Hello,

i'm new to this Forum, using Sonar Producer Edition 7 (german) since November and coping with a major problem.
My system is:

Pentium Q9550
2 GB Ram Corsair
Samsung SP250 HD
Terratec Producer Phase FW24

Yesterday I sat on a project, quite full now of Softsynths and Effects and suddenly I wasn't able anymore to save the project. When I've tried to do so I got the error message

"Allgemeiner Fehler" which one can translate into english with "General Error".

After this the mouse got slower and I closed sonar down the ability to save the hard work of the last two hours. But the problem continued, my system was total slow, the mouse switched from one corner to the other without beeing moved by me. I restarted the system and everything was okay again. But everytime I try to open the project for at least after 5 minutes or when I try to save there are the same problems.

CPU is at about 40 %, Sonar tells so and the System tells so. Soundcard is working great on any other application, I have no Anti Virus or Firewall in this system not even a connection to the internet or any other applications in the background like MSN,etc. Storing place is also enough on the Hard disk. And the issue is occuring only with this one project.

My guess is the RAM. May it be, these symptoms are the typical ones for an overstressing of the RAM?

Anybody other ever experienced this problem?

Best regards,
Nico

It could be a result of running out of RAM Have you changed your virtual memory/page file settings at all? Have you tried freezing the synths one at a time to see if it's one of those causing the problem?

Just as a general reaction, it does sound like hardware problem, and RAM is definitely the first place I'd look.
However, if your hard drives are not configured perfectly, there can be really strange symtoms. So check those as well.

Another area to look out for is IRQ conflicts.

ORIGINAL: Affenbrot

Hello,

i'm new to this Forum, using Sonar Producer Edition 7 (german) since November and coping with a major problem.
My system is:

Pentium Q9550
2 GB Ram Corsair
Samsung SP250 HD
Terratec Producer Phase FW24

Yesterday I sat on a project, quite full now of Softsynths and Effects and suddenly I wasn't able anymore to save the project. When I've tried to do so I got the error message

"Allgemeiner Fehler" which one can translate into english with "General Error".

After this the mouse got slower and I closed sonar down the ability to save the hard work of the last two hours. But the problem continued, my system was total slow, the mouse switched from one corner to the other without beeing moved by me. I restarted the system and everything was okay again. But everytime I try to open the project for at least after 5 minutes or when I try to save there are the same problems.

CPU is at about 40 %, Sonar tells so and the System tells so. Soundcard is working great on any other application, I have no Anti Virus or Firewall in this system not even a connection to the internet or any other applications in the background like MSN,etc. Storing place is also enough on the Hard disk. And the issue is occuring only with this one project.

My guess is the RAM. May it be, these symptoms are the typical ones for an overstressing of the RAM?

Anybody other ever experienced this problem?

Best regards,
Nico

No, i didn't made any changes to RAM Settings (i know absolutely nothing concerning this topic) and for now the problem occurs for the first time. Didn't yet made the test to freeze the synths (what a bunch of work that would be with all those synths and effects )
Is there any simple tool to watch the stressing of RAM, then I could easily proof...

I use a program called ORTHOS on my systems at build time and after any tinkering/overclocking. Find it HERE

Hm, it looks very complicated, isn't there any easier way to proof the stressing of ram?

I'm working from memory but if I remember correctly simply download the program, open it (no installation required) select 'blend test' and set it going - that's it. You won't find much simpler than that.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

I've never used it, but it sounds similar to one I've used before but it's been a long time. Sounds like you will need a floopy drive which I no long have. I think you copy the program to the floopy and boot your computer to the floopy and it runs its test.

Really the error could be caused by anything. Does anyone know if Cakewalk creates a dumb (edit: sorry I meant dump) file or something. I think it does and you could send it in to them to analysies, or something like that.

Perhaps you could try removing the last couple of plugs/synths one at a time to see if you can narrow it down to a specific plug.

EDIT:

It looks like you can run that diagnostic test also from a CD rom.

How much room is on the hard disk? I've found that Windows begins to act strange if you have less than 20% room left on the C:/ drive.

You only list one hard drive. You should have a second one to record and save projects to. There's less interference with the swap file with two drives.

Which version of Windows are you using? It does sound like a Ram problem. Vista needs way more ram than XP to do the same type of task.

Many thanks for your answer....i will try this evening and give you report if the reason is the RAM otherwise i have to search further.
No, on the harddisk there is enough place. I use one Harddisk with two partition and store (backup) project files, samples such on always on my external harddrive.
Im using Windows XP, wouldn't have a problem if I find out that I have to go and buy some new 2 GB RAM additionally as long as I could continue with working on that project...
How is it with 4 GB, actually the most Windows XP can handle is 3 GB how does one handle this? Just put the 4 GB anyway in the computer and Windwows XP will recognize only 3 GB ?