All Export files corrupt.

[jakeb]

I'm a long time Audacity user. All of my codecs are correctly installed. Audacity has performed correctly on this machine for at least 2 years (winxp, HP media center AMD64x2 5000)

Out of nowhere, any file I export (mp3, wav, ogg) are all corrupt. They will not play with any software (itunes, Windows Media player) and they will not open in Audacity unless the original project is already open.

Solutions I have already tried: Uninstall, Reinstall, Upgrade to 1.3, Downgrade to 1.2, uninstall codecs, reinstall codecs, New Lame 3.97, Save project to different directory.

I usually use Audacity for ripping my vinyl and tapes and for voice recording. Please help.

[kozikowski]

I can't wait for the hard core Windows people to arrive.

You know you can install 1.2 and 1.3 on the same machine and you're good to go as long as you don't use both at once?

Does Windows Sound Recorder work?

Windows Sound Recorder
Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Entertainment

When most people say they "removed Audacity" they're lying. Unless you get rid of the separate Preference structure, anything you put back is going to have the same settings and problems. In Win 1.2, the preferences were kept in the Dreaded Windows Registry. Abandon Hope.... Later Audacity versions and other platforms have an audacity.cfg file. Next time you "reinstall 1.3", just dump the preference file and Audacity will snap back to First Birthday. Your hint of install success is that Audacity experiences First Birthday in mono. Edit > Preferences > Audio I/O > Recording. If your new Audacity is in stereo, you didn't do anything useful.

I live in Drive > Properties > Error Check and Defragment. You didn't mention either of those in your note.

How full are you hard drives? No drive on a production machine should be over 90% full. Audacity hates operating into a full, fragmented drive. Sometimes hating it to the point of not working.

How old is your virus software and update? Problems down there will create machine insanity.

Koz

[waxcylinder]

You haven't told us either whether or not the files you have previously exported still play correctly.

Koz' advice about the audacity.cfg file is useful, but note that there is one cfg file per user if you use Audacity from different user accounts on the same PC. Also note that if you have previously installed 1.2.x and set preferences (which as Koz says are stored in the Windows registry for 1.3) - then when you fire up 1.3 without a .cfg file than rather than creating a "blank" one, it will copy the 1.2 preferences that have been set in the registry.

See this page from the Wiki about Preferences: http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... references

Gale Andrews has posted a little utility to clean the Registry of its Audacity preferences for 1.2.6 - see the bottom of this page: http://www.gaclrecords.org.uk/audacity.html

WC

[jakeb]

Thanks for the responses. Koz, I did not defrag or wipe out the registry entries, I will try that, but I don't see why the problem occurred in the first place.

Since my post, I managed to get a .wav file to be opened by Quicktime and I then exported the mp3 from there. windows media still barfs on the same .wav file that quicktime was able to read.

As for opening prior exports. I haven't had any trouble with typical audio reader progs. I didn't save any of the project files to go back and try again.

The windows sound recorder records and saves a .wav that works with media player. It gives me a strange error "Not enough memory available to complete this operation. Quit one or more applications and try again" but if I ignore the message, it works fine.

Memory, I have 4 Gb RAM obviously I am really only using 3.5 but that has never been a problem before.
Hard disk available memory = 155Gb
Virtual memory allocation = 10Gb
PF Usage while running Audacity = 646Mb
Available RAM while running Audacity = 3Gb

Also, not sure if this is related but I noticed the shell icon associated with . mp3 and .wav has fallen off those files. Their default program associations seem to be intact.

I will give the registry reset file a try and let you know what happens.

Also my virus software is up to date and my machine is regularly scanned by both virus scan and spyware scan.

[kozikowski]

<<<I don't see why the problem occurred in the first place.>>>
<<<It gives me a strange error>>>
<<<shell icon associated with . mp3 and .wav has fallen off those files.>>>

You have an unstable machine. Icon associations don't just "fall off," Sound Recorder doesn't just make up error flags, and Audacity doesn't just stop working on its own.

Do you have a good memory checker? Microsoft offers one that boots the machine from a floppy and checks everything but the extreme bottom chunk--continuously overnight if you want it. I'll see if I can find it.

<<<Also my virus software is up to date and my machine is regularly scanned by both virus scan and spyware scan.>>>

...by you? Do you ever do the scan where you have to stop using the machine for two hours? Maybe it's time.

Koz

[kozikowski]

Here it is.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

This turned up a bad power supply on one of my machines--after several hours of scanning.

Microsoft will also scan your machine for common viruses if you let it. That's recommended because some of the newer vigorous viruses make it a point to turn off internal virus checkers before they do anything else.

koz

[jakeb]

I ran that device checker about a month ago to test a suspected bad ram stick, after replacing the ram stick I got a clean bill of health. I will give it a go again but it does take a few hours to fully scan the machine with that utility.

I do a full system scan about once a week or so which includes running disk check, McAfee enterprise, and windows defender. I also install all Windows updates.

I recently did a Norton scan from their website, which turned up nothing.


Anyway. I reset the registry values. I have been able to record and export to .wav and .mp3 without any problems so thanks for all the help.