Any good reason I have to restart every day?

[jkoseattle 22]

Cakewalk is reliably unstable on my Windows 10 machine. While I do occasionally get the instant crash, which has over the years caused me to save compulsively as I work, the more reliable instability is that every morning when I get up to work, my project is frozen, and I need to end Cakewalk from Task Manager and restart. It always starts up just fine, but this is actually the NORM, not an exception. This is true regardless of whether anything else is running on the machine. Basically, I leave a Cakewalk project open overnight, and it's usually frozen by morning. Any idea why this is?

[mdiemer 138]

I close CbB down every night, but only put my computer to sleep. It opens fast the next day. If I shut my computer down, it takes considerably longer, as I have multiple orchestral libraries. I don't know why you would want to keep CbB projects open overnight. There is no good reason to do that.

[Lee D 86]

On 8/11/2019 at 6:04 AM, jkoseattle said:

Cakewalk is reliably unstable on my Windows 10 machine. While I do occasionally get the instant crash, which has over the years caused me to save compulsively as I work, the more reliable instability is that every morning when I get up to work, my project is frozen, and I need to end Cakewalk from Task Manager and restart. It always starts up just fine, but this is actually the NORM, not an exception. This is true regardless of whether anything else is running on the machine. Basically, I leave a Cakewalk project open overnight, and it's usually frozen by morning. Any idea why this is?

Kind of vague info to work with but here's some thoughts.

When you open up task manager next time it freezes, make note of the CPU and memory usage of Cakewalk.   That would be interesting to see if it is taking a huge amount of memory up.

Is there a VST plugin that you always use in your projects that could be the culprit?  

Have you had this issue with other DAWs?

Is your PC in "High Performance" power mode?  If it's in a lower power mode maybe it's suspending the USB peripherals or something related to power-saving features could be causing issues.

All your drivers for your hardware up to date?

[Promidi 813]

On 8/11/2019 at 10:34 PM, jkoseattle said:

Cakewalk is reliably unstable on my Windows 10 machine. While I do occasionally get the instant crash, which has over the years caused me to save compulsively as I work, the more reliable instability is that every morning when I get up to work, my project is frozen, and I need to end Cakewalk from Task Manager and restart. It always starts up just fine, but this is actually the NORM, not an exception. This is true regardless of whether anything else is running on the machine. Basically, I leave a Cakewalk project open overnight, and it's usually frozen by morning. Any idea why this is?

I would suggest saving your project closing Cakewalk overnight.  Even if you do leave your Windows logged on.   There may be tasks that Windows itself performs over any given night that could adversely affect an open Cakewalk session.

For instance, you do nightly backups don't you (at least I hope you do)?.  Even though backup programs generally can backup open files (which your project and its files would be), it would probably be safer to have your machine logged off and at the log on screen for things like this.

There many be other task that happen overnight that could affect an open project.

My Pc stays on 24/7.  It gets restarted every 2nd Tuesday of the month (Patch Tuesday) after the installation of Windows updates.   However generally, overnight, the screen gets turned off, but the PC is at the logon screen.

[jkoseattle 22]

On 8/11/2019 at 10:47 AM, mdiemer said:

I close CbB down every night, but only put my computer to sleep. It opens fast the next day. If I shut my computer down, it takes considerably longer, as I have multiple orchestral libraries. I don't know why you would want to keep CbB projects open overnight. There is no good reason to do that.

1) It takes over 10 minutes to load my project

2) Soak time! As you know, work on something for a long time and you can't hear it fresh anymore. It's a habit of mine to go away from a piece for an hour or three, then quickly pop in and take a listen, then maybe again a few hours later. You hear things that are now obvious that you'll miss otherwise. So I leave it open so I can pop in quickly. Maybe I should get in the habit of closing it at bedtime and then re-opening my project before I start making the coffee the next morning. Hmmm.... 

On 8/12/2019 at 12:08 PM, rlared said:

Kind of vague info to work with but here's some thoughts.

When you open up task manager next time it freezes, make note of the CPU and memory usage of Cakewalk.   That would be interesting to see if it is taking a huge amount of memory up.

Is there a VST plugin that you always use in your projects that could be the culprit?  

Have you had this issue with other DAWs?

Is your PC in "High Performance" power mode?  If it's in a lower power mode maybe it's suspending the USB peripherals or something related to power-saving features could be causing issues.

All your drivers for your hardware up to date?

That's what's weird, the task manager never shows anything out of the ordinary. Though sometimes after I think I've exited out of CbB it will still show up in task manager, and I have to force quit that. (This never happens after a reboot of course)

VST Plugins are a great idea to look into. I do have a few that I don't use really often but that sit patiently in some seldom-used Bus... hmmmmm.... Thanks!

Never used any other DAWs. Blasphemer!

On 8/13/2019 at 1:39 AM, Promidi said:

There may be tasks that Windows itself performs over any given night that could adversely affect an open Cakewalk session.

For instance, you do nightly backups don't you (at least I hope you do)?.  Even though backup programs generally can backup open files (which your project and its files would be), it would probably be safer to have your machine logged off and at the log on screen for things like this.

There many be other task that happen overnight that could affect an open project.

My Pc stays on 24/7.  It gets restarted every 2nd Tuesday of the month (Patch Tuesday) after the installation of Windows updates.   However generally, overnight, the screen gets turned off, but the PC is at the logon screen.

I don't back up anything!! (But all data files are stored in Dropbox :-))

[Promidi 813]

16 hours ago, jkoseattle said:

I don't back up anything!! (But all data files are stored in Dropbox :-))

You must have one hell of a Dropbox Quota.....

[chuckebaby 772]

You probably have a device attached to Cakewalk that gets disconnected when your PC goes in to sleep mode.

Unlike Microsoft Word which you can leave open and come back a week later... Cakewalk has peripheral devices plugged in to it with drivers. When PC goes in to sleep mode, then awakes.. Devices cant re-connect properly.

OR: If you aren't in sleep mode---

Keeping large project open over night (ones that take 10 minutes to open) are using high amounts of CPU and RAM.

You really want to leave that high spinning CPU over night ? Your CPU is probably so sick of winding for 8 hours that it falls down and cries.