Platinum - Crash crash crash crash crash! No Help.

Based on your post count it doesn't look like you've tried to get any help from the forum. There's a lot of really smart folks here and I'm sure you could improve your situation by asking for some help. Amongst other things that will kill Sonar these are a few off the top of my head.
 
Wi-Fi adapters
Mixing 32 and 64 bit plugs
The 64 bit double precision engine
Conflicts with other audio sources like HDMI audio of a video card
Picking the incorrect driver mode. Some systems like ASIO and others don't
Win 10 drivers for your interface
 
These are a few of the things that I've seen bring down systems over the years and I'm sure there's many more. I won't excuse Cakewalk for their current support level, it's not good, but if you REALLY want to fix the problem there's lots of folks here that know far more than I do. Ask for some help and you'll get it.

Go to the preferences section for driver settings. Beside the bit depth setting is a check box for 64 bit double precision. Make sure it's NOT selected. Some people use it and have no trouble while others have had it cause problems. I haven't used it since I had trouble with X1.
 
You won't want to use MME. If ASIO won't work then try WASAPI or WDM. I guess it would also help to know what audio interface you are using along with your video card. Sonar doesn't need a real powerful video card but recent changes with the linear phase plugs seem to need a specific version of open GL.
 
As strange as it sounds, we may want to move this thread to the main Sonar forum to get more people involved. My knowledge is small compared to some of the other forum members. It may take a while, but I have to think that if Sonar is crashing that much it must be something easy to find by process of elimination.

There are several things to look at, but since these forums are not filled with reports of OTHERS having these constant crashes, it is extremely likely that the crashes are due to some local aspect of your system/configuration/Sonar installation/tweaks/etc.  In other words, this is likely GOOD news, because we can hopefully FIX it, with your help in helping us to help you.
 
So, us forum folks know nothing about how you installed things, or what things you have running, or any of that sort of information - other than what you provide to us, so until we get that all figured out, there will be some questions on that - so please do not get too frustrated at us for needing to get up to speed on YOUR particulars.... :)
 
(by the way - lots of us edit our Forum Profile Signature sections to include our system specs there, as it makes it WAY easier for others to see at a glance what sort of setups we each have.  If you look at the bottom of my posts, or many of the other members, it can give you an idea of what others may find helpful to know about YOUR system).
 
One more thing before I jump in to try to assist: The Cakewalk folks have indeed been in quite a bind with dealing with technical support issues - they rolled out some major changes to how support gets contacted, and there have been some serious burps with those changes, and while they are surely working feverishly to address both that set of nightmares and continued development and maintenance, there DOES indeed seem to be a bit of a backlog building with their ability to quickly respond to submitted tickets.  I have been a user of Cakewalk since the DOS days of Twelve Tone Systems, and FIRMLY believe they will get things worked out - and that things will work for the BETTER - if given some time.  They are a small company, so everyone is stretched tight when things like their newly rolled out technical support contact protocols have issues - addressing any issues like that pulls folks from doing other things, so please please please give them some time to address those issues - there are a BUNCH of forum folks who will work hard to help folks that can be helped. :)
 
OK - so some questions, and then some thoughts:
 
1) You indicated that you have read and tweaked - can you please detail what tweaks you have done to your system?  I am presuming you have read somewhere about some folks doing certain modifications to BIOS, Windows Registry, or whatever, and sometimes some of that information can be old and/or incorrect.  So, please detail any such tweaks you have made to your system.
 
2)  I see you are running Windows 8.1 - can you please tell me if that is completely patch current on maintenance (the critical/important ones)?
 
3) I think I saw in one of the above posts, that you have done an install of ASIO4ALL.  IF that is correct, am I to understand you do not currently have a separate dedicated audio interface for your system, at this time, and that is why you are running with ASIO4ALL?  OR, do you actually have an actual audio interface, and if so, which exact one, and what driver levels is it running on?
 
