Audacity keeps crashing out

[kozikowski]

<<<<impulse convolver effect>>>

I couldn't find that one in my effects listings. Maybe I have a different version?

Koz

[effetebomb]

i tried out 1.3.3 today and i got the same problem about 20 minutes in.

[effetebomb]

the impulse convolver is from the LADSPA plug ins download

[kozikowski]

They warn you that third party plugins may cause trouble. Take the plugin--all third party plugins--out and see what happens.

Koz

[effetebomb]

well yeah, i thought that might be the problem so i deleted all of those plug-ins completly off my computer and the problem persisted. Here is my solution. I work on a track, saving often. When I crash out I export as an mp3, play it in iTunes, record the playback into a new audacity project and work from there.

[kozikowski]

We know that one of the early versions of 1.2.x had a memory leak and would choke itself shortly after launching and being used. But that shouldn't affect 1.3.x.

One of the common responses is to make sure you have the most updated drivers for all your hardware.

There was another poster that had Sudden Unexplained Program Death and his problem vanished when he took out his sound card and replaced it. This is working on a closely held theory of mine that Audacity is the window through which you view your computer problems.

Also, being a Windows machine, when was the last time you did a virus scan? They can certainly cause sudden unexplained system insanity.

Koz

[AndyNewton]

Thanks effetebomb and kozilowski for all the posts related to this.

I have had frequent crashes in Audacity 1.2.6 over the past few days, after months of trouble-free use.
Generally my PC setup and symptoms are similar to effetebomb's.
Some projects recently have crashed more and more frequently, getting worse over a period of some hours of multi-track recording and editing, until becoming unusable for any practical purpose.

One fix that has worked (so far) today is similar to effetebomb's solution - copying a project, and somehow leaving the problem behind in the process. Recording via playback from another player is certainly a super-cleaning system. That suggested to me another quicker method, that preserves all the separate project tracks. I simply used Audacity's File/SaveAs menu option and entered a new project name. That forces Audacity to create a new projectname.aup file and a new project data folder. Maybe not a super-clean-cleanup, but it has rescued one mangled project today alowing me to work on it for an hour or so with no crashes so far.

kozilowski's suggestions:
Defrag C: ... In the past the defrag utility has always said (from "analyse drive") that my hard drive does not need defragmenting. But yesterday for the first time ever it did say the drive should be defragmented. Ran defrag overnight, and projects were still crashing today. But of course those project files were initially laid down some time before defrag. The SaveAs fix (above) was done after the defrag - so the defrag could be part of the fix.
Hide plug-ins .... I renamed the plugins folder as pluginsXXX so Audacity could not recognize it. I had dozens of plugins available previously, but after hiding them Audacity showed only the short list of effects that come in the basic installed version. If Audacity continues to behave itself for some time then I will let it see the plugins again, and post here if that makes it falls over.
Memory checks ..... I have run only the basic hardware diagnostics in XP help&support - everything checks out OK at that level.

Fundamental causes:
On current evidence the only root cause that can be deduced is that my hard disk needed defragmenting, (followed by opening project and doing a SaveAs to leave any bad data files behind.)
Less likely causes are things that have changed in recent weeks, included installing Audacity 1.3.3 Beta, and an XP automatic update that went through sometime also, but Audacity 1.2.6 was working OK for a few days at least after those changes. Audacity 1.3.3 Beta is not usable on my system (see the "Pop noise when recording" thread in the 1.3.3 windows forum), but I have not uninstalled it yet.

I use Audacity for an hour or so most days, so if you don't hear from me again in this thread then it is safe to assume that defrag + SaveAs was a complete and lasting solution. (There will still be old projects that will be liable to crash if I open them again, until I have done the SaveAs step with them also.)

[AndyNewton]

Oh no ... I'm back!

Opened my "clean" project, muted two tracks, clicked PLAY, and after abut 20 seconds Audacity "encountered a problem and needs to close".

Opened the project again, all OK now for about five minutes of editing and playback, then Audacity "encountered a problem" again. Curiously this was during a straight playback of the project. Whilst I was reading the reams of data in the error report ("Please tell Microsoft about this problem" etc) Audacity was happily continuing to playback the project behind the error report window, despite whatever "problem" Windows XP thought Audacity was experiencing. Clicking on Send or Don't Send the error report, at that point Windows XP shuts down Audacity either way.

[natcolley]

I'd like to join this thread. I downloaded 1.2.6 yesterday, got no indication anything bad happened during installation, but as soon as I click on a file to open it, I get 'audacity encountered a problem and needed to close...'. So it is a very similar problem to the other posters here except I haven't gotten as far as they have yet - I can't even open a file. I am on a Sony notebook, XP pro sp2. I have something called a Realtek audio bus, which I'm guessing is the sound card. 512 ram. I can use my voice dictation system, movie maker, etc. I just can't get Audacity to open a file without crashing. Please advise. Thx.

[AndyNewton]

Fingers crossed ---- I seem to have fixed the Audacity 1.2.6 crashing out problem on my PC.

The adjustment I made was a change to my antivirus software setup, as detailed below. As there are many other possible reasons for crashing this adjustment may not cure your PC but I think this would be a good step to take in any case if you are running Norton antivirus, or any other virus protection software that automatically scans data files when they are opened by an application such as Word, Excel, or Audacity.
I made the adjustment when searching for a setup to stop pop/clicking noises in recordings with Audacity 1.3.3 Beta. The pops in 1.3.3 did not go away, but since making the adjustment I have now been using Audacity 1.2.6 for about eight hours of multi-track recording and editing spread over two days with not one single crash occuring!


How to stop Norton Antivirus scanning each .au data file that Audacity opens during recording.
(These details are specific to Norton Antivirus, but the principle should apply to any other brand of virus scanning software.)
Open Norton Antivirus or Norton Internet Security from icon at bottom right of screen.
Click on Options at top of Norton window and select Antivirus.
Select Auto-protect in menus at left of Norton window.
Under "Which file types to scan for viruses" click to select "Scan Files Using Smartscan", and NOT "Comprehensive File Scanning".
To maintain effective virus protection click on the Smartscan Customise button and click Defaults in the file types list window.
The Default list of file types is massive, so Antivirus will still check virtually every type of data file - but not .au files because ".au" is not on the default list. (The Comprehensive File Scanning option blindly checks every data file regardless of its file extension type - so I assume Norton anitvirus will be scanning all the .au files opened on-the-fly during Audacity recording - not a good idea because Audacity needs constant and very rapid access to those files.)

Is this safe? My uninformed view is that it should be safe because I do not ever receive .au files from the internet or on media cards etc. The .au files are all generated inside my PC, by Audacity, and so they cannot be a route for infection to enter the PC.