I hope someone can help me.  I've been using Sonar for years so I have some understanding of how to tweak the program a little bit. But.   I just got a new computer a few months ago specifically because I never seem to be above the technology curve to run Sonar at it's most recent.  So this time I bought one which should  be more than I need for my projects. I have been banging my head against the wall trying to get it to work smoothly with Sonar. I really don't have any issues with anything else (that I'm aware of).  What happens is this:  a few things.
 
1.) If I walk away for a few minutes and comeback the system is locked up for moment before it'll work. I have a project up and running and walked away for a cup of coffee and when I return I press the space bar to play the project and the program feezes up. Sometimes I'll even have to re-start the computer. 
 
2.) Sometimes out of nowhere the program will drop out, or feeze up and I have to re-start the computer. I don't have alot of plugins working  but I do have some. I just think this new computer should have no problems with what I have going. 
 
3.) I might start up my computer and do a few tasks maybe lasting 1/2 hour or so. Sometimnes a bit more, sometimes a bit less.  Then I might decide to get involved in a music project so I start up Sonar.  It won't start. It freezes at the splash screen and that's it. I have to Ctrl-Alt-Del and stop the program. Then I have to re-start the computer before Sonar will work.
 
I'm really not running more than 7 or 8 tracks a few sonitus plugs. sometimes BFD2 but problems even occur if I don't use BFD2.  Sometimes Amplitube 3 but again I have these problems with or without Amplitube 3. 
 
Here is my system
 
Dell XPS 8300
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
Memory (RAM) 12.0 GB
Microsoft Windows 7 Professional  64 bit
NVIDIA GeForce GT 530 graphics card
2 WD external hard drives. 1tb and 2tb
Scarlett 18i6  audio interface
M-Audio Keystation pro 88 keyboard Midi controller
 
Any suggestions ??? Please !!
 
Thanks
Brad
 

 
 

Im running the 8100 XPS and dont have anyprobs. The space bar thing does but just for a sec a start after sitting. Not to big of a deal really.  Mine is about 1/2 the system you have so it probably comes down to a few common tweaks.  

Power Management and Sleep Modes-Make sure you kill it all and leave it up and running all the time
Disable WIFI/LAN Card
Stop all the Auto Updates and Checks
Disable the Antivirus 
Etc....

Lots of threads on here on it

I did choose do do a few tweaks in Sonar as well but normal kinda stuff

Adjust buffer I/Os, bit rates etc...
I did stop the VST scans in Preferences also. Took to long at start up and I dont use many if at all

Does the PC hang up on anything else? or is it just Sonar?  Run the Dell diagnostics and see how that comes out.  F12 at POST (Power On Self Test) will access the menu to run the diagnostics.  There were some hangup issues with some of the early production 8300's, but I'm not seeing much about this lately on the Dell users forum (I do a lot of user support on that forum). 

I had a hell of a time getting all the interrupts out of my system.  Programs have auto update functions that will periodically check for updates and I suspect that was one cause of some dropouts I was getting in Sonar on my PC (home built, not a factory built).  I have a separate hard drive, with a dual boot system, that I run on this PC when I do recording.  I eliminated (uninstalled) everything that did not have something to do with Sonar and Recording, except for a few other needed system items but I was still getting a random dropout either in recording or playback.  I went through what was left and disabled all the automatic updates in the programs that were left and so far I haven't had any more dropouts.   

    It seems to only hang up from Sonar.  Before I start Sonar I have to make sure I just started up the computer otherwise it hangs at the splash screen.  So,  I know this does not seem right.   I tried setting the in out buffers (I think that's what it's called)  to 256 each from 128.  Let's see if I get drop outs. Also my  ASIO buffer is set to 4. I had it at 3. I checked off 64 bit,   as my computer and Windows 7 is 64 bit.   Any other suggestions ?  I can't run a seperate computer for sonar  and one for my regular computer work.   I need to do it all on one.  I do have 2 seperate external hard drives for data though.   

