Location Based Smart Folders in 10.5 » « TIP-Create Shouts Quickly (video)

ProTools 8 DAE ERROR 6031 and 9128

ProTools 8 DAE ERROR 6031
Figure one: A nagging CPU error I kept getting.

I recently updated one of my systems to Leopard and ProTools HD 8 and one of the first problems I encountered was a nagging CPU error. I could load a blank project and create one single instrument track, place one RTAS instrument on it and get an error within 3 to 13 seconds of hitting play. This is without any midi data on the track, without playing a single note, without any automation, without any other apps running.

Playback Engine Window
Figure two: the fix

After endless hours of research and “solutions” which did nothing I stumbled upon a tip toreduce the processor number by one. For example, on this system I have 4 cores so I went to SETUP -> PLAYBACK ENGINE and reduced the RTAS Processors drop-down to 3. So far this provides a sloppy work-around until I figure out a permanent solution.

I hope this can help save someone hours of research.

This entry was posted on January 24th, 2009 in Tips.

Location Based Smart Folders in 10.5 » « TIP-Create Shouts Quickly (video)

36 Comments

immatuexani

February 9th, 2009 at 11:15 pm

Nice template. Where can i download it?

Rashad Muhammad

February 13th, 2009 at 12:21 pm

Thanks for the post, I had the same issue on a Dual 2.7 G5 and turned off one of my processors and I havent had the error since.
There is definately a bug in the software.

mert hernandez

February 14th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

Hey there. I just upgraded to protools 8 le for vista and I am a problem that i hope you can help me with. Well every time that I press play (it may take 1 to 20 seconds) a message shows up saying : The operating system held off interrupts for too long. If this occurs frequently increase the buffer size in the play back engine panel. -6086. well i did do that but it continues to happen. So, I was hoping that you you could please help me.

Linus

February 16th, 2009 at 7:35 pm

dude, i totaly had the same problem, but your little piece of info has proven golden. I have 2 core processors and i downgraded to 1 processor in the playback engine and it so far has worked out alright. thanks a shit load dude

Dan

February 19th, 2009 at 8:21 pm

NoiseFreak…first big session since the upgrade. Huge string session. About $6000 worth. You saved the day! Thanks man. Appreciate it greatly. Keep it up.

…and beautiful site.

Tony

February 22nd, 2009 at 11:42 am

Well I have an amd athlon 2.4 with 3gigs of ram.
I get this error, 9128 after 8 tracks with rtas . m-powered 7.4
I do a lot of vocals so I really need this to work.

Thanks

noisefreak

February 22nd, 2009 at 3:06 pm

Hey Mert,

I have seen that error when too many devices are on the same bus. For example, lets say you have a MBOX system which is USB and you are recording to/playing back from an external USB hard drive your USB bus may become overloaded. The solution would be to use the firewire port on your PC and Hard Drive if you have one available. Another solution would be to try unplugging the USB hard drive and working on an internal SATA drive (preferably a second drive, NOT the system drive that windows is installed on) to see if that takes care of your hardware interrupts. Since I don’t know if you are on a laptop or a desktop and which protools interface you’re using I can’t give you any specific steps to take, sorry.

On occasion, if your drive is a little slow, limiting your record time may help reduce the record start/stop strain placed on the audio drive. You can access this in the preferences and in the operation tab set the record limit to 30 minutes. I’m not sure that particular trick will work in your case but it’s worth a shot. I hope that helps you.

noisefreak

February 22nd, 2009 at 3:33 pm

A big culprit of this error is an incompatible plug-in in your plug-ins folder. It’s a bit of a time-consuming pain if you have a lot of plugs but going through each one and making sure the version you’re using is compatible with both 7.4 AND the OS you’re using (including sub versions such as Mac OS 10.5.6 which caused problems, at this time sticking to 10.5.5 is safe) is key to a smoothly running Pro Tools system.
A great tool to help you not only see the version of each plug-in but also turn a plug-in off and on is René Overhorst’s plug-in manager for Mac OS. You can find it here and it’s shareware. On the Windows side of things Digidesign’s support utilities can list the plug-ins version for you. Compare the versions on your system to the versions listed on Digidesign’s site.

dave van den dries

March 15th, 2009 at 5:19 pm

Had same problem here. Reduce to one processor and problem solved(till now)THANX !!!!!!!

satana

March 27th, 2009 at 11:14 pm

I have heard that you should redce the nuber of cores by one to alow for one core to be dedicated to operating sys.