4) Please provide as much detail as possible on your installation/uninstall/re-install/etc., of Sonar Platinum.  For example, did you use the Cakewalk Command Center to perform the installation of Sonar Platinum?  If you did any uninstall/install again kinds of things, please detail how you uninstalled Sonar Platinum prior to attempting to install again.
 
5)  If you currently were to launch Sonar Platinum, WITHOUT opening any existing projects, does it at least get THAT far, to where it shows you the Start Screen?
 
6) If you DO use an audio interface, what Sample Rate and ASIO Buffer Size do you have set within the audio interface settings screen?
 
7) Which exact maintenance release of Sonar Platinum are you trying to run?
 
8) IF Sonar launches and gets to the Start Screen being displayed, if you close the Start Screen and simply hit the letter 'P' on your computer keyboard, does the Sonar Preferences dialog box open?
 
9) Is your Windows Default Audio Device ALSO set to point to ASIO4ALL?
 
10) Were there any particular error messages that you saw when Sonar crashed?  Did Windows also crash or just Sonar? And, have you looked at the Windows Event Viewer to see if there were any reported Windows errors there?  Some of that can be quite important.
 
11) Are any of your hard drives what they call 'Green'?  (meaning they can run at a slower spinning rate at certain times, depending on system demand on them).
 
Let's start with the above questions - sorry I have so many to start with, but hang in there - LOTS of folks have relied on assistance from forum folks to get things up and running smoothly - including ME - on countless occasions.
 
Bob Bone
 

sojournx
.....my system definitely does not play well in the sandbox with ASIO :-).

Sorry, but can you please define "in the sandbox".  In the IT world, that has a meaning....  I just want to know what this means in this context

Come on Sojournx, you got us interested don't bail now.

Anderton
The audio interface is crucial because it's essentially a computer peripheral. I'm shocked at how many people use aN internal sound card with ASIO4ALL and then wonder why they have problems...that combination is like driving a car with the parking brake on.

while it's no magic bullet that works for everyone, it's not guaranteed to cause issues, which is always the implication on these forums, and it's definitely worth a try if your audio device doesn't have it's own asio driver... if you check the history at http://asio4all.com/ you'll see there have been specific issues with sonar in the past, but not recently... anyway, the op never mentioned asio4all, that was bob ;-)
good luck!
/fwiw

yeah the op never mentioned asio4all (bob did) - if a soggy melon is present that could also cause trouble... 
i've had asio4all installed alongside edirol ua-1000 asio drivers for years, no trouble, go figure...

it's also worth noting that if ASIO4ALL is installed, it can still interfere with dedicated ASIO drivers for specific interfaces even if ASIO4ALL is (theoretically) not in use

i find this the most curious repeated statement - how could one driver "interfere" with another? it might be worth posting this assertion on their forum to find out?

ASIO4ALL did nothing but reek havoc of my system and all it did was crash.
it ran okay on windows xp years ago, but I tried it as a GNC supplement on windows 8
and dan near gave me hermmy's.
 
there does seem to be an ever so recent issue though with sonar crashing when not having a soundcard connected.
not sure what this about. possibly a setting in device manager / soundcard.

pwalpwal
yeah the op never mentioned asio4all (bob did) - if a soggy melon is present that could also cause trouble... 
i've had asio4all installed alongside edirol ua-1000 asio drivers for years, no trouble, go figure...

it's also worth noting that if ASIO4ALL is installed, it can still interfere with dedicated ASIO drivers for specific interfaces even if ASIO4ALL is (theoretically) not in use

i find this the most curious repeated statement - how could one driver "interfere" with another? it might be worth posting this assertion on their forum to find out?

Apologies to ALL, for any confusion my earlier question to the OP may have caused, regarding ASIO4ALL.
 
Here is the text from my earlier list of questions to the OP (of which ZERO were answered by the OP):
 
"3) I think I saw in one of the above posts, that you have done an install of ASIO4ALL.  IF that is correct, am I to understand you do not currently have a separate dedicated audio interface for your system, at this time, and that is why you are running with ASIO4ALL?  OR, do you actually have an actual audio interface, and if so, which exact one, and what driver levels is it running on?"
 
