Cakewalk crashed when switching from MME to ASIO

[haloosyn8]

Worked great until I tried to change from the mme driver to ASIO. As suggested, close open projects, change driver, restart Cakewalk.... crashed immediately upon driver change. Has not restarted since. did two normal uninstall and re install, then two time 'Clean" per instructions here. Same thing.........Won't even open. crashes immediately. I have SEVERAL hours into trying to fix what started out as a simple latency issue. Any suggestions? I am pretty done at this point and ready to give up on Cakewalk

[Lord Tim]

Which ASIO device are you trying to use?

There are some very badly written drivers that should be blocked by Cakewalk, (eg: Realtek)  but we should be able to narrow it down more if we know more about what hardware you're trying to use and what ASIO driver.

[haloosyn8]

Thank you for your response. I can't even open it to tell you what I did exactly. I was having latency issues using piano roll and an M Audio Axiom 25.  I did as was suggested everywhere I read to switch from MME driver. I do not remember the exact options.When I confirmed...poof! Back to my initial statement. Is there somewhere I can confirm and see what actually happened?

 

[Lord Tim]

Ok, the first thing I'd do normally is verify you're using the proper manufacturer's ASIO driver and it's installed properly.

You didn't mention which audio interface you're using, just the MIDI controller. Are you using one or are you using the onboard sound, like a Realtek chip? This is fairly important to know.

If you are using a proper interface, verify you have the right driver first.

Then, in Windows File Explorer, paste this address in:

%appdata%\Cakewalk\Cakewalk Core

Then look for the file aud.ini and rename that to aud.old

Cakewalk should now launch and let you choose drivers, etc.  If not, you may need to go into the registry and clean out some dud ASIO entries. But try this first.

If you have a proper interface, you should be able to select that now and choose the ASIO driver.

If, for some reason, switching back to ASIO makes it crash again, repeat this process but change the driver mode to WASAPI Exclusive. That may give you decent latency results (although every device is different, and their proper ASIO drivers are always your first choice usually).

However, if you're NOT using a proper interface and you're using an onboard sound chip, usually their ASIO drivers are garbage and you should use only WASAPI instead.

Edited April 11, 2023 by Lord Tim

[haloosyn8]

Apologies....Roland Quadcapture. Worked perfectly on both laptop and desktop pc. I am also using Roland v-drums, Octapad, Spd-sx. Same latency issues.They were not hooked up to the desktop though, which is the one that crashed. The Cakewalk on laptop is still running. I'm scared to change to driver! lol This was the result of my trying to fix the latency problems.

 

I will try what you suggest and get back...Thank you

[haloosyn8]

I found AUD in the above folder and changed it to AUD.old....Still does not launch at all

 

[Promidi]

43 minutes ago, haloosyn8 said:

I found AUD in the above folder and changed it to AUD.old....Still does not launch at all

 

Is your Windows configured to view extensions?  Are you absolutely sure you renamed the AUD.INI file.

Have you updated all drivers for all of your hardware? (By actually going to manufacturer’s websites to manually download the latest versions)

[haloosyn8]

Yes. It was AUD.INI (all caps) I changed it to AUD.OLD. When I tried to launch, nothing. Saw a new AUD.INI created. Yes on drivers, also.

Edited April 11, 2023 by haloosyn8

[Promidi]

30 minutes ago, haloosyn8 said:

Yes. It was AUD.INI (all caps) I changed it to AUD.OLD. When I tried to launch, nothing. Saw a new AUD.INI created. Yes on drivers, also.

Nothing, or did it crash with an error message?

Is there anything in the Windows Event logs (System or Application)?

Is the process Cakewalk still running. 

Is this after a reboot.  Can you try with another audio interface, cable or USB port?  Maybe one of them is borked?

With an audio interface that comes with native ASIO drivers, switching your Audio to ASIO should not result in Cakewalk crashing or not starting up.

[haloosyn8]

First, thank you and Tim for your time and for trying to help!

No, switching drivers should not have caused this issue but it's the only thing I did. No error. This is why I am stumped. Splash screen starts and immediately shuts off. Not running in task manager anywhere. This is I think 3rd 'clean' reinstall according to direction given here. First time after last reinstall, saw a box saying something like 'copying from core?? then blanked out. only the splash screen thing since. I always reboot after an uninstall.

Interface and cables are fine. I am using them on my laptop as we speak.

 

[haloosyn8]

I should have said...

Setup and interface are working perfectly on my laptop. No issues changing drivers.

