Charger causing System Overloads!?

I have just randomly stumbled upon what seems to have been causing me manic system overload messages....THE CHARGER!
I just repaired disc permissions and deleted the Logic prefs from the library as instructed by someone on the net to try and settle logic. When this was done logic seemed to be behaving much better and i didn't have one spike during the playback and mixing of a fairly large track. the battery warning popped up so i attached the charger and BOOM instant spikes (as i had been seeing for the past few months). Pulled the charger out and gave it a second to recover and she was smooth as you'd like.
Very strange. Any thoughts?
Charlie
P.s. The charger i purchased was from Ebay..BUT..it wasn't an unbranded cheap one. Could replacing the charger with a 100% official one fix the problem or could it be a more serious internal fault? I have now noticed that whenever the charger is plugged in the fans kick right up and the system becomes more prone to overloads in general (safari and logic)

My 'idea' is that some laptops/CPUs/Graphic Sub Systems run at reduced 'speed' when there isn't enough voltage/amps left in the system (like if the battery is close to being fully discharged) and if the power supply isn't providing the correct voltage/amps then this is what could be happening resulting in less CPU 'power' for example, to handle the workload being asked of it...
Of course, I could be way off base with this theory... but running a third party power supply with a Mac that seems to cause it to apparently 'misbehave', would indicate to me to replace it with a 'real' one just to be on the safe side anyhow.
Fingers crossed, this will resolve the issue but if not, then it's back to the drawing board... though the fact it works fine off of battary kind of rules out a lot of other possibilities... other than hardware related.

Similar Messages

External MTC causing system & CPU overloads

Has anyone achieved smooth sync between Logic 8 and an external Midi Time Code (MTC) source?
I'm getting constant system overloads & CPU spikes (even in an empty song). I'm using a relatively powerful Mac Pro (MTC frame rate & tempos are matched), a Unitor 8MKII, pro midi cables etc etc... but it's still unworkable (especially when you hit record!)
(Any ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated)...

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions... though I'm unfortunately still having issues.
Midi & sync connections are all correct (no feedback loops). MTC only being received, not transmitted. Buffer settings seem to have little effect (as does the 'Freewheel' option) or the Validate MTC options.
Firmware on the Unitor 8 MkII is version 2.0.2, and although I've seen reports of a version 2.0.4, I've yet to track it down (I presume the 2.0.2 version was included on my Logic 8 install disks).
I'm trying to sync my Akai MPC 3000 to Logic (with MPC as Master) - something I've done many times with previous versions of Logic. Although Logic 8 has withdrawn support for Midi Clock (receive), I have heard that it is still possible for Logic 8 to receive Midi Clock through the IAC Driver Bus, though try as I might, I haven't been able to replicate this (hence resorting to MTC). If anyone has achieved this, I'd be interested in hearing from you!

System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...

