Wonderful to hear all is now well!!!

It's really amazing to me that Bill Gates et al have made such fortunes on this piece of **** operating system.

Brilliant news!!
 
> It's really amazing to me that Bill Gates et al have made such fortunes on this piece of **** operating system.
 
You bought it didn't you? And probably more than once. Next time install Linux!
 
Cheers :)

Burn an image BEFORE you install anything or run any Windows updates!
Just sayin', its working right, right?
IMAGE
 
Tom

I'm really glad it's working!! But...please consider dedicating a computer to digital audio. I have a PC Audio Labs computer that does only audio and video. For everything else, I use a Mac. I do not run into the kind of technical problems people run into with Windows machines and I believe it's not just because the PC Audio Labs people know what they're doing, but also, because the computer is a dedicated "appliance."
 
If you derive any income from what you do with audio or video, or have clients, a dedicated computer is truly a necessity.

Mac and PC's use more or less the same hardware.
More choice = more flexibility and problems.
Less choice = less problems and less flexibility.
 
You pays yers money you takes yer choice.
BTW Windows is Windows even on a Mac/bootcamp, If your machine is more stable on a Mac the only possible factor that could be down to is better and more reliable drivers/firmware (It's the same with PC's that have good and reliable drivers, which requires the user to be extremely careful about what they choose, power <> stability, that way they are less likely to run into problems just like Mac users who are restricted into reliability).
 
Cheers...

Robbyk, Mack, timidi, Alex, your cheers cheer me. I guess I could have known about doing System Restore in Safe Mode before, but I've never had to do one on this computer, so the whole procedure was unfamiliar to me. Just finally glad to know about it, since that saved the day.

DeeringAmps - YES, am making an image tonight since all is well.  Like a lot of people, I'd just gotten lazy in doing a backup like that.  Will be very reassuring to have a current image - and I'll try to make myself do one every month or so - just in case weirdness like this happens again!

Craig - It's of course excellent advice to have a dedicated audio computer.  It's just not at all in my budget.  That's what I'd do if I could afford it.

I want to add that it's unfair to say that it's the X3 Demo which was The Culprit in this case.  I must have had a corrupted download from the site, because it was totally screwy, never worked, had that error message (which I've Googled and have seen its common in various scenarios) - Obviously, if the demo was problematic for everyone, then Cakewalk would be in deep trouble, and their not.  I was just the "lucky" winner of the rotten apple in this particular barrel, and it did send me for a loop!  But I'm happy now - and quite content to be still working away in 8.5. 
 
I was tempted to spend money I couldn't really afford to spend on X3 - maybe it was The Universe's way of saving me from regretting the big dent in my budget.

Randy

That's a good way to look at it, Randy.
It was frustrating seeing you struggle with this and not being able to help. But these guys were on it.
Big sigh of relief.
Carry on, Brother.

That's great news Randy. Really pleased you have your Sonar 8.5 back.

If you decide to do this again..
 
Get a copy of Acronis True image, back it up.
 
Install this and check 8.5 still works:
http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=30679
 
Download and reinstall the demo.
 
OR
 
Turn your machine into a dual boot, install a fresh copy of windows (after windows update has been installed) with the demo. That will 100% work.
 
Backup, backup, backup, zzz, zzzz ,zzz :)
 
Cheers