I got this weird crashing issue.
Almost everytime, not everytime… Almost everytime when I open one of my projects I get two crashes. Then on the 3rd time it finally opens the project. What´s up with that? It´s really weird. 
This same crashing routine has happened probably 20-30 times this past month, but like I said it does not happen everytime, but almost everytime.
OS X Mavericks 10.9.2
Cubase 7.0.7
Buffer 1024
Hi,
I have identical problems. But sometimes my Cubase 7.5.1 not crashing mostly at all. Today is the day. Only one or two crashes…
Could do with more system detail and you could bring that buffer down to 128. If you can’t your system is probably running on steam and you need the house connected to the mains E lecktricity. (and I don’t care if Ableton Live runs just fine) 
I can´t bring the buffer down, my ASIO CPU meter is already around 40-60% in my projects. I have the new 12-core Mac Pro with SSDs only and with 64GB RAM.
I just don´t get why first 2 crashes, then 3rd time the project opens.
Typical buffers should run at 64 these days. Mine does, no problems. Press the Windows key plus Pause on your computer to get system details 
(or whatever it is on a MAC of course). If you list those here it gives an idea to others what your system should be capable of. To me it looks like you need a really good look at your system BIOS and or Windows settings. Maybe check your soundcard drivers. Sometimes the latest driver can be the problem.
Depending on the size of your projects, and I’m not really impressed by those who have to have each instrument of the orchestra as individual tracks, typically you should be cruising at 10 - 20% especially with that system.
Another thing to look at is those SSDs. Now I’m not too savvy with those but from general reading I’d say it may pay to do a little research on them and their configurations just to see if a tweak there might not go amiss.
That 64 gig ram? Takes a lot of juice and depending on other factors in your Projects the memory might cope but the power supply might stutter which is where you might be getting the crashes. Again there I’d check the BIOS settings or look at other computer tech sites to see if there’s any advice there.
If it seems to you that it’s a Cubase 7 only problem. ie: other versions work then I’d contact Steinberg support directly rather than try and fix it from here.
Don’t believe everything you read on this forum.
I would recommend you start up in safe mode. This will load Cubase with its defaults, which should give you an indication as to whether a dodgy preference is causing the issue. There might also be a rogue plug-in that’s causing a problem.
Report back with your findings!
on what conditions do these crashes occur? Does it occur when you boot into an idle system and then start cubase, or when you are switching between different projects?
Since it is clear you are booting with larger setups, you should give your system a little time to unload before switching to another project, same with booting into an idle system. Everything should be up and running before initialising cubase.
so, does it occur if you slowdown your workflow ? 
But it is a guess since there is very little info about the conditions where this is happening.
kind regards,
R.
Don’t believe everything you read on this forum.
Especially from those who ONLY post that it’s ONLY ever Cubase that causes ANY problems whatsoever on their systems.
The crashes happen especially, when I start my Mac and my project fresh in the morning.
When I´m swiching a project, I always close the project and then close Cubase. Then I start Cubase again and start the other project. Without booting Cubase, a crash is very likely to happen.
I´ve used to a slow workflow with Cubase since forever… I´m afraid all the time a crash might happen if I work too fast. So I do things very slowly. Sometimes I can´t help myself though and I work and push buttons too fast and it´s an instant crash. One thing I don´t like about Cubase, it´s not snappy at all and it´s been going into slower and slower direction with all the new versions.
But this is a different thing that has never happened to me before. Starting projects fresh in the morning. 2 crashes, then success. But not always, so it´s not a repeatable thing.
You still don’t say why you can’t bring that buffer down.
I´ve used to a slow workflow with Cubase since forever… I´m afraid all the time a crash might happen if I work too fast.
So, what does work fast? Ableton? Reaper?
All this is very vague. So vague it looks vaguely suspicious. But benefit of doubt. Do you actually know how computers work? You might need to be able to understand any answers you may get so a practical question.
Without any system details it’s hard to pinpoint what could be up but it’s DEFINITELY NOT a Cubase problem. Bluescreen crashes point to driver or component faults. First thing I’d check if this started to happen to me would be to check the power supply and even, since you say “Since forever”, check the computers fans and ventilation for any dust build up especially around the PSU and the CPU fan housings.
Do you have the latest eLCC drivers too?
the focus is here obviously (but only in my opinion) on your boot sequence of the mac based on the info that you are giving. we do not know what you are booting, but i guess it is a lot.
maybe a good idea to clean up your boot sequence and what programs are loaded there. if it was windows i could help you there, but mac is not my kind of thing.
but as a general hint: do not try to do the laundry, the banking, social media, the video processing, and the downloading on your main daw. just use the daw and that computer for music.
kind regards,
R.
and if it is the only system you are working on…
try to work with a dual boot. One boot for the daw and only the daw and plugins, and the other for everything else you want to do with the computer. That way your daw install will be longer unaffected by all the other stuff that is on the computer.
kind regards,
R.
Because my CPU is already so high. Bringing the buffer down would start making dropouts. My projects are pretty big.
I haven´t tried those. I have some idea how computers work.
