Crash on Startup, Studio Engine Time Out

liquid0xygen 2018-09-23 01:36:05 UTC #1

Good day!

I've just downloaded and installed Smode Studio for the first time and I'm eager to use it. However, I haven't been able to successfully start up the program yet.

Initially it popped up a window complaining about an inability to record audio due to me needing to adjust an "ASIO DirectX full duplex setup dialog", which I couldn't actually find. After a short while, another window would pop up saying something about "Smode Studio engine" timing out. It would then create a dump file. I unchecked a box so that I wouldn't see the ASIO popup again.

Now Smode Studio immediately crashes and creates a dump file every time I try to start it. Reading through the forums, I've set my graphics card to use my (somewhat old) Nvidia GeForce GTX 660m to see if that solved the issue, but still no success.

As I am a new user to the forums, it won't let me upload my dump file(s) here, but this is a summary of what might be useful:
Exception Code: 0xC0000005
Exception Information: The thread tried to read from or write to a virtual address for which it does not have the appropriate access.
OS Version: 10.0.17134 (Windows 10 Pro)

If there is any further information that is necessary, please let me know.

Smode Studio looks really exciting, and I'm super happy that it is usable for free! If anyone is available and willing to help resolve this issue, I (and perhaps a host of others) would be most grateful. Best of wishes,

James

francis 2018-09-23 09:23:06 UTC #2

Hello James,

Not sure what's going on here. You're welcome to send us the dump files to support@smode.fr so that we can have a look.

In the mean time, one thing that could be useful to know for you is how to fully reset Smode:

1) search for the folder called "C:\Users\%yourusername%\AppData\Roaming\Smode Studio"
2) fully delete this folder

=> this will fully reset Smode to it's "factory" default state.

We already encountered crashes related to ASIO sound drivers. So, maybe the first thing to try is to fully reset and then try to configure the audio to be not using ASIO (see http://smode.fr/doc/ref/how-to/configure-the-audio-output.htm)

Hope this can help,

Francis.

liquid0xygen 2018-09-24 17:07:53 UTC #3

Hey Francis,

Thank you very much for the quick reply! I've sent an email to support@smode.fr with the title "Smode Crash Dumps - James R.". It contains a number of crash dumps from the other day, as well as one from today.

At your suggestion, I removed the Smode Studio folder at "%AppData%\Roaming\Smode Studio" and tried running it again, but it crashed immediately. Afterwards I removed the folder again, uninstalled Smode Studio, reinstalled it, and tried running it once more, but it still immediately crashed and created a dump file. I have included this recent dump file in my email.

Since Smode Studio has not yet successfully opened, I'm not able to adjust the audio settings from within the program according to the reference link that you have posted. Is there another way to make adjustments without being in the program?

Thank you very much for your help and support, Francis, I really appreciate it! Please let me know if there is anything further you would like me to try, or if there is other information that you might find useful.

Best of wishes,

James R.

alex 2018-09-25 07:44:07 UTC #5

Hello James,

Can you download the last Smode Studio 8.2.35 to check if crash still occurred with this version

http://smode.fr/download/smode-studio/

If yes, thanks to report us fresh dump files.
Thanks in advance for this.

liquid0xygen 2018-09-26 00:52:48 UTC #6

Hey Alex,

I have downloaded and installed the Smode Studio 8.2.35 according to your instructions. However, the program still crashes. I've sent an email to support@smode.fr with the title "Smode Studio 8.2.35 Crash Dump - James R.". This email includes the dump file that was just created, as well as the rest of my "Smode Studio" folder that contains the log files. Please let me know if there is anything else that you need. Thank you for your hard work!

francis 2018-09-26 13:38:08 UTC #7

Hi James

It seems we have an issue when enumerating your Sound card Asio Driver.
The crash reveal this functions failed:
VCRUNTIME140!memset
ASIOAudioIODevice::createDummyBuffers

Is it an external audio device ?
Can you unnplug it before lanching Smode to seen what happened.
Can you consider to update your sound card driver ?

Probably you can also try disabling the sound card in windows device manager,

Hoping this can helps,

Francis.

liquid0xygen 2018-09-27 03:35:06 UTC #8

Hey Francis,

I tried disabling my audio device in Windows Device Manager, and Smode Studio started up! However, there is no sound, since I disabled my device. There were no updates available for my sound driver.

Though I wasn't using an external device before, I tried plugging in my Komplete Audio 6 interface to see what would happen. Smode Studio will still crash unless both my "High Definition Audio Device" and my Komplete Audio 6 are disabled.

