It can be more subtle than that though... My X2 install had the identical byte size file (part1.exe file), but different MD5 hash... the probability of this is like winning the lottery... X2 crashed on installation a few times, but then installed and I was getting flaky and inconsistent crashes repeatedly from it. Because the download was so large, I kept trying to re-install from the bad download file and repeating the entire process. Since I was strapped for time, I didn't think to check those files until 3 months into it all (but had to download them all again to find the "oddball" since the MD5 hashes were not posted at that time).
 
That was why I was thrilled to see the MD5 hashes posted with X3, very subtle errors in a file download can dish out a lot of grief.

Haven't read the whole thread though maybe he runs as a normal user and not as an administrator account; or has the UAC set and by running as administrator bypasses the UAC when he runs the update - dunno just throwing spanner in the works to contemplate on..
 

... well I would expect the installation not to complete if there was some issue with installation Jimmy. I don't see the OP complaining about a failed installation...

Some of the weirdness I have seen pop up when Run As Administrator is not set during installation does not seem to show up until after the installation has completed.  It can be quite bizarre, and for some there are no problems either way.
 
Bob Bone
 

> Some of the weirdness I have seen pop up when Run As Administrator is not set during installation does not seem to show up until after the installation has completed.
 
In which case there in something fundamentally flawed with the install routine....

I actually think there may be, Alex.
 
Bob Bone
 

I recently contacted support to resolve an issue where I was unable to do any type of recording in windows 7x64 running X3D. It wouldn't matter what plug-in I had running, if any. (I had nothing running in the background, no services. System is optimized for recording. Etc..) Any time I would use the spacebar/"r" buttons more than 2-4x in a row for a project a lock-up would happen. No crash. Just a freeze requiring ctrl-alt-del to end program. No dumps would be created unless requested in Task Manager and those were gigabyte in size. If I was able to record something and apparently close out of X3 it would Terminate - Stay Resident. I would have to close it out in the Task Manager and that would end up with me having to manually find the last project since it would not list it in the file menu now. No matter what I would do in a project would end up in an eventual lock-up/freeze within 2-10 minutes.

Tried to perform a clean uninstall and reinstalled but the behavior still persisted even with X3a which was really interesting. Tried using different audio driver versions and even a different audio card as well. Didn't work. Eventually went so far as to install a clean, just activated back-up image of windows 7 x64 - updated it and installed "only" Sonar X3 and the necessary system/audio drivers and guess what? - It didn't work! Sigh! X3a-x3c didn't work at all on a clean system with all new driver installs..

I decided it was time to try the copy Win8Pro x64 and after the install X3d is up and running quite smoothly. After only 2 days of work I am running better than I was before this issue and couldn't be happier. It is the exact same hardware configuration I am running at this moment and the only thing I can think of is sometime in late December/early January a required update somewhere conflicted with some other update for Windows 7 x64 on my particular system.

trnfoot
I have had a legit copy of Cakewalk's products since Cakewalk for dos (didn't midi on a PC seem spectacular:)......but surely all of you people talking about dodgy cracked versions of Sonar realise there is no such thing! They dont have to crack it because it has no copy protection to speak of - just a serial number. It is one of the reasons it is so much more stable then Cubase with its iLok protection bogging down the code. If the guy is having a problem - legit software or not - it surely isn't the crack causing it in Sonar.

Yes, there is cracked versions of SONAR. They hack the .exe to take specific serials they generate. That's why it's easy for support to sniff out pirates when they call us. If the code doesn't match our master list, it's a pirate.
 

bryn
I recently contacted support to resolve an issue where I was unable to do any type of recording in windows 7x64 running X3D. It wouldn't matter what plug-in I had running, if any. (I had nothing running in the background, no services. System is optimized for recording. Etc..) Any time I would use the spacebar/"r" buttons more than 2-4x in a row for a project a lock-up would happen. No crash. Just a freeze requiring ctrl-alt-del to end program. No dumps would be created unless requested in Task Manager and those were gigabyte in size. If I was able to record something and apparently close out of X3 it would Terminate - Stay Resident. I would have to close it out in the Task Manager and that would end up with me having to manually find the last project since it would not list it in the file menu now. No matter what I would do in a project would end up in an eventual lock-up/freeze within 2-10 minutes.

