I've tried a lot of different files and projects to render. When I click on "render as" the result is always exactly the same, there is NO drop down menu, only a pause of about 1-2 seconds, then the message "vegas pro has stopped working". then the program crashes. I've tried a lot of different video and audio files, some edited some not. Nothing renders.

Turn off GPU support in the Preferences.

thank you for the response. Turned off the gpu already, did not make any difference. updated nvidia drivers, no change. clean install (several times), still nothing.

When I did the clean installs, it kept telling me that my "trial period" was over, and I had to re register the program each time. Could this be relevant?

>>it kept telling me that my "trial period" was over, and I had to re register the program each time. Could this be relevant?

I would think so. I was under the impression you had a registered version of Vegas. Likely you only need Vegas Movie Studio --much less money. Why not download a trail version of that?

I bought and registered the full version. just wanted to mention that I'd had the trial installed on my computer, and every time I do a clean install of the full version, I get the "trial ended" message. Thought it might have some relevancy to the problem.

Sounds to me like something is still left in the registry from the Trial version...are you saying you did register the product ok .. and then the problems began when you tried to re-install? Are you using the Clean install procedure as described here:

Clean Install

You're definitely not the only person experiencing this issue. I really wish Sony would fix these crashes. At the moment my copy of Vegas 11 is basically unusable and your frustrations are shared. I think the time has come when users in our situation need to figure out a way of applying some pressure to Sony to get these stability issues sorted out and stop trying to market a product that they know can be unstable for some users.

I am having exactly the same issue as you - I get through a few frames of render and the whole programme crashes out on me. Its certainly very embarrassing when you have clients that are waiting on projects to be completed and you can't render out because your video editor crashes all the time!

Please let me know how you go with support. I have had one response so far, but unfortunately only first level cut and paste response from the FAQ sheet. Not helping so far...

m

Yes, I have successfully registered the program, no problem with that. In fact, it registers cleanly every time I reinstall it after it tells me my trial version is expired. I also think something was left over from the trial version, but I've gone through the register with a fine tooth comb looking for "sony creative software" and "vegas" entries. I've used the regedit and a registry cleaner to try and dig something up. I've done at least 6 clean installs based on the sony directions. The problem remains.

"Render as" shuts down as soon as I click it. It's as if that part of the program is simply missing, which would be a common thing in trial versions of programs. Is the Vegas trial version a "full" version? Can you render when using it?

"Please let me know how you go with support. I have had one response so far, but unfortunately only first level cut and paste response from the FAQ sheet. Not helping so far..."

Like you, I've had a cut and paste response that essentially says we'll get back to you when we have time.

It does help to know I'm not the only one going thru this. Although my render never gets even that far.

I wish Sony offered at least 30 days telephone support with this package... $700 price tag should offer some initial assistance. I'm considering a phone call for $30, but I don't have enough confidence in their CS to risk it.

Do you have a second computer?

If not, do you have a spare hard drive you can do a fresh install of Windows? Then, with nothing else installed, install Vegas.

You need to narrow this thing down. Is it hardware? Or software? You have to get a fresh install that works .. seems like you're not going to do that with your current hardware and operating system. You sound experienced. So .... get another machine .. or another main hard drive with a clean install of Windows to work with ...

In the past, I've had to "re-do" an entire system over bad software installs. Behavior can get very crazy with stuff left over in the registry. I don't know where the fault lies in this case. Does it matter? Sometimes the long way is the short way. This is the best way to test the hardware too .. if the problem persists then things like Memory and other component issues would be next. Sony cannot do this for you. The problem you are having needs to be narrowed down until it is isolated and repeatable -- then it would be a Sony issue.

I have the same problem with my work system. When you are choosing your rendering preferences, at the bottom of video, select CPU only. It seems Vegas erroneously identifies some graphics cards as having GPUs and then crashes on render.

I did it, and lo, no problem rendering with CPU only.

"I have the same problem with my work system. When you are choosing your rendering preferences, at the bottom of video, select CPU only. It seems Vegas erroneously identifies some graphics cards as having GPUs and then crashes on render.

I did it, and lo, no problem rendering with CPU only."

Thank you for responding. I tried turning off gpu render earlier, didn't make any difference. I think that's what you're recommending, but perhaps there is some other way to turn. I con't see anything on "rendering preferences" under options. If its on the render drop down menu, then i can't get to it as the program crashes before the menu comes up. Am I missing something?

Sounds like Andreas misunderstood the problem. I believe the "CPU only" choice is within the dialog for custom render settings. It is a pull-down menu at the bottom of the video tab within the custom render settings.

Custom Render setting dialog - Video tab

I don't think you are getting that far. If I'm understanding correctly, you are crashing when you try to access the "render as" dialog. The window doesn't open for you. You just crash at that point without making any choices. There's clearly a system conflict somewhere. But is it software or hardware? You need to narrow it down.

