Epic crashes

[Ascension]

Lately when Ableton crashes, it crashes hard. Sometimes I'll get a java runtime error, or the program will just lock up. I can't even end the Ableton process when I go into my Resource Monitor, I have to log off, turn my soundcard off/unplug anything else, then log back in before I can open Ableton again. Not that I need to say, but this is a huge creativity killer.

I'm on a PC running windows 7 home premium, i5, 8 gb ram. I assume the runtime errors come from a plugin (my copy doesn't seem to like NI Massive), but not sure about the others which don't have much rhyme or reason as to why. I'm on Ableton 8.2.1.

Anyone else have this problem? Any help or suggestions?

[antarktika]

have you updated your copy of massive? I don't know if this relates to the problems you've experienced, but NI recently released an update, couldn't hurt.

[Ascension]

It's not just massive since it's happened in projects where I wasn't using that.

[Bagatell]

Any help or suggestions?

I have recently made the move from XP to 7 and was having similar problems (reaper was also crashing). Since optimizing 7 as per instructions here -

Optimising your PC for audio on Windows 7

things have improved immensely

[Ascension]

I've gone through optimizing, it's definitely nothing due to the speed of my computer as it happens at even low cpu loads (under 20%). Even last night I was working on a track, everything was going fine, then I tried to zoom in on a section, it crashed and I had to log off to close ableton.

[Angstrom]

Make sure you get in touch with support on this one, sounds nasty.
The links are all on the support page.