Cubase 14 laptop overheating after next reboot with Windows 11

Cubase
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1

Hello.

I am having a very big issue with Cubase 14 Pro, trial version for Windows 11.
I used Cubase about 3-4 times a few hours, but almost each time at the end I closed Cubase properly, then I rebooted my laptop and it overheated like crazy while the BIOS logo was displayed, not booting Windows at all (no progress icon).
It heated up so much, during about 1-2 minutes, that finally a big alarm and strong sound happened from the integrated mainboard buzzer several times.

The first time I did really not know why this happened. But at the second and third time, I realized that I had just been using Cubase before the reboot.

This never happened with the same Laptop since 3 years that I use often, and it happened only since I started to install and use Cubase, so it is sure that it comes from the usage of Cubase.

By the way, my integrated sound card “Realtek Audio” has now the Headphones port which doesn’t work at all anymore, it seems that it has burnt during this heat up. It is probably linked, because I have another big issue with my “RealTek Audio” ASIO driver when I use it with Cubase, and the sound is not output anymore at all after a while using Cubase : Thread 965152 on this forum.

Now I realize that probably this no sound output issue happened at the same time that the headphones port burnt, and probably during the first huge overhaeting of the laptop.

Can someone of the Cubase team take this seriously and investigate? Can you try to reproduce this issue?

I think that this is a severe issue and hardware burning should never happen with any software, it must be adressed quickly.

Fortunately enough, nothing else than the headphones port burnt it seems, but I have to check what else has been destroyed.

Hoping it will be taken seriously by the Steinberg support team, it is really needed. I even saw another post with about same issue since Cubase 12 so it is about time to solve it really.

Most probably a good start would be to try reproducing it by using the same version of Cubase 14 Pro V 14.0.10.144 on Windows 11 64 bits. Then make sure to have a “RealTek Audio” hardware sound card installed on your computer, and try using Cubase by selecting it as your ASIO driver in the setup. Use it 1-2 hours and then close Cubase and reboot your computer.

A resolution ticket showing that it was identified, solved and verified in such and such version is really needed at that point.
Thank you.

2

What happens if you leave an hour before rebooting?

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Honestly I don’t dare trying again as my computer almost burnt or exploded, so I would like to help but I need to be able to continue to use my computer. It is expensive, I cannot just try this easily unfortunately, it is too risky. I am already happy that I can continue to use my computer as it seemed I could not boot at all anymore at first.

However more info on the laptop: Using an Intel i7 CPU with 16 GB RAM, so RAM was enough and plenly of SSD space.

4

Your computer is the problem, not Cubase. You’re either letting it overheat or you’ve got some other hardware issue. Software isn’t your issue…

5

You say you’ve got an i7 CPU but you don’t say which one.
Depending on what you’re doing, Cubase can comsume a fair amount of CPU, which will in turn generate a fair amount of heat. It sounds to me like your laptop fan is not properly dissipating that heat so it’s building up inside the case.
Have you checked your fan vents lately? Dust and other airborne rubbish can block the vents and significantly reduce the fan’s effectiveness. Have you also checked that your fan is actually running?
You may also want to install a utility like HWInfo which will give you information about your CPU clock speeds and utilisation, core temperatures, mobo temperatures, disk and graphic card temperatures, etc. Keeping the app open while you’re running other tasks (like Cubase) will give you an idea of where the heat is coming from.
Keep in mind though that there are many people running Cubase on laptops which are not threatening to burst into flames, so I’m inclined to think your specific laptop is likely the problem in this case.

6

No help possible as you never want to switch it on again after to run cubase.
Goodby

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My computer cannot be the problem: It never had any issue at all, everything works very fine since 3 years, used almost every day. No other software caused such an issue, and it never heated up like this. Hardware is very fine, except since this overheat issue following the use of Cubase, where the audio interface now has this problem of the jack headphones port not working anymore. It passes all internal hardware tests.

