Audacity Forum

I am very skeptical of Beta anything, but I gave Audacity 1.3 a shot, especially, since I could easy switch back to my previous copy if I wasn't happy. Well, I am happy, even with the earlier problems I was having (in other threads), but that was pretty much user error, as I'm sure this situation is.

I began detecting trouble when my audio recordings were suddenly developing dropouts. I performed a system diagnostic using System Mechanic and everything was in the green. I performed a 1 and 1/2 long virus scan using Avast! and a second scan using Norton Virus Scan. And a third scan using Spybot Search and Destroy. I had a virus before and that experience has be paranoid beyond belief (Infected everything!) Anyway, after performing these tasks, to gave Audacity a shot again. When I clicked to start monitoring the recording, it suddenly crashed and the infamous Blue Screen of Death appeared. BAD_POOL_CALL was the message if I recall. I rebooted, tried Audacity again. Same thing.

So now I'm freaking out. I do more virus more scans (to be absolutely sure) and check my settings and system. I checked my drive space and found that my c: drive had about 20mb of space remaining. I have 4 drives (i being partitioned into 2 parts), and I usually use my d: drive for all of my programmes. So, I moved Audacity to d:, and changed the temp files setting to be stored on d: (89.9gb of free space). I go to launch Audacity and suddenly it opens in a minimised state. I have to right click it, and choose Maximise to get it to open. After opening it was becoming very odd, sluggish performance, taking forever to play a song. I close it and reopen. Same thing. I close and reopen. Ditto. This time I wait it out, then I did something, I think it was trying to access one of menus, and POW! The Blue Screen of Death.

BAD_POOL_CALL

I'm at a lost, but as I write this, I'm in the process of cannibalising my dell optiplex gx60 and resurrecting it in another case. The purpose is to prepare an environment that is solely for the use of Audacity and my other music creating software. No internet, no MSOffice, nothing. Unfortunately, I'll have to transfer files back to my original pc to do all of the editing (that is, if I get Audacity working stable again).

To be fair, my pc is loaded, I mean loaded, with all sorts of programmes. And because I do graphic design I have a load of graphics programmes as well. I like to think this isn't an issue since upon running Audacity, I usually shut down everything for it. But, perhaps I am wrong. And really, this "Audacity only" pc was long overdo anyway. My goal is to build a pc capable of handling graphics programmes, and downgrade my current pc for music creation only.

I searched the forum and found somewhat similar issues. I don't know what Audacity will do, as I have yet to go back to the programme until I have my other pc up and running. So, it's a problem, but one that's pretty much solved. I guess I'm just curious as to what may have gone wrong and how it can be avoided in future. However, if anyone can offer any insight (This looks like a job for Gale Andrews--hint, hint), then please feel free.

I still love Audacity...

**Don't know if this is important, but I just installed ASIO4ALL on my pc. (Let me say that when using it in Reason, I heard and immediate difference). I investigated the whole why Audacity doesn't support ASIO and yadda, yadda, yadda, ended up downloading the source codes and will never actually use any of it. Anyway, it's a long shot, but could ASIO4ALL be a problem? Or Codec Packs?

Audacity is a really simple audio program and it really likes working on a really simple computer.

No hard drive anywhere on a production machine, audio or video, should be over 90% full to do any sort of work. Most serious producers start worrying at 80%.

<<<20mb of space remaining.>>>

That's usually fatal to the machine, not just Audacity. If you do it just right, you can jam up the System drive to the point it will not let you take anything off, effectively killing the machine.

Since this is a Windows machine, it benefits greatly from error checking and defragmenting. Hard Drive > Properties > Tools. Audacity will not work into a badly fragmented hard drive, roomy or not. Overloaded hard drives can take days to defragment.

Partitions are misleading and should be avoided. A drive partitioned into two segments has half (or less) the speed of one drive.

Virus protection has been known to kill production programs. If you have a vigorous protection system running, it will insist on inspecting every disk access forcing Audacity capture and playback to its knees.

Do you know how you got your virus infection? I maintain an air-gap firewall at home. The production Windows machines are connected to each other and not the internet. They don't have virus software. Macs are allowed on the internet only through a switch and a WiFi Hub/NAT/Firewall.

Did I miss anything......It's not unusual for Windows machines to "leave things" behind when you uninstall software. I know people who wipe their machines and reinstall their System at the end of each major job. That's how we solve virus problems at work. We still get hit occasionally, but we are remarkably free of "magic" problems.

Koz

Do you know how you got your virus infection?

