My Computer Restarts

xXxTH1RT3ENxXx · April 3, 2012, 8:07pm

I updated Audacity to 2.0 and whenver I attempt to open the program, my computer restarts. I checked for viruses and there are none, and I installed it many times. I’m running WIndows XP SP1. When I get to the desktop, a windows error message pops up and says, “Windows encountered a serious problem”. I send the error message, and then it takes me to a Creative Sound Blaster site that is incorrect. Whats wrong?

Gale_Andrews · April 3, 2012, 9:29pm

What exact version of Audacity did you use before, for example, 1.2.6?

We do have a few reports of Sound Blasters misbehaving with Audacity 2.0.0. The fundamental problem being exposed though is with SoundBlaster (or possibly with some other driver), because Audacity does not have kernel privileges to restart the computer.

Note that you are running a very outdated XP Service Pack. This could cause issues any time you update software or drivers. I would strongly recommend updating to at least SP2, and ideally thence to SP3. Then go to the Creative site and look for the latest Sound Blaster drivers ( http://tinyurl.com/5mvmse ).

If you want to look deeper for the exact faulting driver or module, you can analyse the memory dump fairly easily by downloading WhoCrashed ( Resplendence Software - Free Downloads ). If you are not sure where the memory dump is, right-click over My Computer > Properties, which should bring you to “System Properties”. Click the “Advanced” tab, and under “Startup and Recovery”, click “Settings”.

If none of this helps you could try Audacity 1.3.12 ( http://audacity.googlecode.com/files/audacity-win-unicode-1.3.12.exe ) but 2.0.0 has many important bug fixes over 1.3.13 and later.

Let us know how you get on.

Gale

xXxTH1RT3ENxXx · April 5, 2012, 2:49am

Gale Andrews:

xXxTH1RT3ENxXx:

I updated Audacity to 2.0 and whenver I attempt to open the program, my computer restarts. I checked for viruses and there are none, and I installed it many times. I’m running WIndows XP SP1. When I get to the desktop, a windows error message pops up and says, “Windows encountered a serious problem”. I send the error message, and then it takes me to a Creative Sound Blaster site that is incorrect. Whats wrong?

What exact version of Audacity did you use before, for example, 1.2.6?

We do have a few reports of Sound Blasters misbehaving with Audacity 2.0.0. The fundamental problem being exposed though is with SoundBlaster (or possibly with some other driver), because Audacity does not have kernel privileges to restart the computer.

Note that you are running a very outdated XP Service Pack. This could cause issues any time you update software or drivers. I would strongly recommend updating to at least SP2, and ideally thence to SP3. Then go to the Creative site and look for the latest Sound Blaster drivers ( http://tinyurl.com/5mvmse ).

If you want to look deeper for the exact faulting driver or module, you can analyse the memory dump fairly easily by downloading WhoCrashed ( Resplendence Software - Free Downloads ). If you are not sure where the memory dump is, right-click over My Computer > Properties, which should bring you to “System Properties”. Click the “Advanced” tab, and under “Startup and Recovery”, click “Settings”.

If none of this helps you could try Audacity 1.3.12 ( http://audacity.googlecode.com/files/audacity-win-unicode-1.3.12.exe ) but 2.0.0 has many important bug fixes over 1.3.13 and later.

Let us know how you get on.

Gale

I updated to service pack 3 (Not really sure why I haven’t updated that). That didn’t do the trick. However, before the computer restart situation, I recall that the program wouldn’t work. An error message came up that said that the code was incorrect or something like this. So I installed Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - x86 9.0.30729.17. I saw this in Add or Remove Programs just now trying to install Audacity again, and so I uninstalled that, and it worked. I’m not completely sure what that did, or does, but farewell. Thank you for your help! I am able to overdub now!

Gale_Andrews · April 9, 2012, 4:36am

Thanks for letting us know. If the restart problem happens again, let us know also.

Some users who need to install the Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable to run Audacity are already on SP3, so there should not be any major conflict between the two.

Gale