KVR Audio

funkychickendance · Post by **funkychickendance** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:27 pm

Although I found the demo of ACID 6 Pro moderately stable on my 1GB/3.2GHz PC after a few early missteps, I've lately seen quite a few instability issues since stumping up the money for the upgrade. Particularly in the form of screen freezes that can only be overcome by the "Dell reboot" -- i.e., pulling the plug out of the wall. Ungood, um?

So, I asked Tech Service what they'd suggest. Here's the answer:

"Thanks for writing.

To ensure that you get a proper installation of your software onto your system, we would ask that you un-install all of your Sony Media Software and older Sonic Foundry software. Do this from the Windows Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs Menu.

Note: Uninstalling Sony Media Software will wipe out/delete all user settings and preferences that were initially saved/applied to the program. If you need to backup audio presets that you had made then we would recommend using our Preset Manager utility, which you can find at {link}.

Once un-installed, delete the following folders:

C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry
C:\Program Files\Sonic Foundry Setup
C:\Program Files\Sony (Do not delete this entire folder if you have other Sony applications installed such as Sonic Stage, Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, etc. If that is the case then only delete the folder for the Sony Media Software application you are using as well as the Shared Plug-Ins folder.)
C:\Program Files\Sony Setup

Once un-installed, click over to your Windows Registry Editor (Start -> Run -> regedt32).
WARNING: The Registry is a very sensitive area to work in. If you are not comfortable with advanced configuration and system changes, ask an administrator to help you with this.
Once in there, delete the following registry entries:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sonic Foundry
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sony Media Software
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sonic Foundry
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Sony Media Software

After removing all of the previous items, just download and re-install from the latest updated versions of software from this link - {link}

These files will be the latest full installers for our software. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del at the same time and you will see a list of the programs currently running (some users will have to hit the "Task Manager" button). Move over to the Processes Tab and click the "Image Name" heading at the top left of this window to view these items in alphabetical order. Close everything showing on that list except for the items listed below. To end a process, highlight it and click the End Process button at the bottom of the window.

End every process except for:

alg.exe
ccmexec.exe
csrss.exe
explorer.exe
lsass.exe
MsPMSPSv.exe
services.exe
smss.exe
spoolsv.exe
svchost.exe (there may be more than one of these, you can leave them all running)
System Idle Process
System
taskmgr.exe
winlogon.exe
wmiprvse.exe

You may have other Users logged into the system and displayed on this list, but make sure you log them off and close down their processes as well.

If this does not fix your issue, please reply to this incident with a detailed explanation of what you were able to accomplish and the outcome of the re-install."

Well, maybe. A bit drastic, no? But wouldn't you, uh, call this a 'defective product, urgently in need of some professional programing help and bug fixes'?

/funxi

Kriminal · Post by **Kriminal** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:31 pm

i'd tell them to f**k off...

Cabinfever · Post by **Cabinfever** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:34 pm

There seems to be very few other reports of such problems with AP6 so in fact I think this was an excellent response from Sony. The detail is there if you want it about how to do a clean reinstall without wiping your drive. I can't see the problem here...

funkychickendance · Post by **funkychickendance** » Wed May 03, 2006 6:57 pm

Cabinfever wrote:There seems to be very few other reports of such problems with AP6 so in fact I think this was an excellent response from Sony. The detail is there if you want it about how to do a clean reinstall without wiping your drive. I can't see the problem here...

The re-install? Yeah, that's livable, and I probably will go ahead when I've got an hour to spare. There may well be some registry entry bollixing things up...

But the housekeeping on running processes? Isn't that rather extraordinary? What other software provider tells you to do that?

/funxi

Rabid · Post by **Rabid** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:21 pm

I also think that is a very good responce for someone that is having a problem, and that is the key word. Problem. I did not have to do that because I am not having problems. If I were to have problems I would appreciate knowing all the steps to clean it off of my system. It beats doing a format which some other software has caused me to do.

beej · Post by **beej** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:33 pm

I think it's a fairly detailed and complete guide to sorting out your issue.

I've found Sony support to be pretty good actually - any times I had issues, I always got a response and it always was complete and solved the issue...

funkychickendance · Post by **funkychickendance** » Wed May 03, 2006 7:34 pm

Okay. To paraphrase some other folks: "it is what it is," and off I go to do the reinstall/regedit, etc.

/funxi

SuitcaseOfLizards · Post by **SuitcaseOfLizards** » Wed May 03, 2006 8:06 pm

Beats what I typically hear from tech support (not Sony):

"Reformat your hard drive, reinstall Windows, and try again".

cold c · Post by **cold c** » Wed May 03, 2006 8:06 pm

funkychickendance wrote:Particularly in the form of screen freezes that can only be overcome by the "Dell reboot" -- i.e., pulling the plug out of the wall.

For info: with most modern ATX based machines, keeping the power button pressed in for up to five seconds usually cuts out power without having to use the switch at the back of the PSU or on the mains power outlet.

funkychickendance wrote: Well, maybe. A bit drastic, no? But wouldn't you, uh, call this a 'defective product, urgently in need of some professional programing help and bug fixes'?

It's often difficult for developers to guess what's going on from the average user bug report. Therefore, it is sometimes best to post the process of reproducing the bug on the official user forum asking others if they can replicate it, if they can then the developers will see the common variables, if they can't then you would look closer at your own system configuration.

Good luck.

funkychickendance · Post by **funkychickendance** » Wed May 03, 2006 9:14 pm

Jury's still out, but the reinstall went very quickly.

Edit: And for a while it seemed pretty stable compared to hitherto. Then it started bitching about the Media Manager and how I didn't have authorization...and then...it went right back to its old behavior of interminable load times. And finally, it failed to load at all, on two consecutive occasions.

So, thru the uninstall/reinstall/register clean-up routine again. And, same result.

It may be 'just me,' but nevertheless, that's the only person I care about. I suppose it'll be another week before Sony replies again.

So, this might be the point to just elbow this huge kludgy host, decline to participate in any more debugging, request a refund, reinstall ACID Pro 5.0c for the occasional loop building exercises, and convert to the nice, simple world of energyXT for MIDI purposes. But I'll think that over and decide in the morning...

/funxi

Sony Says...& Your Reaction Would Be?