It was win32: Virut, if I remember. Bloody thing infected just about every .exe file I had before I caught it. Had to do a re-install of windows. Also, I was using a beta version of Comodo Antivirus (I didn't know it was Beta at the time) and somehow it got all screwed up and wasn't starting upon boot-up. I found this out when one day I got a notification bubble saying that it had failed to start. I checked and sure enough....So I was surfing the web relatively unprotected. I hit the "wrong site" one day and WAM-O! By the time Avast! caught it, it was pretty much a month or two too late. Avasts! sounds an alarm when it detects a virus; it sounded as if my house was under attack because of the sheer number of infected files found (traumatised my kids beyond belief

I use Comodo Firewall Pro and I'm pleased with it's performance. As for the A|V, I was advised to dump to Comodo and go for Avast!. Avast! is a pain in my side sometimes, but it does it's job. I leave the scanner message visible so the messages sometimes get in the way of my work, but I like to know what's going on so I deal with it.

Speaking of A|V, I JUST discovered, I mean JUST discovered a couple of system files in my Avast! Virus Chest. I recall one day, Avast! setting off an alarm a little after I'd plugged in a USB flash drive with number of various software on it and began working.

The directory path reads c:windowssystem32 ... I'm no super technician, but I know enough not to mess around with any files in this and similar folders.

The inflect infected are:

kernel32.dll
winsock.dll
winsock.dll (an actual duplicate, though I don't know who this is possible)
wsock32.dll

There is no Virus Definition for them.

All files are present and accounted for in the system32 folder. According to the Virus Chest, the files were added to the chest between (Jan. 5 and Jan 8. --around the time I got my second alarm). I'm assuming these are viruses that were made to appear as Window files.

After reviewing the Avast! log, I found another file that's been already deleted: opeA1.exe presumably automatically by my settings.

The pc I'm preparing to install audacity has the same type of deal. At this point, I'm thinking about starting completely fresh, especially with the Audacity Global Environment (AGE - my lame term) pc. My current pc doesn't seem to be affected too much but, I'm thinking just do it to be sure. I'm not crazy about the idea though, so I'm looking to be absolutely sure before I do.

Overloaded hard drives can take days to defragment.

Partitions are misleading and should be avoided. A drive partitioned into two segments has half (or less) the speed of one drive.

Someone gave me a pc once. I think it took something like four days to defrag. I use my partion I have (e: and f:) mainly for storing data. Would that have any affect on the overall performance of Audacity, being that it's a seperate drive? I keep all of my Audacity files on e:.

If you do it just right, you can jam up the System drive to the point it will not let you take anything off, effectively killing the machine.

I did NOT know this! Again, I like to think I'm pretty computer savvy, but I'm no Bill Gates (or in this case, kozikowski). I will need to begin immediate preparations to check my drive space in check.

See, I sort of screwed myself: When I built the pc, I installed Windows on the smallest drive (40gb), thinking I wouldn't need that drive for anything else. I was largely into into graphic design and 3D stuff and used the d: drive (150gb) to stored the actual programmes, while using e: & f: (127/104gb = Supposed to be 250gb total) more data. Wasn't much of an issue then. Until, I got into music creation on my computer. I knew before that I wanted to have a separate computer just for that, but put if off until I come build my "dream" pc which would be for graphics and 3d, and leaving my current for music, figuring 2.8ghz and 1gb of RAM should be plenty to keep it afloat.

I installed Audacity on c: by error. and the temp file just exploded! I'd actually had something like 8gb of remaining space! I got rid of the temp files because a lot of them I wouldn't need as I was getting rid of some files anyway. Audacity is safely on d:, I recall stilling having trouble with it. I've yet to go an give a test. I think I will after I post this.

The production Windows machines are connected to each other and not the internet.

A practise I'd like to adhere to. I've pretty much decided my A.G.E. will absolutely no access to the internet. And all files will be transfered via a flash drive. I have pc-to-pc connector, but I'm wondering if that could lead to transferring of infected files inadvertently. I'm planning of doing another scan, and transferring all of my downloaded software files to cd-rom, to minimise the actual setup files getting infected and contaminating my AGE (I swear I'm going to do something with this. Maybe I'll change it to APE (Audacity Production Environment)).

Did I miss anything......It's not unusual for Windows machines to "leave things" behind when you uninstall software. I know people who wipe their machines and reinstall their System at the end of each major job. That's how we solve virus problems at work. We still get hit occasionally, but we are remarkably free of "magic" problems.

You just confirmed what I just read: that viruses still linger on a pc, waiting a chance to start during bootup. I'm a lazy bugger, and I know I won't be wiping or reinstalling that frequently. I like to think System Mechanic takes care of all that. Interesting enough, my second pc, keeps popping up with an Installing Now message for a programme I deleted some time ago. Why can't Windows just uninstall the bloody programmes? If I say Uninstall, I mean uninstall!

