VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

[Jeffrey Kafer]

And is there any error message associated with the crash?
_________________
Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[allensco]

Wow Dave! What a mess! I feel your pain though.

Radio station main production system was crashing all morning. Still don't know why...but after lunch it started working like it should. I started to turn it into a pile of scrap metal and toss out the front door into the street.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!
Allen

[COURVO]

A crash -- by arbitrary definition -- does not courteously offer an error message before it engages.... so, no...Jeff....nothing

Further, it is maddeningly capricious about WHEN it crashes, Lou.

Sometimes, it immediately follows the double-click on the Pro-Tools icon... black screen, <re-boot>

Sometimes it hesitates -- pauses -- for 2 or 3 seconds then.... black screen <re-boot>

Sometimes Pro-Tools begins the start-up process-- engaging the plug-ins....then black screen <re-boot>

That's the thing. Pro-Tools is verbose. If it doesn't like the way you configured your plug-ins, or if your I-Lok is not authorized, it'll stop the initiation process, and TELL you what's wrong.

This strikes me as a more elemental snafu.

All your support continues to buoy me up.... thanks, people!

CourVO
_________________
Dave Courvoisier - Las Vegas, NV
http://www.CourVO.com
CourVO@CourVO.com
Courvo's "Voice Acting in Vegas" Blog: http://www.CourVO.biz
on your phone at courvo.mobi
702.610.6288
"I'm not a news anchor, but I play one on TV."

[Jeffrey Kafer]

[Jon Morss]

Dave,

I'm not a Pro Tools user, but applications usually keep log files for crash dumps and such. See if you can locate these if you have not done so already.

Also, on Win XP Pro you can go to:
Control Panel --> Performance and Maintenance --> Administrative Tools --> Event Viewer -- > Application (or System)

Here you shuld be able to see any messages that may have been logged during the nasty situation. This may give you a clue as to what is happening on the system.

Also, you can view the Start-Up stuff by running 'msconfig' from Start --> Run. See if there are any services that may have been added to you system that you really don't need. Be carefule as to what you disable though. You may start by turning off known start up routines that you know you don't need.

I could go on and on but I would start here.

[COURVO]

Thanks guys...

Jeff -- I SAID "arbitrary".... MY arbitrary definition.... that means I get to make the rules about crashing, right? ;-}
Also, I'm going back to my computer guy tomorrow with my box to run some diagnostics on the hardware....that'll be something we check...thanks!

John -- Thanks...I'll check those log files....'forgot about that!

Trudging along here until I find victory over the MACHINE!

CourVO
_________________
Dave Courvoisier - Las Vegas, NV
http://www.CourVO.com
CourVO@CourVO.com
Courvo's "Voice Acting in Vegas" Blog: http://www.CourVO.biz
on your phone at courvo.mobi
702.610.6288
"I'm not a news anchor, but I play one on TV."

[Jeffrey Kafer]

[COURVO]

[louzucaro]

(whistling, looking around innocently, twiddling thumbs)

I'm sorry, what was the question?
_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"

[Yoda117]

[Jeffrey Kafer]

Who the bigger pain is isn't relevant. You're trying to get you computer fixed. We're trying to help. Snarkiness isn't going to get it fixed, now is it?
_________________
Jeff
http://JeffreyKafer.com
Voice-overload Web comic: http://voice-overload.com

[COURVO]

OK, I'll admit....I'm the bigger pain....but only when it comes to Pro-Tools problems...

Anyway.... I found a fix....or rather a work-around.... but I'm on my way to a gala fundraiser, and will have to post it later.

Thanks everyone!

CourVO
_________________
Dave Courvoisier - Las Vegas, NV
http://www.CourVO.com
CourVO@CourVO.com
Courvo's "Voice Acting in Vegas" Blog: http://www.CourVO.biz
on your phone at courvo.mobi
702.610.6288
"I'm not a news anchor, but I play one on TV."

[COURVO]

The latest:

I want to reiterate my gratefulness for all the support and help offered here on the VO-BB... this community always comes through.

I continue to work with a diligent DigiDesign troubleshooter on this issue, and I'm getting deadly close to finding the culprit.

In the meantime, I've stumbled upon a work-around that's so simple and clean it almost makes me mad.

I've created a new user profile on the same machine. Under that profile, Pro-Tools works like a charm! I don't know why. 'Seems to me, most of the programs installed under my original user profile are present in the newly-created user profile. I don't understand what the protocols and permissions are with Win XP when you create a new user profile, but for whatever reason... PT fires up and runs very stable under this new profile.

However, if I switch user profiles, without logging off the new PT profile, the old profile fires up and promptly crashes -- that's with PT opened up on the new profile-- running in the background -- and no PT launch on the old profile.

In my mind, all of this points to an offending set of software drivers somewhere.

The DigiDesign people had me Open "System" control panel
Click "Advanced"
In the "Startup and Recovery" section, click "Settings"
In the "System Failure" section at the bottom make sure that
"Automatically Restart"
is not selected.

When I did that, and crashed the system under the old user profile, I got the error message pointing to a TPkd.sys file which is under c:\Windows\system32\drivers.

Now, all I have to do is find which program that file is associated with, and either update, delete, or uninstall it, I guess.

More on this on my blog HERE

So....starting to smile on this end that humans still rule the planet.... not machines....YET.

CourVO
_________________
Dave Courvoisier - Las Vegas, NV
http://www.CourVO.com
CourVO@CourVO.com
Courvo's "Voice Acting in Vegas" Blog: http://www.CourVO.biz
on your phone at courvo.mobi
702.610.6288
"I'm not a news anchor, but I play one on TV."

[Edo]

Dave,

I just got a phonecall from a engineer friend who used to be with Microsoft Support Services in The Netherlands I mentioned your 'problem' to... he answered without any hesitation where the TPkd.sys file comes from. It is a software installed compressed file associated with PACE Anti Pirating Utility that gets in your system when the driver for your iLok gets installed. It is supposedly a non-removable file. Further warning... it can also be the hide-out for Spyware tools, and there are known cases of PT rigs that have this file when it is actually a disguised spyware thingy.

Run Ad-Aware free from http://www.lavasoftusa.com across your system to check on that (or any other Spyware Remove Util. Just found through Google:

Some malware camouflage themselves as TPkd.sys, particularly if they are located in c:\windows or c:\windows\system32 folder. Thus check the TPkd.sys process on your pc whether it is pest.

My friend warned me about 'just deleting' the file, for no guarantees after that... he has had no experience with removing the file. My guess is that the corrupted file stays with your original user profile... unless you reformat your system... Hope this gets you closer to the solution.

Good luck!!

[louzucaro]

It would be interesting to check and see if there's more than one copy of tpkd.sys on your system.
_________________
Lou Zucaro
http://www.voicehero.com

"Well, yeah, there's my favorite leaf!"