After Over a Year of Troubleshooting, Nuendo Seems to be What's Crashing Our PC

Nuendo
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As some on hear are likely aware of by now, we’ve been having an issue with the PC crashing for far too long. No BSoD. It just reboots out of nowhere.

□ We ruled out PSU issues by swapping the PSU with another PC at the studio. It didn’t solve the issue nor cause the other PC to start crashing.
□ We ruled out RAM by going down to just (1) 32GB DDR4 stick of RAM, trying other RAM slots, and other RAM sticks.
□ We ruled out outdated drivers, OS updates, registries, etc by running a “clean-slate” Windows 10 install multiple times. Eventually we changed to Windows 11, and wiped the main drive a couple more times with a fresh OS install from a thumbdrive to ensure everythingwas erased…
We lost thousands of dollars in software that we were unable to retrieve our licenses for, but the issue remains.
□ BIOS/EUFI was ruled out by resetting it, updating BIOS, and even having our IT guy walk me through optimizing it for working in Nuendo on a Dante network in every way, except for over-clocking. No OC has ever been done to the PC.

☆ We ruled out pretty much everything, except for Nuendo.
Each time we wiped the main drive, it never crashed in the week or so afterward that it was left on to download and reinstall all of the software & necessary drivers.
☆ Tried spending time with Reaper, Luna, Fruity Loops, Audition, Reason, ProTools Ultimate, ReCycle, SpectraLayers Pro, WaveLab Pro, BitWig, Fender Studio, REW, Reaper, Premiere Pro, OBS, Microsoft Edge, Media Player, and every other program we have that’s able to use our Dante PCIe soundcard…
NONE OF THEM CRASHED THE PC
[Acid Pro 11 Suite crashes on the loading splash. However, that turned out to be because Acid Pro is unable to comprehend 512×512 channels, when it sees the Dante card]

I started thinking it might be something with the names when I was working on a project that hadn’t crashed the computer in a few days, saved as a new version so I could get back to where I was if I messed anything up, and the same exact project with just a longer name started causing the PC to reboot.
I’d be relieved to find that it is, in fact, the names that are causing the issue, but if it is, I dont know what about the names it could be. So, I have no way of avoiding it.

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Hey there - In general, as I’m sure your IT guy told you, Nuendo “can’t” reboot your system unless you’ve given it administrative permissions. It can certainly crash, but if your system is suddenly “rebooting” then that means that a kernel-mode driver had an issue, though this typically results in a BSOD. The only reason I make that distinction is that Nuendo will just make system calls, and if a system component has issues, then that can reboot the system, but not “Nuendo” trying to open a file.

Even with a BSOD, your Windows System Even Log will absolutely create an event for an unexpected shutdown. There will typically be other preceding event log entries that may give you a clue.

What does your event log say in these cases?

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What is a “Dante card”? Have you tried a different interface like an Apollo or Focusrite, etc.?

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This may not help but I use what I consider to be a professional audio interface, a Motu 8A but fate has it, that I must uninstall and reinstall the driver each day before use, in addition I also repair Nuendo, delete preferences and reset them.

These are steps I would rather not have to take but it runs stable the entire day and I get my work done.

This is in addition to wresting with Microsoft Antivirus, and updates so that it remains suspended while I work.

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Wow, the only time I ever had a similar issue (with the system restarting suddenly mid-session) was when I had any kind of overclock / turbo mode turned on in the motherboard BIOS. Since those days, I’ve just locked the clock speeds to 100% on every core and it stopped happening.

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Unfortunately, this isn’t true. In some cases you don’t get entries in the event log. Just the warning that the system unexpectedly crashed. The time stamps show that the warning is on the reboot after the crash.

Is this a serious question?

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Indeed, which is what I said - “your Windows System Even [sic] Log will absolutely create an event for an unexpected shutdown.” The relevant bit of my post was what I said immediately after: “There will typically be other preceding event log entries that may give you a clue.”

And typically there is. I suppose we could debate what the word “typically” means, but in either case, the absence of detected system event logs tells you something in itself; the system nor application detected any issues it wrote a log event about, thus further reducing the source of an unexpected shutdown to hardware or kernel drivers. It is absolutely worth a thorough review, in my opinion of course.

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Yeah, we can do that! But it will not help on the subject.

That is the entire problem, you can’t nail it down. Such issues are very hard to find. But if a particular software is failing, there should be an entry in the logs.

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It really is worth a look. I mean if every Windows user reading this stopped for a second and identified when the last time they reviewed their System/Application and other vital Windows logs, I wouldn’t be surprised if some said “never.” When I see posts such as the OP’s that list off tons of steps, but don’t mention something like “and no relevant warnings or errors in the Event Logs,” my presumption (not assumption, but presumption based my own personal experience) is that they were never consulted.