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Replies : 10 - Pages : 1 - Last Post : Aug 10, 2009 12:04 PM by: Pancenter
4feet4
Posts: 17
From: Pasadena
Registered: Mar 12, 2009
System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 9, 2009 7:52 PM
Any quick tips on what to do? My project is small - while monitoring my CPU usage it never goes above 30 while running the project - I've got 2.78 GB of free disk space - 4Gig Ram - I dont use my IMAC OSX 10.5.5 for anything but Logic? Hoping to get around this CONSTANT issue - thanks for your help.
Imac Mac OS X (10.5.5)
Larry Mal
Posts: 654
From: Saint Louis, Missouri
Registered: Sep 27, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 9, 2009 9:48 PM in response to: 4feet4
Well, if you are saying you have only 2.78 GB's of space on your hard drive, then you'll want to have more. You should leave about 10-15% of your drive free.
dual 2.8GHz Mac Pro, Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.5.6) 2 GB RAM
4feet4
Posts: 17
From: Pasadena
Registered: Mar 12, 2009
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 9, 2009 10:51 PM in response to: Larry Mal
I'm running LP8 - I have an IMAC OSX 10.5.5 - 2.4 processor - 4 GB RAM - M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface (USB direct to MAC) - I do NOT have an external hard drive ( sounds like I should ? - although I was told by others my system would be sufficient) - I use ALL instruments/track options ( midi etc) and will need to in the future - I want to be able to run a full music project 10-15 tracks. So far I'm running 4-5 tracks -(1) midi - the rest are audio with little to no effects ( in one project I'm using an LP8 template but deleted most of the tracks to cut down on the load ). Don't know if I can freeze these tracks-I'm new to this - thats why I'm looking for options ........ i was also using a 3rd party software in the project - Steinberg Groove Agent 3 (drums) but it was giving me the same error ..even when it was the ONLY track in the project....(its not fully compatible) - however I was finally able to create a full drum track with GA3 - play the midi data back - and record it to an audio track - therefore deleting the midi data I was having issues with and keeping the drums.... hope this helps?
Imac Mac OS X (10.5.5)
4feet4
Posts: 17
From: Pasadena
Registered: Mar 12, 2009
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 6:39 AM in response to: 4feet4
Updated
Imac Mac OS X (10.5.5) 2.4 Processor, 4 GB RAM, M-Audio Fast Track Pro Interface, No External HD
Larry Mal
Posts: 654
From: Saint Louis, Missouri
Registered: Sep 27, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 7:54 AM in response to: 4feet4
Perfect. Well here are some suggestions:
1) Logic 7, 8 and 9 all have a "freeze" function. Logic 9 has a new "bounce in place" function which I haven't used yet. These will make temporary audio files of your MIDI instruments so that you are able to play them as finished audio for the most part and free up CPU power. ( I haven't yet used "bounce in place", I just got Logic 9.) This will help with MIDI instruments quite a bit, and you can still go back and change them by un-freezing... I guess "thawing" would be the proper term.
2) The reason I was asking about your audio interface is because I was wondering what you had available. You very definitely want to record to a non-system (on that Logic nor your operating system are on) drive. Firewire is much superior to USB, which is why I'm glad to hear you are using USB as your audio in. By using Firewire in and Firewire out, on an iMac, you would be halving the bandwidth. In your case you are not.
You will add very much stability to your Logic work by adding an external Firewire drive and recording audio to it, and working on Logic projects there! If you have the money, I'd go with Firewire 800, which is frankly overkill, but why not. Firewire 400 drives will work fine for you. Add one and many of the overload messages will disappear, simply because right now you are pulling information from (in the form of calculating what the virtual instruments and Logic are doing) and writing information to (in the form of writing what those instruments and Logic are resulting in) to the same disk.
Try these two things and get back to us. I think you'll be very happy with the results.
It's also important to pay attention to your buffer size. When it is not important for you to play with it in real time, you want to make it be 1024. Otherwise as low as possible. So when you are recording audio to a MIDI drum track, you'd want it to be very low so you can play along accurately. When you have all that done, and are editing MIDI only, then put the buffer higher. When mixing, put it higher.
Let me know how this works, good luck, L
dual 2.8GHz Mac Pro, Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.5.6) 2 GB RAM
4feet4
Posts: 17
From: Pasadena
Registered: Mar 12, 2009
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 9:10 AM in response to: Larry Mal
Ok Great - Thanks - makes sense - I was using a Lacie with Protools an my PC ( it recently crashed) - I was under the impression I would have enough processing power with out it on the MAC.
Looks like I can pick one up for just a little over $100 ( I'm rolling in that kind of cash) ... please clarify though - you stated: "Firewire is much superior to USB, which is why I'm glad to hear you are using USB as your audio in. By using Firewire in and Firewire out, on an iMac, you would be halving the bandwidth. In your case you are not" ....are you GLAD to hear I am using USB as in - We may have found the problem .... go external to free up processing ? Please confirm.
Thanks again
Imac Mac OS X (10.5.5) 2.4 Processor, 4 GB RAM, M-Audio Fast Track Pro Interface, No External HD
CCTM
Posts: 249
Registered: Mar 11, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 9:28 AM in response to: 4feet4
4feet4 wrote:
Ok Great - Thanks - makes sense - I was using a Lacie with Protools an my PC ( it recently crashed) - I was under the impression I would have enough processing power with out it on the MAC.
As stated in an earlier reply, if you only have 2 or 3 gigs of free space on your Mac hard drive, processing power is NOT the problem. Your boot disc is way too full. You should have at least 20-30GB free.
Running a second drive for the audio side will, of course, help, but you MUST clear out the main hard drive (or fit a larger one) before you run into even more serious problems.
HTH
CCT
Larry Mal
Posts: 654
From: Saint Louis, Missouri
Registered: Sep 27, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 9:37 AM in response to: 4feet4
Well, you have enough processing power, that isn't the issue. All the processing power in the world won't matter if you have 64 megabytes of RAM, there will be a bottleneck. Another bottleneck is with data transference. Like I said, when using a single drive to transfer date from as well as to- which is what you are doing when you are using Logic, running within the scope of the operating system, and hosting virtual instruments, all of which is writing the resulting audio information to the same drive, at the same time, then you are creating another problem. But you don't have to do that, by sending the audio written to another drive other than the one the audio is being generated from.
In other words, your processing power is both faster than and irrelevant to the physical limitations of the hard drive itself.
Another bottleneck would be if you were recording tracks on a Firewire in, and sending that to and external Firewire drive out. This is one of the limitations of the iMac, there is no way to add what is called another bus, which is simply another pipeline for data transference. You can get around that with a Mac Pro, in which you add another internal hard drive, which connects directly to the motherboard, and has its own bus. Or by adding another Firewire PCIe card, which will add another Firewire bus, again, with its own data transference. On an iMac, you have one Firewire bus, and one USB bus.
Clear? You can imagine these as pipes of water. The more pipes you have leading to and from a location the faster it will go.
USB, in your case, is a dedicated pipeline in. Nothing (well, your mouse, maybe a flash drive) is using that pipeline. Your Firewire is a pipeline out, in this case- you could reverse this, it doesn't matter*. If you use Firewire in and out, then you are sending water flowing in both directions in the same pipe. It will work, but not as well. By adding a dedicated bus, you would be adding another pipe to flow in one way, while the original flowed the other way. No impedances.
I don't see why you can't use the Lacie drive you already have, though. It's quite likely your crash wasn't due to it. No need to buy another drive, if it's Firewire, anyway. Just give it a shot- this isn't a cure all, but just good audio practice. Let me know how it pans out. Good luck, L
*Firewire is better than USB in all situations. But you seem to be going a track or two of USB audio in, so I'd use USB for that. For light use it's fine. Then you can use your superior Firewire bus to write the audio to the external Firewire drive.
dual 2.8GHz Mac Pro, Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.5.6) 2 GB RAM
4feet4
Posts: 17
From: Pasadena
Registered: Mar 12, 2009
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 11:12 AM in response to: Larry Mal
L - Thanks for laying that out in simple terms - learning a ton and loving it ( when things work) - I will pick up another Lacie - my old Lacie for my PC crashed - I'm better off starting from scratch ( I'm still trying to retrive some data of the old one) ... I'll let you know how it works. I would have got an external drive outright but the Logic Certified guys at Apple told me I would not need one - sounds like this is the big problem. I'll use the freeze method when needed also....... maybe I'll have better luck with Groove Agent 3 with the external drive.
Much appreciated-
(TBD)
Imac Mac OS X (10.5.5) 2.4 Processor, 4 GB RAM, M-Audio Fast Track Pro Interface, No External HD
Larry Mal
Posts: 654
From: Saint Louis, Missouri
Registered: Sep 27, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 11:39 AM in response to: 4feet4
And free up some room on that system drive.
dual 2.8GHz Mac Pro, Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.5.6) 2 GB RAM
Pancenter
Posts: 3,306
From: Southwest U.S.
Registered: Apr 22, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 12:04 PM in response to: 4feet4
4feet4 wrote:
L - Thanks for laying that out in simple terms - learning a ton and loving it ( when things work) - I will pick up another Lacie - my old Lacie for my PC crashed - I'm better off starting from scratch ( I'm still trying to retrive some data of the old one) ... I'll let you know how it works. I would have got an external drive outright but the Logic Certified guys at Apple told me I would not need one - sounds like this is the big problem. I'll use the freeze method when needed also....... maybe I'll have better luck with Groove Agent 3 with the external drive.
Groove Agent 3 loads samples into memory so I doubt if your luck will change.
The -first- thing I would do is clear some space on your hard drive, my feeling is that OSX is writing swap files and the drive head is working overtime to try and find free space to write. That in itself could cause an overload.
Free drive space now or expect more problems than you're currently experiencing.
pancenter-
Power Mac G5 1.8GHz Dual, 4GB RAM Mac OS X (10.5.5) RME Audio - MOTU MIDI, Mac (Logic 8.02), Intel/XP-Pro Quad Core PC

