System Crash

[Bob Mahnke]

I already posted this,but I think it was the wrong area(sorry) so I thought I better post it again.
When I click on the Audacity desktop icon,my computer shuts down and reboots.Then after it reboots if I click on it again it will work just fine.This just started about a month ago,I have uninstalled and reloaded the software Ver.1.2.4 and just tried the new Ver.1.3.7 and it did the same thing.I am using Windows 2000 pro sp 4.I love the software but I am afraid this is going to kill my computer.Please help.

[steve]

I've deleted the other post.

This just started about a month ago,

And Audacity was working fine until then? In which case it may be that there is something else wrong with your computer, and the problem with Audacity is just a symptom.

When was the last time you did a full system maintenance? (clear out old unused files and other debris, defragment, full anti-virus scan...)
How much free disk space?
Any other unusual behaviour on your system?

[Bob Mahnke]

Thanks for the post,you could be right,that is why I posted here to see if anyone else had had this problem.I have 80gig left of a 160gig hard drive,I do a virus scan and clean the old files out every month.I have not defraged in a while and will try that.I will let you know what happens then.Thanks again,Bob

[Bob Mahnke]

I am back again,I did a defrag and still the same problem.Every other time I try it,it makes the computer reboot.I have this on 2 other machines and they run it great.1 has xp and the other has 2000 pro like my troubled machine.I really need the troubled machine to run it,any other thoughts?

[steve]

Do you remember exactly when you downloaded the 1.3.7 version? There was a re-release of 1.3.7 after some fairly major bug fixes. The latest version for Windows is available here: http://audacityteam.org/download/beta_windows

Before you install it, trash the existing Audacity preferences.
Since you have had Audacity 1.3.x installed on this machine there will be a hidden file on your computer called "audacity.cfg"
This file holds Audacities preferences.
You should find that file in:
Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacity

Open the file in a plain text editor (for example NotePad)
Delete all of the contents apart from:

Code: Select all

NewPrefsInitialized=1

Then save the file (make sure that your text editor does not add ".txt" to the file name - it must be "audacity.cfg").

Now install a freshly downloaded Audacity 1.3.7 and cross your fingers.

[Bob Mahnke]

Hey Steve,
Thanks for your help,I tried everything and still a no go.It has to be something wrong with my machine(not sure what)but it(Audacity) will start normaly every other time.If I restart the machine after I use Audacity,it will start right up every time both versions 1.2.6 and 1.3.7 beta.Now that I know that I will just restart the computer after I work with Audacity and the crash goes away.It is too good of a program not to use,and now that I know how to stop it from crashing I can live with it.Thanks again for your help,have a great day.Bob

[steve]

Ever thought of trying Linux on that machine?
In case you didn't know, you can test drive Linux without installing it as most versions of Linux can be run directly from the CD (this is known as using a "Live CD") The standard Ubuntu installation CD can be used in this way - it runs nicely on most computers from Pentium 2 and later.