CRASH Report: "SAC.EXE has stopped working"

[jlklein]

Hey folks,
So, SAC crashed a few minutes into the Sunday service yesterday after running for over 30 minutes.
No user action, just a random "SAC.EXE has stopped working".
I think this is the first time it's crashed on us, we're running the latest version 3.x (drawing a blank).
The PC runs on a separate network, no Internet connection.
Any telltales I can look for?

Thanks,
Jeff

[cgrafx]

Hey folks,
So, SAC crashed a few minutes into the Sunday service yesterday after running for over 30 minutes.
No user action, just a random "SAC.EXE has stopped working".
I think this is the first time it's crashed on us, we're running the latest version 3.x (drawing a blank).
The PC runs on a separate network, no Internet connection.
Any telltales I can look for?

Thanks,
Jeff

Latest version is 4.3.

I've had preference files get trashed on occasion that can cause problems, but I'd start with plug-ins.

You'd also have to consider the possibility of a hardware issue as well. Failing memory, etc.

When was the last time the system was cleaned (as in physically opened and blown clean of dust)?

[mr_es335]

Jeff,

A bit more info would help!

What was Conan Doyles' famous quotation: "Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth".

If it worked and now it does not - something must have triggered it.

[Butch Bos]

If you are using midi with SAC bad data can crash it as in momentary power loss to controller or loose/bad midi cable

reset all cards in computer I have had a couple times Raydat card got a little loose

Check ram (run ram check overnight at least

Butch

[TomyN]

Hi,

I'd take a look on the power supply as well. Had a bad one during my first SAC days, which crashed the systems after some time of operation. So I changed to 'higher quality' supply and never had an issue again (Even a small black out of the mains could not stop SAC from working, but resets the E-piano).
Get some test ('High Load Test', Mem-Test ) and make sure that the hardware is working.

Tomy

[jlklein]

Sorry, Carl, I meant the latest update to version 3, I didn't upgrade to 4.

No new vst plugins since quite awhile, primarily SAC delay, levelizer and verb plus some of the Classic series chorus and verb. No per channel just as auxes.

We blew it out a couple of months ago.

For a bad preference file, just resave? We typically use what we save as the default file.

Bad MIDI data could certainly be possible. We've been having Motormix issues.

I'll try resetting the cards as well, it has been awhile.

Thanks,
Jeff

[mr_es335]

Jeff,

I hope that you will keep us posted on your results and that you find a solution to your present situation?

[dbarrow]

When I have had something like this happen, it is almost always some third-party plugin causing the problem. What I do is make a temporary directory for the VST plugins, move them all out of the regular SAC/Vst_Plugins folder into the temporary folder and see if SAC starts without issue. If it does, I start moving the plugins back to the normal folder one by one (or in groups). I can usually guess which plugin caused the problem, which saves me some time.

[mr_es335]

dbarrow,

Great idea...thanks for the tip!

[jlklein]

When I have had something like this happen, it is almost always some third-party plugin causing the problem. What I do is make a temporary directory for the VST plugins, move them all out of the regular SAC/Vst_Plugins folder into the temporary folder and see if SAC starts without issue. If it does, I start moving the plugins back to the normal folder one by one (or in groups). I can usually guess which plugin caused the problem, which saves me some time.

Yeah, not convinced that's my issue, though. We're pretty minimal on plugins and have been using the same ones in the same way for a few years now.
I'm leaning more towards the bad MIDI data as we've been having some issues with mismatches between our Motormixes and the on screen fader positions when switching Fkeys.
We were not switching when the SAC.EXE crash happened, though...it was actually just sitting there.

We had a service last night and had no issues but we really didn't do anything.
I did have my tech resave the mix as the default preferences in case it was corrupted, but that was after the practice and before the service, so there's really no clear way to know if it fixed anything.


Thanks,
Jeff