Cubase 5 started crashing on project

Cubase
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve been having a bit of an issue with Cubase 5 recently. I’ve been doing a movie soundtrack (have done several on the system already just fine) and just the last few days Cubase started spontaneously crashing. I’m not using any instruments I don’t normally use or overtaxing the system in any way and I don’t seem to be having any other problems using the computer normally, so don’t think bad RAM or HDs are to blame (although I use 4 HDs for samples on the computer, so maybe?). At first I was getting a “0Xff42b57c referenced memory at 0x0000000c could not be read” but now the program is just crashing when I so much as do anything really - it’s only on this one project too that I’ve noticed, although the other day Cubase did seem to have a problem loading up a big template so perhaps there is a HD problem? It either crashes with a “Windows is checking for solutions” box or just plain disappears into thin air!

I’ve updated Cubase to 5.5.3, updated Windows (although about to get SP1) , updated my video drivers and sound drivers, updated Kontakt Player and PLAY - all to no avail. I’m running W7 64bit with an i7 960 and 12GB of RAM along with a MOTU Ultralite MKIII. I’ve just checked my HDs using Windows’ disk checker and there were no problems reported.

I’m using EastWest stuff, Kontakt Player with LA Scoring Strings and that’s about it. I do have a fair few plugins running on the inputs of various channels but it’s all stable Cubase stuff - I don’t think I’m running any 32 bit bridged stuff anywhere or any dodgy third party plugins.

It’s weird because this has happened out of the blue. The way it’s been acting up led me to believe it was a video problem as it seemed to revolve around closing the video window at first, but I believe this is just coincidence now (ironically the xvid avi file isn’t playing at all on the latest Cubase update!)

Crash Log is reading as follows:

C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 5\Cubase5.exe

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Fault address: 77AA44B1 01:000334B1 C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dllBytes at CS:EIP:
44 8b 03 48 8d 44 24 70 41 b1 01 48 8b cd 48 89
44 24 28 4c 89 64 24 20 e8 52 00 00 00 8b f8 85

===================================================================
Cubase5.exe Version 5.5.3 Build 651 - 30.7.2011 19:06

Timestamp is 4d2efa1a (Thu Jan 13 13:11:54 2011)
C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 5\Cubase5.exe

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Fault address: 77AA44B1 01:000334B1 C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dllBytes at CS:EIP:
44 8b 03 48 8d 44 24 70 41 b1 01 48 8b cd 48 89
44 24 28 4c 89 64 24 20 e8 52 00 00 00 8b f8 85

===================================================================
Cubase5.exe Version 5.5.3 Build 651 - 30.7.2011 19:08

Timestamp is 4d2efa1a (Thu Jan 13 13:11:54 2011)
C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 5\Cubase5.exe

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Fault address: 77AA44B1 01:000334B1 C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dllBytes at CS:EIP:
44 8b 03 48 8d 44 24 70 41 b1 01 48 8b cd 48 89
44 24 28 4c 89 64 24 20 e8 52 00 00 00 8b f8 85

===================================================================
Cubase5.exe Version 5.5.3 Build 651 - 30.7.2011 19:46

Timestamp is 4d2efa1a (Thu Jan 13 13:11:54 2011)
C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 5\Cubase5.exe

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION
Fault address: 76D644B1 01:000334B1 C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dllBytes at CS:EIP:
44 8b 03 48 8d 44 24 70 41 b1 01 48 8b cd 48 89
44 24 28 4c 89 64 24 20 e8 52 00 00 00 8b f8 85

===================================================================
Cubase5.exe Version 5.5.3 Build 651 - 30.7.2011 19:59

Timestamp is 4d2efa1a (Thu Jan 13 13:11:54 2011)
C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 5\Cubase5.exe

Exception code: 80000001 GUARD_PAGE
Fault address: 76D644B1 01:000334B1 C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dllBytes at CS:EIP:
44 8b 03 48 8d 44 24 70 41 b1 01 48 8b cd 48 89
44 24 28 4c 89 64 24 20 e8 52 00 00 00 8b f8 85

===================================================================
Cubase5.exe Version 5.5.3 Build 651 - 30.7.2011 20:07

Timestamp is 4d2efa1a (Thu Jan 13 13:11:54 2011)
C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 5\Cubase5.exe

Exception code: 80000001 GUARD_PAGE
Fault address: 76D644B1 01:000334B1 C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dllBytes at CS:EIP:
44 8b 03 48 8d 44 24 70 41 b1 01 48 8b cd 48 89
44 24 28 4c 89 64 24 20 e8 52 00 00 00 8b f8 85

If anybody has any thoughts on what the problem might be I’d be most grateful, as I’m in the middle of this project and would ideally like to be able to sort this problem out!

Thanks for your help guys.

2

Rather embarassingly I think I may have discovered the problem (at least I hope so) - and it was one I should have tested sooner - plugins.

I managed to get the software stable but was having an absolute nightmare trying to export - as soon as I tried to allocate a folder it just shut down. I remember having an issue on the previous project with Roomworks and I realised I hadn’t done one of the most obvious things and restarted the plugins. I just did it and so far, so good.

So, apologies for the longwinded post and oversight in testing the obvious! I’ve exported lots of tracks now, so am assuming it’s now running fine. Cubase 5 has been incredibly stable and running mostly fantastic for me but I have had problems with some plugins - even native Cubase ones, so if anybody else is having similar problems I’d advise shutting down plugins and then restarting them to find the culprit (or perhaps just plain rectify the problem hopefully!).