Audacity Forum

I've had audacity for a few months, but I'm starting to have all sorts of problems. The first is that my sound-cards keep breaking. I'm on my third and I'm afraid that it too will break. The other is that my computer starts to act really weird when I record sometimes. I hit play or record, the program freezes, and the sound stops working. This is followed by having to ask someone to fix it. After it gets fixed, it doesn't take any longer then two weeks before it breaks again. This even stops my internet connection from working. This exact process has happened multiple times in a row.

I am now on my third sound card and my third new internet connection. My computer is finally working again after about one month of waiting, but now I'm scared to use audacity because there are rumors that it is what is causing my computer to crash. It's also rumored that recording into my computer is causing the sound card the break. Does anyone know if audacity could be doing this? Maybe I just have bad luck, but any responses will be greatly appreciated.

You have a massively unstable machine. Audacity is not causing this, we need to figure out what is.

If you inspect your hard drives, are any of them over 90% full? That will kick you in the head for any kind of production work, video or audio. That inspection changes with the Windows you have.

Are your virus definitions up to date and do you have a current license for virus software?

If all that is normal, then you need to split the system to see which parts are actually failing.

I have a license for Doc Memory (Docmemory? docMemory?). This is a software package that produces a bootable floppy disk (remember floppies?). After your machine starts on the floppy (you may need to tell your machine how to do that), you will be presented with many different memory test packages or suites and the ability to run them all one after the other basically forever.

Set up to run the whole suite of tests for 999 times. Depending on the speed of your machine, that will take days, but you don't have to wait that long. I leave that process running overnight and if I really think there is something wrong, for 24-hours. If there is anything wrong with the hardware, the machine will never make it that far.

Although this is a "Memory Tester," the whole machine needs to be in good health to run it. I have found bad CPUs, bad power supplies, bad power cords, and oddly enough, bad memory modules.

This process divorces the hardware from the software. None of your software is running during this test. Just the hardware. It will not test the hard drives, which are hardware, but part of a different test.

If the machine crashes, then you have a bad machine and no software is going to help you. If it doesn't--if it runs forever--then we need to go to the next step.

Koz

I got a couple of surprises.

Microsoft has a Memory Tester. It's part of the Microsoft Online Crash Analysis web page. It's free.

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

Download the analysis tool and when you run it, it will volunteer to make either a boot floppy (rough to get around those) or a bootable CD. The bootable CD is much more difficult to make because you need to download Microsoft Server tools, too, but the floppy version works fine.

Restart your computer with the floppy in the drive and away it goes--in DOS mode. White characters on a black field. No flowers and trees here.

It works remarkably well. Unlike Doc Memory, you have nothing to pick or click on and no options. If you boot the machine on the floppy, it will automatically run itself in a very small footprint and start the test. If you press T, it will start over in a much more serious test. That's the one you leave running all night. Microsoft says that in exactly those words.

That was one surprise. the other was that I have errors on one of my Windows machines. One of my main production machines will not pass the "Stride6" memory test, "Error, Error, Will Robinson!"

I'll be getting out my screwdriver.

Koz

The scary thing is that your sound cards keep breaking?

Are you using PCI cards? You might have some serious power surge problems or a bar power supply.

But Koz is right, this could be quite tough to fix.

<<<The scary thing is that your sound cards keep breaking?>>>

That's not scary. I don't think that's correct. I think if you went back and plugged one of the old sound cards into a different slot in place of the current one, it would start working.

The actual symptom (extrapolating now) is "Every time I plug a new sound card into slot two, it fails."

I don't remember ever having a sound card fail. Ever.

Koz

I've seen failed cards. Two of them (though over the course of several years). But you're probably right, it's more likely the PCI slot that is to blame.

<<<PCI Slot>>>

Or Something Else. All the new cards work for a day or two. Extrapolating again, "Any time I change any card in the machine to any other card, the system starts working."

Koz