I am experimenting spontaneous system reboot under Sonar 8.5.3 (possibly also X1, don't remember as I don't use it often yet).  This may happen 2-3 times during a 2-3 hours session!! Very annoying, especially I lose everything I've added to a project (even though I save often), unless I had closed the project.  Annoying enough so on top of saving something important, I am currently taking habit to exit the project regularly so to avoid losing important adds...  Not 100% sure yet (or if was coincidence) but this seems to happen (among other situations ??) when I press space bar... (not always of course, as this is the 'PLAY/STOP' control... or maybe mistakingly touching Alt or something at same time ??... - Hey, no: pls don't reply 'maybe you mistakingly pressed Ctrl+Alt+Del' : this is *not* the case...)
 
Anyone experienced this or have an idea ?
 
(I do not experience this in an entire day if I do anything else with the same PC...)

Hi Rob - first of all, you posted this in the X1 forum, not the "legacy" forum for 8.5 and below.

when you say "system reboot" are you talking about windows?  if so, this is not something that should be caused by sonar, but likely a RAM or Power Supply or hardware driver problem.  you need to check the dump file to see what is causing the system to reboot.

since you only experience this when using sonar, I would first look at soundcard and MOTU drivers, then firewire then video drivers.  but it could also still be RAM depending on how you use the computer.  there could be cases where you're not using the RAM like you do when using sonar.

I'm with Beagle on this one.

Sounds like it's a non-Sonar problem and could be caused by any number of things.

Start checking the obvious - download Memtest & check you RAM
Make sure every board is seated properly inside your pc case
Make sure the inside of your case is clean & free from dust - ESPECIALLY heatsinks & fans

The stresses of running a complex multitrack project could well be the catalyst that tips your otherwise stable pc over the edge.

Sounds like it's a non-Sonar problem and could be caused by any number of things. Start checking the obvious - download Memtest & check you RAM

 
 
+2
 
The problem is most likely RAM related... could also be power-supply related (if it's too lean for the machine)
 
Uncheck "Automatically Restart" and the system will blue screen.
Don't be alarmed when it happens.  It might list the exact culprit (look at the error message).
 
Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings>Startup and Recovery (click "Settings" button):
Under System Failure... uncheck (disable) Automatically Restart
 
As was mentioned, test the RAM. 
I'd use Memtest... and test a second time with an overall stress-test (using something like Prime95).
If you get an error with Memtest or Prime95, you need to rule out the bad stick/s.
To do this, test a single stick of RAM in the outer most RAM slot (the one closest to the outer edge of the motherboard - furthest away from the CPU).  Repeat this test for each stick of RAM.  When you encounter a bad stick, the machine will likely not boot. 

not that this is really required at this point, but +3. Whenever I've had spontaneous reboots, it has always been hardware related. Just hope it's a bad stick of RAM as opposed to a faulty motherboard!!

Let us know what you find--

-Alex

+1 to what has been said before.

Another thing to do in general to protect your projects is to regularly use "Save As" to save under a new project name. If the bug or bad memory issue hits while Sonar is saving your project file it could corrupt it and make your project unreadable. Not a nice thing. (This isn't Sonar's fault).

Once you have tested your RAM and ruled that out, the next obvious culprit will be the drivers of your sound interface. But first test the RAM. Not least because software like memtest can test it for you. Prime95 is one way of stress testing your system but personally I prefer IntelBurnTest based in the Intel Linpack tests. This application tends to detect issues in a few minutes that Prime95 only finds after running for hours. You can download it here: http://www.ultimate-filez...iles/IntelBurnTest.zip

UnderTow

I have ever seen this issue under previous versions of Sonar and figured out what my problem was... YMMV.   As others have said it was a hardware issue but in my case not one of those already mentioned on this thread.   I was using an Alesis IO14 firewire interface, with both Mics and a MIDI device plugged in via the MIDI port.
 
Turns out I had what appears to be something like a ground loop that sporadically caused a complete blue screen death, requiring reboot; most likely because the computer/interface was plugged into a different circuit than the MIDI device (an Alesis D4 drum brain). 
 
Eventually I got a power conditioner and made sure everything was plugged into one circuit, and the problem was solved.  Never would have guessed such a thing would actually blue screen the computer but there it is.

super weird, very interesting. Thanks for sharing the result!

Hi guys,
Haven't results yet. I am trying Memtest for a few minutes for over a week, probably haven't gone through yet. Only time I tried to leave it do the job and go I came back and the computer was blackscreen unwakable... (Yes I have disabled Win7 sleep mode, so it was not that)....
Thanks to all of you for valuable suggestions. Just hope it's not my audio interface - never paid that much before and never had such a problem....
will post results for sure
Rob

lanstrad


Hi guys,
Haven't results yet. I am trying Memtest for a few minutes for over a week, probably haven't gone through yet. Only time I tried to leave it do the job and go I came back and the computer was blackscreen unwakable... (Yes I have disabled Win7 sleep mode, so it was not that)....
Thanks to all of you for valuable suggestions. Just hope it's not my audio interface - never paid that much before and never had such a problem....
will post results for sure
Rob

then you probably do have a memory problem.
 
you should try testing just one stick at a time like someone suggested above.