This has taught me if nothing else to consistently save my work.....At random points, and I do find it difficult to recreate but it has started happening so frequently that I really don't get a chance to try too much. While rendering, sample converting or a few other operations, if the software has to 'think' or work to hard, it freezes (not responding) never to return...I have waited literally for hours. Not the computer, just the software, all other functions of the PC are stable and functioning during these episodes. I am running Sonar X3c, the updater states that I am up to date,
Brief list of specs of my machine is here:

OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional, Service Pack 1, 64 bit
Processor: AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor, AMD64
RAM: 32 Gb
Graphics Card: ASUS HD7770 Series, 1024 Mb
Hard Drives: Seagate 2Tb and Seagate 3Tb
Motherboard: ASUS, SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0
Antivirus: Microsoft Security Essentials, Updated and Enabled
I am using a Roland fantom X8, with a FA66 interface.
I have painstakingly tried to piece together parts that would play well together (Roland, Cakewalk products) to circumvent this from happening..but alas here I am.
I know this is tough but if someone could guide me as to where to start looking to rectify this problem. Each time I lose everything since my last save, many time I have been trying to finish one take to get to a save point and there it goes.

I used to use Cool Edit which became Adobe Audition that never gave me this grief with a much lighter system. I dunno..... anybody got any ideas??

sad my friend before i changed my C drive sonar crashed every hour, and now i still find myself riding the ((save me))) button i call it. like it was a 21 paste ride..
your running the same rig as me but im just a little 6 core. not to let cake off the hook here but my  SSD was screwing up even after fresh install, new drivers fresh sonar x3 installed alone with nothing but sonar, and the drive would always fail in around 30-min to a hour, very odd as it would happen so much i would sometime have to turn off my rig before every project.. solution was a old crucial 64 gig drive replacing C. not even a drop out since.

Please check your event viewer.

What about
 
"Antivirus: Microsoft Security Essentials, Updated and Enabled?"
 
Could be the culprit?....hmmm...why post this tidbit of information?
Update drivers...and CakealexS's option to find the reasons...might guide you to know exactly where or what might be the cause.
 
Then
I would try some or all of "Black Vipers Tweaks" to the win 7 OS...could be something in serviced servies is messing / interrupting  the software's functionality.
 
http://www.blackviper.com/2009/10/01/black-vipers-windows-7-super-tweaks/
 
Might also be conflicting issues/hardware..2tb/3tb Seagate/usb/internet nic/audio interfaces...and perhaps IRQ issues with setup in slots shared?
So go over the setup with manual for the motherboard..and make sure nothing is installed in a shared slot on the mother board.
Bios settings?...turn off speed step?...VT tech, C1E for starters perhaps?...and if using onboard nic, turn that off for a test ....
 
What are the sustained speeds for reads and writes when one goes above 1tb?...and if so, what does windows essential security do when the file is written?
 
Personally I use WD Black 1tb 32mb cache Drives..the Red ones are suppose to be better made and longer lasting...?...But the Black ones are pretty Good....Mostly because I was told bigger means slower times in seeking, and writing...So I stay at 1tb max for the C:...But have moved on to SSDs now.
 
Seagate Drives in past for me, were nothing but problematic..many RMA's later...I learnt my lesson many moons ago...and made the switch.
 
Not saying this is now your problem , as they may have changed for the better...since 1999...but I ain't looking back.
 
Hope this helps
 
Sir Les

I've never used "Black Vipers Tweaks" so I'm in no position to comment, however this disables UAC (User Account Control settings)  and this is NOT a good idea at all! (sorry !) and a third party app disabling this makes me worry that there isn't some ulterior motive. Disabling this will allow malicious processes to make changes at the admin level without notifying you.

Regardless apart from the possibility that updating your drivers will resolve this crash (assuming is does this, and there are better apps out there such as this: http://forum.cakewalk.com/Driver-Boost-m2928792.aspx but you have to be careful with this one as well) and this utility won't solve your crashing, it may improve your performance (and I would prefer to do this manually myself but each to their own).

BTW I've never seen Microsoft Security Essentials cause crashes, that's not to say that it doesn't happen. Regardless a firewall and a virus scanner should be enabled (and configured correctly for your DAW).


The event viewer should give some clues...

joyof60
 While rendering, sample converting or a few other operations, if the software has to 'think' or work to hard, it freezes (not responding) never to return...I have waited literally for hours.

I haven't done any serious testing, but an impression I've gotten using X2 is that if it ever has to wait on a hard disk it may hang/crash.  In your power management settings, do you let your hard drives power down to save energy ?  I've noticed that on my system that currently lets them do that, it can take sometimes several seconds for a drive to wake up and become available.  Other programs wait nicely while this is happening.
 

Well there are other versions of win 7 updates.."Black Viper suggests"..one of them is for "audio setups" if we look deeper into the suggestion and posts of Viper's....Which I have used, and many tested results have in favior...and turning something off...means you can turn it back on if it doesn't solve for X....Wink.
There is a UAC...but in the control of installing software, this UAC protection pops up asking if you are sure you want to install software you asked TO BE INSTALLED by clicking on the installer.....
Now this function, is unnecessary and pointless...if I click on a installer, I want it to install without interruptions of the os asking me again to do so...thankyou very much MS...but this could cause problems with installs...perhaps?...So that could be something to consider one day down the road to defeat?...and or look into.
 
Mostly he mentions how to find servies, and where they are...turning them off or putting services to manual mode...all undoable ....so no worries...perhaps?...but let us say as a last resort to the proper setup of devices and drivers.
 
