Crashing when loading 3 VI instances

[Peter Chen]

Hello,

I have Chamber Strings running on the following system:

P4 3.0GHz
80GB SATA 7200rpm system drive
250GB SATA 7200rpm audio and samples drive (90% full)
2 GB RAM
Windows XP
Cubase SL

With nothing else running, I can load three instances of VI with the standard preset: Violins, Violas, and Cello. However, if I have other plug-ins running, i.e. Halion Player, Kontakt 2, DFH. I can only get two instances of VI, even with just the performance legato patches loaded (says they are about 80mb). If I try to open a third instance, it crashes my system.

Anyone else have this problem? If it's a hardware limitation, what's the best way to improve my performance: another hard drive? RAM upgrade? 2nd computer?

thanks for advice,
Peter

[Christian Marcussen]

That sounds far too little... When you load the 2Vi's you can without crashing, how mucg ram is cobase using? (check task manager).

Also have you used gigastudio on the PC before, and altered the memory settings?

Are you generally able to load lots of VST's?

[Peter Chen]

Tonight, working with just Kontakt 2 open and Vienna Instruments, I had Opus 1 stuff loaded into Kontakt 2, then purged memory, then loaded the Chamber Violin preset in VI #1, then optimized, then loaded Chamber Violas preset in VI #2, then optimized. (each time after optimization, it said I was only using about 15-30mb RAM) At this point, the VI was saying I would have about 500mb free RAM. Then I opened another VI instance (#3), and tried to load Chamber Celli preset. I got stuck on the loading... message for over 20 minutes, then gave up. Cubase SL3 wasn't responding.

Generally, I can load much more. In fact, when I previously had tried to open the third instance of VI with just the performance Celli patch and it crashed, I went back, and loaded up three more performance legato Opus 1 patches in Kontakt 2 without a problem.

Thanks for the help!

-Peter

[Peter Chen]

Oh, and I did have Gigastudio 3 on the computer, but I de-installed it because it didn't work very well.
Is there some incompatibility between VI and GIgastudio?

-Peter

[DG]

@Peter Chen said:

Oh, and I did have Gigastudio 3 on the computer, but I de-installed it because it didn't work very well.
Is there some incompatibility between VI and GIgastudio?

-Peter

There are various things to consider:

You may have installed GS on your PC, but as long as you didn't do any of the memory tweaks it shouldn't matter.

Regarding the presets, are these Level 1 or Level 2? I ask, because with the amount of RAM that you have, you will run out very quickly with Level 2 patches.

Concerning the legato patches vs. Opus 1, you must remember that Opus 1 is not chromatic, so there are many less samples to be loaded; you are not comparing like for like.

Have you checked Task Manager to see how much memory you are really using?

DG

[Peter Chen]

Thanks for your prompt replies.

I think that the problem is not RAM, but the Chamber Celli. I have loaded the Violas and the Violins (Level 1 presets) successfully, but if I try to load up the Celli Level 1 preset, it gets stuck on the 'loading...' process (I tried to load it, got tired of waiting, took a shower, and came back and it still hadn't loaded). I tried to load the Chamber Celli legato matrix, and it also got stuck. I tried just the staccato patch, and it loaded, but took a long time (I left the room after a while and came back--it probably took greater than 5 minutes to load). It takes much less time to load up the Violin staccato patch--it took less time to load up the Level 1 Violins preset than the Celli staccato patch.

Know what is wrong with the Celli? Should it take that much longer to load the Celli than the Violins or Violas?

thanks,
Peter

[DG]

@Peter Chen said:

Know what is wrong with the Celli? Should it take that much longer to load the Celli than the Violins or Violas?

thanks,
Peter

What did Task Manager say? You will be able to see exactly where it gets "stuck" or whether it is actually loading or not. If not, then I don't know what the problem is if this happens when you load it first with nothing else loading (and after a restart).

DG

[Peter Chen]

OK, here's what happened:

I restarted the computer. I opened up Cubase SL3. I have DFH superior, DFH percussionist, and a frozen Reaktor Session loaded into the VST Instrument rack. I open up VI. Task manager says CubaseSL.exe is using 163,832 K. Under perform, VI says memory free: 1386 MB. I try to open up Chamber Celli Level 1 performance legato matrix. VI says please wait, loading data... I go to Task Manager, and the usage for Cubase keeps going up slowly. CPU usage is almost at %100 most of the time. I wait 40 minutes, at which time Cubase usage has climbed to 824,000 K. This is when I give up and close Cubase, which Windows says isn't responding. I haven't had any problems with Chamber Violins or Violas yet.

help!