     Thanks for any help.  I thought I was finally at computer nervana for Sonar but alas, still my head is exploding with frustration.

Brad

What kind of HDDs are you using? Are they "Green", which means they have a program of their own putting them to rest at every possible occasion independently of the Windows power saving automations.

Of the VSTs that came with the 8.5 Guitar Rig 3 is one that often causes fatal errors in my system requiring exit from SONAR..

I don't think any of that would cause it not to load.  Are you running it as Administrator?  If not, RIGHT click on the icon for Sonar and then LEFT click "Run As Administrator" and see if that helps. 

If that is not the problem, I would look at the startup and see what all is running.  Some antivirus programs have been known to interfere with Sonar.  I think the new 8300's come either with McAfee or Norton and both are on Sonar Tech Support's "problem" list.  I use the free Microsoft Security Essentials and it is a non interferring antivirus program. 

I have one PC for both - regular PC operations/internet etc and for Sonar.  But, I have two separate hard drives, on the same PC hardware,  and dual boot either the "regular" PC or to the Sonar disc.

Here is a fix that was just posted on the Dell forum from an XPS8300 user.  Check your system for this.

Well, I´ve been experiencing constant lockups with an out of the box system XPS 8300, i72600, raid 0 1TB (2x 500GB), ATI 6770. The main pattern is that the mouse will jump and skip constantly under heavy load of the hard drive(i notice it because the lockup happens at the same time the hdd led goes on/off), no gaming, no intensive applications, just internet usage, that was driving me crazy, such a fast machine with those specs and is locking up all the way.
So after research and research i tried everything with no luck, i disabled the C3 option in the bios, clear CMOS settings, Drained the power of tower, reseated the RAM, HDD´s, USB plugs everything that connects to the motherboard and the rest of the components, it took almost an hour but it had the same result. I checked that my RAM was not affected by Latency issues (GR82X 1GB, G8NT0 2GB, or 9V62Y) i have HMT351U6CFR8C-H9, 4 modules so was not the case
So after spending my self time doing this with no luck, i figured it out, it was no software problem at all, it was a synchronization issue with the raid, i put a single drive and loaded with the Dell image (dell data safe one) and the problem went away, so i put back the original drives with everything loaded, destroyed the array and reimaged the drive and the issue persisted.So i ran the diagnostics and came out with nothing, so the problem seemed to be a cyclic redundancy issue.
So after i inspected the hard drives individually both were in good condition (Seagate drives ST3500413AS), so i checked in the raid controller and there were no options to change the read and write speed or cache.
So i thought that maybe the cache in the drives was not working properly or was not fully activated, i came back to windows and updated the Intel Rapid storage driver with the latest version from intel 10.8.0.1003 with the same result.
So basically after all this, i ended up going inside of the rapid storage tool and Under storage, system view click the array 0, then after that, on left side where you have the Manage Volume options, go to advance and under WRITE BACK CACHE, make sure is enabled. Mine was disabled by the way.
After this i turned off/on the system and was going better and better and the problem seemed to be resolved. i think the systems affected are the one with RAID 0 config.
If you have this issue you can give it a shot, it worked for me and i just want to save you a couple of hours of troubleshooting and if you need it with tech support over the phone, this is not documented at all, i just fixed my self but you can try and see if it works
This is a beautiful system and wont worth a fight with dell for a configuration issue.
BTW, no more skippy games xD.
PD: This will not fix the freezing issue, you need to check the ram with the modules above to see if its affected.

In recent make machines, DDR3 (RAM) is a common culprit.
Don't assume that because the RAM is new... that its good.
Run Memtest and stress-test the system as a whole.
 
BTW, Changing ASIO buffer sizes will have no affect on this type of issue.

  If memory is the problem, then possibly the reason it's not problematic in other programs is because only Sonar hits the memory  that hard?