Everything was great until I changed driver on desktop. Back to my original comments. I have tried everything I could come up with and was suggested. completely stumped. I am thinking there is a file somewhere that is muffin me up.

What could keep a fresh install from working on a machine that it has worked on for years?!?

Edited April 12, 2023 by haloosyn8

[Promidi]

Try disabling your antivirus software. 

Also try updating the Vdist runtimes..... (or even uninstalling and reinstalling)

Then uninstalling and reinstalling CbB

[Lord Tim]

Yeah, this is definitely weird. Like @Promidi said, this should NOT cause CbB to crash, even if it was one of the bad drivers I mentioned earlier. As far as I know, the Quad Capture isn't on the avoid list (someone jump in and correct me, though!)

I'd tend to agree that there's something else at play here if a clean install hasn't fixed this, and you can't even boot into CbB with no USB device connected. Updating the runtimes is a good idea as per THIS post. Just confirming that this still happens with none of your devices connected?

What other audio software is installed on this machine? You may need to do a registry cleanup, but IIRC the clean install instructions addresses that already.

Didn't we just pass "patch Tuesday" when we typically get Microsoft updates? I wonder if you had a recent system update that coincided with this driver model change and muddied the waters? Windows may have "helpfully" broken something.

It might be an idea to do a system integrity check just to rule that out so we're not chasing ghosts, @msmcleod explains how to do that HERE. In fact there's some other good chat in that thread that could be helpful too.

Short of all that stuff, grabbing a crash dump might be the last resort to send in so a dev can pinpoint what's causing the crash.

[haloosyn8]

Thank you both for your attention and information. You have given me a few things to look into. It is probably going to be a day or few before I can mess with this. Fortunately, I can use my laptop in the meantime. I will let you know what happens shortly. Thanks again.

[sjoens]

I had a similar issue with onboard Creative Recon ASIO drivers. I never used them but as long as they were in Registry, CbB crashed on opening.

They were harmless until a certain Windows update, so I believe it was a conflict between the drivers and Windows.

There were several ASIO drivers listed in Registry so scook gave me this:

If one of these has gone bad it may cause all Cakewalk DAWs and CbB to fail at startup.

Export a copy of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO from the registry.

Then remove all the entries from the registry and start the DAW.

If the DAW does not crash on startup, the problem is likely one or more of the ASIO drivers.

Add the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO entries back one-at-a-time starting with the principal audio interface driver, testing the DAW after each one.

If the DAW crashes after adding an entry, try re-installing the driver or remove the entry and continue testing.

I simply found and deleted the Creative listing.

[Lord Tim]

^^ this is great advice. I was alluding to that in my earlier post and may have muddied the point by saying I thought the clean install fixed this stuff, but now I read this, I'm starting to question if I remembered correctly or not.

Certainly give this a try if everything else fails!

[Glenn Stanton]

i visit the ASIO entries every time i do a major update with my other audio products as they have a nasty habit of re-installing their ASIO drivers (Magix, other DAW products like Studio One, Ableton, Steinberg stuff, etc as well as system updates from RealTek and others). only take a few minutes and keeps the crap at bay... oddly enough, my ASIO4ALL (needed for some standalone products 😞 ) works flawlessly. 

[haloosyn8]

Wow.. Thank you all for your advice! I am very grateful, and will be looking into these for sure. I will not get a chance till this eve or Sunday and will update you on the results.

[haloosyn8]

Update........Was a bit before I could get back to this. I removed and deleted Creative audio card. Did another clean reinstall. Same problem. Deleting Creative Soundblaster crap (still there!) from HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIO as suggested got it up and started. Thank you all for the advice!! Haven't tried doing anything yet, but it at least it is up again. Will update again. I will give ASIO4ALL a shot

Edited May 17, 2023 by haloosyn8

[John Vere]

40 minutes ago, haloosyn8 said:

I will give ASIO4ALL a shot

NO. You don't need that It is only used for devices that don't have a  proper driver and even that is no long required with WASAPI modes being much better performers .

You go to the Roland web site, Look for the latest driver and download and install that driver carefully following the instructions.  

In my signature is a link to my Cakewalk Playlist. There are 2 videos worth watching that will explain clearly what you need to do to use an  Audio interface etc.  They are near the top of the list. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by John Vere

[rsinger]

On 4/11/2023 at 8:12 PM, Lord Tim said:

 As far as I know, the Quad Capture isn't on the avoid list (someone jump in and correct me, though!)

I'm still using a Quad Capture on my laptop and the ASIO drivers work fine with both Win10 & 11 & CbB. FWIW.