Adobe Community: Soundbooth CS4 crashes on startup

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1. Matt_Stegner,

Feb 23, 2009 10:46 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Robert,
Did you have any beta versions of Soundbooth CS4 installed?

Can you try launching the application while holding down the shift key? (hold it until the splash screen is gone)
Let me know if this fixes the problem.
-Matt Stegner

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2. (Robert_Khlopin),

Feb 23, 2009 12:19 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Matt,

I have not installed any beta versions of Soundbooth CS4.

I tried holding down the shift key and had the same results.

Bob

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3. _durin_,

Feb 24, 2009 10:04 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Hi Bob,

The section of code noted in the crash error has to do with verifying file paths. Can you tell me if your installation of Soundbooth was to a network location or to a drive other than C:\ (or your main Windows installation drive?) Is this on an English edition of Windows?

Neither case should technically be a problem, but if we can rule some possibilities out, it might make it easier to solve this issue.

As this is a launch issue after installation, you may want to call Adobe Customer Service at 1-800-833-6687 (USA) and speak with a tech support rep directly. They'll be able to check through potential solutions much more quickly than we can here in the forum.

Thanks,
Durin

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4. (Robert_Khlopin),

Feb 24, 2009 1:12 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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The installation was to the C:\ drive and it is an English edition of windows. The "my documents" folder, however, is redirected to a Novell network drive.

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5. _durin_,

Feb 24, 2009 1:49 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Well, that has certainly been an issue in the past with some of our Applications, but I didn't think it was a problem in Soundbooth. Give me a bit of time to configure a system this way and see if I can reproduce it.

Or if you have a few minutes, could you try temporarily changing "My Documents" to somewhere on your C:\ drive and see if that fixes the problem.

Thanks,
Durin

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6. _durin_,

Feb 24, 2009 5:01 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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I MAY have been able to reproduce this issue, but I need a little more information to make sure we're looking at the same thing.

If possible, could you perform the following steps and e-mail your results to sndbugs@adobe.com ?

1. Click Start > Run and type CMD and click OK. In the window that pops up, type SET and press enter. Let me know the USERPROFILE= setting near the bottom

2. Click Start > Run and type REGEDIT and click OK. In the window that pops up, click HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > User Shell Folders and let me know the Data value for AppData

Thanks again!
Durin
Adobe Audio Applications

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7. (Robert_Khlopin),

Feb 24, 2009 10:49 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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I logged into the local machine instead of the domain to avoid group policy folder redirection (application data and my documents) and that apparently resolved the problem.

USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\rkhlopin

Key Name: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ Shell Folders
Name: AppData
Type: REG_SZ
Data: \\Novell2004\Vol1\Users\rkhlopin\Redirected Folders\Application Data

Interesting that done of the other programs displayed this problem.

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8. _durin_,

Feb 25, 2009 1:02 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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It is interesting, and it was a scenario that I recall was specifically tested and cleared. I'm uncertain why it would manifest itself again, but I'll file a bug report and see if I can get some more information.

Thanks for your help.
Durin

Edit: One possible solution might be to mount that network share as a mapped drive, and point to the mapped drive in the policy configuration rather than the network path name. I'll see if I can setup a system with this configuration and see what happens.

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9. _durin_,

Feb 25, 2009 1:41 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Hi Robert,

Can you send me an e-mail directly to sndbugs@adobe.com ? The more we investigate this, the more we see behavior that you're not seeing, which leads us to believe there may be more to it than just the network AppData location. Any additional assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Durin

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10. (Josh_Hopkins),

Feb 26, 2009 7:50 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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I was having the same issue with the Soundbooth CS4 crashing at startup. The program would never actually start.

USERPROFILE = C:\Documents and Settings\HOPKINJ3

The AppData Key inside at
HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > User Shell Folders
was set to "%HOMESHARE%\Application Data", which is a networked drive.

I copied the Common and Soundbooth folders from this shared location to my actual hard drive:
C:\Documents and Settings\HOPKINJ3\Application Data\Adobe

I then changed the AppData registry key to "%USERPROFILE%\Application Data".

After changing the AppData registry key, I re-opened the application and it worked fine.

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11. _durin_,

Feb 26, 2009 8:46 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Thanks, Josh. It's beginning to look like this may be an issue with several different User Shell Folder registry keys, or with certain configurations of those using network shares. The case you described is definitely helpful and I'm glad you were able to solve it.

The more information I can acquire and provide to the development team, the better the chance I can get this fixed in an update so that it simply won't matter where a users folders exist.

Durin

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12. (Robert_Khlopin),

Feb 27, 2009 7:59 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Josh,

Doesn't that defeat Folder Redirection?

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13. (Kjetil_Nilsen),

Mar 2, 2009 2:30 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Hi, I'm sitting in Norway with this very same problem.

