HALion Sonic Crashing Cubase 6.5

I’m finding that if I use HALion Sonic (1.5 update full, not SE) in a project it frequently causes Cubase to crash when I try to re-open (32 & 64 bit). This problem has occurred for a while but seems to be more common since the 6.5 up date to Cubase.

I’m running Cubase 6.5.4 on a 64 bit Windows 7 quad core i5 with 6 gig of RAM and an Akai MPK49 attached. I work in, and have found this issue in, both 32 & 64 bit versions of Cubase.

Anybody else had the same issue?

Dear HH,

there is already a HALion Sonic 1.6 update available: http://www.steinberg.net/en/support/downloads/downloads_halion_sonic.html
Please install it and give it a try. If you still have crashes, could you please be more specific as for the steps you follow to reproduce this crash?

Regards

Yes, I am having the same issue. but with Sonic SE.

Cubase Artist 6.5.3 64-bit
Halion Sonic SE 1.5


To reproduce:

  1. Open Cubase Artist 6.5
  2. Create a new Empty project
  3. Add an Instrument track.
  4. Select Halion Sonic SE
    -at this point, while attempting to load and open Halion Sonic SE, the busy cursor is shown and never goes away. All UI controls within Cubase stop responding (even to hovers). I have left it running for an hour, and it never recovers. You can kill the process, which makes the window disappear, but the process sticks around for a few minutes afterward with no CPU activity and no change in memory size.

I’m using Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit with 4 Intel cores, 8 GB RAM.

Wasn’t Halion Sonic SE 1.6 included in 6.5.3?

I know it’s not fully supported, but have you tried the 6.5.4 update?

You could try the ol’ “trashing your prefs” routine just to eliminate that possibility also.

Wasn’t Halion Sonic SE 1.6 included in 6.5.3?

You’re right. It is 1.6. Sorry about that.

I know it’s not fully supported, but have you tried the 6.5.4 update?

I haven’t tried it. I’d like to stay in a ‘supported’ situation right now. But if I get desperate, I might give it a whirl.

You could try the ol’ “trashing your prefs” routine just to eliminate that possibility also.

I did try this with fingers crossed. No luck, though.

I will try a full reinstall next.

FYI: A full uninstall/reinstall did not fix the issue.

FIXED

It appears that the problem was that the eLicenser was attempting to access license information from the dongle before loading up Halion Sonic SE. When I switched the eLicenser from a USB 3.0 port to a USB 2.0 port (on the other side of the laptop) then it worked fine.

It seems like the problem was the USB 3.0 port.

These USB 3.0 ports on my laptop are a Fresco Logic USB hub which I’ve had numerous problems with involving other devices. First, the connections were a bit loose, so I pried up the metal tabs in the ports to make it a tighter fit. Also, the drivers for the hub and the port were not the same version; I had some problems getting a successful install of the drivers, but eventually managed to do it.

I suspect that the issue is fixed now, after a few days of use.

Aloha guys,

This is a very informative thread. Thanks for that.

Mac 'puters are just starting to get USB 3 (finally) and some users are
now experiencing these same scenarios of USB 2 vs. USB 3 compatibility
when using certain hardware.

I’m am looking at getting a new MacbookPro and wondering if
my dongle will work with the Macs USB 3 only ports.

Does not look good.
{‘-’}