Cubase 5 running successfully on Windows 7 PC for the last 14 years. now suddenly get a Runtime error when attempting to open the program or any projects.. Nothing has changed on the PC since the last time the program worked.. System restore does not fix.. I have tried all “solutions” found on Youtube videos.. Nothing works.. Can anyone assist please?
“Runtime Error” is a very vague description… Can you provider a screenshot of the error message? Are there any error messages in the windows event log?
What exactly do you mean by “system restore”? a complete restore from a backup?
Hi fese, The “UPLOAD” button will only allow me to upload 1 attachment.. I will try to upload 2 more in 2 new replies..System restore meaning a Windows system restore point to an earlier point when Cubase was working.. Thanks..
It looks like the asio directx driver crashing……what (if any) audio interface do you use and if no interface do you usually use directx asio driver or something else.
Given the age of the PC probably also worth confirming some basics like is audio working outside of Cubase?
I use a Focusrite Saffire 6 USM interface. I cannot remember the name of the driver that Cubase settings is set to, and I can no longer access it to find out. I think it was a Focusrite ASIO driver. I have never seen or heard of directx on my setup. Audio is working fine on playing wav files in Windows media player.
When the Cubase runtime error pops up, it always shows “Initializing media device manager” in the bottom of the pop up, (SEE SCREENSHOT) and also, the Bitdefender Antivirus pops up to say “Microphone accessed”..
It was working fine one day , then not the next.. nothing changed in between.
Try to start while holding ctrl key down. And in the dialogue I think should open choose to open with preferences disabled.
If that works you will need to select the focusrite asio and quit, then can try to restart without holding ctrl so your prefs are back to normal.
@DJC.music , I’m curious why you are not running Cubase 5.5. It was a free update at the time. Why not use the latest version available?
I don’t think that was a feature in Cubase 5, was it? 
My worst fears have, I believe, been confirmed …
“Nothing changed” is almost always incorrect. You’ll definitely want to think hard about what could have changed. Something did, it’s just a matter of figuring out what. You presumably received bitdefender anti-virus updates, anything else? Any plugin update? Change how the Focusrite interface is connected? Is the project exactly the same? Did brave update itself? I see the Google updater in your event viewer.
The error doesn’t immediately make me think it’s a hardware problem. But you mentioned having taken a number of other steps found in YouTube videos, so there may be multiple issues now.
Have you tried loading up Cubase without your Focusrite interface connected?
Wait…looking at what @Scab_Pickens shared, is this the same PC?
Pete
Microsoft
Thanks.. I just tried that but no dialog box opened..
Hi,
I was working on a project one night. worked fine.. When attempting to open the next day, the runtime error appears since. No changes made by me.
The PC was not connected to the internet.. it rarely is, or has been since.. so no updates. No plugins updated..Focusrite just connected same as always. Yes it is the same PC as in the previous post when this occurred before.
Yes. I just tried to load Cubase now with Focusrite disconnected.. still will not open..
Please explain what fears have been confirmed?
I don’t say that this has neccessarily something to do with your issue, but since you write that your PC is “rarely” connected to the internet (as it rightfully shouldn’t be), I would maybe simply disable Bitdefender for the rest of the time.
I was wondering about that, too. I simply cannot remember, too long ago 
What probably would work is moving the preferences files/folder by hand…
@DJC.music Try the following (all a bit vague, because I neither have C5 nor Win7 of course…).
Go to “c:\Users\yourUsername\Appdata\Roaming” in the explorer, or simply paste the following in an explorer address bar “%APPDATA%\Steinberg”. Locate a folder called “Cubase 5” or similar. Locate a file called “Userpreferences.xml” and move it someplace else, e.g. your Desktop. Try to start cubase.
If that doesn’t help, move the whole “Cubase 5” folder to your desktop, then start Cubase, which will rebuild all its settings from scratch.
Just to check if it is some corrupt preferences file inside that directory.
@DJC.music please post a screen grab of your Elicenser Control Panel
After reading through the thread I linked, I have my doubts about you owning a Cubase 5 license. It definitely seems like you could be using a crack. If not, please do as steve requested and post an image of your USB-eLicenser with the License in the eLCC. I would be happy to be wrong on this one! 
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Thanks for your suggestions. Much appreciated..
There was no “Userpreferences.xml” file in the “Cubase 5” folder, after entering “%APPDATA%\Steinberg”.. (SHOULD THERE BE?).. so I moved the Cubase 5 folder to the desktop as you suggested.. This time, I didn’t get the runtime error message when opening Cubase, but got the attached error instead.. The program was attempting to open for longer time, and now it shows a different entry at the bottom, where it stopped opening i.e. “..Nick Crow 8505 lead” instead of previous “Midi Device Manager”..
When then attempting to return the Cubase 5 folder back to its original location, a new Cubase 5 folder was already there, but with less files in it, so I just merged the two together..
