Auadacity crash - advice needed

[happy37]

Hello everyone...

Hope that all is well - I am posting back to ask about some advice to do with an Audacity crash within Windows XP Pro.

I am still using Audacity 1.2.6 on my P4 2.4Ghz PC, 2GB RAM, with an IDE Western Digital 320GB hard drive, namely this one:-

http://tinyurl.com/65gat46

WDC WD3200AAJB-00J3A0

My other hard drive is a brand new SATA II hard drive - this is a Western Digital 1TB one connected to a PCI SATA II controller card that connects to the motherboard.

It's this one:-

http://tinyurl.com/5sop4qs

WDC WD10EALS-00Z8A0

All has normally been working well for a while now, but Audacity crashed yesterday in the middle of a live recording project.

The error message states:-

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Application Error
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1000
Date: 20/03/2011
Time: 13:45:20
User: N/A
Computer: MANDEEP
Description:

Faulting application audacity.exe, version 0.0.0.0, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 5.1.2600.6055, fault address 0x00010cce.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Data:

0000: 6c707041 74616369 206e6f69 6c696146
0010: 20657275 64756120 74696361 78652e79
0020: 2e302065 2e302e30 6e692030 64746e20
0030: 642e6c6c 35206c6c 322e312e 2e303036
0040: 35353036 20746120 7366666f 30207465
0050: 30313030 0d656363 0a

Hope this error message and diags data is useful to someone and maybe that you might be able to tell me what caused this, please?

I always defrag and use scandisk on my drives before every recording project - is this too much/overkill?

What I would like to find out or get advice on as well is this:-

1. Should I replace the SATA II hard drive with something else in case this drive is/might be causing the problem? ( even though it is totally brand new??? )

2. Should I change Audacity versions - from 1.2 to 1.3 Beta in Windows XP Pro, and what difference will this make?

3. If Audacity does crash again in future, is version 1.2 or 1.3 better at dealing with crash recovery, and what's the best manner to recover from a crash - any tips/tutorials/links on this please?

4. What is the cause of such a crash, and how can this be prevented in future, please?

Many thanks for reading - all responses gratefully received.

Regards

happy37

[steve]

Hope this error message and diags data is useful to someone and maybe that you might be able to tell me what caused this, please?

Sorry, can't help much with the specific error other than it is a Windows kernel error.
I've come across similar errors when running old software on XP with SP2/SP3. Audacity 1.2.6 is old software.

I always defrag and use scandisk on my drives before every recording project - is this too much/overkill?

Probably overkill.
If you have a reasonable amount of free disk space (say 50% or more) then you probably only need to defragment about once a month.
If Defrag shows a high percentage of fragmented files after this time, then you could increase the frequency to maybe once a week, but that should not be the case unless you are regularly shifting very large amounts of data, or installing/un-installing large programs regularly.

If you have less than 10% of free disk space then you should make more space (delete or move some files).

2. Should I change Audacity versions - from 1.2 to 1.3 Beta in Windows XP Pro, and what difference will this make?

I would say definitely yes. Audacity 1.3.12 is the current beta version and is much superior to Audacity 1.2.6.
No one can guarantee that it won't crash (all complex programs have some bugs), but it is much more up to date than 1.2.6.
If Audacity 1.3.12 does crash, it has pretty good crash recovery which will usually recover the project automatically the next time it is launched. This is an area that is still being improved, so keep an eye open for the release of Audacity 1.3.13 (due for release quite soon).

As with anything else on computers it is highly recommended that you make regular backups of important work.

Crashes can be caused by just about anything, and not only software bugs. A bad bit of RAM, or a small drop in supply voltage cab cause a catastrophic crash. If crashes are repeatable ("I do 'A' then 'B' then 'C' and then Audacity crashes") then it probably indicates a bug in the software. Audacity 1.2.x is no longer being developed, but if you experience any repeatable crashes with the current Audacity 1.3.x version, then we would very much like to know so that it can be fixed.

[happy37]

If you have a reasonable amount of free disk space (say 50% or more) then you probably only need to defragment about once a month.
If Defrag shows a high percentage of fragmented files after this time, then you could increase the frequency to maybe once a week, but that should not be the case unless you are regularly shifting very large amounts of data, or installing/un-installing large programs regularly.

If you have less than 10% of free disk space then you should make more space (delete or move some files).

Steve

Thanks for this tip - yes, as I said, it's a brand new SATA II Western Digital hard drive with 2 new partitions. I use 1 partition as a temp storage location for the live recording project.

I use the other partition as another temp storage location for the finished projects and associated WAV files.

Is this setup OK, or can this be improved in any way? - I have noted your comments about the frequency of defragging the drives and running scandisk on them.

2. Should I change Audacity versions - from 1.2 to 1.3 Beta in Windows XP Pro, and what difference will this make?
I would say definitely yes. Audacity 1.3.12 is the current beta version and is much superior to Audacity 1.2.6.
No one can guarantee that it won't crash (all complex programs have some bugs), but it is much more up to date than 1.2.6.
If Audacity 1.3.12 does crash, it has pretty good crash recovery which will usually recover the project automatically the next time it is launched. This is an area that is still being improved, so keep an eye open for the release of Audacity 1.3.13 (due for release quite soon).

As with anything else on computers it is highly recommended that you make regular backups of important work.

Steve,

I have now downloaded the zip file for Audacity 1.3 and have saved this in a separate folder to that of version 1.2.6.

I will see how this version works with a live recording project, but if I remember correctly, any projects that have already been worked on and saved previously in version 1.2.6 can be opened, worked on saved in the new version 1.3?

This doesn't work the other way round, does it? - in other words, anything worked on in version 1.3 will not work/open in version 1.2.6?

Am I correct or totally wrong? - please let me know accordingly.

Finally:-

Should I replace the SATA II hard drive with something else in case this drive is/might be causing the problem? ( even though it is totally brand new??? )

Do you think that the new hard drive could be suspect, and how can I verify this apart from running scandisk and the Western Digital diagnostics utility on the drive?

Audacity 1.2.x is no longer being developed, but if you experience any repeatable crashes with the current Audacity 1.3.x version, then we would very much like to know so that it can be fixed.

I will try out version 1.3, and I will let you all posted about my experience with the new version.

Is there any latest news on when version 2.0 will be released, please?

Many thanks for all your help so far - it's much appreciated.

Regards

happy37

[steve]

Is this setup OK

Sounds fine.

if I remember correctly, any projects that have already been worked on and saved previously in version 1.2.6 can be opened, worked on saved in the new version 1.3?

This doesn't work the other way round, does it? - in other words, anything worked on in version 1.3 will not work/open in version 1.2.6?

That's correct. As soon as you "Save" a project with Audacity 1.3.x, it becomes an Audacity 1.3 project.
(Audacity 1.3 projects contain additional features that Audacity 1.2 does not understand)

In my experience the Western Digital diagnostics utility is pretty good, and if it says that the drive is OK, then it probably is.

Is there any latest news on when version 2.0 will be released

Not yet, but 1.3.13 is due out early next month. It contains several bug fixes and is a significant step toward 2.0, so it'll be worth updating.