Cubase SX - File Menu problems

Cubase
#1

Hi,

This is a long shot. Used to use Cubase SX (2002) and Reason with reWire successfully on my PC a few years ago (XP, 2-4 gig processing). Recently uninstalled Cubase SX and reinstalled it.

Can open a “new project”, hook up Reason by ReWire, add notes etc., however, when i go to use the File Menu to “save as…”, the entire program freezes up and becomes useless, resulting in me having to do “ctrl - alt - del” in order to shut it down and start again. It does this even when I don’t have Reason open.

It seems to be a Cubase-specific problem, or maybe only on this PC. Cubase SX is fine for what i want to do, and I don’t really want to buy another version to perhaps experience the same problem.

If anybody’s got any trouble–shooting, that would be great.

Thanks in advance if you can help :smiley:

#2

Don’t know if I can help, but from my experience (and others I’ve read) Cubase does strange things sometimes, no matter which version…like freezing when trying to close Cubase, etc. Your problem may be similar to the widely experienced ‘close’ & then freeze issue I suspect. Odd thing for me is, at one point it was fine, then at another point freeze.

When you uninstalled/reinstalled, did you make sure there wasn’t any left over files from Cubase floating around (including the registry) before reinstalling? No matter what it is, there always seems to be left overs. And/or how exactly did you uninstall Cubase?

After it was reinstalled, did you 1st open the saved projects before, did you just press ‘save’ 1st? Or did you press ‘save as’ 1st? I would do ‘save’ 1st, as I would at least tend to think ‘save as’ may have to do a little more work.

You may want to check your directory paths where ever possible too, for all your songs, VSTi’s etc. And while at it, make sure you’re using the same sample/bit rates now as when the projects were created.

I’ve also experienced weirdness on how I even ‘open’ a project…like in whether I open a song from the song file itself, or just open Cubase from it’s Cubase desktop icon. I’ve for some reason had Cubase freeze when I open the project song file, where as less problems from just opening Cubase 1st, then open the song file from my recent projects list, or from the top drop down list.

Sometimes installed FX’s or VSTi’s can foul things up too. Since you uninstalled/reinstalled, I would refresh all my VSTi’s in the instrument list. I posted some info just the other day about this, I’ll try to find that and repost that here on ways of doing this.



By the way, this is the same machine you used to have SX on right?

#3

Ok, found what I had posted about refreshing your VSTi lists and their directory paths…



https://www.steinberg.net/nc/en/support/knowledgebase_new/show_details/kb_show/troubleshooting-instructions-for-cubase-nuendo-and-sequel-on-windows.html

VST Plug-in Troubles (Cubase and Nuendo only)

If Cubase/Nuendo hangs or quits during the start up or while loading a specific project file it is likely that an installed VST plug-in is causing trouble.
Temporarily hiding installed VST plug-ins from Cubase/Nuendo is an easy and effective way to verify if a specific plug indeed is sabotaging your sequencer.
Of course, for this operation you need to know all VST plug-ins folders Cubase/Nuendo is knowing…

Locating VST Plug-in Folders

In Cubase/Nuendo, select “Plug-in Information” from the “Devices” menu.
Make sure the “VST PlugIns” tab is selected and click on “VST 2.x Paths”.
The VST 2 paths known to Cubase/Nuendo will be listed. Write them down, make a screenshot or simply memorize them.
Additionally, consider the VST 3 plug-ins folder: C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3

Hiding VST Plug-ins

The following steps describe only one possible application of the “hiding strategy”. Of course you can have your own approach if you’ve understood the basic idea.

Quit Cubase/Nuendo.
Navigate to the first VST plug-in folder (refer to the note or screenshot you’ve made before, or your memory).
Assuming the folder is named “VSTPlugins”, rename it to “VSTPlugins_hidden”. This will hide it from Cubase/Nuendo.
Restart Cubase/Nuendo.
If necessary, load the problematic project. In this case Cubase/Nuendo will complain about missing plug-ins. Simply ignore corresponding error messages.

If the problem persists, it obviously is not related to a VST plug-in inside this hidden folder. In this case rename the folder to its original name and repeat the procedure with the next VST plug-ins folder on your list.

If hiding one of the folders actually fixed the problem you still don’t know the bad guy but, after all, you know where he is living… In order to identify the problematic plug-in create a new folder next to the hidden one and give him the original name, in this example “VSTPlugins”. Now you can move the most suspicious plug from the renamed folder (e.g. “VSTPlugins_hidden”) to the new one (e.g. “VSTPlugins”). Restart Cubase/Nuendo and see if it still runs correctly. Repeat moving plug-ins and restarting Cubase/Nuendo until you’ve finally isolated the trouble maker. In case you have a lot of plug-ins installed moving half of the them at a time might speed up the search.

Here’s something else I found…

When you open the ‘Plug-in Information’ window to view the list of plugins, make sure that they all have a checkmark to the left of each plugin. This indicates that they are active. You can click the ‘update’ button at the top to refresh the list.

Also, click the button ‘VST Plugin Paths’. Make sure that the folders containing your Cubase 5 vst plugins are on the list. Usually it’s C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Cubase 5\VSTPlugins. If this folder is not in the list, click the ‘add’ button and browse for this folder.

Go back and click the ‘update’ button again.

#4

Hey, thanks a lot Qbass-007 for all your input!

Yes, it is the same machine I was running it on before. Has Windows XP on it. SX worked really well on it many years ago.

I have a feeling it has something to do with the ‘script’ or whatever it is that physically enables the program to be run on the computer (could it be Java script?). The other thing it does is make that low pitched ‘dong’ sound when it freezes and you click on any part of the interface. My entire computer seems to running slower than it used to. Propellorhead’s Reason is running a lot slower too and a little bit of keyboard latency.

I will try those things you suggested. I don’t really want to restore the entire thing (although am kind of tempted) though, as I have so many important docs on it.

#5

I always disable Win XP’s own sounds…this will at least stop that confounded “DONG” sound!

You should really be saving all your important documents anyway on some sort of external drive. But before you go wiping your systems hard drive (reformat) out for a complete re-install, you could try Win System Restore, back to a time when it WAS working…it can be reversed if it doesn’t help.

Another option, and I’ve done this myself…is to remove your current hard drive and set it aside, install a new hard drive in it’s place, reformat that, and install your operation system, Cubase etc. This way you still have whatever is on the other hard drive, kept as is. If it works better, leave the new one in. Often a complete fresh set of installs makes everything run much faster & more smooth…either because of a virus, data corruption, etc.

#6

hi,i have a steinburg mI4 system desktop version,also a cd with sx/sl,but,i would like to know if cubase S3 will work with this system,the s3 dongle or s3 cd and dongle or if the sx/sl will work with the s3 dongle,on the mI4 desktop interface,?please let me know if you can asap,thnx steven