Wondering if anyone can shed any light on a weird problem I'm having in Sonar Platinum.
 
Whenever I start Sonar from a reboot, some softsynths- but not all - are exceptionally slow to instantiate - up to 30 seconds in some instances, causing the computer to state that Sonar is "Not Responding" in some cases. The weird thing is that this happens for the initial load of the VST only. Once the first instance of the synth is loaded, the next instance of the same softsynth appears instantly. I've noticed it with softsynths like Addictive Drums, Z3TA+ 2, Rapture Session and Arturia's Jupiter 8V.
 
Also, if I add a synth and then close Sonar (not saving project) and then re-open Sonar subsequent loads of the synth(s) are instant also.
 
I thought it was a problem with Jupiter 8V at first, and raised the issue with Arturia, but the other VSTs I mention above act in the same way, so I'm perplexed at what is happening. Some VSTs like Session Drummer for example load very quickly, even when using track templates with kits pre-loaded.
 
I'm not running into any CPU usage issues according to the meter in Sonar, and my hard drive (albeit "only" a 5400 rpm laptop drive) is 75% empty. I'm not witnessing any excessive disk activity either, although projects with any of the above mentioned synths in them also take a long time to load, even if they're only 8 track scratch projects including the soft synths.
 
It's not something that's been an issue for me until recently. Has anyone else had a problem like this and more importantly, is there anything I can do about it? Please, no smart remarks about getting a beefier computer, the machine I have at the moment is the best I can afford and despite the VST and project loading speeds, I can run everything with no difficulty, once it actually loads the VSTs I want to use.
 
Yours hopefully,
Gary.

They probably load huge sample sets. Windows can cache an insane amount of files (GBs worth), so this is why on subsequent loads it happens much faster. At that point the samples are basically read from the cached files in RAM.
 
The only way to speed things up for the initial load is to put your samples on an SSD. It made a huge difference for me so if you can go that route it would help you a lot. I used to hate auditioning different instruments due to the slow load times (the moment has passed and all that), but after switching to SSD it became a non-issue.

+1 to what SilkTone said.

Thanks for the tip guys. However, I also have Reaper on the same machine, and I don't see the problem there. JP8V loads pretty much instantly there. That said, I'd prefer to live with slow loading for now rather than sacrifice the pro-channel and other plugins licensed with Sonar that won't run in Reaper.

Just want to let u out know that I am experiencing the same (Add.Drums)

Gary walker,did you do a lot of tweaking to your system ? (Switch off services,stop indexing etc.)

I've not dug that deep with tweaking as so much of what's there now doesn't really apply to Windows 10 (or so I've been told). The only tweak I have made is to the power management - put it on High Performance and set priority to background services. There's no definitive list of Windows 10 tweaks I know of.
 
Like I said before, I have no problems with latency or pops and clicks - i.e. the usual suspects, just some VSTs are slow to load the first time I load them. What's puzzling is that opening the same plugins using Reaper is like lightning in comparison. I've defragmented the hard drive too just to make sure.

Do those plugins load as fast in Reaper after a boot? It is also possible (just speculating) that Reaper and SONAR load plugins in a deferent way, as in SONAR will freeze until all plugins completed loading, while Reaper might load plugins in the background so it looks like it is ready sooner (applications do weird things to make them look more "snappy". SONAR for instance doesn't close right away when you close it. However the UI closes instantly making it look like it closed right away, however take a look at Task Manager to see how long it still hangs around after a close).
 
The fact that you said it loads fast on subsequent loads in SONAR is proof to me that the issue is really with the slow 5400 RPM drive. Laptop drives are notoriously slow. I initially had my samples on what was supposed to be a fast magnetic drive on a desktop computer. I can only imagine that it would be painfully slow on a 5400 RPM laptop drive.
 
I know you said you are on a tight budget, but I've seen 120 GB SSDs on Amazon for less than $40, and 64GB for around $23. That is really going to be the only way to solve your problem if you want to keep using the same laptop.

Just to add my experience, I was curious about the Arturia virtual analog VST's since I am working through Simon Cann's Cakewalk Synthesizers book.  
 
I thought I would see what 3rd party analog stuff sounds like so I downloaded some demos from u-he and Arturia.
 
I assumed that Jupiter-80V would be fairly light, since a virtual analog needs no samples, and the JP-80V plugin .DLL is only 31MB.
 
But Jupiter-80v loads slowly, and then the Sonar audio engine refuses to run, until I re-run the wave profiler each time I open the project. Even the other Cake synths in the current project remain silent until wave profiler runs again.
 
The weird thing is, it opens fine in Project5!  It also runs OK as a standalone on my rig.
 
If I delete the JP-80V from Sonar, it's back to normal.
 
Tried one of the other Arturia synth demos, CS-80V, and it works great in Sonar!
 
So I imagine there is some programming bug making this particular plugin act up.  Don't know who to blame, suppose it could go either way ...
 
I have all of the rgc:audio and Cakewalk synths, except for the latest one, Rapture Pro.
 
All of them load great for me in Sonar X3e, 32 bit on Win7 Pro 32-bit, Intel Core i3 desktop.  The Addictive Drums, z3ta+2, and original Rapture cause no issues here, either. 
 
So, I'm thinking maybe you have two different issues, (1) the JP-80V possibly doesn't like Sonar (or vice versa) and (2) the other softsynths you mentioned load larger sample libraries, and as others have pointed out, the 5400rpm drive may be causing some lag until they are cached. 
 
I put a Samsung 850 EVO SSD in my system last year and now everything usually just loads in a few seconds.  Best investment I ever made :-)