By the way .. are you installing Vegas to your C: drive? Does that drive have enough space on it for the various Vegas temp files?

Take a look at your event logs (via Windows Control Panel) and see if you have any application or system events listed at the times of the crashes. This should help you figure out whether it's hardware or software. Also, are you able to "render to new track" on Vegas' Tools menu?

A malfunctioning/dirty fan on the CPU might be the cause also.
JJK

I am crashing before I see the render menu, definitely. I am installing to my c drive, there is plenty of room. It's half a tetra, and less than half full.

This may be reaching a bit, but I initially installed a trial version of vegas, 32 bit, used it once or twice. Yes, I have a 64 bit system, but my son gave me the disc with the trial, and I did not realize it was available from sony. Even though I've gone through the registry with a fine tooth comb, could I have missed something that may be affecting my installs? Every time I do a CLEAN install, I get a message "your trial version has expired", asking me to buy or register. It registers just fine everytime, but I have this nagging suspicion some part of the program fails to install.... Perhaps the program is assuming something is left over from the trial?

Sorry, I'm at a my ropes end here, and I don't want to do system reinstall. My computer was factory set with a rather odd raid system that I don't fully understand, and I prefer not to mess with it.

nana,
just to see if it makes any difference, install the 32-bit version too, if you don't have it yet. You got nothing to lose?

From your info . I would suggest this:
If possible, uninstall again (make sure your 32bit version completely uninstalled as well) and roll back your system to a restore point BEFORE you installed the trial version. I would clean your registry at this point as well before reinstalling.

In particular, (and only if you're familiar with regedit and working with registry keys) check for this entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>SOFTWARE>WOW6432Node>SonyCreativeSoftware>VegasPro>11.0>License. If it is still there, make a registry backup (to be as safe as possible) and delete the keys in this folder. This will be any licensing info for your 32 bit version. It may not completely solve your problems, but if these keys are gone, you should eliminate any possible issues from a "trial version expired" .

Edit: I doubt this is the case with Sony - their installers should be smart enough to do this correctly - but since you installed a trial version from a disc given to you rather than downloading it directly to your machine as norm, and I'm assuming the disc contained the already extracted install files - it may have put some files in places where the uninstall script can't find them. Like I say, I doubt this is the case, but I've seen this happen with shareware programs.

atom, I took a clue from an earlier suggestion you'd made, started up my computer in diagnostic mode. The Render drop down menu appeared for the first time. It looks like I have a conflict, so I have to try to figure that out. Unfortunately, diagnostic mode blocks my internet access, but I can live with that if I cant figure out what exactly is causing my difficulty.

Thank you everyone for being patient and helping out with ideas. I'm going to start eliminating stuff from start up and see what I can come up with. Again, I'm dealing with an area I'm not that familiar with, so if you know of anything specific that causes a conflict, I'd appreciate the help.

You're doing a smart thing, and I hope you find the source of the conflict. Your earlier post mentions "Factory-set" and a RAID config you weren't familiar with. Not knowing anything about your system, I would strongly recommend getting someone you trust with computer experience to remove as much "factory installed" junk (and that's what most of it is) as possible, if you're planning on using this for serious work. Best would be to reformat and start from scratch. And I hope your entire hard disk configuration isn't set up as a single RAID. I've seen "professionally built" systems delivered like that before and it is a BAD way to start out on a new machine. If that happens to be the case, I would definitely start from scratch - format a single, non-RAID OS drive, reinstall OS and everything else.
Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

last time I fiddled with a raid system, I wound up with a useless computer. The disks ceased functioning altogether. I tried remounting one of them in a spare computer, and I wound up with 2 large paperweights. Messed up the MB in some way I still can't fathom. I'd probably be better off getting a new computer and dedicate it to vegas, which I might do if video editing becomes a major field of endeavor for me.

Apart from that, its excellent advice, and if I can ever get customer support, I'll ask them to guide me through a re install

Nanabyte-
This is just a shot in the dark, but easy to see if it works.

I had issues with Raylight/Cineform in Vegas 10. It just became more and more unstable until if I just clicked on "AVI" in the save as type drop down in the render as dialogue, the whole program would crash. I re-installed Raylight and it seems to work now.

So my suggestion is this: In diagnostic mode, change the save as box from AVI (or quicktime, or Sony MXF or whatever it is set to) to something else, then render a small chunk. Next time you open Vegas it should default to the new type. Restart to regular mode and see if that change helps.

If that is actually the problem, you can then work on the "template" drop down and see if you can narrow it down more.

Like I said, a shot in the dark, but maybe you can narrow it down to a codec.

kairosmatt