XP reboots when starting Audacity

[sandra987]

I've sucessfully installed Audacity on my laptop which uses Vista.
On my main pc, using XP professional, Audacity 1.2 causes a reboot when I run it (after choosing the language I want)
Audacity 1.3 causes a reboot as soon as I choose 'run' at the end of the install process.
In both cases there are no error messages.
I've looked at previous posts. One suggested the sound card might be the problem. According to the system info I have a RealTek AC97 and the driver is ALCXWDM.SV version 5.10.0000.5930. Is this likely to be the problem? if not, can you suggest anything I could try?
Thank you

[steve]

Did you download Audacity directly from the Audacity web site? http://audacityteam.org/download/
Are there any other problems with your computer?

[sandra987]

Yes - I downloaded straight from the main site in both cases. I've had no other problems with the PC. It seems stable.

[steve]

I've not come across this problem, but you have the same problem with two machines, with different operating systems and different versions of Audacity. That is very odd. Are there any common factors to both machines that other users may not have? For example, do you have any USB audio devices connected to the computer? Are you using a UPS? Are they networked? Anything else specific to your set-ups?

[sandra987]

Steve,
The problem is only with my pc with XP professional and the problem occurs with both versions of Audacity.
Everything is fine on my Vista laptop with either version of Audacity.

[steve]

Have a look in the folder:
Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacity
(it's a hidden folder)

Is there a file in there called "audacity.cfg"
If there is, open it in Notepad and delete everything except for the line:
NewPrefsInitialized=1
Save the file (without changing the file name).
Then try starting Audacity 1.3.12

Do you have any other music software installed on the computer?

[sandra987]

Steve, there is a folder called audacity. It is empty apart from another folder called "presets" which is itself empty (I have checked and I am showing hidden files and folders).

I don't have any music editing software. Apart from the Microsoft things that were bundled with the PC I can only think of Skype and itunes which might explicitly do things with sound files. Happy to un-install these if you think it might help.

[steve]

there is a folder called audacity. It is empty apart from another folder called "presets" which is itself empty (I have checked and I am showing hidden files and folders).

That's OK. The audacity.cfg file is created after the first run of Audacity 1.3.12. If Audacity 1.3.x has never successfully run there will not be an audacity.cfg file yet. However, we can make one manually.

Open Notepad with a new document and enter the line

Code: Select all

NewPrefsInitialized=1

Save that file as:
Documents and Settings<user name>Application DataAudacityaudacity.cfg

You will probably need Administrative permissions to do this.
Take care that Notepad does not add ".txt" to the end of the file name - it must be exactly "audacity.cfg" (without quotes).
(Do you have Windows set to show all file extensions? See here for how to do that - http://www.fileinfo.com/help/windows-sh ... sions.html

Skype will automatically run on boot-up and will continue to run in the background after it is closed. It does indeed do things to the sound system.
I don't use iTunes but I would not be surprised if this also applied to iTunes.
You probably do not need to uninstall them, but shut them down and use the Task Manager to ensure that they are completely and totally shut down, then try launching Audacity 1.3.12

I've got my fingers crossed, but another thought that occurs to me - do you have an antivirus program installed?
If you do (and I hope that you do),
1) Run a FULL system scan (will take a while).
assuming that the scan comes out clean,
2) Physically disconnect from the Internet, then shut down your antivirus program and try running Audacity. After this test, restart your computer and the anti-virus program should automatically load as normal.

[sandra987]

I created the config file.
I made sure that neither itunes nor skype were running - same issue.
As I don't use them any more I un-installed them.
Just as a final check I re-installed Audacity 1.3.
Alas - still get the same issue.
(I did try running Audacity off line with the Resident Shield of AVG 9.0 disabled - and still get the same problem!)
I ran a full scan earlier today (you're right - it takes hours). It was clean so I didn't run another

[steve]

I'm running out of ideas. I've used Audacity on Windows XP for years on multiple machines and never had this problem.
The only other thing that I can think of is that perhaps there is a problem with your sound card drivers that is upsetting Audacity, though I don't know why that should cause your computer to reboot. Have you checked that you have the latest drivers installed for your sound card and that they have installed correctly?

I'll ask for a second opinion.