Problems w/ X2 on Win7 (Solved)...well maybe not

Hi all.  I haven't posted in a while.

I moved from SP 8.5 on XP to X2a on Win7.  I'm having white outs, (freezes for several minutes, now marker and some borders turn white) which I never experienced with the previous install.  I'm sure I have something set wrong.  I'm going to go back and review the Win7 tweaks I made but I'd appreciate some help.  Where is the best place to start looking?  What search terms?  

I'm running a project that has one instance of Superior 2 and a bunch of audio tracks.  No plugins.  I'm going to post over at the Toontrack forums but my brother is having the same troubles so I don't think it's S2.


When I moved to Win7 I upped my RAM to 12GB so that should not be the problem.  Any links or suggestions?  My specs are in my sig.


Thanks.


Paul

Loptec


hey, Paul
Sorry to hear about the freeze behavior.. :/
What I probably would test first is to remove the new RAM and see if the behaviour remains. It's always a good thing to rule out all hardware issues first, before starting to mess around with the software


edit:
The 12gig RAM should (as you say) be more than enough to runt your project.. however, this behaviour feels like it could be RAM-related, so try and remove them just to assure there's nothing wrong with your new RAM. .. (In other words.. If the problem remains, it's not the RAM)

Hey Loptec.  Thanks for the reply.

The new RAM is Mushkin Enhanced Blackline triple channel memory.  I'm not sure how I'd test it other than pulling it all out and re-installing the old RAM although I could try swapping the positions of the sticks. This RAM has been installed for six months now and I've not had problems with any other programs.  


Thanks for the suggestion.


Paul

Wookiee


Personally I would crank the OC on your CPU/MoB down to off until all is stable.

Is all the RAM the same size and type i.e DR3 speed and giga byte value per DIM?

Some MoB's choke when there are differences check your MoB's manufactures recommendations.

Please ignore all the above if you have already tried the above.

That's an interesting idea, John.  Thanks.  I'll check it out, although it seems to me that if the OC'ing was a problem it would have shown up before now.  I built this system back in 2010.  The advantage with this MB and CPU is the ability to safely and easily over clock it.  I will go back and review the bios settings though.

Triple channel memory comes in sets, (in this case three matched sticks of 4GB each).


Thanks.  Any other thoughts?


Paul

Loptec

Paul G

Loptec


hey, Paul
Sorry to hear about the freeze behavior.. :/
What I probably would test first is to remove the new RAM and see if the behaviour remains. It's always a good thing to rule out all hardware issues first, before starting to mess around with the software


edit:
The 12gig RAM should (as you say) be more than enough to runt your project.. however, this behaviour feels like it could be RAM-related, so try and remove them just to assure there's nothing wrong with your new RAM. .. (In other words.. If the problem remains, it's not the RAM)

Hey Loptec.  Thanks for the reply.

The new RAM is Mushkin Enhanced Blackline triple channel memory.  I'm not sure how I'd test it other than pulling it all out and re-installing the old RAM although I could try swapping the positions of the sticks. This RAM has been installed for six months now and I've not had problems with any other programs.  


Thanks for the suggestion.


Paul

I didn't mean for you to test the RAM in another computer. But if your freeze-problem would disappear by
removing the new RAM, this would indicate that the problem was caused by the RAM.

Alright. So you've had the new RAM for 6 months.. :)
Have you run any other software on your computer that make use of the new RAM?
When running SP 8.5, did you use the 64bit version? (which gives acces to more than 4Gb of RAM usage)

I'm asking to make sure you've used programs in the last six months that actually have used the new RAM. ...just to make sure.. ;P

+1!!
 
I don't think you mentioned if you're running 32-bit, or 64-bit.
 
If Win 7 is 32-bit, it won't "see" the extra RAM.  If you are running Win 7 64-bit, check and make sure all the RAM is visible to Windows
 
(As a troubleshooting step, take at look at your BIOS settings when the system boots, and make sure the total RAM displayed here matches what you have installed.  Also, make sure all the RAM modules match, and that the motherboard supports the module distribution you're using ~ i.e. , if by chance you have 4 RAM slots but are only using RAM in three of them, that "could" possibly present an issue with some motherboards.)

Loptec

I didn't mean for you to test the RAM in another computer. But if your freeze-problem would disappear by
removing the new RAM, this would indicate that the problem was caused by the RAM.
 