Travis Kennedy

May 7th, 2009 at 4:24 pm

I have the same problems but worse! I have a dual 2.5 Ghz G5 with 1.5 Gb of Ram. I’m running on Leapord 10.5.6 . I keep getting hardware buffer errors! I can’t even record one track for more than 20 seconds without getting an error. I’m in the process of heavily upgrading ram but this seems to be more than just a ram issue. I have tried all different firewire ports moved sessions to different hard drives, and tried all buffer settings. This Sucks! Can anyone please help!

noisefreak

May 7th, 2009 at 5:14 pm

Hi Travis,
The biggest culprit of this is an incompatible plug-in. Digidesign have a list of tested and approved plug-ins with version numbers on their site. You can find it here: http://www.digidesign.com/plugingrid additionally you may want to check and see if any of your plugs are not Leopard compatible. You can find all plugs and version numbers here.

I went through manually and looked at each plug I had and checked its version with the ones listed on the digi site and found the ones causing problems. It’s always good to double check since plug-ins may load and work in the session but behave incorrectly behind the scenes, causing frequent errors.

An awesome utility to help place all your plug-ins and versions right in front of you is ProTools Plugin Manager from Maison Sonique. It’s a free app (donations are requested if you find the app useful) and you’ll find it here.

In my case it was a plug which seemed to be functioning correctly so hopefully you’ll have the same luck by finding the plug to blame, removing it and returning your DAW to its happy state again.

Priz

June 30th, 2009 at 3:47 pm

ayo try this
i just tried it today n it worked
if u have a seperate harddrive, defragment it
and make sure all your pro tools sessions and nething that has to do with pro tools is on that harddrive except the program itself which should be installed in your c drive.
then run pro tools and it should be cool.

Moonshine

August 27th, 2009 at 7:20 pm

I ve been having similar CPU probs but will try out the one processor, seems to have been ok for others.

Intersting about the plug testing also, woth checking out anf incompatible one.

Yanni

September 1st, 2009 at 8:07 pm

If I were Gay I would find you and kiss you. I have a 16 Proc Mac and I knocked it down to 10 Procs and Finally I can use My Akoustic Piano and Guitar Rig Again. I thought about giving up. I am up against a dead line for an Artist and you just saved my A$$. Thank you so much…. Why couldn’t the Digi guys answer this?

Lach

September 3rd, 2009 at 7:46 am

I got my Mbox mini 2 today with pro tools LE 8 and im already getting this error message 9128…
Ive got a pentium 4, 3.2Ghz with 2.5GB of RAM.
ive got my buffer size on 512, only 1 processor running (as thats all ive got), CPU usage at 85% (max) on disc buffer size on level 2 (default).
Ive tried plugging the mbox usb in both the front and rear ports to no success. I do have an external hard drive (320GB) but im not currently using it as ive literally only started one session to get used to the program.
Please help me, im desperate to play with my new toy!

Gil

September 16th, 2009 at 2:54 am

i am running Pro Tools 8 LE on a new MacBook Pro with a digidesigh digi 002 console and have the same problem where i can recored any thing with out it stopping. i tryed all the things that people have said worked for them on the above forum but still having the problem. please help.

noisefreak

September 26th, 2009 at 11:35 am

Hi Gil, If you’re using ProTools 8 with Snow Leopard (10.6) you will experience problems until Digi releases an update. If you’re using 10.5.x and having issues I’d ask a couple questions to better help you.

1. Are you recording to an internal drive on your laptop? If so, those are generally 5400rpm drives (unless you upgraded to a 7200) and while running your OS/Apps AND trying to record it just can’t sustain performance. Use an external Fire Wire 800 drive and dedicate it to audio only.

