help with laptop and pro tools!

crazy chester

Hi, as the title suggests i need pointing in the right direction of a laptop that can handle pro tools with ease. I loaded my copy of protools on my laptop last night (i followed all on screen instructions) and i keep getting a blue screen when i plug the interface in! I thought there was ample space and computing power on my laptop but maybe i was wrong (ive an acer laptop, about a year old with an i3core processor running windows 7)
Anyone any suggestions on what im doing wrong in the case of loading up the program? Also what would be a good laptop to get just for use with pro tools (if i get a seperate laptop its just going to be used for recording)

Please, please, please someone help me!!

DamagedTrax

protools is notoriously buggy with certain configurations. depending on chipset, fw card, drive types etc.

1st thing you will need is an external firwire drive. you cannot record onto your system drive.

2nd thing is your firewire card needs to be TI. belkin make some great ones.

if you're considering a laptop for just protools i would recommend these guys http://www.dv247.com/synergy

my home pc and our location set-up in work both use these. they're made specifically for audio but they do cost a few quid!

PaulBrewer

Putting your post in the main body of the Forum will most likely get you the most info.

DamagedTrax

Serena Gray Vet wrote: »

Does this only apply to laptops? Or desktops running protools as well?

it applies to every DAW on the market on laptop and desktop. they will all run but as soon as you start clocking up the track count things will go wrong.

the ideal is a dedicated internal recording drive but obviously this isnt possible with a laptop so a fw external is needed.

DamagedTrax

Serena Gray Vet wrote: »

So how reliable is two SATA drives, one the system drive and one the drive PT records to? Both internal? Is that acceptable?

thats the norm. its how i work off a desktop.

crazy chester

Im a bit lost here, is it just an external hard-drive needed as a destination for any recordings? I have uninstalled and re-installed pro tools a few times now to make sure i wasnt leaving anything out and ive got to open the program twice, and both times i had it running only for a few minutes before the whole laptop froze! Sometimes as soon as i plug in the interface the screen turns blue and some writing comes up, which i still dont know what it says as its only up for a second, and then restarts. Ive tried also saving all files to an external hard-drive, including program files, which as above lets me open the program but only for a few minutes.
Any other ideas guys?

DamagedTrax

what interface are you using?

what version of protools? including revision numbers, ie: protools le 8.04cs2

what operating system?

whats your chipset?

whats your firewire card?

whats your ram

without any of the above info we are really stabbing in the dark with your issue.

theres a program called sisoftware SANDRA. it will run a test on your system and list out all your hardware. can you download the free version, run the utility and post up the results, then we may be able to help you more.
thanks.

crazy chester

Hi this is my laptop

http://www.laptopspec.net/2010/01/acer-aspire-as5740-5144-15-6-inch-laptop-with-core-i3-330m-4gb-ddr3-500gb-hdd/

And im not exactly sure the pro tools series but i do know it is 8, will find the rest out tonight.

And im using an m-box2 mini

Hope this helps?

DamagedTrax

doesnt help at all.

run the software i suggested (SANDRA). without knowing the exact hardware configuration and the internals we cant speculate.

thats how imperitive it is to get things right for protools.