FLStudio 5 won't start anymore

The_Jiveman · Nov 7, 2005, 04:54 PM

Hello all,

I'm new to this forum, and somewhat of a novice to audio production software in general. Currently, I'm using my Asus A8V-E Deluxe Mobo with AMD64 3200+ and integrated sound (on XP Pro) for some general home recording/messing around stuff. My old system had a SBLive! and I was quite happy with it, but since I got my new system, I decided to leave it as is, when it came to sound. I mean it's good enough for what I'm doing, most of the time. But enough about me... Here's my looong post (sorry):

I've been using FLStudio 5 for few months now, without problems. Well, yesterday, it doesn't want to start anymore. I don't even get a splash screen or anything. But what's interesting is that it DOESN'T freeze the system. It kinda just "sits" in memory, and taskmanager doesn't show any CPU activity on it (it doesn't say "not responding"). From here I can only manually kill the process. I'm still not sure what caused the problem, but here's my #1 suspect:

Yesterday, I installed Cakewalk Sonar 3, which I haven't used on my new machine yet. Sonar seems to run fine, except that it couldn't see the generic MIDI OUT synth drivers, until I switched the Sonar driver playback settings to use ASIO or MME instead of WDM. Somewhere I read that WDM may not want to work well with integrated sound, at least when it comes to MIDI, and that a solution is to use these older, ASIO, or MME driver settings. Well, I tried both settings, and they work with MIDI.

After this I noticed that FLStudio doesn't work anymore. Now, I need to mention that the last known good working state was about a week ago. I think that since, I haven't really installed much else other than Sonar, but I CAN'T BE SURE that it's in fact Sonar that messed things up. And I mentioned the WDM/ASIO/MME stuf above because that's the only config change I made within Sonar.

What I tried to fix this:

Reinstalling FLStudio doesn't work, because the last step of the process is a call to "FL.exe /Setup" which ends up loading FL.exe into RAM and list of processes, and gets stuck again. I also ran a "reset settings" utility that FLStudio provides as a way of restoring registry entries. Well, that one also loads FL.exe with some additional parameters, bringing me to the same result.

I uninstalled both FLStudio and Sonar, and even went through the registry to clean up the leftovers. Reinstalling FLStudio alone doesn't work again.

I reinstalled sound card drivers... nothing

I managed to get FL to complete installation under SafeMode, but starting it resulted in the splash screen (an improvement???) and then same kinda "sitting around and doing nothing". Going back to XP normal mode results in the same orginal problem (not even a splash screen).

Any ideas???

I'd really hate to have to go and reformat my hard drive and reinstall everything, especially since I don't know what caused the problem in the first place.

Help is much appreciated!

**dj_stick** · Nov 7, 2005, 05:42 PM

ASIO gives better performance than WDM - however your card has to support it

did you make any hardware or software changes around the time FL stopped working?

The_Jiveman · Nov 7, 2005, 06:29 PM

I can't remember exactly what I did during the last week, but I didn't do any windows updates or things like that... I think I installed one video game, and of course, Sonar 3.

So hypothetically, if my soundcard does NOT support ASIO, and I tried to use ASIO for playback, this could've messed things up so that another program (FLStudio) gets confused when it starts??? I don't know, just brainstorming here...

**dj_stick** · Nov 7, 2005, 07:13 PM

possibly. are you using stock CL drivers? try switching to kX, and see what happens there

The_Jiveman · Nov 7, 2005, 09:06 PM

I'm using the motherboard integrated sound, realtek AC97, with ALC850 drivers. I USED to have a CL SbLive 5.1 in my old system. I don't know much about kX, but I don't think they would work on AC97, right?

Anyways... to add more to the mystery... FLStudio started working few moments ago, after I've been just messing around uninstalling some programs and turning on and off few processes here and there. I was able to complete the installation, and then start the program few times, even after a restart or two. However, after like a third restart, it doesn't work again.

I'm running out of ideas.

I guess I'm gonna try installing the original drivers that came with my MOBO, instead of the updated ones (but they were installed a long time ago, and everything's been working fine in the meantime).

ufffff....

**dj_stick** · Nov 7, 2005, 11:21 PM

you're right kX won't work

run some spyware/av scanners - sometimes those things will affect programs

The_Jiveman · Nov 7, 2005, 11:41 PM

ok, I'm about ready to lose it... I went to Add/Remove Programs, and started removing some misc. stuff that I thought might remotelly have something to do with this. I also uninstalled the audio drivers to see what would happen without them, and then the program suddenly worked. Well, then I restarted (still without drivers) and tried the program again... and it's back to the start. I guess uninstalling some programs and/or drivers didn't really make the problem go away. But something during that process made the program run temporarily.

So, then I tried the older version of audio drivers, and nothing. Then I did defrag, adaware and spybot scan, and other general troubleshooting... and everything looks normal.

The problem is still there... It seems very weird and intermitent. I'm 'bout ready to give up on FLStudio altogether (and hope that no other software is messed up). Or give in, and format my system, hoping that this won't happen again... but since I don't know what causes the problem, I can't really avoid it with any intelligent guessing...

One thing I was gonna ask... Does anyone know how I can track what happens when I try to execute the program? Is there a way to see what happens in the background and perhaps "catch" where it gets stuck? Like I said before, the only thing I see is FL.exe from within task manager, and then sits there indefinitely.

