Audacity HANGS in XP after 1 successful export session

[steve]

So Audacity with your USB turntable intermittently hangs, but Pyro is fine, but you like the editing features of Audacity.

Why not use Pyro to record, then disconnect the turntable and use Audacity to do the editing?

What version of Audacity are you using? On Windows XP I found Audacity 1.3.4 to be the most stable.
You have had suspicions about your network connection interfering - what kind of network connection do you have?

[Cody]

I had *thought* it had something to do with the Network being active. So I actually made a point to always Disable my network to do these recordings. I had good luck in doing it this way for like 10-20 recordings. Then as I pointed out, just this week, I did exactly the same thing. The very 1st recording froze up after like 5 mins. I rebooted, deleted the .cfg file & the temp directory, started another recordingm and it froze again early in the recording. I just have gotten to the point of frustration with using Audacity and can't live with the continuing hangs requiring a Power Reset to get my machine back. It's just very non-productive for me.

Anyway, I'll take into consideration to only use Audacity for the editing part of my recordings... PS, using 1.3.5 vers. My network connection is just my Primary machine directly connected to a wireless Router ... RJ-attached.

[jan.kolar]

Cody,
I think your decission is appropriate and I respect it.
Thank you once more for your reports!!
It is sad that when we achieved a change, it is far from success.

(Hiss that happend to you in one of the cases, reminds me about possibility to update drivers and/or to make sure
the card goes in the most usuall 44100/16bit/stereo setting.)


At random, I add an advice of bubarge72: "if you have Google Toolbar, get rid of it".
There is a lot of similar things that do network traffic and some of them can even access soundcard at random times.

In case you would try again sometimes, or if some other user get into similar problems:

1. One think I would try is opening Window Task Manager when recording. It may give information what happend just before the crash. It starts when you press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, the most appropriate is 'Processes' panel (Performance panel is of some litlle relevance, too). It is good to sort by CPU usage (click CPU once or twice to make it decreasing) even if we want to pay attantion to processes with any% or even 0%. I would set View > UpdateSpeed > Hi or Normal.

2. Note that 5 minutes in recording can also mean 8 minutes after reboot. When you expect hang, does it make difference to leave the computer 15/20 minutes alone before starting recording?

3. When you expect hang, does it appear if Audacity is doing some long effect proccessing or like instead of recording?

4. Do not forget about clean reboot - After hang that means two reboots actually.
I would diasable and disconnect network before rebooting.
Do not forget to repair/check disks after system hang.



BTW: Did we suggest to try 1.2.x. stable version? I read somewhere it is more stable with recordings.
(Though, I had my two crashes that I relate to network, with 1.2.6.)
The file then opens in 1.3.x (though file saved in 1.3.x does not open in 1.2.x).
You can have installed both of them (or just unzipped - Audacity does not depend on installator).
There is almost no interference between the two (A. You can run only one of the two at the same time. B. if you delete 1.3.x .cfg file, it picks up configuration from 1.2.x instead of defaults; C. .aup files associate doubleclicks to only one of the two.)




Technical: Were there any updates in recording rutines since 1.3.5 ? (If some update could be related, should we suggest to try alpha?)

[Cody]

OK ... I went with some of the suggestions you provided and I have some more information for you on this issue:

1. I Uninstalled 1.3.x, deleted all directories, rebooted...

2. I installed 1.2.6 (I don't have 1.2.5) from the CD that came with my Turntable.

3. I left the machine "sit" for nearly 1/2 hour, launched the TASK MANAGER to see what activity - if any - was going on... It was very "quiet", hardly any CPU or Memory being used.

4. I left TASK MANAGER up and active and in the foreground so I could monitor activity. I launched AUDACITY, configured my Preferences, and started recording an album ... it was successful. I Exported Multiple tracks to MP3. Successful. I Exited Audacity and restarted it. Recorded 4 more albums in a row using the same technique and exporting the MP3 tracks.