Ok, this is looking like a chapter in technical manual.

I want to thank you for all of your feedback. This whole audio creation thing is so very new to me, so I"m really just dancing until I find the rhythm. I'll keep at it and keep you informed. I'm going to mess around with Audacity now and see what happens.

You're getting there.

By "FireWall" I mean a tasteful cerulean and silver box about the size of two or three cigarette boxes sitting next to the DSL adapter in the laundry room. It will probably have six or more lights on it. My particular one (obsolete by now) is by Belkin and happens to contain a 4-port hub to drive multiple machines and is also the WiFi origination point for the laptops.

It's purpose is to reject any connections that don't originate inside the house. I bought something similar for my sister except hers doesn't have WiFi antennas on it. It's just a 4-port hub and FireWall with one computer attached.

I also set it up to reject any administration connections that don't originate inside the house, so I have to be here to make changes.

Software based FireWalls are widely considered less than optimal because by definition, the intrusion is already inside your machine for it to take affect. Plus, as you figured out, they're truly annoying.

I do take software precautions. The PCs, when they were connected, had ZoneAlarm firewall software. I didn't use it for incoming, I used it for its ability to stop outgoing connections.

"AmazinglyEvilVirusSoftware.exe is trying to send {word rejected} to 192.168.3.24. OK? [Y N]."

You would be shocked at the number of outgoing connections that slip by you.

"RealAudio.exe is trying to share your addressbook and passwords with 10.9.23.128. OK? [Y N]."

The Macs are pretty bulletproof out of the box. I have all the incoming connections turned off (OS-X calls this the "FireWall") although sometimes I turn them back on to share files. And then back off again. All this is behind the hardware FireWall (see: cerulean, above), so I'm probably being too protective.

Given everything settles down and you locate all the problems, Audacity should work pretty well. Either version. I think 1.3.7 will shortly be issued and that has some pretty nice features. They called 1.3 "Unstable" because it hasn't been through final machine testing yet, not that it crashes constantly and ends civilization as we know it.

1.4 is in the fuzzy future.

Koz

By "FireWall" I mean a tasteful cerulean and silver box about the size of two or three cigarette boxes sitting next to the DSL adapter in the laundry room.

I should invest in one. Nothing like being safe. I totally got so complacent with software, that I forgot such things exist. I will definitely be fitting one into the budget.

I just had my first (and last) with Dell computers. A while ago, someone warned not to try and do too much with a Dell motherboard simply because it's so proprietary. In this case, I tried to swap cases because the Optiplex GX60 case is too small. Bloody nightmare! I have to jump through hoops just to swap cases! I must find a compatible power switch because the GX60 uses a IDE type interface. The CD player won't work, God only knows why; probably need a certain type of cable. Curse you, Dell! (My other solution is to buy a motherboard with the same chipset as the Dell to easily transfer my HD without a whole bunch of hassle.)

Anyway, that being said, I believe I found the problem. The crash happened when I hit the Record button. This time I tracked the stop error and did a search. I found the possible cause of my crash here:

hxxp://www.geekstogo.com/forum/Windows-XP-Blue ... 43519.html (hot link removed)

I've just acquired a utility called UltimateBoot CD that I'm getting ready to run to try and find out indeed what is wrong. Again, I will keep you posted.

"Blue Screen of Death" - wow, I've not seen one of those in years

BAD_POOL_CALL - seem to remember that usually being associated with device driver problems. Check in the Control Panel / system / Hardware (something like that) that there are no yellow question marks or big red X's in the list of devices.

Anti-virus: You can be "over protected". You should only have one anti-virus running at a time, and since both Norton and Avast like to run all of the time, you would be best keeping one and dumping the other. I would recommend keeping Avast (an keep it up to date). Norton is well known for being rather heavy on the machine and can play havoc with audio recording programs unless configured specifically to stay out of their way.

Firewall - I've usually use Zone Alarm Free on Windows machines - pretty good, and free. Comodo also has a good reputation as an effective software firewall, but I've not tried it myself. (both cover incoming and outgoing traffic).

ASIO - not really needed with Audacity. This is not a real-time processing application, and ultra low latency is not really an issue. Building Audacity in Windows to support ASIO is a pretty major job. ASIO makes no difference to sound quality.

VST plugins can have a devastating effect on Audacity if you have the VST bridge installed. One single incompatible VST anywhere on your computer can totally crash Audacity. If you have other audio applications installed, try removing the VST bridge (if you have it installed).

Windows XP should have a clean install periodically, otherwise it has a bad habit of getting slower and less stable. A "ghost image" of a fresh install is very handy and cuts down future installations to about half an hour instead of 4 hours.

