8.0.4 Bad RAM management causing 'Serious Program Error'

[saintsaviour]

Is anyone else having the 'Serious Program Error' at regular intervals, where Live 8 crashes but stays open and frozen as a process so you can't shut down the PC or re-start Live?

It's ruining my life and my PC.

I find it occurs most often when I use Rompler synths like Omnisphere and Trilogy so it seems related to RAM, but I am not maxing out my RAM and I didn't have anywhere near this amount of problems with Live 7 and haven't done with any other sequencer in the past.

The most confusing thing is that the sessions that crash are using less than 1GB of my 3GB RAM and there is a lot of available RAM displayed in my task manager so I just don't know why this is happening. Sometimes it happens when I am opening a session that has previously worked fine too.

This issue is crippling my workflow as I have to manually force shut down the PC (i.e. hold down the power button) each time and re-start, which freaks Windows out. It therefore takes 10 minutes every time I have a crash, which is about every 30 minutes.

Is anyone having the same issue or has anyone found a way round it? Is Live 8 just really, really bad at managing RAM?

My system is:

i7 3GB
3GB RAM
MOTU 828Mk3 firewire
Windows XP

Any help is enormously appreciated.

Thanks

[andy hunt]

i have the same issues on windows xp sp2 and it really nerves me, cause i can´t shut down the process and i have to restart everytime the machine! this really kills creativity and workflow! and even on OSX 10.5.7 it´s a little bit unstable, mostly in combinaton with some plug-ins like predator or fabfilter twin2 (between i have of course the latest versions from all of my plugs). so is this really an ableton problem or is it that just the plugins are really bad coded? also the response of the gui-graphics are sometimes really bad...but this is another topic hopefully it will be more stable after the next updates...

[saintsaviour]

It's definitely an Ableton problem as I have been fine on the same machine, same plugins, same samples with Live 7. Predator is a good example of a great synth that has been utterly ruined by Live 8 as I have been using it a lot on every track since I bought it but on 8.0.4 it is now almost unusable unless you have a tiny session with just one or two VST tracks. It causes that Serious Program error as soon as I drag it into any kind of complicated (i.e. good) set. This never used to happen and I am sure it is to do with RAM management. I have got the latest versions of all my VSTs and it hasn't helped at all.

I wish I could go back to Live 7, but now I've saved all my sessions as Live 8 sessions so I'm stuck with it. I want to kill myself.

Lets pray to God that the next release will resolve these issues!?

[jok]

Hi guys,

please contact [email protected], include the system specs / log file as described here:

http://www.ableton.com/pages/support/co ... al_support

Best,
Jörg

[Dalibor Loncar]

i had this error popping up also. i´ll provide the support department with the system specs + log file as jörg adviced too.

[feyshay]

I did not have this problem in 8.03, but have had it too frequently within 8.03. Seems to happen when I have a number of VST's going, yet there is RAM available. I've had this error message with the use of Melodyne VST, Omnisphere, and other VST's.
Interestingly, I have had it happen most often in the midst of freezing a track. Will get specs to Ableton this weekend.

[saintsaviour]

Hi Jorg,

I have emailed support about this a few times. I'm waiting for a reply from them but I wanted to post this as if this is a bug inb 8.0.4 then I think many people will want to share their frustration about this issue. It really needs to be fixed very soon as it is critical. It literally means I am unable to work and making music on Live is a major part of my living.

[defcon1351]

Is anyone else having the 'Serious Program Error' at regular intervals, where Live 8 crashes but stays open and frozen as a process so you can't shut down the PC or re-start Live?

It's ruining my life and my PC.

I find it occurs most often when I use Rompler synths like Omnisphere and Trilogy so it seems related to RAM, but I am not maxing out my RAM and I didn't have anywhere near this amount of problems with Live 7 and haven't done with any other sequencer in the past.

The most confusing thing is that the sessions that crash are using less than 1GB of my 3GB RAM and there is a lot of available RAM displayed in my task manager so I just don't know why this is happening. Sometimes it happens when I am opening a session that has previously worked fine too.

This issue is crippling my workflow as I have to manually force shut down the PC (i.e. hold down the power button) each time and re-start, which freaks Windows out. It therefore takes 10 minutes every time I have a crash, which is about every 30 minutes.

Is anyone having the same issue or has anyone found a way round it? Is Live 8 just really, really bad at managing RAM?

My system is:

i7 3GB
3GB RAM
MOTU 828Mk3 firewire
Windows XP

Any help is enormously appreciated.

Thanks

probably a bootleg install, if its legit, remove it and reinstall. if its a bootleg find a new version

[saintsaviour]

Is anyone else having the 'Serious Program Error' at regular intervals, where Live 8 crashes but stays open and frozen as a process so you can't shut down the PC or re-start Live?

It's ruining my life and my PC.

I find it occurs most often when I use Rompler synths like Omnisphere and Trilogy so it seems related to RAM, but I am not maxing out my RAM and I didn't have anywhere near this amount of problems with Live 7 and haven't done with any other sequencer in the past.

The most confusing thing is that the sessions that crash are using less than 1GB of my 3GB RAM and there is a lot of available RAM displayed in my task manager so I just don't know why this is happening. Sometimes it happens when I am opening a session that has previously worked fine too.