I can almost hear the “holy cow’s” from folks looking at their system log for the first time now :slight_smile:

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The OP has physically ruled out Hardware issues. Stilll…in my experience a faulty Dante driver from Audinate can indeed be a likely culprit behind system crashes or unexpected shutdowns when running Nuendo on Windows 10. Dante audio networking relies on specialized ASIO drivers that interface deeply with both hardware and the OS kernel. These drivers—such as those for Dante Virtual Soundcard or PCIe audio cards—are engineered for low-latency audio over IP but can introduce instability if outdated, incompatible, or in conflict with other system components. Such issues have been widely reported across professional audio setups.

Generally, problems of this nature are almost always rooted in hardware or driver-level interactions rather than the DAW software itself. For instance, kernel-mode driver failures can trigger system reboots without displaying a Blue Screen of Death, as the OS halts to prevent further damage. This aligns with common troubleshooting scenarios where clean Windows installations, BIOS optimizations, and hardware replacements (like RAM or PSU) eliminate most variables, yet crashes still occur when certain audio drivers are in use. Multiple reports confirm that Dante drivers can cause DAWs to freeze upon ASIO selection or crash during operations like mixdowns—problems not observed with alternative drivers.

I doubt it has any thing to do with Nuendo
My son uses Nuendo on Windows 10 without major issues in most cases, but the only time the system completely shut down was traced to a corrupted or malfunctioning driver, likely from an audio interface or networked device. Reinstalling the driver—fresh from the manufacturer’s site (Audinate)—resolved the issue. Preventive measures such as disabling hyper-threading, selecting a high-performance power scheme, and enabling ASIO Guard in Nuendo can help reduce the risk of recurrence.

If one is encountering similar problems, the best solution is, begin by checking Audinate’s site for the latest driver versions compatible with Windows 10, as older releases are known to conflict with DAWs like Nuendo or Cubase. Additionally, reviewing Windows Event Logs for entries related to unexpected shutdowns or driver errors can help identify the precise cause. Steinberg’s diagnostic tools also recommend verifying plugin compatibility and audio device settings to minimize the risk of hardware-induced instability.

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Why would I ask a question that wasn’t? I’ve never heard of or seen anybody use a “dante card”, So I asked. I didn’t expect to get an arrogant snotty answer.

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Ted,

Dante is a technology like MADI and others.
A lot of systems are Dante now.

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Thanks Fredo. That’s the kind of clear patient answer I was hoping to receive.

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I was thinking that it could be a joke… I could not believe that somebody working with audio never heard of Dante these days.

But it was a question, not an answer.

Take a look on the Dante website.
This gives a good picture of the whole Dante universe.

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In the meantime op, …so as to not lose a moment of worktime that first day…I’m sure you do have multiple pc computers with Nuendo installed on up to three of them or more (depending on Nuendo versions you own).

You mentioned pulling a psu out of a pc for a swap…but you didn’t really specify that you, yes, have multiple Nuendo systems up and operating. A year is a long time to have a “one-and-only” daw randomly crashing…I’m sure you also have other Nuendos operating ok, right?

Does your project (when moved) open ok on your other windows computers?

If yes, you could shut one down, move the dante card (for a moment) to the a-ok computer just to rule out the card completely as a culprit. And then re-position it in the original computer.

At least the multiple computers insure no downtime as well as allowing testing.

I don’t encounter strange gremlins often with my cubendos, but if an ongoing weirdness were to pop up, the first thing I do is turn slightly to return working on one of the other computers sitting there..moving files/projects/folders from one to another if necessary..

If a singular pc is suddenly untraceably strange for any length of time (24 hours is about my limit :slight_smile: ), that’s the week it goes offline for a complete wipe of the c drive and reinstall of everything from os on up …which can be done leisurely over days or weeks (whatever) as there are multiple, mostly redundant, systems sitting here, taking over the main daw duties.

A successful reinstall, then tested over days/weeks, at least permanently solves whatever the issue was…or conversely… reveals some type of hardware gremlin still lurking.

But at least, you don’t have daw downtime during all the detective work…since you have multiple systems all running the daws.

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The Event logs are always as you mentioned. Not very useful because they just tell me that it crashed, like you described.

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I don’t use a Dante card but recently I’ve been getting this error on my Win 11 PC. I have traced it to my Nvidia graphic card installation. Have you gotten this error recently?

Dante Warning
Dante Warning584×393 38.5 KB

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The mdnsNSP.dll is a file for Dante dicovery.

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I started getting 2 to 3 little popups near the top left corner of the primary display when I unlock the screen, but the text in them doesn’t seem to indicate anything relevant and they didn’t exist until recently; whereas the issue has been ongoing for quite a long time now.

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What do you mean with this?
Did you change the power scheme and enable power save states for the graphics adapter while Nuendo is running?