Cubase 15 - Not Responding

[BobUpstairs]

I updated to 15 from 14 about 2 weeks ago and have been experiencing this issue on loading projects. I select the project from the HUB, and Cubase starts loading but stops. The Task Manager shows this:

Projects are both existing (from 14) and newly created in 15.

[glennloopez]

do you get any dmp files in your crash files folder? does it happen with all projects or just some?

[BobUpstairs]

No dump files. It just kinda freezes. Seems to happen on every project but not regularly. I usually reboot the machine and try again. It typically works then.

[fese]

If it is always on loading a project, it might of course be a rogue plugin. I would suggest starting Cubase in safe mode

Start Cubase in Safe mode / Temporarily disable preferences

(Preamble: Yes, I know this is described in the manual, but it is much easier to bookmark this and paste it into a topic should it be required) Sometimes when Cubase suddenly shows weird or inexplicable behaviour, it is a good idea to start Cubase with preferences disabled and see whether that solves the problem. This is done by starting Cubase and immediately hitting the keys Ctrl-Shift-Alt (Windows) or Cmd-Shift-Opt (Mac). The following window should appear: [image] Now select “Disable pr…

But select “disable third party plugins” instead of “disable preferences” (you can do that, too, if it turns out not to be a plugin).

[Psychlist1972]

FWIW, if you want to have a process dump to report for an app that has locked up but has not crashed, you can get it from task manager.

Pete
Microsoft

[BobUpstairs]

Thank you, Pete. I did not know that.

[Menno_Bosgra]

Just ran into the same problem as above: C15 working fine all day and suddenly not responding anymore. FWIW: I was changing an output of a midi instrument from VE Pro (Synchron instrument) when it happened. PC explorer became (partly) unresponsive as well e.g. I can’t type anything in the searchfield in the Taskbar anymore.

Working on pc: W11, 64GB of RAM, i7-12700k, MSI Z790-P motherboard, all software on fast SSD’s.

Dmp file is in the attachment, I hope you can find something useful in it.

Cubase 15.0.6 64bit 2026.1.13 11.18.22.388-freezedump.dmp (1.7 MB)

[glennloopez]

@Menno_Bosgra

Dmp file is in the attachment, I hope you can find something useful in it.

 # Child-SP          RetAddr               Call Site
00 00000000`00149b68 00007ffc`fc01944a     ntdll!NtWaitForSingleObject+0x14
01 00000000`00149b70 00007ffc`fc01b8e9     mswsock!SockWaitForSingleObject+0x15a
02 00000000`00149c00 00007ffc`fe67f77c     mswsock!WSPRecv+0x619
03 00000000`00149ce0 00007ffc`6cc6b200     ws2_32!recv+0x16c
04 00000000`00149d80 00000000`00000000     Vienna_Ensemble_Pro_x64+0x57b200

so Vienna Ensemble Pro would be the problem

[Menno_Bosgra]

Hmm, that would be a problem, this whole template is built around VE Pro…

I’m running the latest version of VE Pro, I also have some music in templates without it, but this one is with it and is a quiet important one (long scene in movie).

D*mn, have to look into how to fix this

[glennloopez]

I think several users report this plugin as problematic. I guess contact the vendor, I do not use this instrument

[Menno_Bosgra]

Will do this. Thanks for your swift replies!

[Psychlist1972]

Is VEP allowed through your firewall?

The text from the dump above indicates that it’s waiting on the socket. That could mean it’s blocked, or you have other network issues. Ensure it’s a wired connection and shows up as private/trusted, not public, on both PCs.

Pete
Microsoft

[Menno_Bosgra]

Well, it appears that it’s not VE Pro causing the problem: I’m running a project now without any VE pro instances and the same thing happens again. Really frustrating to run into this issue. Here’s the dump file again.

If anyone knows a solution, please let me know

Cubase 15.0.10 64bit 2026.2.6 12.15.24.871-freezedump.dmp (2.7 MB)

[glennloopez]

 # Child-SP          RetAddr               Call Site
00 00000000`0015e6b8 00007ffb`5746af5f     ntdll!NtWaitForAlertByThreadId+0x14
01 00000000`0015e6c0 00007ffb`5746c5ff     ntdll!RtlpWaitOnCriticalSection+0x58f
02 00000000`0015e7c0 00007ffb`5746d872     ntdll!RtlpEnterCriticalSectionContended+0x1ef
03 00000000`0015e840 00000001`433ea526     ntdll!RtlEnterCriticalSection+0xf2
04 00000000`0015e880 00000000`4d697608     Cubase15+0x33ea526
05 00000000`0015e888 00000001`476c71c0     0x4d697608
06 00000000`0015e890 00000000`00000000     Cubase15+0x76c71c0

I have no idea what it is, but this is what the dmp file says. I guess the language is kinda the same as the last one with something trying to access something

[Menno_Bosgra]

Thanks for looking into it.

This is all abacadabra to me, the only thing I (obviously) recognize is Cubase. What critical process it is the system is saying it wants to enter, I have no idea.

[Psychlist1972]

A Critical Section is just a way to lock some code so that two threads cannot access it at the same time.

Steinberg would need to debug the issue so they can see what instructions the Cubase15+offset pointers point to. You should report as a bug and tag the thread appropriately.

Pete
Microsoft