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Topic : System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
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Replies : 10 - Pages : 1 - Last Post : Aug 10, 2009 12:04 PM by: Pancenter
4feet4
Posts: 17
From: Pasadena
Registered: Mar 12, 2009
System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 9, 2009 7:52 PM
Any quick tips on what to do? My project is small - while monitoring my CPU usage it never goes above 30 while running the project - I've got 2.78 GB of free disk space - 4Gig Ram - I dont use my IMAC OSX 10.5.5 for anything but Logic? Hoping to get around this CONSTANT issue - thanks for your help.
Imac Mac OS X (10.5.5)
Larry Mal
Posts: 654
From: Saint Louis, Missouri
Registered: Sep 27, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 9, 2009 9:48 PM in response to: 4feet4
Well, if you are saying you have only 2.78 GB's of space on your hard drive, then you'll want to have more. You should leave about 10-15% of your drive free.
dual 2.8GHz Mac Pro, Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.5.6) 2 GB RAM
4feet4
Posts: 17
From: Pasadena
Registered: Mar 12, 2009
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 9, 2009 10:51 PM in response to: Larry Mal
I'm running LP8 - I have an IMAC OSX 10.5.5 - 2.4 processor - 4 GB RAM - M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface (USB direct to MAC) - I do NOT have an external hard drive ( sounds like I should ? - although I was told by others my system would be sufficient) - I use ALL instruments/track options ( midi etc) and will need to in the future - I want to be able to run a full music project 10-15 tracks. So far I'm running 4-5 tracks -(1) midi - the rest are audio with little to no effects ( in one project I'm using an LP8 template but deleted most of the tracks to cut down on the load ). Don't know if I can freeze these tracks-I'm new to this - thats why I'm looking for options ........ i was also using a 3rd party software in the project - Steinberg Groove Agent 3 (drums) but it was giving me the same error ..even when it was the ONLY track in the project....(its not fully compatible) - however I was finally able to create a full drum track with GA3 - play the midi data back - and record it to an audio track - therefore deleting the midi data I was having issues with and keeping the drums.... hope this helps?
Imac Mac OS X (10.5.5)
4feet4
Posts: 17
From: Pasadena
Registered: Mar 12, 2009
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 6:39 AM in response to: 4feet4
Updated
Imac Mac OS X (10.5.5) 2.4 Processor, 4 GB RAM, M-Audio Fast Track Pro Interface, No External HD
Larry Mal
Posts: 654
From: Saint Louis, Missouri
Registered: Sep 27, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 7:54 AM in response to: 4feet4
Perfect. Well here are some suggestions:
1) Logic 7, 8 and 9 all have a "freeze" function. Logic 9 has a new "bounce in place" function which I haven't used yet. These will make temporary audio files of your MIDI instruments so that you are able to play them as finished audio for the most part and free up CPU power. ( I haven't yet used "bounce in place", I just got Logic 9.) This will help with MIDI instruments quite a bit, and you can still go back and change them by un-freezing... I guess "thawing" would be the proper term.
2) The reason I was asking about your audio interface is because I was wondering what you had available. You very definitely want to record to a non-system (on that Logic nor your operating system are on) drive. Firewire is much superior to USB, which is why I'm glad to hear you are using USB as your audio in. By using Firewire in and Firewire out, on an iMac, you would be halving the bandwidth. In your case you are not.
You will add very much stability to your Logic work by adding an external Firewire drive and recording audio to it, and working on Logic projects there! If you have the money, I'd go with Firewire 800, which is frankly overkill, but why not. Firewire 400 drives will work fine for you. Add one and many of the overload messages will disappear, simply because right now you are pulling information from (in the form of calculating what the virtual instruments and Logic are doing) and writing information to (in the form of writing what those instruments and Logic are resulting in) to the same disk.
Try these two things and get back to us. I think you'll be very happy with the results.
It's also important to pay attention to your buffer size. When it is not important for you to play with it in real time, you want to make it be 1024. Otherwise as low as possible. So when you are recording audio to a MIDI drum track, you'd want it to be very low so you can play along accurately. When you have all that done, and are editing MIDI only, then put the buffer higher. When mixing, put it higher.
Let me know how this works, good luck, L
dual 2.8GHz Mac Pro, Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.5.6) 2 GB RAM
4feet4
Posts: 17
From: Pasadena
Registered: Mar 12, 2009
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 9:10 AM in response to: Larry Mal
Ok Great - Thanks - makes sense - I was using a Lacie with Protools an my PC ( it recently crashed) - I was under the impression I would have enough processing power with out it on the MAC.
Looks like I can pick one up for just a little over $100 ( I'm rolling in that kind of cash) ... please clarify though - you stated: "Firewire is much superior to USB, which is why I'm glad to hear you are using USB as your audio in. By using Firewire in and Firewire out, on an iMac, you would be halving the bandwidth. In your case you are not" ....are you GLAD to hear I am using USB as in - We may have found the problem .... go external to free up processing ? Please confirm.
Thanks again
Imac Mac OS X (10.5.5) 2.4 Processor, 4 GB RAM, M-Audio Fast Track Pro Interface, No External HD
