Hackintosh and Pro Tools

[WesQ]

I'm planning to build a Hackintosh for Pro Tools. I see a lot people in this thread buying higher-end motherboards like the GA-Z77X-UP5-TH.

What is exactly the reason for this? I was planning to buy much cheaper alternatives like the GA-B75M-D3P. Is buying the more expensive motherboards only for connectivity (thunderbolt, usb 3.0, pci-slots) or are there also stability reasons? Will something like the GA-B75M-D3P do just fine if I only run a USB interface (RME Fireface UC) and a UAD card with Pro Tools 10?

 

[assumption]

I just finished building my first Hack to hopefully use with Pro Tools. The initial install went great and most everything on the board (GA-Z77X-UP TH) worked instantly. However, my main glitch now is just trying to get Pro Tools to install. The installer keeps hanging at "running package scripts", then it will eventually freeze. I've tried installing to SSD and HDD, to no avail. Completely stumped.

The other annoying problem is how long this thing takes to boot up. Even with the SSD boot drive, it takes a good 50secs to get up to the desktop. The processor is 3770K i7, so I guess I expected faster performance.

Hey there, just as an example.. I have an i5 3570k chip and a 120gb SSD for my system drive (SATA3, 6Gb/s).. It screams (It's quick).. Power on; through bios options (could disable that screen also to make it even quicker) tonymacosx bootloader and apple startup in under 20 seconds..

I have successfully installed PT 10 and 11 on my machine..

Am happy to try and run you through some options to try and troubleshoot things..

Not sure if this post if too little too late though.. (I've been in post production land for a little while sorry)

Cheers

 

[BoomR]

I'm planning to build a Hackintosh for Pro Tools. I see a lot people in this thread buying higher-end motherboards like the GA-Z77X-UP5-TH.

What is exactly the reason for this? I was planning to buy much cheaper alternatives like the GA-B75M-D3P. Is buying the more expensive motherboards only for connectivity (thunderbolt, usb 3.0, pci-slots) or are there also stability reasons? Will something like the GA-B75M-D3P do just fine if I only run a USB interface (RME Fireface UC) and a UAD card with Pro Tools 10?

Yes - connectivity for many of us is one thing. I would expect there may also be some stability reasons related to the quality of components used in a higher-end board, in addition to durability. For those of us who are either a) very serious hobbyests, b) "pro-sumers" (working their way to making $$ at their music/productions), or c) music pros (like me, making part or all of your living using your CustoMac), it's definitely worth the investment IMHO in the higher end board.

Both the board you cite, as well as the GA-Q77M-D2H are on the Tonymacx86 Buyer's Guide, so you should have good experiences getting this build up & running (UEFI BIOS is a beautiful thing).

Best wishes on your build!!

 

[BoomR]

I've been having problems with protools 10.3.2 and one of my builds running 10.8.3

The app launches and works fine, nonetheless I've been having micro freezes when using it... and they appear randomly,
only lasting for a couple of seconds.

Hardware:
GA Z77X UD5H
16 GB RAM
Intel Core i7 3770K
MBox 003
nVidia 560 TI 2GB

I'm working on the same HD pro tools is installed, should I get another one?

thanks for the help¡

Make sure you are using the latest version of PT - as of yesterday, PT 10 = 10.3.6. Go grab that from your AVID account, then do a clean uninstall of PT (Applications > Avid > Pro Tools Utilities > Uninstall Pro Tools). Once PT is gone, go into Apps > Utilities > Disk Utility and do a Repair Permissions on your boot drive. As a side note, Repair Permissions frequently fixes a lot of strange behavior on apps, and has long been a "best practice" as the step you take BEFORE installing any new application.

Once you do that, install the updated version of PT and let us know how things are going. And as to your other question: BY ALL MEANS - NEVER use your boot drive with OSX and your apps as you "working" drive. While this is "allowed" (PT does not block this), it really affects the performance of your machine. I would be willing to bet that the reason for your micro-freezes is due to using your boot drive as your work drive as well.

See the screen grab I've attached from the Pro Tools Installation.pdf:


PS - I'm a little confused by your audio interface. Do you have both an Mbox, AND and 003? Or do you have a 3rd gen Mbox?

 

[BoomR]

I just finished building my first Hack to hopefully use with Pro Tools. The initial install went great and most everything on the board (GA-Z77X-UP TH) worked instantly. However, my main glitch now is just trying to get Pro Tools to install. The installer keeps hanging at "running package scripts", then it will eventually freeze. I've tried installing to SSD and HDD, to no avail. Completely stumped.

The other annoying problem is how long this thing takes to boot up. Even with the SSD boot drive, it takes a good 50secs to get up to the desktop. The processor is 3770K i7, so I guess I expected faster performance.

Hey there, just as an example.. I have an i5 3570k chip and a 120gb SSD for my system drive (SATA3, 6Gb/s).. It screams (It's quick).. Power on; through bios options (could disable that screen also to make it even quicker) tonymacosx bootloader and apple startup in under 20 seconds..

I have successfully installed PT 10 and 11 on my machine..

Am happy to try and run you through some options to try and troubleshoot things..