Bluescreen crashes? I have the new 2014 12-core Mac Pro. I´ve never had a Mac crash. I´ve seen Windows bluescreen though many times, but I haven´t used Windows in years.
In this case it´s just the Cubase that crashes. I can start it again after the crash no problem. But it´s bit of a pain when I had to start it 3 times before I can open up my project.
I don´t know anything about boot sequences. The Mac boots just fine in about 5 seconds.
Yes, my Mac is dedicated for music. I don´t do anything else with it.
Because my CPU is already so high. Bringing the buffer down would start making dropouts. My projects are pretty big.
Then you need to get your computer checked out. It’s obviously not up to the job you’re asking it to do.
Most typical DAW users can effortlessly get 128 (8 to 10 milliseconds delay)/64 / 16 or even 32 buffer samples.
How big is “pretty big”? With the latest computers (as you seem to have) you should be able to get about 200 tracks. At that you will be working at the limits and will probably experience the odd drop out at my guess although someone will probably claim that they get considerably more.
And if you are working in the hundreds of tracks are you maybe overloading each track with Insert FX instead of making more use of Send FX?
Yes, hundreds of tracks and insert FXs in lots of them, but for reverbs and delays send FXs. Group tracks as well, so not all individual tracks have insert FXs. Of course I can get better buffer with smaller projects. Nothing wrong with the computer. It´s just weird that there is this “crash routine” with 2 crashes and then the project opens. But then again it´s not a routine, ´cause it doesn´t always happen. Like just now I opened the computer, opened Cubase, opened the project, no crashes. So it´s totally random, but not random. Hard to explain.
License to kill
that happens on my Mac occasionally too.
One of the things that confuse me, is when something crashes one time, and is absolutely fine the next. I would agree that it seems to be upon a fresh startup, but it may as well be random as far as I know… however, I have to wait a few weeks to see if it happens again, since I updated eLC, I have not crashed on quit. I understand that eLC is the first thing that Cubase reads, and it needs that to verify the plugins. It ‘wants’ to work, it tries to work on an earlier eLC but who knows…? Is yours updated?
edit. sorry, been asked already but you did not answer!
Hundreds of tracks? Behaviour doesn’t sound weird to me. But, one thing you could do to reduce crashes is to defrag each days start or end and see if that makes your rig more stable. If Cubase has fragmented files all over the disk and if Cubase has itself been fragmented on installation then that could explain a lot of crashes as the drive and system thrash about trying to connect thousands of tiny file fragments.
You should also defrag after any Cubase update or installation. With that many tracks you need a defrag maintenance plan. I would avoid using Cubase during defrag, make coffee, clean studio, defrag head. Or you could set a defrag schedule for each night while you sleep.
nb: Defrag is one of those things that would lead to spurious undefined crashes as each hour would see different fragmented conditions on the drive. You can, but I have yet to see any recent data on it, get fragmented ram too. Resetting this involves a regular shutdown of your computer to let the ram drain although maybe not needed every day by everybody but a good idea on very large and busy Projects. Works on your PVR too to turn off, unplug and wait a few minutes, returns it to uncluttered ram if it starts to lose recording schedules. (OT apologies. just an illustration)
Hey that could actually be it! The dongle! Because I just moved from older 12-core Mac Pro to the new Mac Pro which has USB 3.0 ports. I´ve got 4 dongles in USB 2.0 powered hub. I actually got a problem with Waves plugins recently. I had the licenses in a Kingston USB stick in a MS-DOS 32 format (according to Waves the correct format) and the licenses stopped working when I opened the Waves License Center for the first time in my new Mac. I was trying to authorize a new plugin I bought. Before opening the WLC the licenses worked perfectly. But Waves support helped me and they remotely fixed the problem. They had to wipe out the Kingston and format it with Mac Journaled.
So there definitely could be something going on with the Cubase dongle not liking the new USB 3.0 port?
I though defragging was Windows´s problem? I´ve never had to defrag a Mac and I haven´t heard anyone else doing it either. And all my Thunderbolt SSD hard drives are very new.
DDR3 RAM should only consume about 4 Watts per stick. So, it’s not the power supply.
Does the crash lock up the entire OS or just Cubase? If it’s just Cubase, and you can still manipulate OS X around it, then it’s unlikely to be hardware related.
While some DAWs cough Studio One cough have had crashing issues as projects get large and consume more RAM, Cubase has been pretty good about this.
It’s probably just an ill-behaving 3rd party plugin. Remove them from the project one-by-one until you get stability and find the culprit.
Also, it’s probably not related to the buffer size, or CPU utilization.
If you noticed it with Waves plugins, and were on a PC, it could be video driver related, as Waves use OpenGL extensively, but on a Mac the video drivers are controlled by Apple and this would be less likely.
Do the prefs trashing thing, or boot Cubase into its safe-start mode (hold CMD+SHIFT+ALT and launch it).
OK. No defrag on a mac. Fine. SSD drives shouldn’t be affected but I’d check around and see if there’s anything to look out for concerning them on other forums. Haven’t seen anything so they should be ok.
I’m just trying to nail anything that might ease the load of those hundreds of tracks.
Looks like you may have to strap two or three computers together.
I guess more tracks = more $. 