2. Are all your plug-ins up to date? Check to make sure every one of them are compatible with both PT8 and Leopard… one plug, even one that isn’t inserted, can cause problems. Just about all the popular plugins out there have a compatible version by now and most of the updates are free.

If that doesn’t work, give me some specifics — like DAE error number when it stops, what’s running in the background, what plug-ins you have in the session, your machine speed/configuration (ram, hard drive capacity). If you’re using an external drive, how is it connected?

Good luck!

spookytanuki

October 7th, 2009 at 6:59 pm

Hi , i have a new imac 2.93ghz 4gig dou intell OS1O.5.6 etc.The fire wire is 800 on mac and im using adpter to due to drive is 400.protools 8 LE .All sessions that are using midi and tried instrument tracks with NI Akoustik piano.Every time i have a mid rang drone and distorstion coming thru it and thru other audio tracks.Also i get the more cpu buffer promt.hve tried the one processor trick but still no go.The drone has gone but the buffer error still remains.I get about 20 secs of playback.all is new purchase .not joy for the $$ tho.hhahahaha…optimistic?

spookytanuki

October 7th, 2009 at 7:13 pm

hi, Just had 34th go at it and found now its playing whole song but theres a piont in the track were the NI akoustic piano pluggin track starts to distort then slowly goes away.at this piont the piano track becomes full stereo.the left channel is piano and the right is distorting.NOTE for what ever reason its been playing out the left side and have yet to figure out why even tho its a stereo track(whole other issue)…still optomisic.

VasilisTheDrummer

October 31st, 2009 at 11:21 am

Hi, i have Mbox 2 Pro and my computer has 1.60 Ghz and 3.3 ram. I keep on getting the message about CPU conflicting with other tasks…thing is when i open a session( recorded on a different computer) and watch the CPU percentage on task manager it barely reaches 65-70%. Any suggestions would be most welcome, i ve had this toy for a month now and still havent used it….

noisefreak

October 31st, 2009 at 12:08 pm

Vasilis,
Not sure about the conflicting with other tasks message. I have seen people complain about it with past versions of ProTools (back in version 5.x days). Generally I’d start with all processes running - are there background apps that are attempting to use your MBOX as an output as well? For example, do you have your mbox setup to be your system audio device? If so, try making your built-in card your system sound device and only use your MBOX for protools playback/record. I’m not sure that’s the problem but it’s worth a shot.

Also if you have anti-virus software installed (on a PC or, more rarely, a Mac) disable it. Same thing with Time Machine if you’re using it in OS X - these types of programs constantly access/scan your files and may be competing with ProTools’ ability to access the files it needs in a timely manner.

When you figure out what fixes your issue will you please post your solution here? It would help others in the same bind.

leonogist

November 1st, 2009 at 10:30 am

Hi
I recently got protools LE 8 with an MBox2 factory. I am running an iMac 2.4 with 4 gig of ram. I have now got a LaCie 1TB external running through FW800. OS is 10.5.7. I am STILL getting a message telling me CPU is holding off USB. It gives a number of -6104 at the end in brackets. I have tried all suggestions except plug ins as I have only recently purchased PT and have not loaded any external plug ins. This can happen when I just open a template and play the drum track without anything else. I, like Vasilis have purchased but not been able to do anything, I have been reduced to using the MBox as a USB input for garage band, this is doing my head in.
Thanks for any help.

jaguar

November 24th, 2009 at 12:14 pm

Man!! I’m having similar and serious problems my self. I recently purchased (brand new) digi 003 and installed it in my mac pro leapard 10.5.6 but never got to be 100% reliable! initially, after installing it would suddenly freeze, rainbow wheel appears, and then crashes, “pro-tools quit unexpectedly” when I “try again” option in that window, it then, during re-loading, will stop right where it says installing DAE. It will stay frozen until I have to unplug the whole computer!

jaguar

November 24th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

It wont even allow me to access any other programs unless it is restarted by unplugging it!! I spent waaaaaay too much money to give up, but I cant help but want to. Before, I fixed the problem tempererily by holding command, option, p and r during reboot…Listen for the 4 chimes then let go etc. But not to long after attempting to install reason it will not act right.

jaguar

November 24th, 2009 at 12:24 pm

I have the protools 8 and this is supposed to be THE software to have and THE computer to run it, but it feels flemsy and unstable. What am I doing wrong?! Why does it have to seem like some secret or mystery to crack. I feel more like I have to be a detective than a producer! can someone help me?

