Software glitches

[jwarv]

Howdy folks,

I've been having weird, wild and wacky issues of late with Mixcraft 7. (Lots of crashes, freezing, plugins not loading) I don't believe it's the fault of the program though.

I think it's an issue with my video card, which probably needs replacing since the fan died a while ago. I've submitted a ticket. Still waiting to hear back. Anyway, I'm running Win 7 (32 bit). Based on the attached picture, does it sound like a graphics card issue would cause all this?

PS- I wasn't sure which topic to enter this since it may not necessarily be a Mixcraft issue.So, I figured I'd enter it here as an off topic.

Jason

[AHornsby]

Why couldn't it be an EZD issue? Anyway, you could try to use the on-board video instead of the card? -h

[Rolling Estonian]

Make sure your video card is running on the latest drivers, that'll do it everytime.

M

[jwarv]

Thanks for the tips. I loaded EZD in a blank session without any trouble. Maybe my song is too midi intensive? I don't know. It may be time for a new PC.

My video card has brickwalled for updates. No mas. (It prevented me from installing Windows 10. Which may or may not be a good thing) So, I'm the process to replace it.

I'm not too tech savvy. So I'm not sure I have a secondary video card. This was one of those built in a small shop PCs. But I'll check.

Thanks guys.

[jwarv]

OK, I located the onboard graphics card. And instructions on how to switch to it. It's good to know that I can use that as a back up.

Meanwhile, I'm exploring this as an EZD issue. I tested it out by opening my session, changing the instrument to an Acoustica drum set which worked. And then I switched back to EZD which loaded and opened but I got that Microsoft Visual C ++ runtime error and the program terminated.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks!
Jason

[elaw]

Most machines these days auto-detect monitors. So with the machine off, unplug the monitor from the video card, plug it into the onboard connector. Fire the machine up and most likely it'll just work.

[JonInc]

Download and install the free version of Speccy, a free system info utility:

https://www.piriform.com/speccy

Start it, and the first window will immediately show the status and temps of everything on your system. If your video card has overheated, it should tell you that (or at least report an incredibly high temp).

[jwarv]

Wow! I will try both. Thanks guys.

[jwarv]

Speccy reads my graphics card at 115 C. Which is 239 F. That's pretty hot isn't it? Hmm. Let me try the swap and see if the performance drops.

[elaw]

That's *very* hot... which I guess isn't surprising if the fan has died.

I'd either replace the video card, or if it works okay, use the motherboard video and remove the card.

[JonInc]

Speccy reads my graphics card at 115 C. Which is 239 F. That's pretty hot isn't it? Hmm. Let me try the swap and see if the performance drops.

Mine sits at 46 C, so yeah, yours is toast.

That's definitely a problem if not THE problem. I would remove the card, even if you're not going to use it.

Time to switch over to the onboard graphics.

[jwarv]

OK, I'll let her cool down before I remove it.

[jwarv]

Well,
the good news is that I was able to remove the hot card and start using the on board one. The bad news is that EZ Drummer 2 is still choking my session. So, I've got to go to Toontrack and see what's what.

Thanks again for your handy tips!

Jason

[JonInc]

Well,
.... EZ Drummer 2 is still choking my session. So, I've got to go to Toontrack and see what's what...

Have you ever been able to successfully use MC7 with EZD2 without the glitches on that system?

If not, your system is probably under spec'ed. The 32 bit O.S. limits your memory usage to less than 4GB, which unfortunately is about the minimum these days for smoothly running a DAW with virtual instruments.

However, if the glitches are a recent development and it was running fine before, then we'll have to troubleshoot further...

[jwarv]

It's a fairly new development. In fact, I tried opening and editing it in a blank session and it was fine. As of now I'm unable to finish my project using EZD2 until I can resolve this issue. Unless I can move all the other tracks into a new project and try loading EZD2 in that one. Or create a temporary mix with the drums muted, move that mix into a new project, build the drum track there, mix it to a wave file and then load it back into the original project.

I will say this, however, that I have been having issues with other plugins as well. Mostly Nightlife and Journeys. In the past I had too many resource folders in my VST scan. I was advised by Acoustica Greg to just limit it to one VST folder. Which worked right away, but the problem has returned. So, I'm thinking what you said about OS resources might be right.