Cakewalk keeps crashing even with the latest update made today, March 6th.

[Jeremy Oakes]

On 4/13/2025 at 6:25 PM, Mauro Gaspa said:

@SirWillyDS12 Thanks

I immediately downloaded Microsoft Interrupt Affinity, started the software in administrator mode and selected, as you suggested, CPU 8 and CPU 9 for the RTX 4060 graphics card. I played the song until it ended and restarted it and after about 30 seconds the freeze occurred again.
I noticed that when the freeze is about to happen, just before, the Sonar CPU performance starts to make waves on the various cores as if it were looking for other available cores. Could this be a clue?

@Ben Staton Do you have any other ideas?

 

@Amberwolf Hi, thanks.

The drivers I downloaded and used are Nvidia WHQL. 

The problem, if it really was the Nvidia driver, how can I find the right version as you say that makes me work among the many versions available?

Make sure you do NOT install the nVidia audio driver when installing the nVidia video drivers.
 

When using the nVidia installer use the advanced options and do a complete un-install/re-install. You can then choose which options to install. Do NOT choose the HDMI audio driver.

if said driver shows up in Sonar/CbB go into device manager and disable it. Re-boot.

J

[Mauro Gaspa]

Good morning @Jeremy Oakes.
The clean installation of the nVidia drivers is one of the first things I did.
In ASIO drivers mode inside Cakewalk the HDMI nvidia audio driver is not displayed because the traditional WDM audio driver is not set. Now I tried to remove by unchecking the nVidia HDMI audio driver from device manager, making sure it no longer appears in the list.

The thing I noticed is that before the block the CPU threads indicator suddenly rises a lot compared to before when the load is very low and then goes down again. From that moment the block will occur at any moment.

I don't know what to do anymore. I also tried to contact technical support but they haven't been able to tell me anything yet. Is it possible that support doesn't know how to analyze with me and help me solve this problem?

[Astraios]

Have you checked what the Windows Task Manager shows about Sonar? Is it a crash (which is displayed as such) or is the program there without an error message?

I'm asking because I've experienced Sonar "hanging" in the past, but it wasn't reported as a crash in the Task Manager. That would definitely indicate graphics problems related to Sonar. This picture was made when Sonar hung, but there is no error reported by windows. When Sonar really crashes, you usually see an error message here as well.

Edited Thursday at 07:55 PM by Astraios

[Astraios]

On 4/8/2025 at 5:43 AM, SirWillyDS12 said:

@Mauro Gaspa

So I have had this exact same type of "Crash" with Cakewalk by Bandlab... GUI locks up/ freeze up but the song will continue to play till the end... Only way to get out of it is to kill Cakewalk with task manager... I watched both of the last two videos that you up loaded and it looks like the exact same problem I have had on Windows 11 with my Nvidia video card... I have a NviDia GeForce GT 710 graphics card...

 

By doing a lot of System tweaks I was able to get my NviDia DCP latency to below 400us and I no longer have the issues with my Firewire card and the two drivers locking up Cakewalk...

 

 

Have you tried the "Show Desktop" function in the Windows taskbar (at the bottom right)? Just toggle it back and forth two or three times. That way, I was able to outsmart the Sonar hang sometimes and came back into the program without taskmanager shutdown.

Edited Friday at 12:36 AM by Astraios

[Mauro Gaspa]

Hi @Astraios
I tried the desktop show several times as you say but it doesn't solve the situation.

I'm resigned.

I'll reinstall Windows and all the software from the beginning to make Sonar work even if the computer with the other DAWs works very well and I don't have any kind of problem. Let's hope that after this work it works otherwise I'll think that with certain hardware configurations Sonar is unstable.

[Astraios]

Hey Mauro -I wouldn't recommend that under any circumstances. There's surely a solution to the problem... It's so much work to reinstall, register, and log in all the plugins. Does Sonar only start "freezing" when you press the Start button? I've also been able to achieve positive results by using the "Bypass all synths" settings in SynthRack. 

But are you even getting to the point where you can access SynthRack?

I've had projects that worked perfectly in CbB, but caused problems in Sonar.

(here, Nvidea Quattro P2000)

 

Edited Saturday at 05:27 PM by Astraios

[Mauro Gaspa]

Thanks @Astraios

Sonar starts freezing by itself at any time and without pressing today. 😓

For example, today I created a new project with only Spectrasonics Keyscape open and after a while, about 10 minutes, Sonar froze but the Keyscape sound played from the master keyboard worked regularly.

It doesn't matter how much time passes, what you press on the program or on Windows, the plugin used at that moment or the project open, Cakewalk will still freeze.

I saw that you told me to bypass all the synths but if I have to use them how do I do it? Then at the moment of the freeze it is not possible to access anything inside Sonar. 😩

Edited Saturday at 05:51 PM by Mauro Gaspa

[Mauro Gaspa]

I have now uploaded another video where I have captured my two screens but with the blocking already done. I created the project from scratch and opened Keyscape with a random piano sound.
I played a few different songs on the piano and then it froze graphically without blocking the audio.
The uploaded video is dated today 2025-05-03.
Here is the link to the OneDrive folder: https://1drv.ms/f/c/05665151b61353c4/EsRTE7ZRUWYggAW3lQUAAAABi-TsVVMBy1ssf_uBBOLG1w?e=gfTOac

[Astraios]

Have you tried a Save mode start in CbL or Sonar? I guess you are on Sonar? Save Mode start --> press shift while open the project and accept only one VST3 instrument. 

I haven't really figured out what's going on yet, but I've made some progress. I don't think it's impossible that there's a conflict between VST2 and VST3 plugins. (Hence the reference to the bypass in Synthrack.) Have you tried loading only VST3 plugins and excluding all VST2 plugins? SynthRack is unstable for me. Sometimes I just have to touch something with the MIDI controller and the DAW starts complaining.

What's behind the Cakewalk? I can't read it—not even with Windows Magnifying Glass.

 

Also, check out this option :

 

Edited Saturday at 10:03 PM by Astraios

[Mauro Gaspa]

Quote

What's behind the Cakewalk? I can't read it—not even with Windows Magnifying Glass.

I'll try to put the VST3 migration option you told me about and let you know.

Thanks @Astraios

[Astraios]

1 hour ago, Mauro Gaspa said:

I'll try to put the VST3 migration option you told me about and let you know.

Thanks @Astraios

So, is it like mine (only rarely now), Windows 10/11 doesn't identify a program crash. If it's actually stuck, it says "Crash" or something like that...

What about installing CbB and try whats happening?

Are you sure  "Asio4All" is not installed on your machine?

"When a DAW crashes without a Windows error message, it's often due to plugin conflicts, outdated software, or system resource issues. A common culprit is a faulty plugin causing an "access violation" or other memory issues. Troubleshooting steps include updating software and drivers, testing plugins one by one, and checking system logs for clues. "

Edited 17 hours ago by Astraios