Fairly complex issue with Pro Tools, Startup, and Bluetooth (how do these relate?)

[jakedavis]

Hey guys, so I need some quick help. A couple things have been acting wonky since I built. First off, I want to be overly detailed, here's what I'm dealing with:


Internal Hardware:
3.5Ghz i7 processor (overclocked at 4.2)
16GB RAM
Main Drive is 240GB SSD
Extra 1TB Seagate 7200RPM Drive
GTX 670 graphics card
GIGABYTE GA-Z77X-UP5 TH Intel Motherboard with Dual Thunderbolt


Peripherals plugged into computer:
External Lacie 500GB 7200RPM USB 2 drive.
Seagate 1TB Thunderbolt Drive
Profire 2626 Firewire Interface (using apple firewire to thunderbolt converter since there's no firewire on my board)
USB Audiobox Interface (used to run midi from a control console)
Apple 30" Cinema Display
Kinivo BTD-300 Bluetooth 3.0 USB adapter
Apple Wireless Keyboard MC184LL/B
Apple Magic Mouse
Apple Magic Trackpad


Operating System: Mac OSX 10.8.4 (Mountain Lion)


Alright so now problems:


Firstly bluetooth problems. If I get everything started up and fine then I can connect all of the bluetooth devices then no problem. But, often when I'm starting up and they're already on they will either not connect at all, or sometimes connect, or say they're connected but not actually be functional, or take about 45 seconds to conncet, or I have to turn them off an on before they work, or they take only 10 seconds to connect. It really varies and it's quite annoying since I built this computer to launch so fast and then to have to wait and/or deal with this problem each time is tedious. Is it something with my bootloaders? Or kexts not being remembered at startup?


Secondly, startup problems. When I first built it, it would basically freeze everytime I booted it up at Mac User Log In screen. Then I'd have to click restart on the case of the computer and it would boot fine from there. Now that issue has mostly disappeared but sometimes I find myself restarting anyway because I can't get the bluetooth's to work often right after booting from shut down. Another thing when I booted from shut down before the ethernet port would never work (it would say nothing was plugged in), then when I restarted it would work from a restart. That's not much of a problem anymore because I installed a wifi card but still troublesome.


Lastly, Pro Tools. I don't know what happened. It was working fine, I had it running with all the same hardware (including the profire interface) and everything was tip top. Now when I've been trying to start up Pro Tools 10 everytime I do the program freezes instantaneously (so the icon stays bouncing in the dock forever and no windows ever come up) and i have to go force quit it because it's always not responding. With PT11 sometimes it will do the same, or it will give me an error message saying something is wrong with the ilok. Then I put the ilok into my laptop to see if it was the ilok and Pro Tools started all the up to the window but then couldn't open anyway sessions or I'd get some weird error saying missing volumes/bla/bla/bla a million numbers etc. An error I've never gotten before. I got the latest Ilok Manager Software and reinstalled it multiple times and still no dice. I run a home studio so this is really putting me out of commission here.


If you guys can help me in anyway I appreciate every bit of advice and we'll be checking this / responding back to any questions. Or feel free to email me at [email protected]. Thanks so much!

 

[Bob_the_Tomato]

1) The GA-Z77X-UP5TH DOES have a Firewire header on the motherboard, my CASE has a connector and is plugged into the motherboard header. Not a big deal if you have it working through an external TB adapter but I thought you might want to know.

2) Bluetooth has a long and glorious pain in the Arse factor for Hacks... I gave up on it entirely. See this collection of posts: http://www.tonymacx86.com/tags/bluetooth.html

The only advice I can give is to try to get a stable computer first before adding all those peripherals then you might be able to isolate the culprit.

/Bob

 

[jakedavis]

1) The GA-Z77X-UP5TH DOES have a Firewire header on the motherboard, my CASE has a connector and is plugged into the motherboard header. Not a big deal if you have it working through an external TB adapter but I thought you might want to know.
/Bob

Hey thanks for the advice. I heard the firewire chipset is not so good on the UP5, so I went ahead and ordered that Syba plate with the attached chipset.

Any idea about the Pro Tools problems perchance?

 

[Fokke]

I am a PT user myself too. I mainly use 10.3.7 but have 11 running too. It runs smooth.

Some thoughts.
Did you try to deinstall and reinstall both PT's? AND, also the pace ****? If it is both PT10 and PT11 that causes errors it could be the iLok, also because you say so. There has been some mess with Pace some months ago with a faulty ilok manager. Do you have the latest now?
Does the ilok work fine on another PT set? Do you have some otehr USB issues? That might tell it's a USB thing and not iLok.

 

[Kelco83]

I had some issues, and I ended up going to the pace site and installing the ilok software from there and not ilok manager.

A few installs later, pt worked fine after installing the ilok software from ilok itself. Kinda weird.

 

[cullanrocks]

Can you guys explain a little more how you fixed this?