Audacity hangs system, black screen, can't launch (SOLVED)

[theosib]

I'm trying to use the 1.3.x version, and I'm having a heck of a time using Audacity at all. I'm running Lion on a Core 2 Duo system. Here's what happened:

I downloaded and installed the 1.3.x version as a dmg file and installed it. I launched it, and attempted to open an AVI file (so I could extract a segment of audio). The display immediately went black, and the computer was frozen up, because tapping the power button would not make it go to sleep. I had to cold boot. When it came back up Lion's session restore attempted to restore Audacity to its previous state, and the screen went black again. I went to another computer to find out how to prevent session restore, and booted up holding down Shift. Then I tried launching Audacity again. This time, it just froze up the system after I popped down a menu at the top, although the display wasn't blank. Another forced cold boot. So I decided to install the 1.2.x version, but that would only crash every time I tried to launch it. So I downloaded and installed again the 1.3.x version. Now, it won't launch. I double click, and nothing happens. I went into a terminal and launched the binary directly, but I just get a bus error. I tried loading it in gdb, and this is where it crashes:

Program received signal EXC_BAD_ACCESS, Could not access memory.
Reason: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at address: 0x00000000
0x96631a5e in std::num_get<char, std::istreambuf_iterator<char, std::char_traits<char> > >::num_get ()
(gdb) where
#0 0x96631a5e in std::num_get<char, std::istreambuf_iterator<char, std::char_traits<char> > >::num_get ()
#1 0x9661e5df in std::locale::_Impl::_Impl ()
#2 0x9661eeca in std::locale::_S_initialize_once ()
#3 0x90753487 in pthread_once ()
#4 0x9661ef1b in std::locale::_S_initialize ()
#5 0x9661f116 in std::locale::locale ()
#6 0x9664450f in std::basic_streambuf<char, std::char_traits<char> >::basic_streambuf ()
#7 0x9663c471 in __gnu_cxx::stdio_sync_filebuf<char, std::char_traits<char> >::stdio_sync_filebuf ()
#8 0x9661d325 in std::ios_base::Init::Init ()
#9 0x000043fc in __static_initialization_and_destruction_0 ()
#10 0x8fe1115b in __dyld__ZN16ImageLoaderMachO18doModInitFunctionsERKN11ImageLoader11LinkContextE ()
#11 0x8fe10cc0 in __dyld__ZN16ImageLoaderMachO16doInitializationERKN11ImageLoader11LinkContextE ()
#12 0x8fe0e220 in __dyld__ZN11ImageLoader23recursiveInitializationERKNS_11LinkContextEjRNS_21InitializerTimingListE ()
#13 0x8fe0f1c0 in __dyld__ZN11ImageLoader15runInitializersERKNS_11LinkContextERNS_21InitializerTimingListE ()
#14 0x8fe03656 in __dyld__ZN4dyld24initializeMainExecutableEv ()
#15 0x8fe07ef2 in __dyld__ZN4dyld5_mainEPK12macho_headermiPPKcS5_S5_ ()
#16 0x8fe012ef in __dyld__ZN13dyldbootstrap5startEPK12macho_headeriPPKclS2_ ()
#17 0x8fe01063 in __dyld__dyld_start ()

This problem seems to be unique to me. Can anyone give me any idea how I might diagnose this?

This is, BTW, specific to Audacity. I'm not having any kind of trouble with anything other program in any way even remotely like this.

[kozikowski]

I'm running Lion on a Core 2 Duo system.

I note you're going to a lot of trouble to avoid using the word "Mac." It's not a Mac, is it? Did you build it yourself?

Audacity can be one of the few applications that tries to use lots and lots of memory right away. If you have a bad stick in high memory, Audacity can be the canary in the coal mine and find it first. Once the integrity of the memory system is in doubt, it will cause system failure.

I think this is the one I used at one time. It's been a while since we had a stick failure.

http://www.memtestosx.org/joomla/index.php

Run it multiple times. On some Macs, the hardware failure system will kick in (since there's no real OS there) and turn the fans up full. Test for as long as you can stand it.

Koz

[theosib]

I'm running Lion on a Core 2 Duo system.

I note you're going to a lot of trouble to avoid using the word "Mac." It's not a Mac, is it? Did you build it yourself?

It's a regular old iMac, from late 2008, IIRC. I just figured that since I was posting in a Mac forum that it would be taken for granted that I was using a Mac.

Anyhow, it turns out that Glims was at fault, somehow. I tried to run iMovie, and it would crash on startup, trying to load some Glims-related plugin (who knows why). I ran the Glims uninstaller, but it still didn't remove that library, so I had to remove it manually. After that, both iMovie and Audacity started working.

[kozikowski]

I just figured that since I was posting in a Mac forum that it would be taken for granted that I was using a Mac.

Nobody posts in the right forum. That's the last thing we depend on.

You could have a "Fake Mac" based on an Intel substructure and that downloaded pseudo OS-X that's been running around. It's really cheap to do that and it would match perfectly the pricing structure of Audacity.

Koz

[steve]

Nobody posts in the right forum.

Not quite "nobody", but very frequent

I ran the Glims uninstaller, but it still didn't remove that library, so I had to remove it manually. After that, both iMovie and Audacity started working.

Glad you've got it fixed. I'll mark this as solved as it may help others.