Not sure if this post if too little too late though.. (I've been in post production land for a little while sorry)

Cheers

+1 to what assumption says. With my build (see signature link for Recording Studio 2.0 build), it's about 15 seconds from POST (the Gigabyte splash screen) to desktop rendering. Also running PT 10|HD & 11|HD on my machine & no issues. Both installed flawlessly.

Since there are a few of us using the same/similar setup as you (and not having the issues you report), we might need to look at things like: a) did you format your SSD properly? GUID partition table (vs. the other 2 options), and b) using Mac OS Extended (Journaled). I'd follow that up by rebuilding your UniBeast install key. I discovered the hard way that, if I was running UniBeast & building my key in the background while doing other things, I would get corruptions in the UB USB key & things wouldn't work properly. Finally, I'd re-download the most recent PT installer (PT 10 is up to 10.3.6 with the release of PT 11 on Friday). If you're running anything older than 10.3.5, that also could be part of the problem.

Hope this gives you some other options to think about/try!

 

[ecoarena]

Hi Boom R,

I'm a little stumped here. Finally found that I cannot launch Pro Tools 10 or 11 UNLESS I have my ethernet cable attached and recognised in my network. This NEVER happened when I ran PT on LION, but has been a problem with my set up since Mountain Lion (which runs everything else beautifully). There is an issue with the iLok (and believe me, I've let PACE know all about the iLok). I used to run PT flawlessly and WIRELESSLY before upgrading to MLion....and as proof....PTools will launch on my Macbook Pro which is running Lion without a hiccup AND using the iLok. I have wiped both an SSD and HDD in my machine and reinstalled ML and PT from scratch...but still NO LUCK......so would love to know your network settings (including whether you're running wired or wireless) etc etc.

Any help appreciated...as always.

Eco

 

[BoomR]

Hi Boom R,

I'm a little stumped here. Finally found that I cannot launch Pro Tools 10 or 11 UNLESS I have my ethernet cable attached and recognised in my network. This NEVER happened when I ran PT on LION, but has been a problem with my set up since Mountain Lion (which runs everything else beautifully). There is an issue with the iLok (and believe me, I've let PACE know all about the iLok). I used to run PT flawlessly and WIRELESSLY before upgrading to MLion....and as proof....PTools will launch on my Macbook Pro which is running Lion without a hiccup AND using the iLok. I have wiped both an SSD and HDD in my machine and reinstalled ML and PT from scratch...but still NO LUCK......so would love to know your network settings (including whether you're running wired or wireless) etc etc.

Any help appreciated...as always.

Eco

I think there is a known issue about the naming convention given to your Ethernet adapter in your build. If the name is not right, then certain applications cannot authenticate properly during launch. But not sure why this would affect PT (to my knowledge), as it only looks to the iLok (to my knowledge). Regardless, do a search of the Music forum for "Ethernet" - you should find the thread that I'm thinking of that details the problem & how to resolve.

As for your iLok...**that** is a whole other story. As you probably discovered, right before the release of PT11, iLok/Pace completely overhauled their license mgmt/transfer model to something more along the lines of Native Instrument's "Service Center" stand-alone app (vs. handling all your iLok management tasks via a Web browser at iLok.com).

I will test out this theory, but I should be able to disconnect from the Internet & still be able to launch PT10/11, as I was able to sort out my iLok issues within a few days of me getting my PT11 upgrade. I suspect that it may not be PT that is causing your boot problem, but one of your plugs that needs to always ping an authentication server before it will activate. BTW, I am using PT10/11 on my Studio 2.0 build via wired Ethernet using the mobo's on-board Ethernet connection.

 

[ecoarena]

Thanks BoomR,

Shall investigate this a little further. Yes, when I'm 'wired' (via ethernet) all is good, but as soon as I invoke wireless, I'm stuffed. I'll keep plugging away.....as always, thanks for taking the time to respond.

Regards

Eco

 

[potatofly]

Thanks BoomR,

Shall investigate this a little further. Yes, when I'm 'wired' (via ethernet) all is good, but as soon as I invoke wireless, I'm stuffed. I'll keep plugging away.....as always, thanks for taking the time to respond.

Regards

Eco

Interesting, I recently built a dual boot Hackintosh specifically for running PT11 (on OSX side - Mavericks 10.9.1) and PT8 (Windows side - Win7 Ultimate). Have both PT11 and Melodyne license on my iLok2. When I launch PT11 and insert Melodyne as a plug-in on a track it can't find a valid license on the iLok2 when the Activate window pops up. Works fine on the Win7 side (I uninstalled PT8 and installed PT10, recognized it just fine). I currently have a ticket in with Celemony. Tried the Sync/Repair suggestion but not to a tee. Gonna try later tonight and follow their solution EXACTLY and see if that resolves my issue.

 

[Peterjk]

I am very (very) new to Hackintosh'es, but I've heard that there's an "iLok2 in USB 3.0 ports"-issue. Also in "real" macs. Sometimes it works, sometimes it dosen't. Use an USB 2.0 HUB to force your USB 3.0 port to USB 2.0 and your iLok2 should be fine. Haven't tested it myself yet.

Could that be a source of the problems described here?

Take care...


Peter