CCTM
Posts: 249
Registered: Mar 11, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 9:28 AM in response to: 4feet4
4feet4 wrote:
Ok Great - Thanks - makes sense - I was using a Lacie with Protools an my PC ( it recently crashed) - I was under the impression I would have enough processing power with out it on the MAC.
As stated in an earlier reply, if you only have 2 or 3 gigs of free space on your Mac hard drive, processing power is NOT the problem. Your boot disc is way too full. You should have at least 20-30GB free.
Running a second drive for the audio side will, of course, help, but you MUST clear out the main hard drive (or fit a larger one) before you run into even more serious problems.
HTH
CCT
Larry Mal
Posts: 654
From: Saint Louis, Missouri
Registered: Sep 27, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 9:37 AM in response to: 4feet4
Well, you have enough processing power, that isn't the issue. All the processing power in the world won't matter if you have 64 megabytes of RAM, there will be a bottleneck. Another bottleneck is with data transference. Like I said, when using a single drive to transfer date from as well as to- which is what you are doing when you are using Logic, running within the scope of the operating system, and hosting virtual instruments, all of which is writing the resulting audio information to the same drive, at the same time, then you are creating another problem. But you don't have to do that, by sending the audio written to another drive other than the one the audio is being generated from.
In other words, your processing power is both faster than and irrelevant to the physical limitations of the hard drive itself.
Another bottleneck would be if you were recording tracks on a Firewire in, and sending that to and external Firewire drive out. This is one of the limitations of the iMac, there is no way to add what is called another bus, which is simply another pipeline for data transference. You can get around that with a Mac Pro, in which you add another internal hard drive, which connects directly to the motherboard, and has its own bus. Or by adding another Firewire PCIe card, which will add another Firewire bus, again, with its own data transference. On an iMac, you have one Firewire bus, and one USB bus.
Clear? You can imagine these as pipes of water. The more pipes you have leading to and from a location the faster it will go.
USB, in your case, is a dedicated pipeline in. Nothing (well, your mouse, maybe a flash drive) is using that pipeline. Your Firewire is a pipeline out, in this case- you could reverse this, it doesn't matter*. If you use Firewire in and out, then you are sending water flowing in both directions in the same pipe. It will work, but not as well. By adding a dedicated bus, you would be adding another pipe to flow in one way, while the original flowed the other way. No impedances.
I don't see why you can't use the Lacie drive you already have, though. It's quite likely your crash wasn't due to it. No need to buy another drive, if it's Firewire, anyway. Just give it a shot- this isn't a cure all, but just good audio practice. Let me know how it pans out. Good luck, L
*Firewire is better than USB in all situations. But you seem to be going a track or two of USB audio in, so I'd use USB for that. For light use it's fine. Then you can use your superior Firewire bus to write the audio to the external Firewire drive.
dual 2.8GHz Mac Pro, Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.5.6) 2 GB RAM
4feet4
Posts: 17
From: Pasadena
Registered: Mar 12, 2009
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 11:12 AM in response to: Larry Mal
L - Thanks for laying that out in simple terms - learning a ton and loving it ( when things work) - I will pick up another Lacie - my old Lacie for my PC crashed - I'm better off starting from scratch ( I'm still trying to retrive some data of the old one) ... I'll let you know how it works. I would have got an external drive outright but the Logic Certified guys at Apple told me I would not need one - sounds like this is the big problem. I'll use the freeze method when needed also....... maybe I'll have better luck with Groove Agent 3 with the external drive.
Much appreciated-
(TBD)
Imac Mac OS X (10.5.5) 2.4 Processor, 4 GB RAM, M-Audio Fast Track Pro Interface, No External HD
Larry Mal
Posts: 654
From: Saint Louis, Missouri
Registered: Sep 27, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 11:39 AM in response to: 4feet4
And free up some room on that system drive.
dual 2.8GHz Mac Pro, Macbook Pro 2.16 GHz Mac OS X (10.5.6) 2 GB RAM
Pancenter
Posts: 3,306
From: Southwest U.S.
Registered: Apr 22, 2007
Re: System Overload ...i know ..I'm not the 1st ...
Posted: Aug 10, 2009 12:04 PM in response to: 4feet4
4feet4 wrote:
L - Thanks for laying that out in simple terms - learning a ton and loving it ( when things work) - I will pick up another Lacie - my old Lacie for my PC crashed - I'm better off starting from scratch ( I'm still trying to retrive some data of the old one) ... I'll let you know how it works. I would have got an external drive outright but the Logic Certified guys at Apple told me I would not need one - sounds like this is the big problem. I'll use the freeze method when needed also....... maybe I'll have better luck with Groove Agent 3 with the external drive.
Groove Agent 3 loads samples into memory so I doubt if your luck will change.
The -first- thing I would do is clear some space on your hard drive, my feeling is that OSX is writing swap files and the drive head is working overtime to try and find free space to write. That in itself could cause an overload.
Free drive space now or expect more problems than you're currently experiencing.
pancenter-
Power Mac G5 1.8GHz Dual, 4GB RAM Mac OS X (10.5.5) RME Audio - MOTU MIDI, Mac (Logic 8.02), Intel/XP-Pro Quad Core PC

