Sonar crashing on startup if interface not connected [Solved: Undo Tip-of-the-Week 35]

Could I ask a favor?
Please try start Sonar without an interface connected to your PC.
Does your Sonar also crash?
 
The behavior has always been for a message box to appear saying the Master bus has no connection (I forget the exact wording).
 
But recently, Sonar does not even start. I get a message that Sonar has a problem and will be closed.
 
I also tried with an old installation of Jamaica Plains which I keep for mastering purposes, but that crashes too! (if I forget the interface). JP definitely did not do this before, so it probably is not Sonar itself, but rather either:
 
1. Something Sonar installed (the new LP plugs? Or that major change to one of the plugin suites?)
 
2. Melodyne 4 Studio. I upgraded from 4.02 to 4.04 in the past few days.
 
Apart from that, nothing new has happened on my PC. It is not connected to the internet.
 
It's not a show stopper, it works if I have my interface connected.
But it would be good to know if I am alone in this or if this is a general issue that has arisen lately.

In my case, my interface's drivers haven't changed in years.
 
I have removed all paths to VSTs in the preferences and Sonar now only finds 20 plugs (ProChannel?)
 
Still crashing. JP, too.
 

safe mode should
or opening without a project

It was not clear if SONAR was being launched with or without a project. If SONAR is launching without a project, plug-ins will not affect its ability to start up.
 
Safe mode provides a way to load a project without loading plug-ins.

OK, I have tried it.
 
It still crashes and creates a new aud.ini file with paths to the default audio and picture cache folders, and a default sample rate of 44100.
 
I also tried:
1. deleting aud.ini,
2. starting WITH interface connected (creates a new, longer aud.ini file),
3. then shut Sonar down,
4. remove the interface and
5. restart Sonar.
 
Still crashes.
 
Very strange. Anyway, as I said, it's not a show stopper.
 
Scook, clearly you are not experiencing this, else you would have said so?
 
Do you have the new Melodyne as a separately purchased item? That's all I have that's new and not from Sonar.

The new AUD.INI file after the first crash looks like this:
 
[Aud]
DataDir=C:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data
PictureDir=C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache
[Wave]
DefaultSampleRate=44100
 
When I start again with the interface connected, it is much longer looks like this:
 
[Aud]
DataDir=C:\Cakewalk Projects\Audio Data
PictureDir=C:\Cakewalk Projects\Picture Cache
[Wave]
DefaultSampleRate=44100
DriverID=0
WaveInID=0
OpenInputFirst=0
...etc.
 
There's a clue there. On the crash, it stops before the line
DriverID=0
So the driver (or the loading thereof) is clearly the issue.
 

I think it depends on the driver too. And your configuration. You don't mention your interface but my guess this is a driver issue, not Sonar. Sonar has never crashed for me for lack of an interface. 
 
I have 2 interfaces a Tascam us1641 and a Scarlett 6i6 and 2 computers I'm using.  
 
My main DAW has no on board sound drivers installed. So if my Focusrite interface is off (which is rare) Sonar does not crash, it just gives me that warning that there is no audio device. Actually if I open WMP or Wave Lab I will also get a similar message but no crash. There's just no sound. In the case of Sonar I simply turn on my interface and Sonar will ask if I want to use it, I do not need to re start Sonar. Some apps do need a re start. 
All audio even uTube plays though the Scarlett. The computer has no other choice. 
 
On my Laptop there is the on board audio. I use the Tascam for live recordings to Sonar. I can leave the Tascam behind when traveling and open Sonar without issue. There are no warnings at all. I just have to switch to MME mode to hear sound and carry on with some editing. Sonar shows the Tascam in/outs but they are grayed out. The on Board driver is automatically selected by Sonar without my intervention. But Sonar needs to be told to swicth modes.  
I do notice that even with the Tascam connected, all other apps will use the on board sound card for playback. 
At gigs I'm recording to Sonar in WDM mode and on breaks I play back tunes on Win Amp via the on board output. 
Sonar stays open and ready to record. 
So the computer does have a choice and seems most apps like to use the on board codex by default,,, but if there are no on board audio drivers they seem happy to somehow work with the ASIO drivers of your interface.  
 

As I recall, Craig's tip was to disable the audio drivers associated with the video card - ie, the HDMI audio drivers. There was some dialog at the time Craig originally brought this up by others suggesting that disabling the onboard audio also had merit, with some dissension by others (as expected). The term "HD audio" is a bit ambiguous, but whether in the tip, or in the precedent threads, Craig was definitely focusing on the HDMI (vid card) audio driver as a potential issue in SONAR.

Yes I understand - however, if you read the thread Craig refers to in the Tip's first post youll find that he was originally concerned about issues created by the HDMI audio drivers installed by his vid card. The term can refer ambiguously to both the system audio device and the vid card's audio drivers. In that same thread Noel cautions against disabling the drivers for the system.

Your solution is sort of contrary to what I was to understand. 
As I stated in my post, on my main DAW I did not even install the audio driver, but the HDMI audio driver was part of the Video driver pack so that I had to disable.  
But as stated , every system might be different.