Repeating the steps you mention above I can provide you with this information:

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

H:\>set
ALLUSERSPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\All Users
APPDATA=\\nosrv002\nokni1$\System\Application Data

...

USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\nokni1
windir=C:\WINDOWS

I had a similar problem with Photoshop CS4, running very slowly but not crashing, that was also related to reading preferences off a server and not locally. This issue however, was fixed with the 11.0.1-patch released last week. I hope you can come up with something similar for Soundbooth.

thanks, Kjetil Nilsen

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14. (Jan_Robbins),

Mar 4, 2009 2:23 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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I'm having a similar issue with Soundbooth. However, this is on a laptop that is NOT networked. Soundbooth makes it past all the flash screen and library loads. I get a glimpse of the application screen, then it just disappears.

I've tried loading with the Shift key depressed. No Changes.

The other settings you requested:
USERPROFILE=C:\Documents and Settings\Jan
AppData=%USERPROFILE%\Application Data

This application loads up correctly on my desktop version (also not networked). However, I'm not in a location at the moment to do any comparisons between the two.

Any other ideas?
Jan

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15. (Mathias_De_Groof),

Mar 5, 2009 2:11 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Same problem here. This seems to be the same issue as in this thread: http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.59b78bf2

If I hold down the shift key, I get to see the application window for 5-10 seconds, then it closes. If I don't hold down the shift key, I closes immediately after loading.

I did a standard install, on a standard xp machine. Nothing fancy, no network drives, domains, active directory. As simple as can be.

At first I thought my laptop wasn't powerful enough (only 1 gig of RAM). I don't have the problem on my desktop. But now I see other people have the same issue, on more powerful machines...

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16. _durin_,

Mar 9, 2009 3:36 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Jan, The application window loads, and then the application shuts down... My first suspicion is that the Workspaces preference file was corrupted. It looks like you're using XP, so try going to C:\Documents and Settings\Jan\Application Data\Adobe\Soundbooth\2.0\Workspaces\ and delete or move the files there. Relaunch and let me know if this makes a difference. Mathias, 1 gig of RAM should be sufficient, and regardless, it shouldn't crash. The fact you see different behavior when you hold down shift gives me some hint that it's similar to Jan's issue, except that you may also have bad Prefs. (Holding down SHIFT bypasses the preferences on launch. If you close the application successfully, those prefs files will be overwritten. Since you're crashing anyways, they never get overwritten, so the next attempt to launch just reads the bum Prefs again.) Go to C:\Documents and Settings\<your username>\Application Data\Adobe\Soundbooth\ and delete or rename the entire 2.0 folder then relaunch. We're going to let Soundbooth rebuild its entire preference structure from scratch. Please let me know your results as well. Thanks, Durin PS - If these are new installs and you've never been able to launch Soundbooth, I highly recommend calling Technical Support at 800-642-3623. Installation support is free and it can be much quicker to diagnose and troubleshoot when speaking with someone than it is in these forums.

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17. (Mathias_De_Groof),

Mar 11, 2009 1:05 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Thanks for your reply. I tried your deleting the folder, but to no avail.

I'm really thinking it's a performance issue. On my desktop, everything works fine. On my laptop I have the following behavior:

- Soundbooth: closes after starting
- Photoshop: no problems
- Premiere: used to crash on startup (same as soundbooth) but was fixed in the latest update and is 100% stable now. Maybe you should ask the Permiere guys what they did to fix it ;-)
- Encore: same behavior as sounboot; closes after starting

I have roughly the same software on my desktop and laptop. Only the system specs (desktop is much more powerful) and os (win32 on laptop vs vista64 on desktop) are very different.

Phoning in for support isn't really an option, since I live in Belgium.

This crashing right after starting seems to be an issue with a lot of Adobe products; here's a thread with Bridge CS3 exhibiting the same behavior: Stéphane Bergeron, "Bridge CS3 Crashes on Startup" #28, 4 Jul 2007 6:45 am

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18. (Mathias_De_Groof),

Mar 12, 2009 12:08 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Found it! Killing ctfmon.exe fixed the problem for me. Hope it works for other people as well.

Now I still have to see why encore crashes after starting.

I could make a naughty comment about Adobe, but I'm gonna keep it to myself...

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19. (Ron_Day),

Mar 13, 2009 10:47 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Hello Mathias,

This file is actually a Windows .exe file and not a file controlled or installed by Soundbooth.
http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/ctfmon.exe.html

You may also want to run a virus scan just to be sure this is not a spoofed version of this .exe as mentioned in the article above.

As for other solutions, this could be another symptom of a video driver failure.

My suggestion would be to visit the manufacturer web site for your video card and download and install the latest drivers.

We have seen the installation of new video drivers resolve more issues than you might imagine.

Please let us know what happens.