 
I understand.  To test the triple channel memory I'd have to remove all three sticks or swap stick locations.
 

Loptec

Alright. So you've had the new RAM for 6 months.. :)
Have you run any other software on your computer that make use of the new RAM?
When running SP 8.5, did you use the 64bit version? (which gives acces to more than 4Gb of RAM usage)

I'm asking to make sure you've used programs in the last six months that actually have used the new RAM. ...just to make sure.. ;P

I built the system in 2010, upgraded to Win7 about a year ago and installed the new RAM in January.  I ran S8.5 and X1, (both 64 bit).  So yes, I've used the new RAM but it wasn't until this current project, (on X2a) that I would have really taxed the system.

Thanks.

Paul
 

chuckebaby
maybe even try going to crucial for the ram tool.
 
 
http://www.crucial.com/?gclid=CMrHqamMy7cCFUyY4AodngkARQ&cpe=pd_google_us&ef_id=UZN9PAAABdA3iiPX:20130604190553:s

Thanks Charlie.

Guitarpima
Are you using Sonar 64bit? If so, I notice crashes like yours if I use 32bit plugs. Start Sonar in safe mode and disable all the plugs. Then turn them on one by one and see what happens.

 
Hi Robert.  Thanks.  Everything is 64 bit.  However, I do own some 32 bit plugs and VSTi's but the only instrument in the project is Superior 2.1 and it's 64 bit.
 
I went back last night and checked.  Lo and behold!, I did have some plugins in the project, (see original post).  I had carried the template forward from S8.5 but thought I had removed all the plugs from this project.  They were just idling on empty tracks but I guess Sonar still sees them.  I didn't check this till I was shutting down but I turned them all off so we'll see what happens tonight.
 
FYI, I did check the RAM.  Everything shows up OK in Windows and in the BIOS.  Before I can undo the OCing, I will need to go back and study my original notes. 
 
Thanks to all.
 
Paul

Sounds like BitBridge was crashing - when I need to use 32 bit plug-ins I use my 32bit 8.5.3 to get that work done. To test memory try memtest.

rcklln
Sounds like BitBridge was crashing - when I need to use 32 bit plug-ins I use my 32bit 8.5.3 to get that work done. To test memory try memtest.

I need to get back through all the unused tracks in this project and check again
 

Paul G

guylemec

But I thought that, if a plugin is idle (by which I guess you mean actually not active rather than just you not playing any audio through it), it should have no effect on Sonar's operations... almost literally out of the loop...
Not so?

That's what I thought.  I'm going to go back and delete all the unused plugs throughout this project and see what happens.  Last night I had a whiteout again.  Drat!


Paul

If you have a project with 32 bit plug-ins Bitbridge.exe is going to run even if they are not being actively used - when I am cleaning up projects and start them up one of the first things I do is check task manager for Bitbridge.exe *32. Good luck hope you get to the bottom of it.

Well, after removing all 32 bit plugins and checking the Task Manager to verify that Bitbridge.exe *32 was not running, I edited audio for several hours last night.  Unfortunately, I still had one white out.  I guess I'll have to keep searching.
 
Paul

Paul;
How goes it with the 'white' outs? I haven't had to my self lately but then again i havent been really taxing my system either.
But your findings about the 32 bit plugs is interesting, as I still on ocasion use them, and am findings out more and more are actually 32  and not 64 bit! Not good.
 

White outs is the perfect description for what heppens to me a lot lately (Win 7 x64; 64-bit X2a).  Everything freezes and Sonar goes white and must be hard-closed.  The error description from event log is: "A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows." This is after a full uninstall/re-install based on tech support recommendation (PITA! ).
 
Are you by chance up-to-date on Windows Updates?  I updated a few times recently and am starting to think one or more updates are conflicting with Sonar.

Paul G
I don't always have to do a shut down to fix this.  Sometimes I just wait 5-10 minutes and it seems to resolve itself and I go back to work.  Also, my whole screen doesn't go white.  Typically it's just the now time marker and some of the headers.  Of course Sonar does freeze up.

Thanks, I was going to ask if it ever recovers after freezing; if it ever "thaws" .  I've never waited more than a couple of minutes or so and it never recovers.  I'm still waiting to hear back from tech support for ideas on this continuous problem.