Running a newly rebuilt 32 bit DAW with RME FF400, Sonar 5 PE and WinXP (yes, I realize the versions are old) and I'm experiencing random lockups in Sonar immediately related to recording, often right after recording when the track wave image is rendering or thereabouts.  I get the Windows hour glass and it just stays that way, leaving me to kill Sonar with Task Manager.  I've tried some of the obvious like buffers, etc.  No change.
 
Anyone have any guess as to what could be going on?....
 
Thanks,
 
     Sonic

Update:  
 
I researched and found the issue might be due to the PictureCache.   I have 3 versions of Sonar installed, so what's the correct way to set up the picture cache?   Right now I have it on the Audio drive, and all in one folder.  Am I supposed to instead have it on the system drive and/or in separate folders (one for each Sonar version)??
 
Many thanks,
 
       Sonic
 
 
 

I use a common picture cache on a drive not containing project audio.

scook
I use a common picture cache on a drive not containing project audio.

That would be my initial thinking for best performance from a DAW perspective. However the picture cache is going to beat up and frag whatever drive it resides on, so using the system drive is not a great choice if you desire to keep the system drive's integrity & wear as preserved as possible.  I can't understand why the picture cache is not managed as part of per-project data along with the audio.   Strange.

If the picture cache were part of the per-project data, it would have to be on the drive with the audio data. Better to keep the picture cache on a different drive. If you are concerned about the cache fragmenting a drive create a separate partition for the cache.

I'm thinking different directories is probably best too, 1 for each version of Sonar installed.  Apparently it seems each version of Sonar checks the size of the picture cache directory in Folder settings and only deletes files that respective version created.   This would create a bit of a quandary at times because the picture cache size (set in INI) could be different between versions too.  So, assuming what I just said is basically correct, it seems separate directories would be the best bet.