Since this overheat issue happened three times, and only after the use of Cubase each time, it cannot be due to something else than Cubase, logically. Again, this NEVER happened on my computer except three times directly after the use of Cubase, so it is hard to point towards a hardware issue. Cubase clearly used the sound drivers in a wrong way, which caused this to happen, because no other software that uses the same audio interface caused such an issue except Cubase.

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If running user-mode code on a Windows machine could make your system explode, the world would be in ashes.

Cubase is not “using your sound drivers in the wrong way.” And it doesn’t matter because you’ve already said you’re not going to “test” anymore.

Believe whatever you wish to believe, but you’ve got hardware problems. Good luck.

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@KT66 It is an Intel Core i7-1165G7 11th generation, with 4 cores (8 threads), at 2.8 GHz.
I was really not doing much: Having just Cubase opened. I just used the sampler to play a sound in a track, very simple Cubase project, and as you know, samplers don’t use CPU at all, not like VSTs, which can as you say use a lot of CPU. I had only one sampler track playing, so this cannot overheat a computer.
Also, please note that the overheat issue never happened during the usage of Cubase. As I pointed it out, this happened only during the next reboot of my computer after the usage of Cubase, that I carefully closed properly before the reboot. The computer started to reboot, but when the computer BIOS logo appeared as usual during the boot, Windows did not load as it normally does. Instead the computer manufacturer logo remained displayed, with no windows progress bar, and this is when the computer started to heat up like crazy, during about 1 minute non-stop and finally the computer started to beep several times strongly, indicating this dangerous overheat, and I immediately shut down the computer. After this and letting it cool down an hour, I restarted it and this time Windows loaded fine. This happened 3 times, each time only after the usage of Cubase.

The fans are not the issue because yes I checked them, and they run properly all the time, I can hear them, and they work still now very properly.
Again I cannot use HWinfo, because this overheat does not happen during the usage of Cubase. It happens only during a reboot, which followed the use of Cubase only. All other reboots without the use of Cubase before don’t show this issue at all. Hence I cannot measure anything.
For the flames: That is because laptops use batteries, and the battery could have exploded, as it supports only about 65 degrees C, and it was at more than 100 degrees, so it is in the dangerous zone, this never happened so hot. Fortunately this did not happen, but my audio interface hardware now cannot output sound on the headphones port anymore, so it destroyed this part of my hardware.

I merely suspect an issue with Cubase that incorrectly uses a loop while accessing some specific audio interface drivers, mainly the “RealTek Audio” like mine, which would suddenly start to overheat, and put the computer in a strange condition where during the reboot it heats like this, or even already before the reboot, as I rebooted just after closing Cubase.

Still thanks for the suggestions, I think it clarifies some classic tests already that can be helpful regarding this issue for developpers to figure it out.

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@Hippo We are talking about a computer that overheated like crazy until the mainboard buzzer started to beep so much it was overheating, and could have exploded, which made the audio interface internal hardware headphone port to burn permanently. I think that not daring try this situation again is understandable in this context, and I wish I could test again.

Instead of this, I think that I provided enough information so that Steinberg can try to reproduce this issue themselves, using the same OS and audio interface hardware and driver (Realtek Audio ASIO), which is already a very good progress for the reproduction steps.
The dev team could try this, and compare with other similar types of issues that other customers might experience, and better figure out and locate the issue: confirming it is due to Cubase, and what hardware to be able to reproduce it, so it can be debugged.

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@Thor.HOG I agree that I might be wrong. However, how is it that this happens only when I use Cubase, and never happened before at all. Strictly no reboot provided such an issue.
Also, I think that this should be put in the context of an audio interface that stopped working with Cubase (no output sound anymore on this interface) after a while using Cubase, and that it might be linked.

So yes, sometimes we think it is related to something and it is not the case at all, which might happen here. However I did not report this issue the first time, I did it only after three times where this exceptionnal circumstance of an overheat of the computer during reboot happens, and only after the use of Cubase. It made clear to me where the issue came from at that point.

If it would be by accident, the chance of this would be extremely low, low enough to at least report that situation for further analysis like I did.

Hoping it can be investigated by the dev team, and if yes, please tell if you could reproduce it and if you could figure out a fix.
Thanks.

