No playback

[Cary B. Cornett]

I just switched to another laptop computer, this time an Acer Aspire 5750 series, model P5WE0 running Win7 pro 64 bit with 8 gig of RAM.
I installed SawStudio 5.6, the various Saw plugins, and a few VST favorites that I use on my other Saw machines (only one of these is used at any given time, and I'm the only user). Initial testing at home seemed to work, except playback didn't start consistently with right click, although fine with spacebar. I took my rig to do a session elsewhere, and using the exact same equipment, could not get SawStudio to play any audio. I could load the session, and start playback with spacebar, but no sound came out and no meters showed anything, although waveforms showed in MT and the playback cursor moved across normally. Hit spacebar to stop, and the silent playback continued. Hit spacebar again, and the message "Forcing engine shutdown" pops up, and playback stops. I closed the session, closed SS, restarted, and got the same results. Rebooted the computer, started SS, same results. Went back to SS 5.4 install, same results. Multiple attempts with no change at all.

After I had returned home, I re-tested in my studio and everything worked perfectly, both with 5.4 and with 5.6. Exact same equipment, used in the exact same way. How do I troubleshoot from here, when I can't make it consistently fail, and can't trust it to consistently work??

[Carl G.]

Cary, it sounds like you have no sound.
If the sound card and SS are not configured property you'll get the symptoms you're describing. Try to use the basic sound card device options in SS on the laptop and see what happens. Can you play sound through other apps? What sound device and mode are they using?

[Cary B. Cornett]

Cary, it sounds like you have no sound.
If the sound card and SS are not configured property you'll get the symptoms you're describing.
If the sound card was not configured properly, the meters in SS would still register, and in this case, none of the meters in SS showed any activity. All such activity, remember, is BEFORE anything reaches the sound card driver.

Try to use the basic sound card device options in SS on the laptop and see what happens. Can you play sound through other apps? What sound device and mode are they using? As I described before, SS had played propeerly earlier the same morning with the exact same setup and option settings. The other problem, not stopping playback when the spacebar is first hit, and then forcing engine shutdown on the second spacebar hit, neither of which is normal behavior for SawStudio, probably is not a sound card problem.

Also, when I got it all back home, having made no configuration changes at all, the same sessions that failed earlier in the day behaved perfectly, meters showing activity and sound coming out as it should.

I guess my question is, what could change in the computer hardware to cause this exact failure and then magically heal itself? I'm a tech, and used to troubleshooting, but I am not a computer tech, and I don't know enough about how SawStudio works to guess at what could cause this problem.

[Bob L]

The force engine shutdown is specifically a soundcard problem... something is not happy in the soundcard driver... so... whatever changed... software update... new plugin install... or possible hadrware failure... with this being a new computer... everything is different... check online to see if there are driver updates for that model... specifically audio driver updates.

Bob L

[Ian Alexander]

Something must have changed when you took things apart to transport the gear to the session and put it together again on site. If you can figure out what was different, you'll have your answer. You may still have the right click issue, though.

[Cary B. Cornett]

The force engine shutdown is specifically a soundcard problem... something is not happy in the soundcard driver... so... whatever changed... software update... new plugin install... or possible hadrware failure... with this being a new computer... everything is different... check online to see if there are driver updates for that model... specifically audio driver updates.

Bob L
I am using a Focusrite Scarlett (1st gen) 18i8. This is the fourth computer to which I have installed the exact same drivers, which have worked on each and every machine. Also, the same interface and drivers were working earlier the same morning, and worked again later that night, with no changes made to the system, except that it was moved from a client's studio (where the problem occurred) back to my home studio (where everything worked fine).

Am I correct in assuming that if the problem was caused by the sound driver I'm using, the problem would have been there from when the driver was first installed, and would continue so long as that driver remained, and was in the same configuration and settings? Can a problem caused by a wrong or misconfigured driver magically heal itself without any intervention by the user?

[UpTilDawn]

I am using a Focusrite Scarlett (1st gen) 18i8. This is the fourth computer to which I have installed the exact same drivers, which have worked on each and every machine. Also, the same interface and drivers were working earlier the same morning, and worked again later that night, with no changes made to the system, except that it was moved from a client's studio (where the problem occurred) back to my home studio (where everything worked fine).

Am I correct in assuming that if the problem was caused by the sound driver I'm using, the problem would have been there from when the driver was first installed, and would continue so long as that driver remained, and was in the same configuration and settings? Can a problem caused by a wrong or misconfigured driver magically heal itself without any intervention by the user?

Were all three previous setups Win7 pro 64 bit computers, with the same hardware? If not, I could easily imagine how the exact same drivers might not work in this particular computer, with this particular configuration of hardware (video, sound, etc.). The suggestion to check the manufacturer's website for updated drivers (of all components) is a solid one in my opinion.

[Cary B. Cornett]

Were all three previous setups Win7 pro 64 bit computers, with the same hardware? If not, I could easily imagine how the exact same drivers might not work in this particular computer, with this particular configuration of hardware (video, sound, etc.). The suggestion to check the manufacturer's website for updated drivers (of all components) is a solid one in my opinion. Two of the previous setups were XP 32 bit builds, one a Dell tower and the other a Toshiba Satellite laptop. The other two were a later Toshiba Satellite running Win7 64 bit and my recently acquired Acer Aspire, also running Win7 64 bit. At least three of these were with the latest version of the drivers. I am told that the mobos of the more recent Toshiba Satellite and the Acer Aspire might be very similar. Both certainly use the Intel video, the Toshiba ran an i3 processor and the Acer an i5. I don't know about their internal sound devices, but certainly the same external sound device in the four setups.

[Bob L]

Does the interenal soundcard work when setup as the sound device in SAW's audio device setup?

Perhaps you have an interrupt clash in this new system with the soundcard... which might account for the random behaviour of it working then not working.

Bob L

[Cary B. Cornett]

Does the interenal soundcard work when setup as the sound device in SAW's audio device setup?

Perhaps you have an interrupt clash in this new system with the soundcard... which might account for the random behaviour of it working then not working.

Bob L That is one thing I have not tried with this machine (although I have with others). Now if I can just figure out how to look for the interrupt conflict...

[Richard Rupert]

I tried using a Scarlett 18i20 with SAC on a Lenovo T500 laptop and had sporadic connection problems. I know you're using it with SAW and it sometimes works... but the fact that it sometimes worked with SAC might reveal a problem with the drivers. Further, when exiting SAC, the software would crash and lock the program on the "shutdown in progress" screen. Again, sometimes it would connect properly, but often I would have to turn the interface off and on several times before success. I was running Win 8.1, BTW.

Not exactly the same as your problem, but it leads me to suspect a driver issue as well.