Solution for "Error while trying to synchronize Audio and MIDI" and "System Overload" messages

Article for those who hate Logic error windows
Seen in Logic Pro 9.1.7 on Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4
and Logic Pro 9.0.0 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.5
Logic Pro:
System Overload.
The audio engine was not able to process all required data in time.
(-10011)
Error while trying to synchronize Audio and MIDI.
Sample Rate xxxxx recognized.
Check conflict between Logic Pro and external device.
The search in the help given as follows: overload occurs when you use a lot of tracks and a lot of effects on them, and the synchronization is lost when the selected MIDI track for recording or playback. Yes, this is all that is written in the resources. And here are useful tips that have been found:
The Bounce function allows the entire instrument track to be recorded as an audio file. This bounced audio file can then be used (as an audio region) on a standard audio track, allowing you to reassign the available processing power for further software instrument tracks. For more details, see "Bouncing Your Project."
You can also make use of the Freeze function to capture the output of a software instrument track, again saving processing power. For details, see "Freezing Tracks in the Arrange Area."
These tips - about the timing. About overload - there are no tips, except as "reducing the number of plug-ins" and "increasing latency". Zero useful tips - I got two errors in the test project with a blank audio track with no effects, MIDI drums and standard synthesizer, it was no aux buses, and the entire project was only a single plugin in the master track.
Here is the configuration of my computer:
iMac12, 2
CPU: Intel Core i5 3,1 GHz
Memory: 4 GB
And here's a project that almost immediately stops Logic, all instruments and plug-ins with the init-patch, ie not the most demanding settings:
It's sad.
When this happened the first time, I could start the project only if the empty audio track has been selected, a track specially designed so that you can at least start the project. Then, this problem has evaporated along with the changing conditions of work and I forgot about it until the last case.
I was looking for the cause of the problem in the console and the system monitor for two days, and finally I found that Logic ping to the network frequently. I remembered the exact time of occurrence of the problem, and system logs revealed that the problems began immediately, as soon as I deactivate the service of the Internet.
Solution: enable the Internet, or add a new network service on a computer with no Internet. I just created the Ethernet connection to the ip address 1.0.0.0
Logic immediately began to sing.

Hi gabaghoul
Yes, it worked for me on four different OS and Logic versions (10.6 - 10.8 and 9.0 - 9.1.6)
It does not work in some cases, hard enough to tell in which one, but you can try, it very easy: go to the net settings and create new Ethernet connection to the ip address 1.0.0.0 and connect LAN cable to the port.
Also you can try to figure out what happens in your system while Logic error occured - fot that you just start Console and search "logicpro"
Pay attention to repetitive events in a console and events with suitable timing, not so far from error
The problem may be related to the GUI or system memory, sometimes turning off Safari (or Chrome, others browsers) might help.
Message was edited by: spred

System Overload & How to get the best G4 Performance

Okay all you Logic and OSX Gurus. I need your help. I've finally made the LOGIC leap from OS9 and have hit the SYSTEM OVERLOAD wall like many of you before me.
I've been pouring over this, and many other Forums and Blogs, for about two weeks now, and have tried many of the fixes / solutions to no avail. I estimate I'm now getting about 25% of my OS9 Logic performance from Logic in OSX.
One specific case in point is this. A four minute song sketch. No tempo changes. Four midi tracks, 6 Audio instruments and 2 EFX (1 Guitar Amp Pro, 1 Space Designer that's no even being used).
I have unsuccessfully tried to Bounce this to disc for two weeks now. The AUDIO and DISK I/O Meters barely register until the GUITAR AMP PRO track brings the AUDIO METER up to about 1/3rd usage. At various points in the Bounce the G4 will completely FREEZE, and I will have manually restart.
THINGS I HAVE TRIED, and continue to try are:
- Repairing Permissions
- Trashing Preferences
- Updating MOTU Drivers
- Changing Processor performance setting - which I cannot do BTW, because my system does not seem to support this option.
- Closing all Widgets
- Freeing up more Space on my Mac OSx startup disk (I now have 78.41 Gig available on a 114.49 Gig drive)
- Run Cocktail to clean up System logs and temporary files
- FREEZING TRACKS as a temporary 'fix'. This did nothing BTW but add more strain to the CPU and I still had about 1/3rd the usage with my GUITAR AMP Plugin (and it still crashed).
- Increased AUDIO BUFFER to 1024
So, (and I guess this is really two sides of the same question)...
1) How do I FIX this SYSTEM OVERLOAD problem, and
2) How do I "optimize" my Dual 1.25 G4 in order to get the best performance possible out of LOGIC PRO?
OTHER QUESTIONS I HAVE ARE:
- Does the G4 have the processing power needed to run LOGIC PRO?
- I'm confident adding RAM will "help" (can't hurt), but am I really dealing with a RAM Problem here or, again, can these processors really handle it?
BTW - I'm not looking for an excuse to go shopping for a Quad G5 (I mean who needs an excuse... . But, I'm really trying to determine if at the end of the day I will spend money on RAM, Hard Drives, whatever..., and then still be frustrated and end up shopping.
- Are SCSI drives a problem with Tiger / Logic? These Cheetah drives are fast (10,000 RPM), reliable, and have been great drives to record on. I'm trying to do this simple bounce to one of the Cheetahs and as I said it's just not happening.
- Does the startup volume size effect performance?
- Does the amount of free space on the start up drive effect performance?
- Firewire 400 vs 800? My sample library is on the Firewire drive, and I'm thinking this does not pull a lot on the CPU as these get loaded into memory before playing? Am I right about that? It is Firewire 400.
A long letter and a lot of questions. I thank you all in advance for any answers, guidance or direction you can give. Please also let me know if there is something I HAVEN'T asked, looked at or should be doing.
Best,
Kevin
Kevin Saunders Hayes
SYSTEM SPECS
Machine Name: Power Mac G4
Machine Model: PowerMac3,6
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 1.25 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 2 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.4.8f2
Logic 7.1.1 (885)
Pro Application Support 3.1
MOTU 896 - Latest drivers
2 - Seagate Cheetah 9 gig SCSI drives
1 - Oxford Firewire (Up to 400 Mb/sec) with EXS Library
G4 Duel 1.25 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

