Over the past 20 years or so I've found Noteworthy one of the most stable of programs but, over the last few weeks, it has developed a tendency to crash. In fact I'm lucky to work a whole hour on it without experiencing such a crash. This has led me to feel the need for doing a save every few bars, particularly if I'm copying out some relatively complex music.
I'm wondering if this crashing tendency is caused by interference by some of the other software I have on board my computer. In my present set up Noteworthy version 2.55 runs under Windows 7 Pro and my security software consists of Bit Defender total Security 2014 supplemented by Malware Bytes 2014.
Having two different antivirus software installed concurrently is never a good idea. It may or may not be the root cause of you problems. Does the start of your nwc problems coincide with the installation of the second antivirus program ?
Current version is 2.51a
NWC does not crash for me, using Windows 7 Pro.
You should be getting messages from Windows concerning the crash.
Hi John,
firstly, while melismata is correct about running multiple AntiMalware, IIRC Malwarebytes is a non-resident scan on demand tool only so shouldn't be part of the problem.
The questions I have are:
- How old is the machine?
- What other software do you use for long periods of time?
- When was the last time the lid came off and the CPU heatsink and other heatsinks cleaned?
- How full is the HDD?
- Is NWC the ONLY product giving you trouble?
The first thing that crossed my mind when you mentioned a time factor was overheating, hence the questions RE age and cleaning the heatsinks.
If you're running the paid version or a free trial of the paid version, then it is indeed a resident scanner. I ran into this on a friend's machine that was "running slow." She'd accidentally agreed to a free trial and was also running Microsoft Security Essentials.
Ahh, I stand corrected, thanks Francis.
Nevertheless, multiple anti-malware is usually a speed problem, not often a crash creator (well, not THAT often :) )
I'd still look at CPU temps... Or just possibly video card temps.
If you are looking for "hardware" reasons for apps to lock up or crash, another item to consider is the "bad capacitor" issue that has plagued various motherboards. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague) for background information. I've had one system that I decided to replace because of this (repairing motherboards is something I don't have the tools to do). You may be able to inspect the capacitors for bulging or ruptures to see if this is happening on your system.
Mike
Many thanks everyone, for all your helpful suggestions.
I'll try and answer some of your questions Lawrie.
I built my current machine just over 2 years ago (my 1st complete home build at the age of 81) The mobo is an Asus P8Z68-V with an Intel Sandy Bridge Core I 5 processor cooled by an Arctic Freezer i30 ( a bit overkill, as I've never bothered to overclock it). All the storage consists of Crucial M4 SSDs: 128, 2X 256 and 512GB capacity ( I collected them over a period of time as they gradually got bigger and slightly cheaper) There are 16GB of memory on board, and the whole is contained within a spacious Corsair Carbide 500R box. Other software installed include: Sibelius 7, Family Tree Maker 2014, Acronis True Image 2014, Photoshop Elements 8 & 12 and Nero 12.
The only one of the HDDs that is anywhere near full up is the smallest one, designated "C", which carries the Windows 7 O/S. As far as I know, Noteworthy is the only program I have had this trouble with lately. I haven't noticed the cooler on the processor to be particularly dusty lately. Maybe I aught to try switching off Malware Bytes next time I use Noteworthy.
Cheers,
John.
Other thoughts:
- Perhaps there's an issue with the fonts that NWC uses (either the main one or Lawrie's). Maybe you can try uninstalling and reinstalling them?
- Could it be an issue with the default printer? Try making PDF Creator or some such the default printer and see how NWC likes that.
Hi John,
both Mike and francis have good suggestions.
Given the time it takes for the first crash (about an hour) I still think there's a thermal component to what's happening, though this could easily apply to Mike's suggestion of leaky caps.
Otherwise:
Given Noteworthy is the only thing that seems to be crashing it does rather suggest there's a problem there, however, we all know just how stable NWC is, so it kinda goes against the grain to accuse it...
You mentioned that C:\ is the only drive getting near full, thing is, Windows is very space hungry - I prefer to have as much of my C:\ drive free as possible. I actually like to try and have at least 50% of it free, though with the size of modern drives that's rather overkill. However, as your C:\ is "only" 128 Gig I think this is a figure I'd actually seriously try for.
I assume you keep things as "clean" as possible, but I'd certainly recommend cleaning out the C:\Windows\temp folder as well as your personal temp folder.
