Ok here's my setup:
 
Windows 7 SP1 x64, 16 gb RAM, AMD FX 6core, 1TB Disk, Saffire Pro 24 DSP Firewire interface on legacy drivers, Gigabyte motherboard, dual screen setup with latest AMD FX 5450 catalyst drivers, Sonar X3e, Sonar X2 still installed. Novation Nocturn 25 keyboard and Automap 2.8 installed. Purchased legal 3rd party VST plugins are: Fabfilter, Sausage fattener, Stillwell Rocket/Major Tom, Alchemy synth.
 
My Win 7 setup is quite bare bones, UAC is disabled, non essential services are disabled such as windows search, firewall, network related stuff etc. Microsoft security essentials installed but live monitoring is disabled. Not much else, I do have firefox installed but no MS Office etc as this is supposed to be my music machine. Windows updates and Saffir
 
Audio only projects have been quite stable but issues started appearing due to jBridge and Liquid mix. I've since uninstalled LiquidMix , jBridge and any 32 bit 3rd party plugins due to regular app hangs and crashes.
 
Recently, I've started a new project which so far contains 1 x Alchemy, 1 x Session Drummer, 2 x Dimension Pro, 1 x Rapture, 1 x Z3ta 2, fabfilter and Stillwell rocket and major tom compressors, and spent the whole day dealing with a multitude of hangs and crashes, so much so that creativity was virtually zero.
 
My experience with x3 over the last few months has been frustrating to say the least and I'm beginning to believe that it will only ever approach being 'stable' on my system with no 3rd party plugins at all.
 
Ok here's what I'm experiencing with my latest project:
 

• Regular hangs/crashes when editing parameters in Dimension pro when looping a section of midi (have submitted crash reports)
• Sonar audio engine stopping even though hardly any CPU load or anything else taxing the CPU - according to task manager. Saffire Pro is set at 512 so getting around 11ms latency.
• Sonar won't stop playing - click play and the transport will not stop -can rewind but cannot stop playback - have to exit the program and start again.
• SonarPDR.exe - cannot end task in task manager - have to restart the computer.

 
Today I'm going to remove all 3rd party VST plugins and uninstall Automapped plugins as my hunch is that Sonar is not happy with Automap Server 4.8 .
 
All of this is hugely frustrating and killing any actual music making and creativity. I love Sonar X3 but I'm starting to look elsewhere for a DAW that I can work in reliably.
 
Also I'm going to attempt to analyse crash dumps today to see if it will shed any light on these issues. I'm an Analyst Programmer in my day job so have a pretty thorough understanding of Windows and DLL etc.
 
Will be interested to hear from other users who have experienced any of the above issues - have tried reinstalling X3 but alas the problems are still there.
 
Mike
 
 

oh forgot, getting weird sound issues with Dimension Pro when played from the Novation Nocturn - the bass patch sounds distorted when played from the keyboard but sounds fine when a midi sequence plays...that's why I'mthinking Sonar isn't happy with the Automapped Dimesion Pro dll. Doesn't happen every time but regular enough to point to Automap Server.

Please Install or reinstall mix control 3.4. Also perform a setting and hardware reset in mix control. Please remove the legacy drivers this was only a requirement before version 3 and Focusrite says remove them.

Cheers.

* Windows updates up-to-date as is Saffire Pro firmware and drivers.

OK but the advice still applies. This is how I've fixed a similar issue at my end. Make sure you uninstall,reboot, install,reset,remove legacy firewire drivers Cheers.

Hey Alex,
 
thanks for the advice - I'll try that ASAP and post results back here.
 
Cheers,
 
Mike

If the situation persists after that please check event viewer which might tell you the dll responsible. I don't recommend firewall or security essentials being disabled unless you are doing it for diagnostic purposes, you have enough CPU as you say and you can configure security essentials to ignore Sonar folders. Ta. Good luck! :)

Have made the changes as you suggest and will begin testing. This is from last night - make any sense?
 
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EventType=BEX64
EventTime=130502697494548943
ReportType=2
Consent=1
UploadTime=130502697495228982
ReportIdentifier=4c03bea7-0f76-11e4-935c-94de802fb7af
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Sig[0].Value=SONARPDR.exe
Sig[1].Name=Application Version
Sig[1].Value=20.0.5.352
Sig[2].Name=Application Timestamp
Sig[2].Value=5320c501
Sig[3].Name=Fault Module Name
Sig[3].Value=Dimension Pro x64.dll
Sig[4].Name=Fault Module Version
Sig[4].Value=1.5.0.11
Sig[5].Name=Fault Module Timestamp
Sig[5].Value=4c7bcaa6
Sig[6].Name=Exception Offset
Sig[6].Value=000000000012a994
Sig[7].Name=Exception Code
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Sig[8].Name=Exception Data
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UI[2]=C:\Program Files\Cakewalk\SONAR X3 Producer\SONARPDR.exe
UI[3]=SONARPDR.EXE has stopped working
UI[4]=Windows can check online for a solution to the problem.
UI[5]=Check online for a solution and close the program
UI[6]=Check online for a solution later and close the program
UI[7]=Close the program
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LoadedModule[47]=C:\Windows\system32\api-ms-win-downlevel-normaliz-l1-1-0.dll
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LoadedModule[93]=C:\Windows\system32\ntmarta.dll
LoadedModule[94]=C:\Windows\system32\WLDAP32.dll
LoadedModule[95]=C:\Windows\system32\imaadp32.acm
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LoadedModule[97]=C:\Windows\system32\msgsm32.acm
LoadedModule[98]=C:\Windows\system32\msadp32.acm
LoadedModule[99]=C:\Windows\System32\l3codeca.acm
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LoadedModule[101]=C:\Windows\system32\POWRPROF.dll
LoadedModule[102]=C:\Windows\system32\windowscodecs.dll
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LoadedModule[125]=C:\Windows\system32\WMASF.DLL
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Like you say Dimension Pro. Maybe run Sonar as Admin by right clicking (or vice versa) and perform a VST reset next. I would still look at Mix Control first as it can crash anything if not working correctly.

Hi,
 
I always run as admin. So far so good - been in the troublesome project for half an hour after doing the firewire drivers and mix control refresh - rock solid so far! Fingers crossed...
 
Mike