And after months of using Express, and a week of
using Logic, I hadn't had a system overload until
today. Now I'm having them all the time. It wasn't a
set up change, it wasn't running on the battery, it
wasn't running software monitoring, it's set up with
512 i/o buffer, medium processor buffer. And it
wasn't brought on by number of tracks - that's for
sure. After it started happenind and I took a break &
came back, I was sitting on my couch, Powerbook in
my lap, tapping a beat in with the onscreen
keyboard.... a SINGLE instrument, mind you. NO plugs,
no other tracks of ANY kind. And it happened.
There's a lot of great, relevant and very helpful info on this forum and it all helps and it all counts. But..... so many people are suffering this when moving up to Pro 7 from either Pro 6 or Express. One expects a change in system load when a major update comes along but more and more people are reporting that simply recording 1 or 2 tracks of audio, pure, no plug-ins or EQ is causing an overload whereas in the previous version(s) this was easily accomodated. This, you may have guessed, has happened to me as well. Are we to accept in 1 version increment (albeit a major one) there is such a massive increase in demand from hardware that you cannot record a pure no-plug-in stereo track? When going back to 6.4.3 it will happily record 8 at once, let you EQ and reverb and then do another 8 AND then another. With no troble at all.
It is pointing more and more towards fundamental flaws in the programming. Did L7 come out too soon? Are we just beta testing what is pro software? We are only on 7.1.1 and 6 went to 6.4.3 but at no stage was it this bad at the fundamentals of what the App is for. I love Logic, I really do, but I think, even with all the great help we are fighting what Apple should be addressing. Not that you can find/contact/talk to or get any sort of response from them.
I have tried but have gone back to 6.4.3 until 7.1.2 or even 7.2 appears, but I'm not paying for 7.2. My £200 upgrade from 6.4.3 is now sitting on a shelf desperately wanting to use it.

"LOGIC PRO X: Disk is too slow or System Overload. (-10010)" This is the message that I was having since two weeks ago with my Logic 9. I updated two days ago to Logic X and I am still having the same problem.

"LOGIC PRO X: Disk is too slow or System Overload. (-10010)" This is the message that I was having since two weeks ago with my Logic 9. I updated two days ago to Logic X and I am still having the same problem.
I recently formatted my computer. In other words, I'm not using too much memory of my HD. My Memory Ram is 8GB.

dandotcraig wrote:
A week before logic X comes out it starts bugging out... i deleted a bunch of stuff on my HD and cleaned up everything... didnt fix anything... then logic x came out and I though oh i better update that will fix everything... and im still having the same problems... its rediculous.
Umm,, no offence... but what is ridiculous... is you didn't troubleshoot the original problem but instead you assumed it was a LP9 problem so you updated to LPX which is still in its early days and is likely to be less stable than LP9... rather than more so!
So.. Here's the thing....
LP9 was working fine and then stopped working normally according to you. Therefore what changed at the time LP9 stopped working normally?
Here are just a few ideas to think about.. for around the time this started..
Did you update Logic Pro 9... OS X... Drivers for Midi/Audio or other connected devices?
If you did, did you then restore from a backup you made prior to these problems occuring and what happened when you did so? (assuming you do make backups of your system?)
Did you install any new Apps on your Mac?
Did you add a new Hard Drive? How is it formatted?
Did you start recording or creating music in a different way to how you used to before the problem started?
Have you started using a different SI or FX plugin or plugins.. More or different FX for example.. Did you install a new version of a plugin?
Is all your software legal? (Have to ask because some people install all kinds of illegal plugins and whatever else.. and have no idea how the 'cracks' work or what they might affect/mess up/conflict with in the process)
Have you looked at the System logs to see if anything is happening out of the ordinary when you get these messages?
Have you looked at OS X's Activity monitor to see if any app or routine is kicking in hard when you get this issue?
Basically, you need to think about and look for what changed... because something apparently changed to suddenly cause these issues...given you said you didn't have them until a certain timeframe and some of the questions above, I hope, will get you thinking..
....and maybe a few of the others here will come up with other ideas and suggestions to help you...
Good luck and let us know how you got on...

System overload . Just right processor clips. Left one almost at zero.

Sorry, if this has been asked before, but I did not manage to find a way to look for thread titles and there´s thousands of posts containing my search items!
Here´s my problem: I get the System overload message: "Audio engine was not able to process all required data in time (-10011)", which is in my case understandable, cause I´m running very many EXS an reberbs.
But:
1. My system performance shows, that the right processor is doing allmost all work, while the left processor is just at 10 %.
Why is this?
I remember a trick in Logic 5, where U could ballance the processor-work by using an I/O-plugin an bypass this. This way some of the work was handled by the other processor. Are there any similar tricks in Logic 7?
2. I´m working almost without audio tracks and with many EXS-plugins.
Even though I set everything in a way, that my hard-disc should have a lot of work (Buffer Size 1024, fast disc, etc...) the system performance shows zero activity, but the Audio clips.
What´s wrong?
Thanks for your help!