So - in the above question, I was soooo tired I did not go back up and read the entire post again, and that was why I indicated that the OP MAY have installed ASIO4ALL, and then based the next sentence on IF that was the case.  I also had asked specifically what actual audio interface was being used, as well as for specific information as to what driver levels the potential audio interface was running on.
 
I had asked the OP the above, and about 8-9 other questions, and got ZERO response to a single question.
 
We still do not know if the OP actually DOES or DOES NOT have ASIO4ALL installed.  He did indicate in one of his posts, that he had tried multiple driver modes, and his own wording included trying ASIO mode, in addition to the others, without success.  IF the OP has no audio interface, and does not have ASIO4ALL installed, then where in the world would he have gotten ASIO drivers to try as the Sonar Driver Mode?
 
There have been, I believe, multiple folks who have asked for some information, and so far the OP has not provided much, if any, of the requested information.
 
When the OP wishes to actually engage in figuring out what is going on, and willfully responds to questions about his system configuration, then I will stand ready to assist.  Until that happens, NONE of us can help this individual get his stuff straightened out.
 
To the OP (Original Poster of this thread): If you really DO wish assistance to your issues, I believe there are plenty of qualified folks here in the Sonar forums that can assist with getting to the root of your issues, and quite likely come up with some sort of solution for you.  That CANNOT happen if you do not engage in this thread, responding to questions about what you have done, what you have running, and what you even HAVE for hardware.
 
Bob Bone
 

"I am running win8.1, no other attached devices or audio sources. I am running all native 64 bit plugins and have gone through the AISO/WASAPI/MME/WDM/KS driver modes(my system definitely does not play well in the sandbox with ASIO "
 
This was all we needed to know. But oddly enough he is saying he can use X2?? 

Bob Bone has an excellent track record for fixing difficult problems. I would listen to him. 

And answer all the questions to my best ability!
 
:-] M

Hey Michael,
 
Stick with it man...wonderful help on this forum here.  Here's hoping you find the solution.
 
Donny

Anderton

pwalpwal
i find this the most curious repeated statement - how could one driver "interfere" with another? it might be worth posting this assertion on their forum to find out?

I know this can happen because I was doing a presentation for New Bay Media, and there was another presenter who had just installed drivers for a new interface (a TASCAM US-366) on his laptop. He had previously used ASIO4ALL on the laptop and it was installed. He had to set the latency at 1,024 samples for the US-366 to avoid crackling, and he just assumed the 366 had horribly written drivers. Interestingly I was also using a US-366 on my laptop, but was getting about 18 ms of latency. When I saw he had ASIO4ALL on his machine I uninstalled it, and then he got the same performance with his US-366 as I did.
 
Why? I have no idea. I've mentioned this to a few other people and some of them recall having similar issues happen, albeit rarely. Granted this was a while ago, maybe there is a new version of ASIO4ALL that solves this but to me, the optimum situation seems to be:

 
this would be useful info for the developer of asio4all
 

If you don't have dedicated ASIO drivers, use ASIO4ALL. 
If you have dedicated ASIO drivers, don't use ASIO4ALL. 
 

 
totally agree with this
 

At one point I had ASIO4ALL installed on one of my laptops and the only problem I had with it was no matter what I set the latency to, eventually there would be crackling and dropouts. If I changed the latency, even if I made it faster, the problem would go away but then it would always happen again 5-10 minutes later. I've used ASIO4ALL in many setups over many years, and I'd guesstimate that it was fine 25% of the time, and problematic 75% of the time.

again, useful info for theirdevelopers... i wonder if it's anything to do with how the host app enumerates the available (asio) drivers, or initialises the selected one? certainly there was such an issue back in the day with X1 when (iirc) "optimisations for roland devices" broke lynx device compatibility, i think the first "hotfix" was released to fix it
 
and this is worth repeating:
 

If you don't have dedicated ASIO drivers, use ASIO4ALL. 
If you have dedicated ASIO drivers, don't use ASIO4ALL. 
 

 
now here's tom with the weather...