This issue is crippling my workflow as I have to manually force shut down the PC (i.e. hold down the power button) each time and re-start, which freaks Windows out. It therefore takes 10 minutes every time I have a crash, which is about every 30 minutes.

Is anyone having the same issue or has anyone found a way round it? Is Live 8 just really, really bad at managing RAM?

My system is:

i7 3GB
3GB RAM
MOTU 828Mk3 firewire
Windows XP

Any help is enormously appreciated.

Thanks

probably a bootleg install, if its legit, remove it and reinstall. if its a bootleg find a new version

It's not a bootleg install, if what you mean by bootleg is an illegal version.

I have tried re-installing.

Not the most helpful response...

[defcon1351]

there is a term called parity, so anytime one of these programs is useing resources there is a chain of command or chain of custody that must be followed, in due process allocate resources and resources that are qued for distribution of other tools such as memory processes or other componet needs can sometimes be corrupted due to conflicting hardware or bad code, if it is a macintosh call apple and explain to them that on the desktop your getting kernal 32 error messages and see what they say, you might not have your memory configured properly, kind of loophole in technical support for a product that apple does not support, or you could maybe take your ram to your local computer repair shop and see if they have a ram tester to see if the ram is reporting any memory allocation errors.

[saintsaviour]

I'm using a PC, as stated above.

A few people have given me some good PC RAM tweaks, but ultimately there is an issue with Live 8 and bad RAM management on PCs, which I'm hoping will get resolved in the next release. One thing that I think we need to strongly suggest is some kind of warning or meter that alerts users when they are running low on RAM and also something that doesn't allow new instances of VSTs when they are going to cause a permanent crash to the session. A simple "cannot add this instrument to session as RAM is running too low" would be fantastic if it is possible.

[wildcon]

Hi,

I'm on a DAW specific PC laptop.

I'm having random crashes consistently.

No warning at all.

I tried trashing my preferences but when it tried to scan for VSTS
it got stuck on FM8!

Actually I have FM8 set in my default so maybe this has something to do with it.

bizzarely I got a 'serious program error live will have to shut down' message as it was scanning. I didn't close it down and it continued scanning with the message up!

It's driving me to distraction and I'm having to use Live 7 for playing out

[saintsaviour]

Hey Wildcon, is there any pattern to what kind of session you are operating when it crashes (i.e. sessions that use a lot of third party VSTs or samples) or is there a certain action that crashes it, such as adding a VST or playing back a certain number of audio tracks.

Do you sense it is the RAM management? I think this is what is killing us all. All my sessions are now Live 8 so I can't even go backwards... It's a nightmare.

[defcon1351]

I'm using a PC, as stated above.

A few people have given me some good PC RAM tweaks, but ultimately there is an issue with Live 8 and bad RAM management on PCs, which I'm hoping will get resolved in the next release. One thing that I think we need to strongly suggest is some kind of warning or meter that alerts users when they are running low on RAM and also something that doesn't allow new instances of VSTs when they are going to cause a permanent crash to the session. A simple "cannot add this instrument to session as RAM is running too low" would be fantastic if it is possible.

dude how old is the system, i have the same version your running and im useing a pc, why not reload your system, or before doing that why not update ableton for any hot fixes or patches that might resolve any issues with your personal computer

[saintsaviour]

I'm using a PC, as stated above.

A few people have given me some good PC RAM tweaks, but ultimately there is an issue with Live 8 and bad RAM management on PCs, which I'm hoping will get resolved in the next release. One thing that I think we need to strongly suggest is some kind of warning or meter that alerts users when they are running low on RAM and also something that doesn't allow new instances of VSTs when they are going to cause a permanent crash to the session. A simple "cannot add this instrument to session as RAM is running too low" would be fantastic if it is possible.

dude how old is the system, i have the same version your running and im useing a pc, why not reload your system, or before doing that why not update ableton for any hot fixes or patches that might resolve any issues with your personal computer

What do you mean by system (Ableton install, Windows install, PC build?)? And what hofixes are you talking about.... This isn't an issue with my PC unfortunately.

I'm talking about Live crashing regularly, permanently and badly when it starts running low on RAM and I'm saying that it doesn't even need to max out the RAM to do this. I'm also saying it happens when VSTs are first loaded, prior to even playing them, which makes it a critical issue. A lot of people are having this experience and it is a problem with Ableton as I have seen it a lot in this forum and support have told me they're working with it. My system is working well, all my VSTs and srivers are up to date and neither Live 7 or any other program has the same issue.

I know people use the program for different things (the joy of Live) but I use it as my main writing, recording and production tool for music in all sorts of genres. I co-write a lot with artists using it too. I use a lot of RAM heavy VSTs along with my own drum racks as they produce instant, great results that I need in these situations. I have done this for 3 years and I know the program inside out. Live 8 has problems that it hasn't had before for people working in the way I do, due to it crashing way too often when RAM gets used heavily and this has to be resolved. I never even had to visit this forum before to ask for advice and help as I only had great experiences with Ableton Live 5, 6, and 7. This version is the worst yet for people using Live for writing and production, I'm sure of it.

But I know the Ableton guys will fix these issues as they're great and they have made the program what it is.

Let's just all share our experiences of this issue and help them work it out.