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Look, Cubase isn’t going to overheat your laptop. The simple fact that the overheat occurs after you’ve shut down and rebooted the laptop should tell you that this is not a Cubase issue. If Cubase were the problem, you’d be getting alarms or reboots while Cubase is running.
By the way, how do you know that the alarms you hear after bootup are telling you that it’s overheating?

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As Cubase cannot work while the system reboots (it seems that even the Operating System does not even start, you get stuck with the BIOS logo?) it seems more logical that you have some hardware problem.
Once you close Cubase (which you say does not heat your computer while working) and restart the machine, Cubase has no influence and an in no way could overheat the computer.

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@KT66 In theory yes, Cubase wouldn’t be involved when the overheating occurs once it is closed, and during a reboot. Nevertheless, this situation happened to me only after using Cubase, and hence it is not impossible that a type of misuse of an audio driver for example, could lead to this situation. The driver would still be in a failure status even after using and closing Cubase, and once the computer reboots, during a quick check, some kind of loop would occur.
In any case there was a loop, because Windows didn’t load at all during this reboot.
Currently I see only this explanation, because I neved had that overheating issue except 3 times and each time only once Cubase was used just before the reboot.

Another thought: This behavour could also be due to the usage of another third party software that would be triggered when running Cubase. So it would not be due to Cubase, but related to it. Maybe there is some other tool that Cubase doesn’t have hands on, no control over it, and that it would come from that other part, driver, component or whatever that would be loaded when running cubase and remain running even after closing Cubase. This is also a possibility, but it remains important to be adressed here, as we don’t know the precise source of this issue for now, except that it is most likely due to something related to the usage of Cubase.

Regarding the alarms, the computer was so hot that it cannot really be due to another reason, but yes it is an assumption and I immediately turned the computer off without having the time to check for what the issue was, except that it was clear enough that it was due to overheating (fans running at max, computer terribly hot, and beeps that usually come only for extreme critical situations that even never occurred before, …).

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@Santiago_Galan In theory yes, but please check my answer to @KT66 above regarding a sound driver being in a failure status, which would remain in failure status even throughout the reboot. That is what could be happening.
Also another reason why it cannot be a hardware problem, is that once I shut the computer down, let it cool down a long time, after the next boot everything was fine again, and also for the next reboots. This situation never happened anymore, as long as I don’t use Cubase in between. With a hardware problem, the boot issue with overheating and Windows not loading, would occur each time, or at least 10% of the time, and this is not the case at all now that I don’t use Cubase anymore: no issue anymore.

Also maybe it is due to a third party software that Cubase triggers and loads, that would be badly written and cause the driver to be in a failure status, I cannot tell about that, but it might well be possible. However, that would still be related to the usage of Cubase.

16

This is impossible, the “sound driver” is not even loaded or anyway near the system when you reboot the computer. The only piece of software that is active at this moment is the BIOS, nothing else. Drivers are loaded when Windows is starting, not the BIOS.

1 Like
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I am sorry but I cannot help you further with this, I do not understand how a sound driver can affect the computer while booting the BIOS, before even starting Windows…
Hopefully someone will be able to suggest a solution.

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@JuergenP Yes I know this seems impossible. It is just what happened to me and even if at first I did not at all do the link with Cubase, due to the obvious reason you explain too, after the second time It was clear to me that it was related to Cubase in some way even if I did not understand. When it happened the third time and also only after using Cubase, it made it even clearer.
However again, it might be due to some other third-party software or anything that is loaded at the same time as Cubase.

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@Santiago_Galan Yes this sounds strange, I did not do the link at first neither at all, only the 2nd and 3rd time, when only Cubase was used, and never again afterwards.
I will see if I can investigate a bit more and invest some bucks to be able to destroy some more hardware (or take the risk) to continue the tests and report my findings here.

I still suggest some people would try to use a “RealTek Audio ASIO” interface and try to reproduce as I provided quite precise reproduction steps which should allow to reproduce the issue.

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Stratosphere,
Is the “Realtek ASIO Driver” for your hardware specifically ?
Is Cubase your only program which uses ASIO ?