Thanks,
--Ron

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20. (Mathias_De_Groof),

Mar 13, 2009 1:02 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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I know what this process does. Here's the more exhaustive explanation: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/282599. It is an office XP process, so maybe only users using office XP are affected? On my Vista machine this executable is also present, but it's not running. If I try to run it, it just closes itself so I can't simulate it here.

I'm certainly not ruling out the possibility that "my" ctfmon.exe is a virus, although I always have a resident virus scanner (avast) and I regularly do virus and spyware scans. Maybe if killing the cftmon.exe process also fixes the problem for other users, we can be sure that it is not a virus? Unless we all have the same virus ;-)

The way I see it this process provides alternative input streams. Maybe soundbooth tries to use one of these streams, doesn't recognize it and crashes?

For the video driver, I suppose you're referring to my Encore issues? I think you might be right, since the last DLLs that are loaded before it crashes are the Direct3D DLLs (saw this with Filemon). I installed the latest drivers for my video card (a simple Intel 855GM) and the latest version of DirectX. This made no difference at all.
Encore crashes while creating the "mixer". I don't have my laptop here, so I can't tell you exactly where it goes wrong.

In trying to resolve my issues, I've found a LOT of discussions on the internet with people having problems/crashes with CS4. A lot of people seem to be displeased with the quality. I also can't help but feel like I'm beta-testing an application here...

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21. hurricane51,

Mar 25, 2009 6:37 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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I've been following this thread and I seem to have a variant of this problem.

OS: Vista SP1
App: Soundbooth CS4

Behavior: Soundbooth crashes before it even starts. The last module I see loading on the splash window is ExportAVI.pm. When I hold the shift key down while launching I just get the same results.

All local drives.

USERPROFILE=C:\Users\DGM

HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > Microsoft > Windows > CurrentVersion > Explorer > User Shell Folders > AppData =
%USERPROFILE%/AppData/Roaming

The previous version (CS3) would not start on this machine either.

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22. _durin_,

Mar 27, 2009 8:38 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Hi Dave,

When it crashes, do you get an error message or dialog of any kind? Was Soundbooth installed as part of a suite, or is this a stand-alone/trial version?

One thing to check is to launch Soundbooth so that it crashes, then right click on the My Computer (or just Computer in Vista) desktop icon and choose MANAGE. In the Computer Management tool, click System Tools > Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application and see if there's an error entry that corresponds to the Soundbooth crash. If so, please let me know what information it provides.

Durin

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23. hurricane51,

Mar 28, 2009 6:56 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Hi Durin,

I get a slew of messages reading:
Failed to GetDiskExtents3 for N:\

I get fewer messages for each of the following:
Failed to GetVolumeGuidByVolumeName for N:\ -2147024809
Failed to Get Drive for N:\

Now N: is a True Crypt encrypted drive that is intermittantly mounted, and it contains no data that is related to Soundbooth. I'm not sure if N: was mounted when Soundbooth was installed, so I assume it WAS.

I'm going to uninstall Soundbooth with N: mounted, dismount the drive, then reinstall. Maybe that will fix the problem.

Thanks,

Dave

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24. hurricane51,

Mar 28, 2009 7:31 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Durin,

There were different messages, but I stopped the PDAgent and PDSerive services (They are related to PerfectDisk scheduler). Now I get no errors at all in the Application log, but Soundbooth stops, apparently at the same spot -- the last entry I can read on the splash screen is ExportAVI.pm.

Dave

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25. _durin_,

Mar 30, 2009 7:38 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Hi Dave,

Since Soundbooth has never launched for you, I'm going to recommend you call Adobe Technical Support at 800-642-3623. Installation and launch issues are all free, and I think it will be much more productive to troubleshoot this with somebody live rather than back and forth over this message board.

In the meantime, I'll see if I can trace what the module that's failing may be (the fact you see ExportAVI.prm usually means that module loaded successfully and the failure is in the next module.) I'll update here if I find anything useful or have more questions.

Durin

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26. _durin_,

Mar 31, 2009 1:03 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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As a quick test, you may want to try reinstalling Apple Quicktime. I believe the module that Soundbooth may be failing to load is the Quicktime libraries.

Durin

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27. hurricane51,

Mar 31, 2009 7:19 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Durin,

Unfortunately it seems to behave the same. The only events are a string of success notices for the quicktime package.

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28. (Mathias_De_Groof),

Mar 31, 2009 10:56 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Dave: CS4 works in mysterious ways ;-)

I had the load & crash problem too. After a lot of searching, I found that if I killed the ctfmon.exe process, the problem was gone.

I formatted my system a week ago, and now Soundbooth loads without any problems, even when the ctfmon.exe process is running. Go figure...

After reading up on the internet, it seems that formatting is your best shot. I don't know if it's an option for you. I would try formatting, reinstalling CS4 and then reinstalling your applications.