I've sent an email with more details and some included files. Hopefully this helps!

James

alex 2018-09-28 16:19:50 UTC #9

Hi James,
It seems your computer miss some driver related to unknown devices (Base System Device)

May be some missing chipset driver of your computer are required.

Your internal audio card seems to use the Microsoft default audio driver.
May be you need manufacturer driver like Realtek one if it is the case.
(you must check on your PC manufacturer witch kind of audio card is installed)

here on my Asus laptop for instance:

By the way, try to update Nvidia gpu driver and intel gpu driver too, some side effect can be used by this driver.

And do not use "Update driver software..." menu of the Windows Device Manager, but got to the manufacturer official download web site instead to install them.

Hoping this can helps

liquid0xygen 2018-09-28 23:58:21 UTC #10

Hey Alex,

Following your advice, I went to my computer manufacturer's website (Lenovo) and found a Realtek audio driver for my machine (IdeaPad Y580). After installing it and removing the old one, however, Smode Studio still immediately crashed. As a side effect, my general audio quality was poor compared to my original driver. I restored my original audio driver.

I updated my Nvidia GPU driver and my Intel CPU driver to the latest versions for Windows 10. The Nvidia driver update removed the "NVIDIA Virtual Audio Device", so that is no longer a problem. The Intel driver updated the "Intel(R) Display Audio", which will also crash Smode Studio if the device is enabled.

Something interesting has happened though: I disabled both audio devices which allowed me to start Smode Studio. After it is running, I can enable my audio devices to get sound again. Smode Studio will also allow me to select "DirectSound". However, if I restart Smode Studio with "DirectSound" or even with "Null Audio" selected and applied, the program will immediately crash again unless I disable my audio devices first.

Here is where it became interesting: as soon as I select and apply the "ASIO" setting for "Audio Output", it will crash and make a larger dump file.

Is it possible that the "Generic Low Latency ASIO Driver" is causing all of the crashes? Even though Smode Studio's engine configuration file says: 'deviceType = "Null Audio"', is it possible that the program is still automatically selecting the ASIO driver when it starts, and then crashing?

I will send an email to support@smode.fr with the title "Dumps from Realtek and ASIO - James R." that will contain the dumps from the Realtek driver, the dump from selecting ASIO, and also the configuration files. Please let me know what else I can do to help. Thank you very much!

James R.

alex 2018-09-29 07:47:40 UTC #11

Hi James and many thanks for your detailed reports.

One of the crash dump culprit seems to be the Cubase Steinberg asioglld.dll file, can you send me this file?
(may be located here C:\Program Files (x86)\Steinberg\Asio)

Can you update Steinberg Cubase to know if it fix the issue ?

In the same time, I'll send you a special modified version of Smode Studio to check if I can workaround this issue by modifying our third party sound system code.

Hoping all of this can helps

liquid0xygen 2018-09-29 14:46:02 UTC #12

Hey Alex,

I have sent you the “asioglld.dll” file from “C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Asio”. I’ve also included the entire Asio folder (Asio.zip) that is there in case you want to look at some of the other .dll files inside of it.

Besides those files, I conducted some further testing and found these results:

Renamed the “Asio” folder in “C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Asio” so that the .dll files could not be used. Smode Studio worked! Only with “DirectSound” though.

Plugged in my Komplete Audio 6 interface and selected “DirectSound” and “Komplete Audio 6 WDM Audio”. No crash.

Selected “ASIO” and “Komplete Audio 6”. Smode Studio crashed.

Uninstalled old Smode Studio and removed the “Smode Studio” folder from “%AppData%\Roaming\Smode Studio”, then installed the special beta of Smode Studio that you sent me. Doesn’t crash using “DirectSound”. If using “ASIO” and “Komplete Audio 6”, it crashes immediately.

It appears that removing access to the ASIO drivers in “C:\Program Files\Steinberg\Asio” will allow Smode Studio to launch successfully. Based on the results above, the program seems to run as long as no ASIO drivers are used. In the email that I sent will include the crash dumps from using Komplete Audio 6 ASIO in Smode Studio (and in the special beta version), the Komplete Audio 6 ASIO Drivers, and the Steinberg Cubase ASIO drivers (Asio.zip). I hope that these files and this information will be helpful. Please let me what else you would like me to do. Thank you very much for your hard work!

Sincerely,

James Rogers