Sonar 8.53 crashed at least 30 times today

I just installed a new 2 gigs of ram (total of 4) on my old XP32 rig. 
I know, 3.89765423 limit and all. 
but, it's a little snappier except for the crashing. Actually, really not sure if it's the ram or just general purpose crashing. 
And, Actually, it's not "crashing" per se. It's more of a, 'it's gone' type of thing. woosh......

I ran memtest from Microsoft and got no errors. Just wondering if there is something else I should do/check ?

?

are you using any new VSTs you weren't using before? 

If the system was stable prior to adding the extra RAM, it does tend to point a finger in that direction.

Well, everything I own, from XP to my sound card hasn't had any "updates" issued in years.

Thanks for all the replies. 
Yes, windows reports like 3.8752423272726 megs. or, something like that.

Memtest has a 2nd test that I haven't done yet. However, the docs pretty much say that if nothing was found in the first test, it is doubtful I will find problems in the 2nd test. LOL. OK.  Think I'll try it.

Still the same Bub. Thanks. How did you find out it was "bad"?
Most crashes  occur while doing heavy editing in PV or on track clips.

timidi


Still the same Bub. Thanks. How did you find out it was "bad"?
Most crashes  occur while doing heavy editing in PV or on track clips.

 
 
An associate had watched me doing some cleanup and mix editing the other day. He is heavily into programming but uses Protools for his DAW, fwiw. He said he could not believe that Sonar could remain stable considering the number of edits that I would do per minute. Literally hundreds over a short spell.
 
 I have seem Sonar go poof several times but it usually occurs during a record take.
 
Oddly enough, even though I save about every 4 or 5 minutes, when Sonar does go poof and once I reboot and restart, (don't know why Sonar won't restart without a reboot of the system)  the last save is NOT in the file open list. It is always the file version just as it was when I started Sonar the first time that day.
 
I always have to hunt and peck to find the latest version. I think that is very odd.  

timidi

Still the same Bub. Thanks. How did you find out it was "bad"?
Most crashes  occur while doing heavy editing in PV or on track clips.

Well, it's a long story so I'll try to condense it.

I built my own DAW (Something I will never do again.) I installed Windows 7 and it wouldn't let me continue once it got to the Diagnostics Window because it detected bad RAM. I took out two of the chips so I was down to 4GB and I was able to finish installing Windows 7.

When I was done I ran the diagnostics and it said the 4GB was ok. I put the other 4GB in (back up to 8GB) and ran the diagnostics and it found bad RAM.

I tried to RMA out the RAM but Corsair wouldn't do it until I ran Memtest86 to determine if it was bad. I ran it at least 5 times and it never found any bad RAM, but Windows Diagnostic found it in a matter of a few minutes. So I lied to Corsair and said Memtest86 said it was bad and they finally agreed to swap it out, only to have them send me a 100% dead set of RAM.

What I ultimately did was, I downloaded the latest manual for my mobo and it gave the specific part numbers for the memory they tested that was guaranteed to work. I copy/pasted the part number in to Newegg's search box and the only thing that came up was Kingston and it was a 1/4 of the cost of the Corsair. Then I told Newegg what was going on and they let me swap out the Corsair for the Kingston. I haven't had a lick of trouble since and I still have a $90 credit with Newegg. Yay! :)

The story is actually much longer than that. I ended up swapping the Corsair RAM 4, maybe 5 times and never did get a completely functioning set. That line of XMS RAM they put out is low grade junk IMO. Plus it's advertised falsely. They advertise the over-clocked speed, not the native speed. Funny how they lure you in to over-clocking, but won't warranty anything if you admit to doing it.

By the way, I never overclock. I think that's what happened to the Corsair RAM in the first place. It wouldn't auto-detect the speed it said it was so I had to manually set up my BIOS to match what the RAM said it was supposed to be. After much digging on Corsairs web site I discovered what was listed on the RAM was actually the over-clocked speed. It said it was 2000 (IIRC), but it was actually 1333 so my BIOS was in fact auto-detecting it properly.

My suggestion ... look in your mobo's manual and get a part number for the RAM they tested and get that. Also, bitflipper is right about the wrist strap. I got one from Newegg for $15 IIRC. I use it every time I do anything to the back of my PC or internally. I even hook up when I take it out to the garage to blow the dust bunnies out with my air compressor. It's good to do that once in a while because dust can be a conductor.

Good luck with this. It can be a very time consuming and frustrating adventure. :)

timidi

Thanks Bub.

Yea, building can be a nightmare if you get a bad part.

hmm. I'm in the process of trying to find all the pieces for a new build and I had some corsair in my shopping cart:) Now, it's GSkill. (16 gigs). Maybe I should go Kingston..hmm.

The ram in my current box,  I built about 5-6 years ago is Kingston as per the manufacturers site. So, I recently added 2 more gigs (Kingston).  Took me this long to get 4 gigs:) 
Anyway, I don't know squat about all the ins and outs of different parts. Just try and figure it out as I go. 

Did you build an 17 sandy bridge or 950?

I built an i5 Quad Core 750 with a Gigabyte mobo. It's about 2 1/2 ~ 3 years old now.

I read upstairs that X1 is having some problems playing with some Sandy Bridge configurations, but I'm sure that will be fixed, if it hasn't been already with X1C. Sandy Bridge is the next wave of PC's so they have to, know what I mean?

I gotta say, the best system I ever had was an Intel CPU on an Intel Mobo running Kingston RAM. I still have it and it runs just fine. It's a P4 with 2GB RAM and it's about 8 years old IIRC?

Seriously though ... I'll never build my own DAW again. It's too hard to figure out what works with what and everything is changing so fast now it's impossible to keep up.

I think I read that Jim will help you decide what parts and pieces to use for a small fee if you really want to build your own system. I think I read that somewhere.