That implies SONAR is probably not the process that's causing the problem - you can't kill it because some other process is freezing the system. First suspect would be bitbridge.exe *32, but it could also be an updates notifier service or program, udaudcp.exe, or any one of a number of other processes.

Well, the OP has Platinum now. Are all of the problems gone?

I haven't experienced it with Platinum, so I guess so.

If a thread is inactive for more than a year, no one should be allowed to post to it. Just a thought.
 
Regards,
Dan

Looked at the title again and started humming(actually, singing the lyrics quietly) an old Beatles tune.
 
I don't know if it's a blessing or a curse, but almost EVERYTHING reminds me of a song.

If my Sonar process hangs because of midi driver, I start any other program with the same midi input driver, play one note on the midi-keyboard, and Sonar process disappears.

But which note?    What happens if you play the wrong note?

I suspect this is a very, very old but un-addressed bug.
Shot in the dark, but try it.
 
Check the option under Preferences\Display: Show midi activity on the windows taskbar
If it is checked, uncheck it.
Recreate a hang condition.
 
Kill Sonar.exe in the task manager.
If Sonar.exe quits, that's your problem
 
Sonar IS  trying to exit but being hung by the midi driver process/icon in the taskbar.
I have checked to make sure this option is off since Sonar 3 Producer.
Like I said, shot in the dark, don't shoot me if I'm wrong.
 
Mel

OldTimerNewComer
Check the option under Preferences\Display: Show midi activity on the windows taskbar
If it is checked, uncheck it.

Unfortunately it doesn't help in my case. But it have helped me to figure out that just pressing any key on my midi keyboard releases Sonar process (without starting any other program). Year, maybe it is funny, but the reason of it is that someone does his work not on the maximum level.

I haven't seen the issue where sonar.exe remains hanging for quite some time now, though is people are seeing it with SPlat I guess it's still a problem for some.

As for killing the process, in my experience Windows usually simply could not do it either via the task manager or using the console and issuing a forced kill. Sometimes logging off and back on again got rid of it, other times it needed a reboot. Once in a while the reboot process would hang and Windows announce it was waiting for sonar.exe to close, at which point the hardware reset button came in very handy.

Bitbridge was also inclined to hang, but I decided to use only 64bit plugins a while ago so bitbridge problems went away.

My personal best guess is that the sonar.exe hang has something to do with Sonar not releasing the audio drivers correctly. Trying to launch media player or itunes with sonar.exe hanging would often result in no audio. Whether this was/is a Sonar issue or a driver issue.....?