I deleted all my custom templates and started with the factory versions.
 
Here are the changes I had made on the older template, in case this impacts others:
 
I added custom BMP files for the track icons - one for Output and one for Master.
 
I made the Master and Output buss visible, but not the Metronome and Preview buss.
 
I'm sure I made a lot of changes to the Track Control Manager as well to display things the way I like.
 
I put some comments in the Project Info page (copyrights, etc.).
 
I think I'll go with this default template for a while and see if things improve.
 
I do have a lot of track templates made (again mostly just synth BMP icons and colors). I think I'll lay off them for a while, too. At least until the older MIDI routing issue gets fixed (X3d, perhaps?).
 

Ohh, by the way.
 
The older template may have originated from an earlier version like X2, I don't recall that, probably not, I think it was from X3a. But I'm certain that I loaded it into the latest version of X3 and saved it as a template, over-writing the older one. 
 
This was called 'Normal.cwt' and I saved the original which I am using now.
 

> All my drivers are up-to-date and the system is running very well.

The procedure above could fix a specific issue with a specific version of Sonar freezing regardless of whether your system may/may not be working overall.
 
Please carry on diagnosing your issue,but If you are still in the same situation and need to go to Cakewalk I suggest you fully follow the procedure in my original post (which is not just about drivers or your system) even if you believe your drivers are up to date, first to rule out any existing unknown scenarios. Please never assume anything. Otherwise good luck.

Cheers...

CakeAlexS
> All my drivers are up-to-date and the system is running very well.

The procedure above could fix a specific issue with a specific version of Sonar freezing regardless of whether your system may/may not be working overall.
 
Please carry on diagnosing your issue,but If you are still in the same situation and need to go to Cakewalk I suggest you fully follow the procedure in my original post (which is not just about drivers or your system) even if you believe your drivers are up to date, first to rule out any existing unknown scenarios. Please never assume anything. Otherwise good luck.

Cheers...

It will be very difficult for me to run the Java program from Intel. I have Java completely locked out of my system in the local machine policies. I would have to undo a bunch of things I did a while back and I don't wish to do that. I have run various Intel driver updates in the past, though, and I tend to watch for these as they come out. 
 
As for the Driver Booster - I use a similar service called Driver Detective to find updated drivers for my system and I perform these checks regularly. It has been my experience that some of these services (for example Perfect Updater) go too far to suggest drivers based on the INF strings in installers garnished around the web. Station Drivers is another such place. Once or twice I updated based on that advice and it was a disaster. My system parts are fairly old by now and I went through a very thorough checkup just before the Windows 8.1 upgrade in October.
 
I think it might be a good exercise to start X3 without a 'normal template' and build up the framework from scratch. I had a lot of settings that I forget about.
 
Running without one and starting from File->New->'-- Blank Project --' is a bit startling!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I've deleted all the old track and project templates I made and started from scratch with blank templates.
 
I've encountered problems when I make a track template, for say Kontakt. I usually put a Kontakt BMP icon file on it just before I save the template.
Sometimes it seems that Sonar crashes on load. Maybe my BMP format is wrong, but it is the same size (in pixels and bytes) as the standard track and synth icons.
So I've eliminated all the glitter and stuck with just thee built-in templates and icons. These icons, however, didn't seem to cause problems in Sonar X2.
 
I have no problems at all when I use a MIDI keyboard (omni) or standard MIDI files, but when I use an external MIDI program (such as Reaktor or the fractal generator Tune Smithy) I have problems with using multiple midi channels on the virtual MIDI port.
 
The virtual MIDI connector I use is called LoopBe30 which has always been stable for me on XP, Win 7 and Win 8, using Live or previous Sonar versions, so I don't think that is it. I had to re-install it for Windows 8.1 because it is an unsigned driver, but that has been acknowledged on the developer's web site as an issue. It is a native WDM kernel driver. I had to do the same thing for Windows 8.
 
Well, I'll see how this develops...
 
Maybe I should route my MIDI keyboard to LoopBe30 using MIDI-OX and try that virtual port for everything for a while...
 

I routed my MIDI keyboard channel 1 to LoopBe30 port 1 in via MIDI-OX and then routed LoopBe30 port 1 out to LoopBe30 port 2 in.
When I connect the LoopBe30 Port 2 channel 1 to Sonar X3 and assign it to an instrument track with Rapture, I don't see any problems.
I can generate a lot of MIDI data with key pressure aftertouch so there is a lot of data showing up in MIDI-OX.
 
A short test is unconclusive, but there is nothing terribly wrong with the setup of the MIDI ports.

If your hangs or crashes relate to midi generated for forwarded by VSTis, have a look at this thread. Also, check your project to make sure there are no midi loops. E.g. if a track generates midi, be sure it does not have "omni" in its input channel setup. In fact, you probably want no tracks to have omni input channels with projects like this.
 
Edit: f

bvideo
If your hangs or crashes relate to midi generated for forwarded by VSTis, have a look at this thread. Also, check your project to make sure there are no midi loops. E.g. if a track generates midi, be sure it does not have "omni" in its input channel setup. In fact, you probably want no tracks to have omni input channels with projects like this.

I think the thread helps a lot.
 
For the projects that crash, I see some tracks have Kontakt set with 'Enable MIDI Out". If I uncheck them, the project will play for a long time and not crash.
 
I wasn't aware that Kontakt was even sending MIDI out! 
 

Mea culpa.
 
My Kontakt settings are such that all MIDI In is echoed to MIDI Out - like a MIDI Thru.
I don't know why I ever set it up like this.
 
I also don't know what the MIDI data does when it leaves Kontakt - there are no receivers set up for it. I guess it loops back in the channel?
 
Anyway, this is new in X3, I guess, and disabling that seems to have fixed my problem. The project has been running flawlessly for a long time.
 
All that about templates was probably a red herring.
 

 
I'll mark this as solved, for now.
 

This thread title is terrible. Can an Admin change it to something useful like "Enabling MIDI Out may crash Sonar" and mark it solved?