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29. (Kjetil_Nilsen),

Apr 1, 2009 1:02 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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What about the initial problem of Robert Khlopin and myself?

Soundbooth has encountered an error
[..\..\Src\win\WintPathUtils.cpp-574]

Are you making any progress with this? The latest 2.0.1.-patch didn't improve anything for me at least, and i'm still not able to run this program that I paid a lot of money for...

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30. hurricane51,

Apr 1, 2009 5:51 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Mathias,

I saw that post, but I don't have a ctfmon.exe process running. I think you are running XP and I'm running Vista.

Since I've never successfully launched Soundbooth it really doesn't warrant formatting. I'll just put it in the pile labeled "Not Worth It" !!!!

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31. (Mathias_De_Groof),

Apr 1, 2009 6:10 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Oh yeah, didn't see you were on Vista. On my Vista machine, I don't have a ctfmon.exe process either. I don't have any problems running it on Vista though.

If you just need an audio editor, there are other (and better) editors out there. Audition comes to mind (used to be Cooledit), but it's very expensive. If you just need basic editing capabilities, check out audacity (free).

The only reason I use soundbooth is because of the great integration with premiere.

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32. hurricane51,

Apr 1, 2009 8:08 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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I use Vegas Pro for my video editing. It also works pretty well for editing audio tracks, but has very little in the way of audio tools and effects and the ones it does are not very intuitive.

I've been using GoldWave as the audio editor, but it does not support multitrack editing. I can call up GoldWave from within Vegas, but it would seem to make more sense to find a tool that does both.

I though I would try Soundbooth, but it's not like I'm dependent on it.

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33. _durin_,

Apr 1, 2009 8:46 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Hi Kjetil,

Can you send me an e-mail to sndbugs@adobe.com so I can discuss this bug with you directly? I haven't been able to reproduce this issue as you and Robert have described it - I can make ALL the applications crash, but not JUST Soundbooth - and I'd like to get some additional system information from you. Once I can reproduce the problem exactly, I can better inform the developers what's wrong and how to fix it.

Thank you,
Durin

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34. (mark_bulpitt),

Apr 2, 2009 7:25 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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I am getting this too, sometimes crashes before UI appears, sometimes gives me 2-3 minutes before crashing. Not installing on a network, my PC meets the minimum spec, and has just had a clean install of Windows XP.

USERPROFILE = C:\Documents and Settings\markb

AppData = C:\Documents and Settings\markb\Application Data

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35. SpecialEd,

Apr 20, 2009 10:46 AM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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People! Soundbooth crash on launch, Windows XP SP3, CS4, Gateway video card, intel 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller

Tech support hero (Josh) in portland,OR had the unexpected work-around, which was to change my system setting "my computer->properties Advanced, Performance-> Visual Effects" from 'Adjust for Best Appearance' to 'Adjust for Best Performance.'

not sure which of the visual effects settings causes the crash, and don't really have the time to narrow the possibilities so for now I can live with the sort of odd Windows 'Best Performance' 'skin'.

then the code launched, which, by the way does a remarkably excellent job of reducing the microphone line noise and tape drive noise artifacts from all these cassette tapes I'm scanning into mp3s.

thanks very much! hope this tip helps.

-a

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36. romgen,

Apr 25, 2009 2:35 PM in reply to (Robert_Khlopin)

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Hello,

I also get this crash. I used the update function in one of the other Adobe CS 4 production premium applications to ensure I use the latest version.

It's weird to see that in such a high priced product, I had instant startup crashes in 2 of these applications. The startup crash in Premiere Pro was fixed lately through an update, but Soundbooth wasn't.

I am a software developer with a licensed copy of MSVC Professional, maybe it would be possible to provide you with extended crash information.

My OS I use is: Vista 64

Thank you for your help!

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37. SpecialEd,

Apr 25, 2009 2:39 PM in reply to romgen

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see my post regarding video card settings

(set display to "tune for best performance" or something like that, I'm running XP not vista

Andrew Rose 303.532.6780 Boulder, CO, MA Counseling Psychology

Play Therapy, Child EMDR, Couples, Individual EMDR & Brainspotting

wisdomemotions.com - wildernessthx.com - skitherapy.com

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38. romgen,

Apr 25, 2009 2:42 PM in reply to romgen

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Update to my post: Now that is weird - when I use the "Debugging Tools for Windows (x64)" to load the executable of Soundbooth, I do not get any crash. That would explain, why the devs have such problems tracing this one.

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39. romgen,

Apr 25, 2009 2:49 PM in reply to romgen

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I also tried the "adjust to max. performance" with no change. But I don't think that it is the problem here since the Vista 64 Home Edition (which I use) doesn't support Aero Glass.

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Soundbooth CS4 crashes on startup

Feb 21, 2009 1:25 AM

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