Having problems with Sonar x3 crashing.  It will be going along fine, and then sometimes after recording a short manual punch in on a track.  It will just sit there and think, and then nothing.  It is stuck with the hour glass rotating.  It never stops until I force the program to close.  Then Sonar x3 Pro will not open unless I reboot the computer.  It is a real pain in the neck.
 
Can someone please advise how I might avoid this problem or improve my performance.  
 
I couldn't figure out how to make my computer specs part of my profile here on the forum so here it is.
 
I am running 64 bit Windows 7 Pro, Service pack 1. Intel Core TM2 quad  Q6600 at 2.4GHz 2.39GHZ. 1 GB C Maxed out at 8gb of ram.
 
4 hard drives running 7,200 RPM
C: 1 gb
D: 1 gb
E: 2 gb
Y: 2 gb
 
Thanks!
 
 
 

Can you please list all plugins that this particular project has loaded into it?
 
I am suspecting that one or more are 32-bit, which then causes Sonar to load a piece of 'bridging software' to allow a 32-bit program to run in 64-bit Sonar.  Sonar comes with something balled BitBridge, to perform that service, and a popular 3rd-party bridging software app is called JBridge, which some folks use when they have certain plugins that for some reason don't seem to work well with Sonar's BitBridge.
 
Anyways, the bridged plugins can sometimes cause problems in 64-bit Sonar, and many folks went through a sometimes painful/sorrowful move away from using any 3rd-party 32-bit plugins in their 64-bit Sonar installations, and MANY of these folks have subsequently reported having FAR fewer problems.
 
So, again, please list all the plugins - synths and effects - that are loaded into this project.  
 
In addition to sometimes making Sonar unstable, where it will crash, it sometimes happens that the audio interface gets 'stuck' or BitBridge doesn't release from memory for a while, and either of these conditions can cause folks to end up rebooting to be able to restart Sonar.
 
You may be able to free up things by unplugging the audio interface when you crash, then plugging it back in, as this might make you be able to restart Sonar without having to reboot.
 
Bob Bone

I guess you've updated to X3e if not that would be a good start.

You can force sonar to stop without rebooting by opening the task manager and ending the particular process causing it to hang. This will help while you troubleshoot the issues along the line that Bob has suggested so far

Sonar Producer will be sonarprd.exe
Bitbridge (used to load 32 bit plugins in x64 Sonar) will be teleport server

You could also first make a backup copy of the whole project folder for the one that seems to randomly crash Sonar, then load the project in Sonar's 'Safe Mode', skipping the load of all plugins, and then do a bunch of of things that seem to cause the project to crash Sonar, and see if those problems go away when the plugins are not present in the project.
 
If the project remains stable when the plugins are skipped from being loaded, that is a good clue that one or more of the plugins are creating some kind of scenario that causes the crashes.  At that point, it would still not yet be determined whether or not the crashes are from something Sonar is doing wrong, or if the problems are caused by the plugins and only exposed by Sonar, but at least you would know that one or more plugins are involved in some manner, and that would help in the debugging process.
 
Can you please list all the plugins loaded into one of these projects that seems to hang/crash Sonar?  I would like to do some research into them to see if any have a history of issues in Sonar.
 
The most frequently seen Sonar crashes in X3 seem to be from 3rd-party 32-bit plugins not working with the bridging software needed for them to be able to be used in a 64-bit install of Sonar.  Cakewalk includes bridging software for free in Sonar, called BitBridge, and some plugins are not stable when loaded with BitBridge.  There is an additional piece of bridging software out there, called JBridge, and that can help some of the plugins that don't work with BitBridge work in Sonar x64, but even using JBridge some 32-bit plugins still fail in 64-bit Sonar.
 
Lots of folks have made deliberate choices to minimize or even completely eliminate the use of 32-bit 3rd-party plugins in 64-bit Sonar.  Many of the larger plugins vendors offer free updates to their plugins to give you 64-bit versions, and most new commercial plugins have 64-bit versions from their inception.  Another choice would be to install a 32-bit Sonar, for situations where you REALLY want to continue to use some 32-bit plugins that just don't work in a 64-bit Sonar, and that should eliminate stability problems from bridging, as you would not be bridging anymore, being in a 32-bit Sonar.  (so, you would end up with both a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of Sonar on your computer at the same time - which works fine with no interference).
 
Are there any particular error messages that are associated with any of these crashes?
 
Is there anything recorded by Windows that can be seen in the Windows Event Viewer?
 
Bob Bone
 

Thanks for all of the input!  I am using X3e. 
The plug ins are on vocal lead track
VC64 - 32 bit (Vintage channel - soft vocal with air)
HF exciter
Lexicon Pantheon Reverb
Cakewalk compressor/Gate
 
Master out channel has:
BT BrickWall BW25-3
 
This particular song will be running along and then just stop.
Thanks again for your help!
 
FADS

OK, I have started a completely new project.  I have added NO plugins what so ever as a test.  Sonar x3 will be playing along and then just stop.  So does that mean that this isn't plugin related, and the 32bit bridge has nothing to do with it?  if so, any suggestions on what it may be that is causing this problem.
 
Your help is much appreciated.
Thanks
FADS

It would appear, from your latest testing, that plugins are not the cause of these stoppage occurrences.
 
So, let's begin by looking at your system, and your installation, and see if something there may be out of whack.
 
Please provide specifications for your system, you can look at the bottom of this post for my specs as a model, so that we have an idea of your computer environment.  
 
What sort of CPU, memory, audio interface, OS version and maintenance level, driver version and firmware version of your audio interface, and anything else you can think of that we should know.
 
Thanks - the good news is that because this issue is not reported widely here in these forums, that means it is likely some kind of local thing to your system, which means it is hopefully able to be fixed, once we figure out what the problems are being caused by.
 
Bob Bone
 

He posted his system (most of it) in his original post.
I am running 64 bit Windows 7 Pro, Service pack 1. Intel Core TM2 quad  Q6600 at 2.4GHz 2.39GHZ. 1 GB C Maxed out at 8gb of ram.
 
4 hard drives running 7,200 RPM
C: 1 gb
D: 1 gb
E: 2 gb
Y: 2 gb

If it was audio drop out I'd say Audio interface drivers. But this sounds like the computer itself grinds to a halt so I would check your DPCLT latency first. 
 
http://www.resplendence.com/latencymon                detailed report all OS 
 
http://www.thesycon.de/deu/latency_check.shtml     simple GUI W7 and XP only. 
 
 
 
 

Sorry was a bit brain dead this morning, I forgot some specs were in OP.
 
What audio interface is being used?
 
If USB, is it connected to USB 2 or USB 3 port?
 
What is driver version and if available the firmware level for the audio interface?
 
What Sample Rate is specified for both the audio interface and for Sonar?
 
Bob Bone