Normally the path of Temp folder will be C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Temp
But to be certain you can
Click Start, in the search box, type CMD.
Right click on CMD and choose run as Administrator.
In the command prompt type ECHO %Temp%.
This displays the full path of the actual temp folder and you can follow the path and identify its location by copying the entire path and pasting it in Run command or in search options.
Simply delete everything you can in these folders - anything that's open will not be able to be deleted, that's fine, just delete the rest. Best to do this with no applications open.
John,
some other things which may be totally obvious, but worth looking at:
1. Is the "recycle bin" (or whatever it is called in W7) empty?
2.1 Is there at very least 18% (preferably more) free space on the C: drive?
2.2 If your answer to 2.1 is "YES": Have you recently defragged the C: drive?
If the C: drive has not enough free space,
first clear space by archiving / backing up / deleting before trying to defrag C:
Please see the warning NOT to defrag any SSD
ALERT WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING ALERT
Contrary to Haymo's recommendation, DO NOT DEFRAG an SSD!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm not sure where he gets the 18% free space figure from, but it's close to the absolute MINIMUM figure I use which is 20% - I prefer 50% where reasonable...
Given your C:\ drive is a 128Gb SSD I'd recommend getting as close to the 50% free space as you can, and that 20% minimum free should be treated as a hard limit.
Sometimes, resolution by committee can lead to even more trouble.
I would recommend starting with the actual crash message, as well as what you are doing when the crash occurs. If these crashes are not consistent in message or trigger, then and only then would I recommend taking other steps (perhaps a memory/cpu stress test).
Also, as mentioned, the latest NWC version is 2.51a. If your version really says 2.55, then this is an obvious cause for concern.
Update: If you are using version 2.5.5, then you should definitely upgrade to version 2.51a. There were some stability problems in version 2.5.5 (in particular, File->New was prone to crash).
My Viewer is 2.55, but Composer is 2.51a. No problems, except that sometimes, in viewer (so far, only one piece) the highlighting jumps ahead of the view (or the view lags behind the highlighting). Already been mentioned, and not worth a serious look at, since it's extremely rare.
I think that part of the problem might be that 2.5.5 is being seen by some users as being newer than 2.51a (which would be expected if the second '.' is omitted). Some of that confusion might have been eliminated with a different version number.
I guess it is easy to see these things in hindsight. I once worked for a company whose most popular software version was 2.04g
Once again, many thanks everyone for all your helpful suggestions. I've now deleted Malware Bytes and enjoyed two one a half hour crash free sessions on Noteworthy.
I'm still puzzled about the version number. Every time I go to "Help, About" it still comes up with version 2.5.5, copyright 2012.
Cheers,
John.
John,
Eric is saying that you're running an old version of NWC, and should update to the latest version, which is 2.51a. If you go to "Help > Access Noteworthy Software.com" it will tell you if you are running the latest version, and give you the opportunity to upgrade.
Mike
Many thanks for the tip Eric and for the reminder Mike. I've now upgraded to version 2.51a.
Cheers,
John.
One "crash": that I have frequently happens if a security popup asks for permission to install something. The screens all dim until a response is given. Then the screens come back to normal, but the display screen has frozen. I have to restart SSP to fix. Don't know if this could be related to your issue.
I must be in a fog. I was responding about a different program crashing....
I was mistaken about my viewer; it is 2.5.6a
Thank you very much for the warning.
This 84 year old has not yet used SSDs in his PC.
I had some crashes lately (not specifically Noteworthy) And solved them.
One thing to run is the free program CCleaner. (I sometimes use PowerSuite, but that is not free - unless you bootleg it. I have a yearly subscription.)
Ccleaner can get rid of a whole lot of unwanted items for you. It has been downloaded a billion times (!!!) and is absolutely free of cost or unwanted trouble.
So, my preferred method is always
- Reboot (Reboot, Immer gut)
- Download and run Ccleaner from www.piriform.com
- Retry.
Caution: I have speeded up my niece's laptop recently.
That did not seem to work... until I found out that there were over a million temporary files to be detected and deleted!
So, in the odd case of "no response" give Ccleaner time.
cheers, Rob
Thanks for the tip Rob.
I seem to remember that I tried CCleaner sometime; back but I got rid of it eventually because it didn't seem to be doing much good and was taking up valuable space on my hard disk!