Hi Felix, bin zwar nicht Sonther, antworte aber trotzdem mal:
Denke es reicht, wenn Du einfach mal den 10.4.9 Combo Installer drüber installierst...wie Sonther schon erwähnt hat !
Logic brauchst Du deswegen nicht gleich zu deinstallieren.
Einfach mal ausprobieren...
Aber ob es an 10.4.9 liegt, warum die Prozessorlast nicht gleichmässig verteilt wird, bezweifel ich. Logic müsste das von sich aus eigentlich selbst machen.
Ich arbeite zur Zeit noch mit 10.4.8 auf men Mac Pro, da hab ich immer ne
gleichmässige Auslastung aller 4 Kerne.
Könntest aber mal den Node-Trick ausprobieren.
Logic Node auf dem gleichen Rechner installieren und in Logic Spuren auf den Node verteilen( vielleicht kannst Du damit den 2 Kern benutzen).
Wurde von Leuten schon auf den G5 quad Macs gemacht, bevor nur 2 von den 4 Kernen von Logic benutzt werden konnten.
MfG

The best DAW for Logic and big sample libraries... no more system overload

I'm planning on going big and getting the Mac Pro Two 2.66GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 16 GB of RAM and add two additional 1 TB drives, one for samples and one for projects. It's been suggested that I include a RAID 5 and that it will make streaming of the samples faster and also safer and more reliable for backing up data.
With my current setup I constantly have to freeze tracks of sampled instruments or I get system overload.
Do I need RAID or am I better off without it?

Gabe Garza wrote:
With my current setup I constantly have to freeze tracks of sampled instruments
I'm not sure why you consider this a bad thing.
Having to constantly freeze/unfreeze takes time and disrupts workflow. It's a good option to have if you need it, but much nicer if you don't.
Johnny,
I would strongly advise against diving straight in with 16GB of RAM. There are a lot threads around that discuss how much RAM Logic can even recognize, you should check them out. I don't remember the details very well, but I feel like 16GB was more that it can handle (maybe that was just for ESX...). In any case, don't buy a Mac pre-installed with all that memory; Apple charges way too much for their RAM, and you can find perfectly functional, guaranteed RAM from third-party sellers. I bought my Mac Pro with the base amount of RAM and have added as needed, and I recommend you do the same.
When you play your projects, look at your CPU window.
Look at the Audio and Disk I/O meters.
If Audio is peaking, you need more CPU's
If Disk I/O is peaking, a faster I/O on your hard drive is needed.
I would also recommend doing this. Are you getting "core audio overload" messages, or another type? If you get core audio overload messages while your System Performance meters aren't peaking (or getting close to it), getting a faster machine isn't necessarily the answer. Core audio overloads are kind of tricky--some people with slower machines get them rarely, others with very fast machines get them often. If you haven't read up on this issue, I recommend you do so.
I'm not too savvy on RAID arrays, but I have a few thoughts. How likely are you to need your PCI slots for other cards? The specs for the Mac Pro lists 3 PCI slots, which I believe means 3 empty ones, i.e. doesn't include the one that holds your graphics card. Do you expect to add a second graphics card? PCI based audio interface? Anything else like that? A RAID setup will occupy one of those PCI slots, just keep that in mind. Second, while a RAID 5 array is a pretty secure way to store your data, you ought to have an external backup drive anyway, so maybe it wouldn't be worth it ($700 for a RAID card, yikes!). Lastly, it's likely that any of the most popular 1TB drives (search barefeats.com for some articles on these) will be sufficient to do what you need them too. I don't know how involved your Logic sessions are, but I've never maxed out my disk I/O while using my Western Digital Caviar 640.

Error Message: Disk too slow or System Overload

hey guys
during playback i keep receiving an error message reading: Disk too slow or System Overload. I was wondering if anyone knew the cause of this?
Thanks for any info

I am sorry to hear that you are having those problems. I found this thread in the discussion board about a user having the same issues with the "Disk too slow or System Overload" error message.
Read the thread and this may actually help you to understand what is going on:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1456048
Also, make sure you download this update that may removed several issues with your computer and any Final Cut Studio software.
http://support.apple.com/downloads/ProKit45
Hope this information helps,
Vicente Tulliano

System Overload in Garageband

I recently downloaded Yosemite and the newest Garageband, and I am constantly getting the System Overload error, and it is making Garageband completely unusable. I have 4 drum and 2 guitar tracks running (nothing fancy), all of which are Locked.
-It's an early 2011 macbook
-I tried upgrading to 8gb ram
-reset smc
-restart computer before each session
-checked energy saver preferences (putting harddrives to sleep)
-391gb HD available
-running Yosemite
-Filevault is not activated

Do other programs have the same problem?
Have you tries a restore library in the menu options?
Have you tries a uninstall and reinstall of the program?
Yosemite is known to cause problems that is why I didn't update to it.
Garageband Facebook Group
Garageband YouTube Channel

System overload related to disk activity peaks

I get frequent system overload messages and they are starting to get irritating. I have read all the threads and followed all the instructions, but to no avail. I installed Activity Monitor and the overloads only occur when there are peaks in disk activity while data is being read. What does this mean and how can this help me solve the problem??
I have a MacBook with 2Gb RAM. I use a MBox2 Mini (USB) audio interface, 7200rpm firewire hard drive and Logic 8. All my audio and projects are on the external HD. I use BFD2, which seems to increase the number of overload messages. BFD's data is on the external HD, too.
Any help would be appreciated
Julie

I'm grateful for you replies, Erik.
Eriksimon wrote:
So it seems that often there was paging going on - a lot. Only on one occasion there wasn't any. I think the BFD samples may be responsible for that. You could test that by freezing the BFD track(s).
Logic doesn't give me the option to freeze BFD tracks. BFD is on a multi-timbral software instrument track. I route the outputs from BFD to aux tracks in Logic. None of these have the freeze icon in the track header. So I'm unable to test this.
During bouncing? Do you mean you only bounce realtime? Why not bounce offline? It is faster and you can listen to the result in iTunes, without overloads...
I bounce realtime because offline causes problems with BFD - ie. cymbals are cut short. However, I've recently been given some advice on the BFD2 forum which should help with this (but I haven't had a chance to try it yet).
I guess I'm going to have to upgrade. Wish I could afford a desktop!!
Julie

I keep getting the disc to slow or system overload on logic x.