5. On the 5th album, I was on side 2 and a total of like 37 minutes recorded so far. AUDACITY was "stuck" in the recording session. This time however I didn't try to EXIT Audacity. I looked at the TASK MANAGER and it was appearing as if everything was fine. In fact, I was able to click on anything else other than Audacity and it was responding just fine -- like nothing was wrong. The minute I clicked on AUDACITY (the blue area/box at the top), my entire system again FROZE UP requiring a POWER/RESET. Nothing would respond.

[steve]

Can I suggest that you try doing the recording in Pyro for a while. If the problem goes away, then you have an easy workaround (you can still import the wav files into Audacity for editing). If the problem reappears in Pyro, then you will know that the problem is not with Audacity, but elsewhere (possibly a hardware issue).

[Cody]

OK ,.... yet another update for you guys/gals...

I uninstalled all of my Audio drivers with an attempt to reinstall everything and get "the latest" ... basically a horrible experience. I hosed over XP in the process... Anyway, after like 2 days of Repairing and reinstalling Windows XP and removing my Creative Labs Audigy 2 Soundblaster card, I finally made it back to SP3 .... then reinserted my h/w (Audigy 2 card) .... I went to Creative Labs site and downloaded and installed the latest/greatest drivers for that card (circa 2006 vs. 2002 orignally installed) ... tried the Audacity 1.2.6 version (or 5?) and experienced yet another lockup on the first album ... Rebooted ... uninstalled 1.2.x, rebooted ... installed 1.3.6 ... (whatever the latest BETA is..) ... successfully recorded 1 full album .... and yet another track from a 2nd album ... Got to the 3rd album, and 2.5 mins into the album, once again, Audacity HUNG UP. XP in and of itself was not hung up ... I could launch anything I wanted ... but the minute I TOUCHED Audacity - wham ... entire system hung requiring a power/reset ...

Creative LABS AUDIGY 2 Card that came with my DELL desktop system.

FWIW

[kozikowski]

<<<The USB Turntable that we bought... (from the first message)>>>
<<<entire system hung requiring a power/reset... (from the current post)>>>

Happy Birthday. By my count you've been at this for two months.

It's been our experience that once your USB turntable fails the first time, that's the end of the story. It will never work correctly after that, no matter whose drivers you try. The combination of machine, turntable, and software produces an unstable condition and it stays unstable unless you change a major component, like the computer or the turntable.

The usual escape from this cycle is to transfer all your work analog rather than USB digital. I didn't go back through the whole thread, but are you on a Windows Laptop? Some of them allow you to switch your Mic-In connector to stereo Line-In and after that, it's an interconnect cable or two. Some have both Mic-In and Line-In. I think Lenovo does that.

Your real decision is whether we're going to meet you here on September 4th.

Koz

[steve]

2 months in and we're still missing basic information like:
How much free drive space on your C: drive?
Does the turntable work reliably with Pyro?
Does Audacity work with the USB turntable disconnected?
Are you shutting down Audacity in between projects (albums)?
Exactly what hardware do you have?

[Cody]

OK... I get it .. I'll go away ... you're right .. after 2 months, these persistant HANGS suck.

FYI ... I've REALLY been trying to help get YOUR product working on my system .... PYRO works fine... except the editing interface sucks....

Gone .... your URL deleted .... good luck with your product ...

70 GB disk free space
Windows XP / SP3
Latest Audigy 2 drivers installed
Playback turned OFF in Audacity
yes - I EXIT Audacity after each successful recording ...

I'm Computer LITERATE, thank you ... been "in the business" since 1981 ... This is on a DESKTOP machine (DELL) with 1 GB memory...

Have a great life.

[MDOC]

Hold it, guy. I'm not satisfied with you not solving your problem, because you haven't tried a clean vanilla configuration in your system. There could be a software conflict in your system. In the past, a software conflict had been the culprit in weird problems like this. I've had 'em before. Disable your start-ups and any programs in the system tray, then test your Audacity again. If you're stable there, half the battle's won. Re-enable the start-ups one at a time until you find the conflict. Then make your appropriate decision.