We’ve been over this before…
Time is worth more than money. See this Blog Entry from Dec. 20, ’07.
If that’s true, then I cheated myself out of time AND money today, in Pro-Tools hell.
For the better part of 12 hours, on ‘n’ off today, I un-installed, re-installed, re-configured, edited the registry, read the manual, consulted the FAQ’s, set and unset restore points, started and restarted, rebooted, un-installed and reinstalled some more, played with device drivers, punted… You get the idea. Yeah, 12 hours.
I think I know a little bit more about WinXP, but that’s about all. And please, no Mac references.
This whole episode started when my computer crashed in the first place earlier this week as I was trying to install some new drivers for my Pro-Tools 7.4 hardware: The M-Audio FireWire Solo. The whole computer just crashed, and when I brought it up again, all sorts of weird things started happening with Windows XP Pro.
My computer guy got it running again, but it was costly. Wiping out my HD and reformatting. I didn’t lose data, but I had to re-install everything, including Pro-Tools.
Right from the start, PT began crashing the system again. Liking hitting a reset button on the front of your computer case.
A friend finally told me the new M-Audio drivers were not compatible with WinXP and that’s why it was crashing. Just getting the old M-Audio drivers re-installed took the better part of 2 hours. And the tough part was…. it didn’t help.
Midnight came, and PT was still crashing my system. I’ve really tried everything, so if you’re reading this as a visitor from the VO-BB… maybe you’ve got some ideas. I’m out of ‘em.
Then I sat down to write this blog, and even my laptop messed-up and erased it after I’d written it. (OK, maybe a little operator error!). So this is actually a re-write.
I really obsess about this stuff too much. We’ve talked about that before too… who needs computer games? The computer IS the game.
More later,
CourVO
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Hey mister MC,
I posted this on VO-bb.com but thought I would repost here just in case.
Sorry to hear your troubles. You just gotta love computers.
First off, I may have missed this somewhere, but was this a config that was up and running and then suddenly started to give you issues. If so, what happen just prior to the issues that started? Did you update some other software, like an Anti-Virus software, Windows Service pack or something else in the mix? Sometimes these can cause havoc to your system as well. If this was a new install, are you certain that Pro-Tools is supported with the M-Audio FireWire Solo? I know there are M-Powered versions of Pro-Tools that are for specific versions of M-audio hardware and you need to ensure to have a match.
As far as the driver you installed not being compatible with WinXP, is this stated on the M-Audio web site? It seems that there is a link to an updated driver for WinXP, but they do list one XP. Did you download the wrong driver or is the driver listed at M-Audio bad? I suppose your call to M-audio would answer the supportability of th driver.
Although I’m sure you have researched this thoroughly, there seems to be a FAQ at M-Audio that outlines the install of the driver on WinXP and points out some gotchas. I particular like the comment about deleting the contents of your TEMP folder.
http://www.m-audio.com/index.php?do=support.faq&ID=485df5a71d1c49faeb8d332238ef7d4e
To see if your computer guy in fact re-formatted your HD, if you have not done so already, check to see if you have any restore points for the time before you took your system in. If the restore points start the day they had your system, then I would certain have a serious talk with their manager.
I wish you much luck in getting this solved.