Specifications

Chapter 4: Configuring Your Pro Tools System 53
Enabling DMA
Enabling your computer's DMA (Direct Memory
Access) frees up CPU bandwidth so your com-
puter can do other Pro Tools tasks.
In most cases the DMA option will already be set
correctly, as Windows detects and activates
DMA mode by default.
To enable DMA for any IDE hard drives
(Windows XP):
1 Choose Start > Control Panel.
2 Double-click System.
3 Click the Hardware tab.
4 Under Device Manager, choose Device Man-
ager.
5 In the Device Manager window, double-click
IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, then double-click the
Primary IDE Channel for your IDE hard drive.
6 Click the Advanced Settings tab.
7 For each device, set the Transfer Mode to “DMA
if available,” and click OK.
8 Repeat the above steps for any additional IDE
Channels.
9 Close the Device Manager window and then
the System Properties window.
Disabling System Standby and Power
Management
When using Pro Tools, the Windows System
Standby power scheme must be set to Always On.
This helps prevent long record or playback
passes from stopping due to system resources
powering down.
To configure Windows Power Management
(Windows XP):
1 Choose Start > Control Panel.
2 Double-click Power Options.
3 Click the Power Schemes tab.
4 From the Power Schemes pop-up menu, select
Always On.
5 Click OK.
This sets System Standby, System Hibernate,
and “Turn off hard disks” to Never.
Disabling ClearType Font Smoothing
When using Pro Tools, the Effects “Clear Type”
setting must be disabled.
To disable ClearType font smoothing
(Windows XP):
1 Choose Start > Control Panel.
2 Double-click Display.
3 Click the Appearance tab.
4 Click Effects.
5 Deselect “Use the following method to smooth
edges of screen fonts.”
6 Click OK to save your settings and close the Ef-
fects dialog.
7 Click OK.
8 Restart the computer.
On AMD processors, be sure to check and
disable Cool N’Quiet in the System BIOS (in
the Cool & Quiet Configuration section). See
the manufacturer’s documentation for in-
structions on disabling this power option, if
necessary.