Well I think I see 2 problems. First 256 isn't enough ram.. you need at least twice that much. Second, you probably only have one hard drive in that "Thinkpad" and it most likely isn't partitioned. Those would be the first issues I would look at. Other than that I don't really know too much about this. I'm sorta a newbie with recording on computers and I struggling through the learning curve myself. This would be a good question for Opus. Oh Gary? Try posting this same question on the "Computing" forum. I replied because I saw your question just sitting there, not being answered and I thought I would try to jog some response for you. Good luck with this!.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It's my opinion, I'll play with it if I want to!

If you can open menus in PT, look for any config menus that address hardware capabilities. Some SW won't work unless you match the software settings to the hardware. Samplitude in particular wouldn't do squat on my laptop til I changed the bit depth/sample rate settings to what the laptop could handle. (Even then, the desktop eats it for breakfast)

While 256 megs isn't ideal, PT should at least open and run with it (My laptop works fine with 128 megs in Samplitude) - you'd definitely be better with 512 or a gig, anyplug-inswill eat more ram.

Also, depending on what you intend to do, the laptop will have some serious limitations for track count, etc - only recently have any laptops offered hard drives that are faster than 4500 rpm - some of Dell's newest ones now offer 5400 rpm, which is still slow for audio. Desktops usually use at least 7200 rpm drives for audio, some as fast as 15,000 rpm (SCSI only)

You might be able to improve on disk performance by using Norton to partition your drive so that the boot drive is the inner portion of the platter and the recording drive is the outer part (faster thru-put) but by far the best approach is a SEPARATE drive for audio. If you want to go this far (and still stay with a laptop) I'd look at a PCMCIA firewire or SCSI adapter, and an external 7200 rpm drive for audio.

Sooo, even if you get it running, don't expect 48 tracks of 24/96 or anything... Steve

Hey Trenchcoat,
Any luck yet?..Your best hope is going to http://www.digidesign.com and clicking on the "Support" link on the toolbar. Check the compatibility documents for Digi 001. As well post in their User Conference. A Digi Tech suppoert rep will probably post a reply. (But I think they are closed a couple more days)
You never said what operating system you were using but I am assuming 98 or ME if you are installing Pro Tools 5.1.

Does sound pass through the breakout box ?
Does it register in the software without playing the transport?
Sorry to say your problem could be a number of things. The transport not engaging sounds like a hard drive problem yet you may have more problems after that gets worked out.

I may be wrong but Digi requires a FAT 32 format on the drive. As well the last post referring to hard drive speed is important. Your best bet for drive storage for multitrack is firewire 7200 RPM drive.
On top of that you may have trouble with the dock. From what I see Digi only approves the 001 on laptop use on macintosh with pcm/cia Magma PCI expansion.
I know ALOT of people using the Digi 001 and not a single on PC laptop. The Digi 002 is another story. Yet ultimately Digi products run better on Macintosh. Not that I am telling you to buy a Mac but I can tell you your sytem would be working right now.

Good luck.
Robert

Well guys, thanx for all the input.

and in answet to audio registering, no, no signal registering at all. and yes, a win 98 os. Well, I accually think I may just get a whole new pc because this is not an ideal setup anyway.

I would go mac, but that would take more $$$$ than I have.

Thanx again, rob

I tried running Pro Tools Free on a 1.1 AMD Anthlon with 256 ram and a single 80 gig drive non partitioned...FAT 32 and I couldn't get it to go either. Pro Tools is a weird program.. I had had much more luck with Cubase VST albeit on another machine. But I like Cubase much more than Pro Tools...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tannoys, Dynaudio, Blue Sky, JBL, Earthworks, Westlake, NS 10's :D , Genelec,
Hafler, KRK. Those are good. …………………….. Pick one.
It's my opinion, I'll play with it if I want to!

With all due respect to Cedar I would recommend using Cubase SX over VST. In it's current state it's actually better than Nuendo at the moment unless you need advanced surround sound and video features.

I haven't upgraded to SX from VST because I have seen a lot of posts regarding glitches. I'm waiting for all that to be worked out before I consider it. VST has been flawless and very stable with high track counts and plug in use ant a very low CPU load for me. I'm only running at 24 bits so SX really doesn't hold anything for me to look forward to. I prefer to keep the strain off my computer and keep max throughput, by keeping file size down. At some point I will need to move because support won't be around for VST for much longer and it's already getting hard to find hardware to accompany it...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tannoys, Dynaudio, Blue Sky, JBL, Earthworks, Westlake, NS 10's :D , Genelec, Hafler, KRK.
Those are good. …………………….. Pick one.
It's my opinion, I'll play with it if I want to!

Yeah, if i wouldn't have already bought the 001 I would've gotten cubase, oh well

Problem solved though, I'm getting(free) an 800 mhz pIII hp vectra with a 13 gig (7200rpm) hard drive and 256 of mem. and I have an extra 256k stick laying around now.

That should do it.