Controls Grayed Out - Program Lock [SOLVED]

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (32-bit)
Audacity v. 2.0.6
.exe installer

Hello,

Came back to Audacity today after six months or so of not using it on this computer and found that each time I try to edit a file, I can playback the sound fine but the editing controls lock up and are displayed all in gray on the menus. Sometimes I can perform a few editing tasks before the menus gray out, and other times they gray out immediately after the file opens. I uninstalled my previous version and installed 2.0.6, but the same problem keeps happening with both. I also tried downloading the LAME encoder and FFmpeg libraries (also for v. 2.0.6) but didn’t notice a change.

Files more than 20 minutes long will also open very slowly, and the sound wave takes a while to appear in the project editing screen, sometimes accompanied by the “Not Responding” message from Windows before the file successfully opens.

Any help is much appreciated!

2:59:34 PM: Audacity 2.0.6
2:59:34 PM: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries...
2:59:34 PM: Trying to load FFmpeg libraries from default path, 'C:Program FilesFFmpeg for Audacityavformat-55.dll'.
2:59:34 PM: Looking up PATH environment variable...
2:59:34 PM: PATH = 'C:Windowssystem32;C:Windows;C:WindowsSystem32Wbem;C:PROGRA~1COMMON~1ULEADS~1MPEG;C:WindowsSystem32WindowsPowerShellv1.0;C:Program FilesQuickTimeQTSystem'
2:59:34 PM: Checking that 'C:Program FilesFFmpeg for Audacity' is in PATH...
2:59:34 PM: Warning: FFmpeg directory 'C:Program FilesFFmpeg for Audacity' is not in PATH.
2:59:34 PM: Temporarily appending ';C:Program FilesFFmpeg for Audacity' to PATH...
2:59:34 PM: Checking for monolithic avformat from 'C:Program FilesFFmpeg for Audacityavformat-55.dll'.
2:59:34 PM: Error: Couldn't find symbol 'avutil_version' in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
2:59:34 PM: Error: Couldn't find symbol 'avcodec_version' in a dynamic library (error 127: the specified procedure could not be found.)
2:59:34 PM: avformat not monolithic
2:59:34 PM: Loading avutil from 'avutil-52.dll'.
2:59:34 PM: Loading avcodec from 'avcodec-55.dll'.
2:59:34 PM: Loading avformat from 'C:Program FilesFFmpeg for Audacityavformat-55.dll'.
2:59:34 PM: Returning PATH to previous setting...
2:59:34 PM: Actual avutil path C:Program FilesFFmpeg for Audacityavutil-52.dll
2:59:34 PM: Actual avcodec path C:Program FilesFFmpeg for Audacityavcodec-55.dll
2:59:34 PM: Actual avformat path C:Program FilesFFmpeg for Audacityavformat-55.dll
2:59:34 PM: Importing symbols...
2:59:34 PM: All symbols loaded successfully. Initializing the library.
2:59:34 PM: Retrieving FFmpeg library version numbers:
2:59:34 PM:    AVCodec version 0x373466 - 55.52.102 (built against 0x373466 - 55.52.102)
2:59:34 PM:    AVFormat version 0x372164 - 55.33.100 (built against 0x372164 - 55.33.100)
2:59:34 PM:    AVUtil version 0x344264 - 52.66.100 (built against 0x344264 - 52.66.100)
2:59:34 PM: FFmpeg libraries loaded successfully.
2:59:39 PM: File name is C:UsersAfternoon MenPodcast Editing2013.11.1 Jason and MartyJason Hertz.MP3
2:59:39 PM: Mime type is *
2:59:39 PM: Opening with libsndfile
2:59:39 PM: Opening with libmad
2:59:39 PM: Open(C:UsersAfternoon MenPodcast Editing2013.11.1 Jason and MartyJason Hertz.MP3) succeeded

Files more than 20 minutes long will also open very slowly

Are you filling up your hard drive? Does somebody use this machine while you’re not?

When Audacity starts editing a file, it has to break free a lot of drive space for effects processing and UNDO. If it can’t do that, it may hang in random places like what you have.

Koz

Might this be the problem - you need to press the yellow Stop button Audacity Manual ?


Gale

Wow, this wasn’t as simple as turning it off and on again, but was pretty close. Pressing Stop did the trick - thanks for the quick response!