Audacity won't start up on Windows 8

Audacity Help Forum Windows
1

I have had this problem using Audacity 2.0.5 as well as 2.0 after I downgraded to see if I could fix it.

When I first installed Audacity, it started up without problems on a Lenovo laptop running Windows 8. However, it later switched to “not responding” when trying to record. It may or may not be related, but I had switched the microphone from the default laptop microphone to one on a Logitech webcam). After uninstalling and reinstalling, I could sometimes get it to run, including with the logitech microphone. I eventually downgraded to Audacity 2.0 and I thought that fixed the problem, but it is happening again after about a week.

The main thing is that Audacity seems to be starting up and shows in the task manager with 0 CPU but hangs forever and never displays anything.

I have tried deleting AppData/Roaming/Audacity, but it just creates a new directory and hangs the same way.

I spent a long time trying to find a post by someone with the same problem, but I haven’t. Is there some file I can delete when this happens to get a clean start? Any other solution?

2

To begin with, try reinstalling Audacity with “Reset Preferences” enabled half way through the installation process, as described here: http://manual.audacityteam.org/o/man/faq_installation_and_plug_ins.html#reset .

Just deleting AppDataRoamingAudacity should do the same thing, but not if you ever used a 1.2 version of Audacity, in which case the 1.2 settings will be used where they still have an equivalent in current Audacity.


Gale