I noticed that Windows 7 just had a few updates yesterday, when I booted up my studio computer today it was rolling though them. Anyways, I had a client over and opened a project I had been working on recently and Sonar crashed. Anyone else have any problems with this, or was it just a fluke? 

  I use a Win 7 workstation as well, and I made it through I think 9 patches this time around, and as soon as I restarted and waited patiently for it to do its "configuring updates" thing, I was right back into my latest project fine. I do not see any reports of any bad patches. However this thread is always important to keep in mind, because all of us who have our DAW networked because of some applications needing that status for licensing etc, are always at the mercy of MS and its constant patch updates. I would so love to have a truly isolated DAW that has no need for internet access. There are so many pros and cons though. I like being able to finish a project, export the audio, produce the MP3, jump on my 2 websites and upload it, all from the DAW and lose very little time.... but there's a price we all pay for having to run on a Windows platform and keep dealing with the patch nonsense.

I didn't try opening Sonar yesterday after the updates, but the updates did not take on my computer. Virtually every one "failed" even after I tried installing several times. It certainly could be an update thing.

  Ray: wow, that's severe. You may want to go to your System Restore options and see if you can roll your system back a day or two (if you don't have any important new files created since), and then try again to update the patches. alternatively, you can try going to your Control panel, programs and updates, and uninstall the last several periods worth of patches (go by the dates of install), and then reboot, and again try adding them back in after a clean start.

What worked for me after experiencing several "roll backs" :

* there are 8 in all (9 if you have MSE)
KB2722913
KB2705219
KB2712808
KB2731847
KB2647753
KB2729094
KB2732487
KB2732500

* install the first 4, together then re-boot

* then the rest one by one, re-booting each time

* according to here the offender was (its supposedly fixed now) KB2647753. But even that, for me, on its own, installed correctly.

* KB2732500 does not need a re-boot.

The above method was long and a PITA, but it worked for me. It should be fixed now according to MS ..........;

Good luck,
Jerry

I loaded the same project just now, without any problems. Strange, hopefully it was just a fluke!

Just sharing an experience...

I've had my DAW for the past 2 years and I keep it connected to the internet for updates - Windows, plugins, etc...
While I can work with many software applications, I'm quite ignorant about what makes them tick.

My DAW would go through phases of restarting halfway through a cold start. Then I would be working on Sonar and one minute I'm recording next thing I know my DAW restarts on its own. Really bad crash like someone pulled out the plug on it.

So after months of blaming my computer, Sonar, bad drivers and everything in between except Win 7, I learned that some systems are "more sensitive" than others. My laptop (Win7 as well) which I keep as a "dirty computer" (internet browsing, emails, etc), never suffered a single glitch while my DAW which is obviously much more powerful, would be limping after certain Win updates. Then the problem goes away on its own when apparently MS decides to patch the previous faulty ones.

So yes, we're at their mercy. But yesterday's update didn't cause any problems for me though.

Not having shut-down from a previous update can result in not installing new updates.

No notice is given by windows updates when the computer needs to be powered-off. Just the little shield on the shutdown button.

This is way stupid.


AND:::: immediately disable auto updates. This should be set to manual only.

Just returned from a working on a client's computer.

The wireless card driver update nuked the machine.

I always install hardware updates separately. And I create a restore point before doing so.

During the past 10 years I have had to fix a bunch of computers that crapped because of hardware updates. Usually it is a wrong driver for vid card. But it also has been printer patches, and audio devices.

Do all updating manually. Watch for errors. Investigate. Use the Event viewer.  Stop all auto update stuff. Use msconfig, and services.msc, and review the task scheduler for more crap. Including the defragger.

My wife experienced the same problem with her laptop. The configuring failed for three days before she told me what was going on. Simply, on Windows 7, go into system and security, check for Windows updates and manually install the updates one by one. It is time consuming, but it solved the problem. Everything downloaded and configured fine. You just have to do it one update at a time. I have no idea why.