Cubase 15 doesn't close properly and freeze

Cubase
1

Lately my cubase started to freeze when closing the program after a perfectly normal work session. Then I’m forced to kill the process in task manager. Afterward, cubase just doesn’T lauch, it freezes at “initializing: all midi Inputs”.
I’m able to launch cubase again if I reboot the PC, and then all of this happens again.
anybody have an idea?

Cubase 15.0.30 64bit 2026.10.9 20.59.06.075-freezedump.dmp (1.0 MB)

Cubase 15.0.30 64bit 2026.10.9 21.04.26.076-freezedump.dmp (1.0 MB)

2

Hi Viviane

What MIDI devices do you have (software or hardware) connected?

I’ll take a look at the freeze dump.

Pete
Microsoft

3

Do you have one of those inexpensive 3-fader boxes attached, by any chance?

Pete
Microsoft

4

Reply from Copilot after analyzing both freeze dumps and comparing them to others we’ve been looking at:

Thanks for the two freeze dumps. Both show the same thing: Cubase asked the Windows MIDI service to open your Arturia BeatStep’s input, and the service never answered. The BeatStep is just the first MIDI port Cubase opens, so it may not be the device causing this. It matches what you describe: once Cubase freezes on close, the MIDI service is stuck, and nothing can open a MIDI port until you restart.

Next time Cubase freezes, either when closing or on “Initializing: All MIDI Inputs”, please do this before you restart:

  1. Click Start, type Task Manager, right-click it and choose Run as administrator. On the Details tab, right-click midisrv.exe and choose Create memory dump file. Please zip that file and share it.
  2. Then unplug your USB MIDI devices one at a time, starting with the BeatStep, and wait about 10 seconds after each. If Cubase starts moving again, tell us which device you had just unplugged.

Two questions:

  • On Oct 9 you restarted at about 8:55 PM, and Cubase froze at 8:59 PM. Did you start and close Cubase once in between?
  • Besides the BeatStep, we can see a KeyLab Essential 49, an Akai LPK25, a Roland UM-ONE, a Fractal AX8 and Bome MIDI Translator. There’s also one USB MIDI device we can’t name. Is any of your MIDI gear homemade or from a small maker?

My additional notes. The two suspects here:

  • The Akai if you are using an inMusic driver. Those are class-compliant, so you can uninstall the Akai driver (with the LPK unplugged) and after a reboot, it will use our in-box driver. The InMusic drivers all have a bug where they hang on close and then won’t reopen again later. Additionally, if you unplug one of them while in use, it hangs the MIDI service.
  • The unnamed device using a STM Micro VID/PID. That usually means a hobby device. Several of those also come with a piece of paper saying not to set them up as a MIDI out in DAWs because they never bothered to put in the line of code that would present those devices hanging when you send them a message. Most of them ship tutorial code and it’s pretty clear the folks selling them don’t quite understand how the code works.

If the Akai is the problem, we have a few options. If the other device is the typical 3-fader device the only option is to ensure it’s not set up as a MIDI Output in the device setup in Cubase.

You mentioned this is new. Are either of those devices new to your setup?

Pete
Microsoft

5

Thank you so much for your help! So to answer your questions

1-I did not start cubase between these two dump, it think it’s actually two attempt to launch cubase that I had to kill.

2- here are the actual midi hardware and software I actually use: Console 1 fader MKI, faderport V2, arturia beatstep, arturia keylab essential 49 MKII and bome MiDI translator. That’s all. The other ones are weird, I never owned an AKAI LPK25, and I also own the rolan um-one, fractal ax8, Korg nanoKontrol, but I never plugged them in since my recent windows fresh install, its weird you see them in the dump.

I’ll try the steps later today, I’ll let you know.

It’s so weird, I don’t have a hobby set up as you said, I did try a custom midi controller I made with arduino, but it’s from several years ago. My set up did not change before this problem started to happens. Is it possible that a custom script for cubase midi remote have something to do with this?

6

I tried to procedure of disconnecting one device at a time while opening cubase, and it didn’t work, had to kill the process again. I also don’t really know how to remove those midi drivers that I don’t use, I can’t see them in my device manager.
Also I can’t share the midisrv dump, it’s too big, do you know a simple and trusted file sharing website?

7

I downloaded your windows MIDI tools out of curiosity on github. The midi diag tool reported a failing with an unknown midi device, which I found out was tied to my usb hub itself. I reset it by unplugging power, and then no more faulty usb device and midiserv seems to have stopped being hung up and blocking cubase. So far so good, I’ll let you know here if the problem persists. Thank you!

8

Thanks.

Apparently Cubase keeps track of previously used MIDI devices, and so they can show up in the dump files. I guess it has a long memory :smiley: No idea on the LPK. That’s just weird.

I initially said that it’s good to know that the hub was the problem. But on reflection, all that rebooting the hub did was reset the devices behind it, so the hub itself is likely fine. If one of them was stuck and not responding, only a reboot or hub reset would do that. Disconnecting the devices wouldn’t clear the state the same way.

If you still have the midisrv dump, we’d love to see it, because it shows exactly what the MIDI service was waiting on. Task Manager saves dumps in your Temp folder, which Windows can clean out, so please move it somewhere safe first. Then zip it (dumps usually shrink a lot) and share it with a OneDrive link. OneDrive is free with a Microsoft account. (Or use Google Drive, or Dropbox or whatever you have access to). The zipped report from the mididiag tool in the troubleshooter would help too, since it names the device it flagged.

About your MIDI Remote script: it’s very unlikely to be the cause. A script only sends and receives MIDI through Cubase. It can’t make the Windows MIDI service stop answering. Since turning the hub off and on fixed it, the hub is the much better suspect.

Pete
Microsoft