"Blue Screen of Death" - wow, I've not seen one of those in years

It's not polite to brag

Actually, it's been a while for me too. So long, I forgot it existed. Unfortunately, after browsing Googling all day, I seem to be learning the hard way how to read these error codes.

I just updated my soundcard driver. After doing a reboot, I went back into Audacity. The good news is that when I pressed Record, then Stop, it didn't crash. I toyed with it a few times and it held in there. HOWEVER, the bloody programme won't record. The prompt will just sit there, flashing at me. Mind you, it did this before, but not Audacity doesn't crash when I press Stop.

Fed up, I "acquired" a copy of Cool Edit Pro through the help of a friend and I was able to record just fine with it. Though I shiver at the idea of using it, because I just like Audacity's setup a whole lot better. I guess I'll leave CEP on my pc just for recording, then I'll edit in Audacity. I know, I know, they both do the same thing bleeding thing. I just prefer Audacity's straightforward approach.

Building Audacity in Windows to support ASIO is a pretty major job. ASIO makes no difference to sound quality.

Yeah, I'll never do it. I just like having tools laying around on CD/DVD's. I'm something of an internet pack rat.

I'm racking my brain trying to figure out what I installed that could have made Audacity go haywire. I recall a friend sending me a .3gp file. Having never heard of it I dl'ed 3gp player. Didn't work on the file. I ended dl'ing a K-lite Codec pack trying to get this file to work. I actually removed it because shortly after (probably a few days) Audacity began acting up. Don't know if it could have upset my drivers or anything.

I'd used to VSTbridge installed, but I heard that it can wreak havoc sometime, so I got rid of it (still have it on disk) because, as you can probably see, whatever can go for me usually does. I use Reason 4 for my beats and synths and such. I installed ASIO because I heard it is supported by Reason. I was impressed by how much more fuller the sound coming out of my monitors using it. This is in Reason, of course.

Windows XP should have a clean install periodically

This is good to know.

Now, if memory serves me, I believe this is the third time I've installed XP on this drive.

1.) The initial installation when it belonged to someone else.
2.) After I acquired it, I did a fresh install.
3.) Caught a nasty virus and ended doing a fresh install.

Are you saying I should wipe the drive like maybe once a month? I can see where it would serve to keep things up and running, as kozikowski, mention earlier. I am terribly lazy, though. Thing is, this is my main pc until I can get to building the other. But, yeah, I am now leaning on the idea that once I have my APE up and running, it will really only consist of like two programmes, Audacity and Reason. And maybe Nero for burning. Oh, and EasyTag which shouldn't be a problem.

It seems now, that my issue lies in trying to find out why Audacity won't record. So, it's back to Googling and more tests.

Until next time....

Cheers!

<<<this is my main pc until I can get to building the other.>>>

I got tired of doing that. I'm a Mac shop now, but I still keep the PCs around like badly behaved puppies.

Two Mac laptops plus this one...

http://www.kozco.com/mytv/mytv.html

...That's my digital "TV set" and Digital Video Recorder. It's recording "Antiques Roadshow" right now.

Koz

**UPDATE**

I was able to record just fine in Audacity 1.2.6 and I would be completely elated had I not performed all of my work in 1.3.6 and therefore can't be opened in 1.2.6. My first ever gripe about Audacity. I've already figured out a a workaround, but sheez! Why can't this be easy?

I un-installed and re-installed 1.3.6 -- still won't record. The cursor just sits in one spot! I've scoured the Preferences to no avail.

Ok I found this page http://audacityteam.org/wiki/index.php? ... Recordings, which states:

If the red recording cursor won't move from the zero position when you start to record, you are out of computer resources. Please reboot the computer to solve the problem.

Of course this raises a whole slew of questions, mainly: Why in 1.3.6 and not 1.2.6? What resources? I spent all day saving files to dvd and now I have a great deal of space available.

I'm at a lost. I guess I'll just go back to 1.2.6 and wait for a new version of Audacity. This has consumed me beyond reason and I've dedicated too much time trying to figure it out. My kids haven't eaten in two days!

I'm done. I've lost this battle.

Thanks all for your suggestions and advice. They are all very helpful.

but I still keep the PCs around like badly behaved puppies.

I am indeed toying with the idea of building a mac. especially since i'd only be using it for music and not games and such.

I used a mac for the first time this fall (college courses). it took some getting used to, but it was impressive. plus I hear they never get viruses, or very few rather. I was supposed to get back into linux this year.

but yeah, I think i'll do some research on macs. plus they're industry standard or something. I heard it put: pcs are for the corporate world while macs are for artists.