In my case, Tweaking the OS has reduce cpu loads, spikes to some degree, and problematic drop outs, clicks and pops...and odd crashing.....not saying it will help here, but the road is long and the hair will come out....eventually....LOL.
 
More input is necessary...SO to do the " event viewer " thing is a start once the system is setup correctly (slotted Cards in unshared slots). "double checked" turning off redundant devices (which may cause issues with IRQs)...and the issue remains....then it could be os/service related ...MS essentials is a service...that can interrupt drive usage.
 
 
Sir Les
 
 

Oh another overlooked setting in Bios with win 7 32/64 that may cause .CRASHING.. IRQ sharing unnecessarily= Crashing = Sharing IRQs..which MS win 7 likes to do, and not let you change,...So in The Bios one might want to disable "Plug and Play" with them other settings I posted while you are in the Bios.
Google it if need be...or if unsure....wait till more input is revealed.
 
Win 7 will not allow you to make changes of IRQ setting manually anymore, no matter if plug and play is disabled or enabled in the bios....So you have to resort to extremes if need be, to gain that control...by making sure nothing will share with your built system from the get go......when Cards are put in appropriate slots, and double checking the manual to make sure the slot used is not sharing with another slot being used also by another card or onboard device..
 
You can check this out also = "shared" states of being by going into the = "start menu" / all programs/Accessories/system tools/ system info/ hardware resource/ conflict sharing...and look at the right hand pane window..and see what shares if anything, and post it up also .
 
Solutions?...sometimes there are none!....But..turning off "Plug and play" In Bios, resorts to Bios controlling the IRQ slot config of the motherboard...if you make sure to put those cards in unshared configuration...windows 7 may comply with Bios and not share your devices.. especially audio and or video ...so less Cards in a system equals Less possibilities of sharing.
Make sure the cards installed on the Motherboard are in unshared stated slot configurations=consult Motherboard manual.. set up bios with tweaks/save....reboot...and then start troubleshooting services/conflict sharing possibilities if the crashing continues.
 
You might not find bliss, but hair will be pulled out, and eyes will go weary....So lots of mead, and shrubberies, could help the pain and non melodic processes progress...perhaps, maybe, kinda.
 
But yes post up more info...from event viewer, and the above conflicts and sharing info....and start to rebuild the system as specified for blissful  further troubleshooting...
 
With the bios tweaks, and cards properly installed, this will resolve some variables...so you can move forward.. baby steps...to the next level of mayham, latest and greatest drivers, updates and fixes......and see what gives then, if it still continues to crash, turn off the security stuff...and if that don't work......I would try Black Vipers tweaks.
 
Just trying to help...But we all know it is broken when they sold it to you, and me, and them others.....thus the updates are necessary to fix it...some say....lol
 
So it is about controlling the variables..to solve for X....if you let MS do it for you..the above problematic issues occur...well then...enough said?...
So a little hands on in the build with care, Bios , and settings/service management is required by the owner......... .....I say....with some favorable results in some cases....
 
No screen savers, no sleep modes or auto sleep or monitor sleep modes, No power management of drives shutting down to save power, and such, no video eye candy=...
Sometimes helps to control glitches by turning them off, or the monitor that monitors your usage of the machine (services)..,,and you gain More cpu performance for your DAW...and plug ins.. /..cause less services are running in background.

Are your drives 'green'?  If so, they will spin at variable rates, which has caused others issues.  (solution to that being to make them run at maximum all the time).
 
And, as pointed out, there should be crash information of some sort written to the Windows Event Log, and viewing that for errors would help expose what is failing.
 
Are there any Sonar error messages or dumps?
 
What other applications are running at the same time as Sonar?  Perhaps there is a resource conflict.
 
Are there any background tasks that might kick off during Sonar use?  Sometimes these can make things go screwy.  
 
Have you tried suspending your antivirus software during Sonar sessions?  Sometimes this can interfere with streaming audio applications.
 
Is there any pattern to these failures, other than that of some measure of time into running Sonar?
 
Are there 32-bit plugins involved with projects where your system hangs/crashes?  There are all kinds of potential problems between 32-bit plugins and Sonar x64.
 
Have you loaded one of these projects in Safe Mode in Sonar, then skipped the loading of all 32-bit plugins?  Just for testing purposes, this could help narrow down things a bit.  If the project runs without issue this way, it would imply a potential for one or more 32-bit plugs to be behaving badly with BitBridge and/or Sonar.
 
Do you have a 32-bit install of Sonar on your system?  If so, what happens if you run Sonar x32 for a while?  Does that crash/hang as well?
 
The above are a partial list of the kinds of things to look at for potential issues, and are intended to help diagnose issues.  Once the causes of your problems are found, then workarounds and solutions can be worked on.
 
Bob Bone
 

Sir Les I'm merely stating (other than drivers) those are performance tweaks and will not prevent the crashing, therefore it won't fix the OP's issue (a driver update may help however assuming this is indeed a driver issue, and I always recommend updating drivers anyway along with running windows update).
 
This UAC protection pops up asking if you are sure you want to install software you asked TO BE INSTALLED by clicking on the installer.....Now this function, is unnecessary and pointless...if I click on a installer, I want it to install without interruptions of the os asking me again to do so...thankyou very much MS
 
As I said "Disabling this will allow malicious processes to make changes at the admin level without notifying you."
 
This is about as useless as having a PIN number on your credit card.... further info here (this functionality is often misunderstood):
http://www.7tutorials.com/uac-why-you-should-never-turn-it-off
 
btw If the error is logged in the event viewer this could point to an immediate solution. Exactly what happened to me when I installed X3 and had crashes (this pointed me straight to a buggy third party DLL which was behaving perfectly well with X2).
 
Ta