Cakewalk doesn't launch

[Grzegorz Moskal]

As stated in title. Been using Cakewalk for a few months and suddenly one day it stopped launching. Tried to reinstall, didn't help.

When trying to open the application, the launch screen is popping and a process (visible via task manager) is registered, it eats like 12 kb of RAM and stops. Got a similar result when trying to open a .cwp file instead of application, just no launch screen.

Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit.

[Nigel Mackay]

There is also this

[Grzegorz Moskal]

Ok, got it running. If anyone needs help in this matter in the future:
1. Uninstall Cakewalk.
2. Remove manually all cakewalk-related folders like C:\Cakewalk Core
3. C:\user\appdata, then search by 'cakewalk' and delete everything. Same in C:\windows\temp and C:\windows\prefetch.
I know it sounds scary, but cleaning those folders is harmless for the system.

Edited July 19, 2020 by Grzegorz Moskal

[Promidi]

Also, if you are using SSD drives , you might want to consider disabling prefetch and superfetch......

[Grzegorz Moskal]

I'm back, the problem keeps reoccuring. There is no clean pattern, but at some point Cakewalk just stalls and is unable to launch again, it usually happens when I stop the playback. Reinstalling does help, but I'm not going to do that every hour or so.
Is there a file in a specific directory that may cause this, that's tracking some changes, so if I potentially keep a backup of the file, I could once a while replace it?

[scook]

Maybe some info about the audio interface would help.

Also if the programs runs properly but does not run again after being shutdown, it may not have shut down completely. The program can get hung in memory waiting on the audio interface or Bitbridge (if using 32bit plug-ins). To see if the program is still running check the Windows task manager.

 

[Grzegorz Moskal]

Using the task manager was the first thing I have tried (screenshot on top). Closing the process through task manager doesn't help. Restarting the computer too. It's like in middle of work a key element is getting corrupted and no longer allowing Cakewalk to work.
I thought there could be any other associated processes, that could require closing them, but - as said - they shoudn't be active after restarting the system.

Can't recall installing any programs or devices, I've been using this setup for several months already without problems.

[scook]

If the task manager in the OP image is from a freshly started OS and CbB launch then the problem could be during the audio interface driver discovery.

 

[Grzegorz Moskal]

It looks the same no matter if started fresh or not, I'm afraid. After a clean install I can work for, like, several minutes to hours, sometimes also with computer being shut down.

The audio driver is universal for the system and all programs, so it's being discovered at system startup and I can get it to work.

[scook]

37 minutes ago, Grzegorz Moskal said:

The audio driver is universal for the system and all programs, so it's being discovered at system startup and I can get it to work.

This may be but CbB has its own discovery process and if it stalls while communicating with an audio driver, the program hangs. From the information provided there is only one audio driver installed. The DAW is not connected to a purpose build audio interface with a manufacturer supplied ASIO driver. IOW, the DAW is using the internal sound chip and a Windows supplied driver.

Could some other process be blocking driver access?

It could also be AV related.

It may be possible to generate a hang dump. Here is how to create one and report it.

 

[Grzegorz Moskal]

It's not the driver issue. Will try with crash dump.

Discovered something:
I succesfully launched a project. Started playback and stopped it. This is the exact moment Cakewalk stalled.
A window called "HUDNowTime" appeared. So... it's still a hint, right?