Damaged system -solved

I have installed Sonar X2a Studio and Producer Demo, X1 Le as starterkit too. But now all is damaged. When I start one of the programs, the system freezes, not only Sonar but the whole computersystem gets very slow and the GUI is nearly damaged. So I have tried everything. uninstalled all Sonar-programs and installed it again. Nothing has changed. So I tried it again and deleted all files and directories of Cakewalk. I even deleted all entries of Cakewalk  in the registry, which I found. But even that doesn´t solve the problem. 

I have used SONAR X2 for about three days without problems. Then something mysterious happened, I don´t know what. And since then nothing seems to work anymore. Perhaps not the Sonar-programs are responsible, but the Windows-libraries, which are used by Sonar. 

Other thing to try is to load Sonar in safe mode.  If that loads ok and you can get the midi preferences setup ok, quit and restart.  That *should* reset any weirdness.

Ok, so booting in safe mode is ok.  That's a good start.  At what point is it hanging in 'normal' mode?  When it first starts you should get the new/existing song dialogue box.  Can you start a new song using the default template, or does it hang before even then?

I would disconnect any esxernal midi stuff (keyboards, control surfaces) initially.  It may be your soundcard drivers are giving problems here.  Can you post your full pc spec (including o/s, 64/32bit, soundcard, system resources etc?

One last Sonar specific - do you have any 3rd party VST/VSTi installed?  If so get them out of the way so all you have is a vanilla version of Sonar.  Then run safe mode, create a new project using the default template and confirm that is still giving problems.  You should be able to run multiple versions of Sonar, but in my experience I've found it best to remove all traces of competing versions when installing a new one.  Even if that means losing a previous add-on.

Normally a duff driver could well result in program freezes or crashes.  Do you have an oboard soundcard such as a realtek?  If so you could try removing your Behringer one and running with just the realtek.  Don't worry about latency here - we're just interested in Sonar being relatively stable.  Alternatively, disable the onboard sound card and make sure you have the Behringer installed correctly and try the same thing.

After that you may be in to memtest and hdd checking for the rest of the hardware.  People have crashes with Sonar but generally not this consistently or immediately.

If all that still fails, you might want to try installing another DAW (Reaper or whatever) just to see if the whole DAW thing will work on your system at all.  Your specs suggest you should be fine imo.

Anyone else have ideas?

I have not seen these type of issues reported in the forum, so I would tend to think it is something specific to your system or configuration.

After some painful searching (The Acer site blows), I found some specifications listed for the laptop.  I was wondering about the USB ports.  This one has 3 USB 2.0 ports, which is fine.  

There is a bunch of pre-loaded software on that laptop, and the one piece of that concerning me is McAfee virus software, as I have seen that implicated in other problematic systems in the past.  The McAfee software is a trial version anyways, so you will either need to buy a license for it, remove it and choose a different anti-virus program, or remove it and never connect to the internet.  If you choose to remove and replace it with something else, I happen to use Avast's FREE version, which I have never had an issue with.  There are some other ones out there that are also better than McAfee's, others can speak to that - and usually do :).  

All right, I am going to ask you for a bunch of information, so that we here in the forum can get as clear a picture of your system as possible.  Please take the time to answer each of the following questions:

1.  Do you have McAfee antivirus software actively running when trying to use Sonar?  If so, I recommend turning it off during audio processing sessions, as it can interfere with programs such as Sonar.  (I actually recommend replacing it with Avast).

2.  There are some remnants of Sonar that are not obvious, and if you have tried a removal of Sonar you may not have gotten all of those little pieces.  Since it sounds like you were winging it when you tried to remove and install Sonar again, I recommend you use the following link for removing all current Sonar installs, and then install again, this time WITHOUT having the McAfee software running during the install.  It is advised by Cakewalk that you explicitly temporarily turn off any anti-virus software PRIOR to installation of any version of Sonar, and I concur. 
Try the following for removing your various Sonar versions, adjusting folder names where appropriate for a given version you are removing:

A) Completely un-install SONAR from your computer. This is normally done from Start | Programs | Cakewalk. This will not remove any of your project files or audio data.    I use Windows 8 now, and I do not see an uninstall Sonar application, so you might have to use Control Panel's Uninstall a Program function.



B) Open the Run Command - In Windows 7 this can be done by holding down the ‘windows’ key and pressing ‘r’    



C) At the prompt type regedit and click OK.   



 ***Backup your Registry before making edits - you do this by clicking the File menu, Export Registry File.   *** 

  

D) Now delete the following Registry keys:   

 HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cakewalk Music Software\SONAR Producer\X2 

 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cakewalk Music Software\SONAR Producer\X2    



NOTE  that this will remove any effects presets and key bindings you may have made in Cakewalk. You can back these up separately if you like, using Options|Key Bindings, Tools|SONAR Plug-in Manager, and Options|Colors. Hit F1 in these views for detailed instructions on how to do this.   



E) Open the 'Run' command again.   



F) Copy and paste the following into the prompt:   %appdata%\Cakewalk    



G) This will open your Cakewalk Application Data folder, right-click on the Sonar X2 Producer folder and choose delete.   



H)  Navigate to Cakewalk Content - by default it is located at C:\Cakewalk Content.  Once there, if present, delete the Sonar X2 Producer folder there.



I) Then reinstall SONAR. Make sure to have any virus scanners disabled on installation. It is not required or recommended to turn off any windows services.        

3.  Your audio interface advertises that it does not require drivers in order to be used.  This would imply that by default it is using Windows drivers, which are usually not as good as ASIO drivers.  Are you running without any installed ASIO drivers?  If so, then I recommend you go to the drivers download page for your audio interface (http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/UCA202.aspx)laptop, and download the ASIO 64-bit drivers for Windows 7.  


They also offer some sort of bizarre 64-bit combined drivers that incorporate ASIO4ALL - do NOT use THAT driver - use the REGULAR ASIO 64-bit driver for Windows 7 instead.  The correct one specifically has the following description: "64-bit USB ASIO driver".

4.  Is your Windows version up to date for maintenance with Windows Update?  If it isn't please get it updated to current Windows maintenance levels, using Windows Update.

5.  Is your Wi-Fi transmitter turned 'On' during Sonar sessions?  If so, please turn it off, as this can interfere with audio processing sessions, such as running Sonar.  You can turn it back on when not using Sonar.  There should be a switch or a function button to turn it off and on.

Please review the above and answer any of the questions within.

Once you respond, I will try to walk you through driver installation and then the configuration of the audio interface settings as well as the corresponding ones in Sonar, and I will attempt to get these issues resolved for you.

Bob Bone

what graphics card are you using  ? or is it onboard graphics ?
bob  sounded like he was on to something with your AV.

but have you tried a clean project, nothing installed ?
if you have then your next step might be to re install windows and sonar.
only do this as a last resort, but if your registry is banked up, then you might have no other option.
if you do this, be carefull as to which 3rd party plugs you re install as one of them might have done it.

any freeware plug ins you have ?
dare I say any that may have been, how do I say...placed there by someone else that aren't quite right ?
if you know what I mean ?

I would only install plug ins that you know and trust.
normally things this,

you may find this might be your last result.

I have solved the problem. In my Autostartfolder was a tool called FileBoxeXtender, which was not compatible with Sonar. Together they damaged the graphic-system. Great thanks for all your advices.