Subject:SF 6.0a lock-up at "post" screen....help!!!

Posted by: munkittrick

Date:9/9/2002 8:28:01 AM

Hi all. Mr. Doug Spotted Eagle from the Creative COW forums told me that you folks were the best to ask my question.

First, I have been using Sound Forge XP for a year and decided to upgrade to 6.0 about 6-7 months ago. Installed great! Worked great! Did the near impossible many time over. My system locked-up in another program (Adobe Premiere) and I rebooted. Nothing out of the ordinary, just a crash. Upon reboot, I attempted to open Sound Forge to an unfortunate error. It locked-up at the post-screen and just hung there and continues to do so every time I attempt to start it.

I tried to uninstall Sound Forge and deleted ALL of the system registry in both the rededit and regedt32 files, but after a complete reboot and reinstall later, it still locks-up.

I am not using an ATI video card and am running Win2000 with SP2. I have updated my Savage video and Creative Audio sound card drivers and am currently downloading the VFW update, but am in near desparate need. I have done my homework but I still can't find any solution. I'd be forever in your debt if someone might be inclined to offer suggestions.

Thanks,
Michael

PS- DSE is a great spokesperson for the Sonic Foundry tools. Extremely on-the-ball and a good spirit to boot.

Subject:RE: SF 6.0a lock-up at

Reply by: wedge13

Date:10/2/2002 12:24:43 AM

Minor thing - The post screen is during the computer startup process. Did you mean the 'splash screen' instead (the Sound Forge version & registration window) that apears when you launch the program?

I had a similiar problem back with SF 5. Although you have reinstalled the program, you could have 1) a corrupt file which is still on the hard drive, and 2) is still entered in the SF registry settings. As best as I can remember, my fix was to use Windows Explorer to first sort the files chronologically in the Sonic Foundry\Sound Forge program folder (click on the 'Modified' column header). Then look for whatever you last worked on. There may be some additional file, with the same filename but with a different extension (such as .LCK). The filesize also might be 0. Sorry so vague but it's been a while. If you see anything interesting, move it somewhere temporarily so that you can test the program launch. The key is to narrow your search for related file(s) that fit into the time when your glitch occurred. If SF now opens and you can access the file, then you can delete whatever it was you moved previously, since it will be recreated when you next save your data.

This symptom seems likely to be caused by SF being configured to open the last file edited (it's default setting), and that file (or one of it's related files) may now be corrupt. Keep in mind that I might have the file path location wrong. If you don't see anything in your SF program folder, check your temp folders & wherever else you normally open & save your data to for similiar search criteria.

Good Luck!

Subject:RE: SF 6.0a lock-up at

Reply by: SonyEPM

Date:10/2/2002 9:15:54 AM

If you are hanging on the splash screen, it sounds like a rogue DirectX audio plug-in. DXMan (freeware from analogx.com) lets you hide plug-ins and track down the culprit. 20 minutes of work, max, and I bet you'll be up and running.

Subject:RE: SF 6.0a lock-up at

Reply by: munkittrick

Date:10/2/2002 6:21:46 PM

Thanks. I'll give it a shot. I think it is a DirectX conflict, but I've been dumping everything I can think of and gotten no results. I'll try the program you suggested.

Michael

Subject:RE: SF 6.0a lock-up at

Reply by: munkittrick

Date:10/2/2002 6:47:38 PM

OK. I used DXMan to turn off everything short of my sound card, which works fine with SF, but it is still locking up at the "splash screen". I tried removing anything that might be making SF look for an old file to reopen. No avail. I think the only thing I can do is a clean slate install...God I hate to swipe an otherwise perfect machine....

Michael

Subject:RE: SF 6.0a lock-up at

Reply by: wedge13

Date:10/2/2002 10:04:03 PM

One more thing you might consider, since the alternative is so unattractive:
Uninstalling & reinstallation don't always work because of lazy programming, which fails to clean up ALL program debris. What I always do (and this will always work if the problem is located in an obscure registry setting) is run Regedit to manually scrub each & every possible reference. NOTE: If you have Norton Utilities or Systemworks, it includes a very useful Reg Editor which makes searching a breeze.

BEFORE YOU TRY THIS: BACKUP DATA FILES, and CREATE A STARTUP DISK. You should also backup the registry if you have utility software to do so. IN Win9x, you can copy the system.dat & user.dat files, as well as run a MS utility called cfgback (must be pulled from the install media or downloaded from their site). Win 2K has registry backup built into the free backup utility program.

To use Windows Regedit: Select Start,Run,and enter regedit. Select Edit,Find,and enter the Sound Forge program path for your first search. Keep it simple (ex. C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry). This will widen the search to include more results. When you find a reference, the cursor will typically be in the right window frame. Press TAB to switch to the key it is contained within in the left window frame. If you are a few keys down from the top of the unique key, up arrow until you are at the top of that specific key. IMPORTANT - VERIFY that you are at the top level of a SONIC FOUNDRY KEY ONLY!! Then delete the key. TAB back to the right frame and press F3 to resume the search.

After completing your first pass through the registry (it will tell you when it is done searching), you can make additional passes with more specific search criteria (ex. Sound Forge). When finished, verify that there are no SF program folders left (if necessary delete them). Then reboot and reinstall one more time. With any luck the install should be a fresh one. You'll know this when it asks you to re-register.

Subject:RE: SF 6.0a lock-up at

Reply by: wedge13

Date:10/2/2002 10:40:41 PM

Ooops - Change the previous post as such:
Make your first pass usnig 'Sound Forge' as the search criteria. Then use the more general 'C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry' to perform a more painstaking and careful secondary search, after you've already wacked the obvious Sound Forge settings.

Wouldn't want you to mistakenly wipe out another, still working Sonic Foundry program.

Subject:RE: SF 6.0a lock-up at

Reply by: munkittrick

Date:10/4/2002 8:27:37 AM

A total miracle of modern program errors. I has disabled EVERY DX plug-in, uninstalled Sound Forge, killed the entire Sound Forge/Sonic Foundry registry, totally defreagged the HDD, rebooted...twice, did a Norton registry CleanSweep, and reinstalled the application and the damned thing just sits there....for hours if I let it with no progress past the splash screen. I do believe that my options are running out and I KNOW my metal capacity is totally drained. If anyone else has any further ideas, I'm all ears, but I fear that I must to a total rebuild of the system to get beck functionality of Sound Forge. This totally stinks because EVERYTHING else is working perfectly. I appreciate the help and look forward to any other advice that you might have.

Michael

Subject:RE: SF 6.0a lock-up at

Reply by: munkittrick

Date:10/4/2002 8:32:18 AM

I appologize for my spelling ansd grammar this morning. I have a flu and my head is killing me....and I'm medicated.

I meant "mental capacity is completely drained"....

Thanks again,
Michael

Subject:RE: SF 6.0a lock-up at

Reply by: kryten

Date:10/4/2002 2:00:00 PM

Things to try, especially since the problem started with Premiere crashing:

1. Uninstall Premiere. You didn't say which version you have, but check the Adobe site for updates. Reboot.
2. Uninstall SF. Reboot.
3. Reinstall DirectX. Reboot. There's a lot of rebooting going on, but ALWAYS reboot after installing or uninstalling software, even if it doesn't say that you need to. Better safe than sorry.
4. Reinstall SF and 6.0b update. Reboot. See if it runs.
5. If it does, reinstall Premiere and applicable updates. Reboot.
6. Run SF and make sure it runs. If not, I suspect Premiere is causing the problem somewhere.

HTH