V

December 2nd, 2009 at 12:52 pm

I got the same problem with Pro Tools 8, playing or recording it stop by itself after a few seconds. When I desinstalled all motherboard drives, it works rigth. Hope to find a better solution.

Adune

December 21st, 2009 at 1:16 pm

I had the same CPU error on Leopard 10.5.8 and Pro Tools 8.01 HD2 system on a Mac Dual Core 2.3. Definitely a bug of some type in 8.01. My cpu was only hitting 6% on more than several tracks with plug-ins. It was locking up saying CPU error ( -9128) constantly. There is NO WAY my CPU could be maxxed.

Temporarily, like mentioned already above, and thanks to you guys with the solution above, I just changed the 2 processors down to 1 and it works fine now.

Also, make sure you DIsable Spotlight on all your drives.

I hope Digi fixes this problem SOON!!

Wayne

January 2nd, 2010 at 6:24 pm

I have a similar problem as Gil. I just purchased a new Mac Mini and PT8.3 for Snow Leopard. I use both a 002 and a Mini, but I’m often getting a DAE 35 error message while using either one which is causing my Glyph drive to crash. Any idea what’s going on?

Matt Anthony

January 20th, 2010 at 11:39 am

Thank you for posting this fix! It has made my life A LOT better!

Kevin

April 9th, 2010 at 3:35 pm

just went from 8 processors to 7 on my Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, and PT LE works 1000% better so far. I used to have to put buffer to 1024 any time I used melodyne, now it’s on 32, and cruisin’. Glad I came across this. Thanks for making this page!!

Jack

April 11th, 2010 at 11:45 pm

Has there been a fix for this yet? I’m on Pro Tools 8.0.1 , I see this error mostly now when I have IK Multimedia’s Sample Tank running. Wth is with the lag of Digidesign?

Allen

April 19th, 2010 at 11:33 pm

I’m running pro tools 8.0.3 off a Mac Book pro OSx 10.5.8.
I keep getting this 9128 error at no more than 30% cpu usage.
i will try running off of one processor.
it seems like this problem started occurring after I installed the IK media ampeg bass plug in. Does any body else suspect IK media plug ins to be the source of this problem?

Allen

April 19th, 2010 at 11:57 pm

Would upgrading to a Mac Pro with 2 quad processors help to eliminate the 9128 error or is it more of a software issue? The fact that the error appears at 25% cpu seems to tell me that it’s more a software problem than a cpu limitation.

Andy

August 27th, 2010 at 8:10 pm

I have been getting error 6104 like crazy along with a few other errors. I think I fixed it this morning.

IMac 2.4 10.5.8 pt8.0.4 mbox mini

I trashed pt’s preferences, repaired permissions, but what I think actually fixed it was moving the mbox’s USB connection to the port next to the FireWire port (the USB port closest to the power button). I’ve been testing it for a couple hours and no errors have come up. I was able to push my iMac to 86% on both processors, which I have never been able to do (i could only push it to about 43% before an error)

noisefreak

August 27th, 2010 at 8:29 pm

Hey Andy, thanks for sharing! This is a good point for everyone to keep in mind. I found out from the folks at Avid (digidesign) that not all USB ports are created equal. For users of MacBook Pro’s the Mbox should be plugged into the USB port closest to the power supply, the ilok can go into the port closest to you. This seems to be the case on i7 iMac’s as well (use the USB port closest to the firewire port).

Leave a Comment

« Go Back to Blog

Tags