CEP crashing on some sessions

[DimChandeliers]

Help!

CEP 1.2 is crashing - but only on a couple of sessions.

These particular sessions have more tracks than my others,
over 20 tracks. Most have 10-15 tracks.
The crash occurs when I try to do any work towards the end of the song.
I wait for the mix status bar to turn green but it still crashes.
(Sometimes it doesn't turn green, just blue.)
I've tried adjusting the peak cache and wave cache size with no luck.
I freed-up 3 gigs on my 15 gig HD. Total 5.9 free gigs
My 64mb ram is running 83% free

[DimChandeliers]

here's the message I get when it crashes:

COOLPRO caused an invalid page fault in
module COOLPRO.EXE at 0167:0044bc12.
Registers:
EAX=00000250 CS=0167 EIP=0044bc12 EFLGS=00010206
EBX=00d9ef99 SS=016f ESP=011bfd48 EBP=00dd98d0
ECX=000031e0 DS=016f ESI=006b4630 FS=111f
EDX=011bfdb0 ES=016f EDI=00006000 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
8a 14 10 40 88 53 ff 99 f7 f9 66 85 d2 89 54 24

[dobro]

64 MB of RAM is really small.

It isn't Cool that's crashing = it's your computer. If you bought a computer with some real RAM and some processing speed, you could use 1.2 and it wouldn't crash anymore.

I was having all sorts of problems with Cool until I bought a bigger, faster computer, and then the problems disappeared.

[Chrisjob]

CEP is notorious for crashing. That's why Syntrillium developed its project recall thing for 1.2, and improved on it for 2.0 ( I think...somebody feel free to correct me if Im mistaken.) Fortunately, Dobro is right. More RAM or a faster CPU will help alot...

It's a quirk of Cool Edit, and it sucks- hopefully Syntrillium will continue to work on it (as well as file managing and VST support, ahem!)

RAM is rediculously cheap now...COMPUSA or BestBuy usually have a mail-in rebate which can give you 256 of SDRAM for like 30 or 40 bucks--Though I don't encourage the mega-corporations for all your techno needs.....its a pretty good deal.


Peace
Chris

[DimChandeliers]

Thanks Dobro and Chris ... for nothing!

I was hoping for a quick fix, but had a feeling it was my computer.
I keep hinting to my wife that we should get one of those Dell $599(actually down to $499) Pentium 4 computers, but she's in school and I'm laid off

[dobro]

Nah, like Chris said - RAM's really cheap. Buy 256 MB of RAM, and watch the incidence of crashing diminish drastically.

[DimChandeliers]

Ram is overrated

I upped mine to 160mb. Things ain't much mo' better.
I was able to edit a wav envelope near the end of the song,
but when I went to save the session it crashed.
The CPU must be the problem. The background mix status bar takes a long time to fill light blue - forever to turn green.

[dobro]

Damn, I thought more RAM would solve it right away. What processor have you got? Pentium what?

[DimChandeliers]

what pentium? umm... er... well... it's a Pentium MMX 200mhz

[dobro]

I used to have an MMX 233 and 32 MB of RAM, so I'm starting to understand two things now. First, why you're having problems - when I had a system similar to yours, I had no end of grief with all sorts of hangups. At that time, my sessions consisted of two tracks maximum - guitar and vocals, that's it - and Cool would stall right left and centre. However, it was the computer, not Cool. So, what I'm saying is that you need a bigger, faster system if you want to handle all those tracks and get away with it. I'm surprised you've gotten away with what you've gotten away with so far, in fact.

Second, I'm really impressed with the arrangements you've put together with such a modest system so far.

Look, a bigger faster computer isn't going to help you make better music. It's just going to make it easier to make the music you're making right now. And there's something to be said for systems that allow you to do what you want to do without complaining or breaking down.

[DimChandeliers]

Thanks Dobro,

I really value your comments.

I think I was able to do so much with so little by looping and duping parts as much as possible. The problems didn't start until I started piling on the tracks. I hope to be getting a new computer soon.

[chrisharris]

Dobro's right, but I'm curious if your computer crashes at other times (like surfing the net). On a 5 year old 366Mhz clunker, I recently edited and mixed a 32 track session for a friend...all the files were stereo, and the session took probably 14 hours and I saved it once after about 7 hours, and then again at the end (b/c I'm kind of a dumbass). Also, breaking all rules and defying common sense, I was running MSN Messenger, Outlook Express (which checks for mail every minute), and I had my browser open to the mp3 clinic the entire time, lol. Anyway, my point is that while I certainly couldn't use "realtime FX," you don't even have that option, so I'm kind of surprised that you're having all these problems...one of the selling points for me for CEP originally was its ability to do a lot, pretty quickly, on slower machines...That, and the overall stability of the program (which is related, I guess, but which seems to be in doubt after reading this thread). In 2.5 years, I've lost maybe 4 sessions, and each time, it was because my computer crashed or got unplugged while CEP was saving a session in the background...In fact, the stability of the program is partly responsible for me losing any sessions at all...when it only happens every 6 months, I tend to forget to save sessions until I'm done. Kinda' like when I drove a Geo Metro that got 56 MPG...it's the only car I've ever had that I ran out of gas in...I'd just freaking forget it needed gas, lol.

I'm in a typing mood, obviously, but my point was to see if maybe you've got a bad memory stick. I had 500MB of Ram on another machine and was having all kinds of problems with it until I yanked out one of the cards...now it runs like a champ. If you updated your RAM recently, try pulling out the original memory??

Good luck,
-Mr. Know It All (for tonight, anyway)