Kill, Kill, Kill the process !!!

hi,
Sometimes for various known and unknown reasons Sonar hangs or crashes and you have no choices but shut it down and launch it again...
Unfortunately you can't start a new sonar session as the " SONARPDR.EXE " is still listed in the processes list and it is impossible to kill it, at this point i know no choice but have a sit and wait or to reboot.

I've found a workaround (which might be dumb) but it's the only one i know :
When Sonar 5 hangs, i close all sonar related error msg and windows then i launch Sonar 4, then i just close it and magicaly, no more sonar process stucked... A new Sonar 5 session can now be started.
Unfortunately, that doesn't work all the time

So here's the question :
Would someone know a way to murder quickly that " SONARPDR.EXE " thus we can avoid waiting for ages and/or having to reboot ?

Tia.

If you can't end the "SONARPDR.EXE" process in the Task Manager, you probably have a MIDI loop or lockup somewhere. When Sonar crashes, I frequently end up with a MIDI loop (lockup, driver issue....whatever you want to call it). The Sonar MIDI activity indicator usually stays in the Windows Tray also. It doesn't disappear until you restart Sonar and shut it down properly.

At any rate....the solution: Unplug ALL of your MIDI devices from your PC. I know...that can be a pain; but sometimes it is still faster than waiting for the the Sonar process to end on its own.

Right this works. It turn out that my midi contoller is adjacent to my work area, I reach over turn it off, relaunch Sonar, exit Sonar turn the midi controller back on and then you can launch Sonar for real. Clear as mud? ;-)

Here's more info:
http://forum.cakewalk.com/tm.asp?m=639101&mpage=1


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add: It still happens in 5.0.1 for me, but this gets around the issue. Btw, I've only had a couple crashes when using 5.0.1 and that was probably Kontakt related, and those issues are now resolved for me using Cakewalk's VST wrapper.

This shows how to use TaskKill...handy to know.

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/taskkill.mspx

J_War,

I think you said that your workaround was to use S4 to kill the frozen S5 process. I run only S4PE -- don't even own S5.

Thanks for the suggestion at any rate. :-]

My crashes are a little more severe. Not even the mouse or ctr/alt/del will work. Complete system freeze, requiring a manual shutdown.

Make sure to check the event list to see if there are any hints. Control Panel --> Administrative Tools --> Event Viewer.