Tried to perform a clean uninstall and reinstalled but the behavior still persisted even with X3a which was really interesting. Tried using different audio driver versions and even a different audio card as well. Didn't work. Eventually went so far as to install a clean, just activated back-up image of windows 7 x64 - updated it and installed "only" Sonar X3 and the necessary system/audio drivers and guess what? - It didn't work! Sigh! X3a-x3c didn't work at all on a clean system with all new driver installs.. 

I decided it was time to try the copy Win8Pro x64 and after the install X3d is up and running quite smoothly. After only 2 days of work I am running better than I was before this issue and couldn't be happier. It is the exact same hardware configuration I am running at this moment and the only thing I can think of is sometime in late December/early January a required update somewhere conflicted with some other update for Windows 7 x64 on my particular system.

That actually sounds like an audio device driver issue. You're likely running different drivers between w7 and w8 now. What device is it?

Seth Kellogg [Cakewalk]

bryn
I recently contacted support to resolve an issue where I was unable to do any type of recording in windows 7x64 running X3D. It wouldn't matter what plug-in I had running, if any. (I had nothing running in the background, no services. System is optimized for recording. Etc..) Any time I would use the spacebar/"r" buttons more than 2-4x in a row for a project a lock-up would happen. No crash. Just a freeze requiring ctrl-alt-del to end program. No dumps would be created unless requested in Task Manager and those were gigabyte in size. If I was able to record something and apparently close out of X3 it would Terminate - Stay Resident. I would have to close it out in the Task Manager and that would end up with me having to manually find the last project since it would not list it in the file menu now. No matter what I would do in a project would end up in an eventual lock-up/freeze within 2-10 minutes.

Tried to perform a clean uninstall and reinstalled but the behavior still persisted even with X3a which was really interesting. Tried using different audio driver versions and even a different audio card as well. Didn't work. Eventually went so far as to install a clean, just activated back-up image of windows 7 x64 - updated it and installed "only" Sonar X3 and the necessary system/audio drivers and guess what? - It didn't work! Sigh! X3a-x3c didn't work at all on a clean system with all new driver installs.. 

I decided it was time to try the copy Win8Pro x64 and after the install X3d is up and running quite smoothly. After only 2 days of work I am running better than I was before this issue and couldn't be happier. It is the exact same hardware configuration I am running at this moment and the only thing I can think of is sometime in late December/early January a required update somewhere conflicted with some other update for Windows 7 x64 on my particular system.

That actually sounds like an audio device driver issue. You're likely running different drivers between w7 and w8 now. What device is it?

Motu 896 firewire. It has been working for the most part (depends on the driver and I stick with the driver that seems to work which is a fairly recent version :)) However if you read in my OP it states I tried different versions of the driver (all uninstalled -rebooted and then installed) and then I tried a different audio card (Delta 66). The clean install of Win7 used the Delta 66 to start with, so it had no motu drivers that may have become corrupt, (or have an issue due to non-TI chipsets which isn't the case here anyway). I then tried the install with motu drivers only after it exhibited the same behavior as the previous install using either device. I even used older video drivers from several months earlier to start the clean install just in case the newer releases had caused an issue.. The version of the Motu driver currently installed is in the same container as the one that was working on the windows 7 system prior to things going south in the beginning of January.
 

John
 
I just did a project with GPO in it as well as BFD3 and Kontakt with Dim Pro. I had no trouble at all. GPO with the Aria player works just fine. X3d Producer and Windows 8.1 64 bit.

Wow, that sounds AWESOME!!!  I'm sure everyone would LOVE to HEAR it!!!