crashes on two systems

[debbiewood]

I downloaded Audacity a couple of weeks ago on my Vista machine and used it to record about 15 different speaking sessions, each one about 1-5 minutes long, and each having several "takes". The only problem was that periodically when I would hit "record" or mid-recording, the system would crash and close audacity and I lost quite a bit of work. Only a few of the files were saved during the crashes. So, when I did a session yesterday, I stopped every few seconds, hit "save project " so that when it crashed and I re-opened, most of the work was still there.

Now I'm trying to work on editing the files I created. I made a copy and transferred them to my desktop machine, but it's even more unstable on it! I opened two files that needed to be edited, then created a third file to be the "working" document. I pasted the best take into the new working document and figured out where I need to trim or replace messy bits with better bits from another file. But whenever I hit cut, or "silence, or just about anything else, the whole program crashes.

What am I doing wrong to be getting this many program crashes on two machines and in both editing and recording mode?

Thanks!

[steve]

Are you using the latest 1.3.9 version? If not, try upgrading.

[debbiewood]

I have heard that the newer beta version is somewhat unstable, and in fact I think it warns you about that at the download site. Since I'm already plagued with instability, am I running a risk of further pain and suffering if I move to the new program?

--D

[steve]

1.2.6 (the last "stable" version) is known to have issues on Vista and Windows 7.
1.3.9 beta (the current beta release) is perhaps the most stable version currently available for Windows 7 and Vista.
1.3.10 alpha (not on general release) has several known issues and is probably less stable than 1.3.9 beta (which is not surprising as it is an alpha version - by the time it is released as 1.3.10 beta it should replace 1.3.9 as the most stable version, but it is not yet ready for general release).

I've not personally used Audacity very much on Vista, but on Windows XP I still have Audacity 1.3.4 which is rock solid (though it lacks some of the new features).

Which version are you currently using?