I have been using Cakewalk Sonar for 9 years. I started with 4 then 7 and now X2. I never had any problem with 4 or 7, but with X2 I am getting crashes every day. It isn't just crashing my Sonar program it is crashing my computer. If I work in Sonar for hours and as it crashes, I re-open Sonar and continue working. Then if I go to shut down my computer it will not. "My Computer" will not open, Task manager will not open, so I have to do a hard shut down of my PC. Some programs will continue working  like WORD, but most stop.
 
The crashes have happened when I have zero tracks in the DAW, or if I open Pro Channel, or if I click on a tool bar to open a drop down menu. I mean for no apparent reason, it will hang and crash for all different reasons. I have recorded 17 track tunes and mixed them, but probably not ever without a couple of crashes.
 
I have spent two weeks going over everything I can think of on my computer with no success of finding a solution. The only plug ins I have enabled are the newer ones from Cakewalk, and maybe a few from Sonar 7, but all the third party etc,,,are disabled in Sonar X2. It doesn't seem to be a plug in issue? I mean sometimes it crashes when I just click on a drop down menu? I believe the program is an excelent DAW, but something is causing the crashes. I am running it on XP, with a hardwired sound card, but the crashes are not happening while I am recording, they happen just when I am mixing or browsing inside Sonar.  Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, Free.
 
 
Intel, Core-2 Duo, 4-Gigs Ram, 1.2 TB Hard Drive, 50% Free Space, Sonar X2 Producer, 32-Bit Version, 2-Aardvark Q10s, 44100/24 bit, ASIO drivers, Nvidia GT, Sounblaster X-Fi.
"Lane Songs Studio"
 
 

Hi Theycallmefree, have you installed the X2a patch? cheers Michael

The X2a patch is not compatable with Windows XP. Indeed X2 is not officialy supported on XP. There is an interim patch between X2 and X2a that can be installed on XP.

Minimum processer spec is Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.67 GHz - need to check if you core-2 duo is at least equivelent.

The Aardvark Q10 is a little long in the tooth, dating back 13 years. Googling around I see reports of conflicts with graphics card drivers. Also I see comments that no XP service pack 2 drivers were ever issued. So if you are getting problems with modern software it's somewhere to start looking.

@Micheal - the poster indicated he is running on XP, which will NOT support installing X2a.


The X2a patch requires a minimum OS level of Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 installed.


To the original poster - is it possible you have a Sample Rate mismatch between your audio interface and Sonar?  They are required to be set to the same value.  Not having them set to the same value can and will cause all kinds of crashes and otherwise unwanted weird behavior - most of the time unpredictable.


I recommend, as a starting point, using ASIO drivers, with settings for your interface as a sample rate of 44100 and an ASIO Buffer Size of 128, and a Sample Rate setting in Sonar of also 44100 - to match the interface.


Please note that some interfaces use a different method for setting the ASIO Buffer Size - they may use something like Number of Samples - whatever method is used if you can get your total round-trip latency latency to something below 10-12 milliseconds that would be great - the lower the better, as long as you are not hearing clicks and pops and dropouts.


Please post back after you review the above, so I know if I need to keep digging on your behalf.


Bob Bone

Glyn Barnes


The X2a patch is not compatable with Windows XP. Indeed X2 is not officialy supported on XP. There is an interim patch between X2 and X2a that can be installed on XP.

Minimum processer spec is Intel Core 2 Duo E8200 2.67 GHz - need to check if you core-2 duo is at least equivelent.

The Aardvark Q10 is a little long in the tooth, dating back 13 years. Googling around I see reports of conflicts with graphics card drivers. Also I see comments that no XP service pack 2 drivers were ever issued. So if you are getting problems with modern software it's somewhere to start looking.

WOW - great nuggets there!  Cool beans.


Father's day is coming up - adopt if you have to, maybe you will get a shiny new computer - if the sample rate fix doesn't do it.  It can be really hard to pinpoint solutions for older computers and XP.  I wish I had more things for you to try.


Bob Bone

Welcome to the forum.
 
These kind of crashes are almost always traceable to a problem with the audio or the video driver.  Have you encountered any 'Blue Screen of Death(BSOD)' crashes?  These sometimes indicate what driver is causing the problem.  Also, if you are running ASIO4ALL you might want to consider turning it off (uninstall).  This may help to expose what hardware driver is actually having a problem.
 
Do you know how to check your system for IRQ conflicts between devices?  This probably needs to be checked and fixed first if you can figure out how to access the settings.
 
I think that your next action should be to ensure that your drivers are up-to-date and compatible with the Windows OS release level that you are on.
 
Glen

I mean for no apparent reason, it will hang and crash for all different reasons.

I can think of a few reasons: 
Windows XP
Soundblaster
Aardvark Q10s

You can't run more than one soundcard using ASIO mode.

Thank you all for the support.
 
Bob: ASIO drivers 7.13 for Direct Pro, hardwired sound card, to the Aradvark Q10. No ASIO4ALL installed. I am not having any clicks, pops, or drop outs. My sound card and my Sonar are set at 128 buffer and 44100 Hz smaple rate. 10.2 milliseconds latency. It crashes for simple reasons like if I am in the track view and I open a menu to look in a drop down, or if I click on open bus pane, or open pro channel, just easy stuff. No problems recording, or mixing except one simple click and it crashes randomly.
 
gcolbert: No Blue Screen. No ASIO4All, I am using ASIO 7.13 for Direct Pro hardwired sound card. The IRQ is #18, where I also see, Intel 8280 1G USB Universal Host Controller 27CA, and Texas Instruments OHCI Complient IEE 1394 Host Controller. Nvidia is on #16, Creative SB XFi is on #21. I have heard tell of graphics card driver conflicts n the past.
 
daveny: The soundblaster is just used as my pc playback, I use ASIO drivers in Sonar for playback and record. The Aardvark Q10 were way ahead of their time, you have to admit. Iunderstand they are old now, but I have recorded with them for 9 years without one problem. There are no new drivers for the Q10. I am not having issues with recording or playback. I am not having midi or latency issues. I can work in Sonar X2 for hours at the time with no issues, but then every single day it goes through these crashes. In some cases when I exit and try to shut down my pc, my programs stop working like it dropped the drivers ni windows. Word will open but explorer will not, and I have to do a hard shut down of the pc. For 9 years in Sonar I have never had such an issue.
 
Thanks again for your advise. I honestly feel that if I run in a brand new interface I will still have the same issue. It doesn't seem to be my sound card or an overload issue, it seems to just be unstable for simple reasons. I will look into the Nvidia driver conflict issue again. Sure I can swap back and forth from the soundblaster drivers to the Aardvark drives and create an issue, that isn't what is causing Sonar to crash. As I stated it will crash from a real simple task, and no problems recording tracks or mixing. If opening a drop down menu causes it to crash, that seems to me to be very unstable. Also it might even crash when I have one track in the tempalte with nothing on that track, just browsing inside Sonar. Keep in mind I have used Sonar 9 years.

Upgrade your OS- Sonar doesn't support XP.

If you are running X2 Producer and have not applied http://www.cakewalk.com/S...reader.aspx/2007013292 you may want to consider it.