 2)
Platform Compliance : x86

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 1.0

[Formula77]

Originally Posted by Riggs77

I have the same issues using XP Professional I have tried two different Firewire cards and still getting the same messages

According to Digidesign tech support, if the firewire card is not "Digidesign qualified" then it can have errors. I had a generic firewire card that did everything audio, but was unreliable for midi. Anyway, changed to one of the qualified cards and the problem went away. I bet audio geek is right that it requires the TI chip to function fully.

[Audio~Geek]

I got a digi qualified FW card and while it is better, more reliable, I still have problems at times.

[furan_00]

I installed protools 8 on my Windows XP. I keep having the H/W Buffer Problem!
I have an NVIDIA 7300 GT graphics card. When the drivers are installed I get the Buffer Problem, when the drivers are not installed the Buffer problem is gone, but I can not work because the graphics as I work slow down. How can I solve this without installing the drivers?
Does anyone have a alternative solution?

[drgamble]

I use a small Gateway laptop with Windows XP Pro Tools 8. It has dual !.5G Turion processors with 2 GB of RAM. I find that it helps to shut everything down that you do not need running. I close all programs in the system tray. I have also removed most programs from the startup using msconfig. Turn off any wireless radios or cards that you have, and shut down any antivirus software. I can track at 128 with no problem. I also use an external firewire drive to record on.

[Erwt]

Yup. Same here. I own a Geforce 9300 GE. Nothing but trouble for months. I suspected the Nvidia drivers only after all else failed, I guess. But hey: I just uninstalled the drivers and Cubase 5 is working like a charm. Currently mixing a 40+ track project with loads of plugins and VST-i's and not a single glitch!!!
Now I really feel the power of my DAW! Only took me a year to get this machine running. Thank you, Nvidia.

Originally Posted by MurderousOne

I Had The Same Hanging & HW/Buffer Issue Happening To Me Also... I Installed LE8 & When Ever I Would Load Up Reason In Rewire Into It, It Would Hang.. Played for about 1 min @ most & the H/W Buffer Error would come up or It would jus hang audio... I Had To Change Some Windows Setting & The Hangs Are Gone Now..

Vista Business & Ultimate Seem To Work Ok Wit Pro Tools 8..
Im On Vista Ultimate. Here What I Did To Remove All The Hangs...

With Some Poking Around With Installing & Uninstalling Software & Drivers.. I Noticed That My NVIDIA 8800GT Graphic Card Drivers Seems To Be The Problem With Pro Tools Hanging....... Unistalled & The Hangs Stop... Re-Installed Windows Update Nvidia Video Driver Via Update & I Also Tried Installing With Nvidia Driver CD & It Started 2 Hang Again.
Without The Nvidia Drivers Whenenver I Use PT8 It Runs Without A Skip..

I Def Think The Nvidia Drivers Is Da Problem Here...

Anyone Else Experience This With NVidia Video Cards??? Anyone Know How To Fix Other Than Uninstalling The Drivers..

Heres My Sandra Report.

[Audio~Geek]

How you're able to use a computer without graphics drivers I'll never know

[Erwt]

Originally Posted by Audio~Geek

How you're able to use a computer without graphics drivers I'll never know

Neither do I. Vista recognises it now as a 'standard VGA graphics' card. So the card is working, the drivers do not. The Nvidia drivers must be gamers-minded. Not audio-geeks-proof I think Vista gave it some standard drivers now and it works like a charm. That just makes me happy!

[Audio~Geek]

when I first install windows the first thing I grab is the graphics drivers. otherwise I get no smooth scrolling which for me is a big deal.

But then you're on Vista and things are a bit different.

I have a Geforce 9800 GT, there was one driver that was pretty bad, the GUIs on some of my plugins wouldn't show, and my desktop icons would keep moving over to the left and not remember their positions. I went back to the previous driver and things worked better.