I keep getting the disc to slow or system overload message on logic x. I have read that the answer is to use and internal ssd drive or fire wire but I am confused about how these are fitted and which is the best one.
Many thanks,
Joe
mac mid 2009
2.26 ghz intel core 2 duo
memory 8gb 1067 mhz ddr3
operating system 10.8.4

There loads of advice on the overload/slow issue just search the web with your error message and 'Logic'.
I just discovered that the backup process can cause this issue on its own so that might also be one to consider.
RG
Erik

I get an error message saying "system overload, the audio engine was not able to process all the required data in time (10011)

i get an error message saying "system overload, the audio engine was not able to process all the required data in time (10011)

The thing is, that error message has been appearing when playing/recording a track that was running perfectly a few minutes ago and nothing has changed!
That can mean, that your project is too ambitious for your Mac. Are you using many complicated automations on that track?
4GB memory is not much, when doing audio processing. GarageBand will need all memory it can get, or will be forced to continually swap pages to your disk, to free RAM, and that can cause this error.
When this error occurs, it is best to restart the computer. This will free your RAM. Close all other applications that are competing for memory, i.e. other multimedia applications, and Safari.
Also, make sure, that you have plenty of free disk space. Don't let the free disk space drop below 20G.
Where is your project located? On an external drive or your internal drive? If it is on an external drive, connect this drive directly, not daisy-chained, or move the project to your internal drive.
I got up to eat, came back and tried to continue but GarageBand shuts down and displays that message every time I try to run the song. I've also recently run songs with several more tracks than this one and they worked perfectly. Any tips?
Are your other projects, that worked perfectly, still working?

"Disk too slow or System Overload" ... hardly

Hi all!
I hung onto my 2007 MacPro until just before summer when I upgraded to be on the safe side. I do orchestral work and have been accustomed to running heavy VSL projects on one single machine pretty effortlessly. On my new 12 MacPro, things are working even smootherEXCEPT for this "Disk too slow or System Overload" happening from time to time on fades. The projects in hich I experience this behaviour are audio only, orchestral mixes of between 60 and 70 audio tracks and I get the message when executing fades on all tracks simultaneously. I can't remember getting this on my old MacPro which had a fraction of the cpu-power and not nearly as much ram.
My specs are 2x2.66 6-Core w/32GB ram, and all audio files, fade files and othe project files, are written to two 2 TB 7200 disks in the internal disk slots, configured as striped RAID. This gives more than enough speed and I still have 1,64 TB of free space on the RAID set.
This issue comes and goes and I can't seem to figure out what triggers Logic's problem to read fades fast enough. Just now I had some corrupted fade ailes, rebuildt them and now Logic can't get past the fades at all unless I start playing in the middle of them.
I can't understand why this problem should be introduced on a configuration much, much faster than my previous MacPro where this problem hardly ever occured. I even doubled the I/O buffer from 512 that I was using on my old mac, to 1024 with no difference at all. Increasing Process buffer size to "Large" doesn't have any affet either.
Any clues anyone?
Best regards,
Ginge

Good point, nice link!
But the thing is I'm not using any software instruments and apart from one EQ on a track here and there, two Tube tech plugs and two sends to Altiverb (of which one is inactive). This kind of load was not a problem on the old heap and shouldn't be a challenge for a 12-core... Also, without changing anything apart from the move above, it is now playing with only one pixel-high movement on the meter, like you would expect it to do.
BTW the quirk is now back on the project that was fixed. I did new fades at another position and CPU 1 is now maxing out again. A new set of fades means equal fades on regions on 63 tracks playing simultaneously.
As I'm writing I'm becoming aware of one interesting aspect: the project files contains imported aaf data and to save space I'm leaving the media-files at the original location where it was put by Pyramix who exported the aaf. I figure there shouldn't be a difference if the audio files reside in a folder called "Media files" or "Audio files". These folders are sitting on the same disk albeit not in the same subfolder. If anything, I'd assume it would minimize potential for error caused by having several copies of files with identically names on different locations on the disks. But now it seems the issue is less likely to appear if I save the project including assets, copying external audio files (on any disk), or at least that is how it looks like right now. New fades are working fine after I've done this.
Doesn't make sense to me but it seems to make a difference...
Ginge

Logic Express says "Disk is too slow or system overload (-10010)"

I have a brand spankin new white MacBook. It has Intel Core Duo 2.1 processors, with 2gigs of RAM, and Leopard 10.5.6 OS. I am using Logic Express 8 and every now and then I will get an error message "Disk is too slow or system overload (-10010)
I checked the requirements for Logic Express 8 and I exceed them. Could I still need more than 2 gigs of RAM?

I got the same problem when I was recording 10 tracks while using SW monitoring. For a short while it went OK but then twice in a row I got this message about the disk being too slow. The result was that I got a real loud noise on the headphone. But after that the recording just proceeded. I had to stop because otherwise I think the musicians would have gone deaf. However I had to continue with recording for some more hours so I tried to solve it. The following worked for me. I turned off 24 bit recording because I had the impression there was too much data being written. I also made the buffer as low as possible (32). After that I did not have a problem anymore and recorded for about 7 to 8 hours in a row.
So I suspect that the HD is indeed too slow or has not enough cache. As far as I can see my HD has 8 MB RAM and runs at 5400 rpm. I wll ask Aple support if this could be an issue when recording large amounts of data. Note that I have 4 GB RAM and still got the problem so that is not the cause of this issue here.

Charger causing System Overloads!?

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