I used to use SONAR many years ago and decided to try it again. I ordered the Platinum (from Sweetwater) upgrade, installed everything, then pushed the Launch button. It immediately crashes with a SONARPLT.exe has stopped working error. I've tried running as admin and nothing. Kinda worried that a brand new install of a brand new program won't even run the first time and of course tech support is closed on the weekends. I'm hoping someone here might have some ideas. I also use Ableton and Cubase and those are running fine so I doubt it's a driver issue.
 
Thanks in advance for any help.

Did you use the Command Center? If so, just try a reinstall from there. The files are on your hard drive, so no need to wait for d/l again.

Uninstalled and reinstalled from CC, still crashes. Uninstalled and tried installing with the individual installer, still no good. Tried Administrator for both, nothing.
 
I used to love Sonar and switched cause school used Cubase, but I never really liked the Cubase workflow. I had used Cakewalk for MANY MANY years. I'm hoping this is some minor thing that can be quickly resolved, and they'll obviously not start my year countdown until it's working.
Thanks

We're gonna need the specs on your computer to be able to help.

Sure. 1 month old Alienware 17 i7-4710, 16GB RAM, Windows 8.1 64bit, program drive is 250GB SDD, 500GB SDD and 1TB HD storage, NI Audio 6 audio interface. Cubase, Ableton Live, NI Komplete Ultimate, VSL, EWQL all working fine. Ummm... missing anything?

What do you mean by "crash?" Do you get any indication that the program is launching, or any error message? How does the programs's exit occur? Does it "crash" Windows (BSOD freeze restart), or is it just that Sonar does not do what you expect it to?
 
One thing that comes to mind when a newly installed program crashes on first use is that the installation includes fatal errors due to corrupted files. In the days before command center, Cakewalk used to post MD5 hashes of the installation files so that you could check their integrity on you computer after download. I have no idea if there is a way to do that with the new installation system. One would hope that such a check was built in to the installer and that you would get an error message and halt when the installer tried to read corrupted files from your drive.
 
 

Skippysonics
 pushed the Launch button. It immediately crashes with a SONARPLT.exe has stopped working error. 

slartabartfast
What do you mean by "crash?" Do you get any indication that the program is launching, or any error message? How does the programs's exit occur? Does it "crash" Windows (BSOD freeze restart), or is it just that Sonar does not do what you expect it to?
 
 

I can only ask, have you tried launching from outside of the Command Center?

Any antivirus that should be deactivated during install, or something?
 
And as charlyg mentioned, launch from CCC is launching in admin mode - since installer is elevated.
Normal launch might give more clues - not that I can see how admin should crash anything, but is different anyhow.
 
First launch usually try plugin scan and stuff, as I remember, guessing plugin paths. I've gotten plenty unwanted things and I had to edit VST paths and reset and scan to get it normal with only 64-bit stuff.
 
What is the safe mode startup - hold down Shift while doubleclicking a shortcut?
Or is that open projects only?
 
And seeing the "not responding" is common nowadays, so could mean "just wait a few minutes".
Getting hasty and try doing too much too early after first launch might lead to crash.

I have tried starting from the CC and externally. I click on either, a black box saying Sonar Platinum comes up and within a second a "SONARPLT.exe has stopped working" message pops up and it closes. Gonna give Sweetwater a call now.

Figured it out. A game had installed some sort of Razer surround sound thing, when I uninstalled that and rebooted the program opened fine. Thanks for all the help though! It was a bit rough that the program didn't give me any sort of crash log or explanation.