[DG]

@Peter Chen said:

OK, here's what happened:

I restarted the computer. I opened up Cubase SL3. I have DFH superior, DFH percussionist, and a frozen Reaktor Session loaded into the VST Instrument rack. I open up VI. Task manager says CubaseSL.exe is using 163,832 K. Under perform, VI says memory free: 1386 MB. I try to open up Chamber Celli Level 1 performance legato matrix. VI says please wait, loading data... I go to Task Manager, and the usage for Cubase keeps going up slowly. CPU usage is almost at %100 most of the time. I wait 40 minutes, at which time Cubase usage has climbed to 824,000 K. This is when I give up and close Cubase, which Windows says isn't responding. I haven't had any problems with Chamber Violins or Violas yet.

help!

I really don't know what to suggest. I think that you should test all these things out on empty sessions, because it seems to me that there are too many factors to narrow down the culprit at the moment. Ignoring the cellos for now, can you fill the memory up in an empty session with the violins, violas and basses? If so, it could mean that your cellos are not installed properly, or even the Directory Manager is not seeing everything (although this seems unlikely).

Maybe it's time to email support for some official help. Whilst loading is pretty slow, I can load 2.8Gb in less than 5 minutes, so there is no way yours should take this long.

DG

[dpcon]

If the memory tweaks were done in GS and not restored to the Default XP settings, than even if the program was de-installed those tweaks would remain - no? Therefore you would have severe memory issue's is my guess. I have GS but now run VI's on a 3.4 PC with 2 Gigs ram and can load 8 instances if woodwinds (even before memory sharing came out.) I always go to configuration manager before and after using GS to do the memory tweak depending on which program I'm using. I never run both at the same time.

Maybe re-install GS and restore the settings to XP default?

[DG]

@dpcon said:

If the memory tweaks were done in GS and not restored to the Default XP settings, than even if the program was de-installed those tweaks would remain - no? Therefore you would have severe memory issue's is my guess. I have GS but now run VI's on a 3.4 PC with 2 Gigs ram and can load 8 instances if woodwinds (even before memory sharing came out.) I always go to configuration manager before and after using GS to do the memory tweak depending on which program I'm using. I never run both at the same time.

Maybe re-install GS and restore the settings to XP default?

You don't need to re-install GS. Just change the values in the registry. Mattias' "sticky" explains how very clearly.

DG

[dpcon]

@DG said:

You don't need to re-install GS. Just change the values in the registry. Mattias' "sticky" explains how very clearly.DG

Yes, my first thought but guys like me have a gift for screwing up procedures like that. It is the best way though no doubt.

[Peter Chen]

I've e-mailed support, but haven't heard back yet.

I still haven't been able to get Chamber Celli to load up properly. So far, I've tried to re-install the software and samples from the DVD. I've also installed another hard drive, and transferred some stuff off the other hard drive to open up more space.

Again, it seems to be a problem with just Chamber Celli (Chamber Violins and Violas work OK), and even with small patches such as staccato.

Anyone else have this problem or know what is wrong?

-Peter

[Paul]

Hi Peter,

we are trying to find out what could be wrong with these instruments in your case, as nobody else seems to have any problems with the Chamber Strings...

We´re just getting a copy of SL 3. Which Service Pack are you using? Maybe it´s a problem with SL3 in connection with XP SP1.... but then again, why do the other instruments work?

I will keep in touch with you via email. I´m sure we will solve this!

Best, Paul

[Peter Chen]

Thanks for getting back. If I right click My Computer, it says Service Pack 2. Here are more things I have tried:

I downloaded the Gigastudio Memory Load Maximizer to check my system. When I clicked on get Current Settings, all the boxes are zero. I think this means my system isn't tweaked.

I have defragmented the hard drive that VI is on. Still bad.

I have run VI stand alone. If I try to load Chamber Celli, I get the same thing--stuck on the loading, and if I go to Task Manager, the RAM usage for VI just goes up and up.

I discovered that it's not just the Chamber Celli. If I try to load up the staccato patch for Chamber Bassi, or for Chamber Strings, I get the same hang up. However, if I load up Chamber Violins or Chamber Violas staccato, it loads up in about 5-10 seconds.

I don't think it's SL3, because the stand alone VI hangs up the same way.

-Peter

[Paul]

Hi Peter,

you got mail!

Best, Paul