Dorico freezes, then won't start up until after reboot

Dorico
22

Hi @Ulf, the host loads the mediaservice.dll, that loads the mediaclient.dll which starts the SteinbergMediaBayServer.exe as a new process.

When the mediaservice or mediaclient crashes, you’ll find the crash logged it in the dump of the host, e.g. VSTAudioEngine or HALion.

Edit: I am currently not sure if the mediaservice released with VSTAudioEngine / Dorico is already enabled to load the mediaclient.

When the SteinbergMediaBayServer process crashes, it writes its own crashlog. A crash of the server might result in a freeze of the client.

Cubase 15 launches but shows no UI; it only appears active in Task Manager
23

And where would that crash dump go?

24

This is the application log
application.zip (5.7 KB)

What I did was a simple Dorico session.

  1. Start the application
  2. Load a sample project
  3. Play the piece for while
  4. Stop playback
  5. Close Project
  6. Exit Dorico

At that time audio output was hijacked, and other programs could not output any sound. (UR22C audio interface)

In process explorer there were no left-overs… no VSTAudioEngine, no Dorico, no MediaBay, nothing…

Then I tried to randomly terminate some threads that were in waiting state (bottom panel in ProcExp). At some point during that terminating threads, sound returned. I can’t pinpoint which entry may have caused it though :frowning:
Here are the waiting threads involved (hooked to the audiodg.exe process, that was guess of me)

image
image2231×438 32.8 KB

Maybe this helps ?

Closing Dorico project causing program shutdown improperly; audio on left only
25

Uhhh, I missed installing the exeption-dumper. There will be no automatic crash dumps on Windows, only on mac, by standard os feature. As a workaround I’ll attach a registry entry that enables Windows error reporting for SteinbergMediaBayServer.exe according to this Microsoft article:

Download unzip and double click ( Security Reminder: always be careful of phishing!!! - doublecheck what you doubleclick!!! :wink: ) this registry file to enable CrashDumps for the SteinbergMediaBayServer:

SteinbergMediaServer_enable_CrashLogs.zip (543 Bytes)

For doublechecking, this is the content of the unzipped *.reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\SteinbergMediaBayServer.exe]
"DumpFolder"=hex(2):25,00,55,00,53,00,45,00,52,00,50,00,52,00,4f,00,46,00,49,\
  00,4c,00,45,00,25,00,5c,00,44,00,6f,00,63,00,75,00,6d,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,\
  73,00,5c,00,53,00,74,00,65,00,69,00,6e,00,62,00,65,00,72,00,67,00,5c,00,43,\
  00,72,00,61,00,73,00,68,00,44,00,75,00,6d,00,70,00,73,00,00,00
"DumpCount"=dword:0000000a
"DumpType"=dword:00000001

Then the dumps will be written to %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Steinberg\CrashDumps

Audio Engine repeatedly fails to load
26

I haven’t used Dorico much today, but a couple of times I just started Dorico, played some scores and exited again.
It all went smoothly, no program hangs, no sound issues (only a slight stuttering when loading and unloading the engine and sounds)
I also reinstalled HALion Sonic 7, after I made sure the MediaBayServer was running in “keeprunning” state. Also found no issues there :slight_smile:

It seems the computer and/or Dorico and/or the device drivers had a bad day.
I will keep an eye on it and report back if it happens again.

2 Likes
27

I’m afraid, it happened again today.
Playing a youtube video of DiscoverDorico on one screen, and Dorico in midi-import mode on the other. At a certain point de video stopped and gave the eternal turning circle hourglass.
MediaBayServer was still running. I killed it a couple of times, but it always came back ( “keeprunning” works. Killing the Mediaservices.exe didn’t help either. Then I went back to randomly terminate some threads in the ProcExp under the Audiodg.exe. That helped, and youtube sprang to live again. The last entry I terminated was one of the UserRequest threads.
I’ll keep monitoring and reporting issues here.

28

Today, it’s happening every time I open Dorico. It claims the audio exclusively and never lets go ever again. I don’t even have to change playback templates, or try to play the score at all… just opening Dorico 4 is enough.

What is the difference with yesterday ? I have no idea :frowning:

Simplest way to recover seems now to just kill the AUDIODG.EXE process all together. It will start a fresh instance and will make audio available to other applications again.

Time for a new and improved Yamaha Steinberg USB Asio Driver maybe :slight_smile:

29

Short technial note on “keeprunning” and killing MediaBayServer - this mode will not restart the server automatically. The server is either started when a client (H7 HS7) is started (that means a plug-in instance is loaded), or when it is explicitly started via the keeprunning-script. Killing the MediaBayServer will most likely result in H7 or HS7 hanging. While I fear there are situations in which the MediaServer lets its clients wait for too long, it finally continues and Dorico always kept working on my test-release setup, provided the server is started “keeprunning”. When the server restarted automatically, it is back in the normal mode, which means it will shutdown approximately ten seconds after the last client disconnected, which allows the restarting issue to come in again.

30

It happens to me exactly the same, the sound is only activated with the first file that I open, when I close it and open any other the sound is no longer activated, I can work but when I try to save the changes it freezes.

31

Hi @Alain_Murillo , welcome to the forum.

If you have HALion Sonic 7 installed then please do the workaround as outlined by Joerg in this thread.
If not, choose from Dorico’s menu Help > Create Diagnostics Report and post the corresponding zip file here. Thanks

32

I do have Halion 7, but I’m leaving the report anyway in case something interesting is found
Dorico Diagnostics.zip (3.1 MB)

33

Thanks for the data. It definitely looks like that MediaBayServer issue.

1 Like
34

It is the audio engine and this just started happening after I updated Dorico today.

35

Welcome to the forum, @JTB. If you’re having problems with Dorico hanging after you close one project and open a new one, you’re having the MediaBay problem. Please see this thread:

We’re working on a permanent fix for this, but this workaround will help you in the meantime.