Any other ideas are welcome!

**dj_stick** · Nov 8, 2005, 01:16 AM

when you run the program and it doesn't load. end the process in the task manager and run it again

i've had several programs over time that need this to be done to work

The_Jiveman · Nov 8, 2005, 06:07 PM

well... that's one of the first things I tried... something gets stuck, you kill the process and try again...

I appreciate your input though. Anybody else got ideas? Somebody out there's must have an idea how to troubleshoot this thing...

**dj_stick** · Nov 9, 2005, 03:19 AM

have you tried updating fl? does the fl website have any patches for download?

The_Jiveman · Nov 9, 2005, 04:57 PM

I think I'll format my C drive, after all... What the heck, it might be a good time to refresh my systm anyways. All my files and stuff are on a different partition anyways. And then I'll try to see if I catch what actually creates the problem in the first place(if it even happens at all again).

thanks again for your input, dj_stick.

**dj_stick** · Nov 9, 2005, 06:30 PM

good luck with getting it running

Nov 7, 2005, 04:54 PM	#1
The_Jiveman DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	FLStudio 5 won't start anymore Hello all, I'm new to this forum, and somewhat of a novice to audio production software in general. Currently, I'm using my Asus A8V-E Deluxe Mobo with AMD64 3200+ and integrated sound (on XP Pro) for some general home recording/messing around stuff. My old system had a SBLive! and I was quite happy with it, but since I got my new system, I decided to leave it as is, when it came to sound. I mean it's good enough for what I'm doing, most of the time. But enough about me... Here's my looong post (sorry): I've been using FLStudio 5 for few months now, without problems. Well, yesterday, it doesn't want to start anymore. I don't even get a splash screen or anything. But what's interesting is that it DOESN'T freeze the system. It kinda just "sits" in memory, and taskmanager doesn't show any CPU activity on it (it doesn't say "not responding"). From here I can only manually kill the process. I'm still not sure what caused the problem, but here's my #1 suspect: Yesterday, I installed Cakewalk Sonar 3, which I haven't used on my new machine yet. Sonar seems to run fine, except that it couldn't see the generic MIDI OUT synth drivers, until I switched the Sonar driver playback settings to use ASIO or MME instead of WDM. Somewhere I read that WDM may not want to work well with integrated sound, at least when it comes to MIDI, and that a solution is to use these older, ASIO, or MME driver settings. Well, I tried both settings, and they work with MIDI. After this I noticed that FLStudio doesn't work anymore. Now, I need to mention that the last known good working state was about a week ago. I think that since, I haven't really installed much else other than Sonar, but I CAN'T BE SURE that it's in fact Sonar that messed things up. And I mentioned the WDM/ASIO/MME stuf above because that's the only config change I made within Sonar. What I tried to fix this: Reinstalling FLStudio doesn't work, because the last step of the process is a call to "FL.exe /Setup" which ends up loading FL.exe into RAM and list of processes, and gets stuck again. I also ran a "reset settings" utility that FLStudio provides as a way of restoring registry entries. Well, that one also loads FL.exe with some additional parameters, bringing me to the same result. I uninstalled both FLStudio and Sonar, and even went through the registry to clean up the leftovers. Reinstalling FLStudio alone doesn't work again. I reinstalled sound card drivers... nothing I managed to get FL to complete installation under SafeMode, but starting it resulted in the splash screen (an improvement???) and then same kinda "sitting around and doing nothing". Going back to XP normal mode results in the same orginal problem (not even a splash screen). Any ideas??? I'd really hate to have to go and reformat my hard drive and reinstall everything, especially since I don't know what caused the problem in the first place. Help is much appreciated!

Nov 7, 2005, 06:29 PM	#3
The_Jiveman DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	I can't remember exactly what I did during the last week, but I didn't do any windows updates or things like that... I think I installed one video game, and of course, Sonar 3. So hypothetically, if my soundcard does NOT support ASIO, and I tried to use ASIO for playback, this could've messed things up so that another program (FLStudio) gets confused when it starts??? I don't know, just brainstorming here...

Nov 7, 2005, 09:06 PM	#5
The_Jiveman DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	I'm using the motherboard integrated sound, realtek AC97, with ALC850 drivers. I USED to have a CL SbLive 5.1 in my old system. I don't know much about kX, but I don't think they would work on AC97, right? Anyways... to add more to the mystery... FLStudio started working few moments ago, after I've been just messing around uninstalling some programs and turning on and off few processes here and there. I was able to complete the installation, and then start the program few times, even after a restart or two. However, after like a third restart, it doesn't work again. I'm running out of ideas. I guess I'm gonna try installing the original drivers that came with my MOBO, instead of the updated ones (but they were installed a long time ago, and everything's been working fine in the meantime). ufffff....

Nov 7, 2005, 11:41 PM	#7
The_Jiveman DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	ok, I'm about ready to lose it... I went to Add/Remove Programs, and started removing some misc. stuff that I thought might remotelly have something to do with this. I also uninstalled the audio drivers to see what would happen without them, and then the program suddenly worked. Well, then I restarted (still without drivers) and tried the program again... and it's back to the start. I guess uninstalling some programs and/or drivers didn't really make the problem go away. But something during that process made the program run temporarily. So, then I tried the older version of audio drivers, and nothing. Then I did defrag, adaware and spybot scan, and other general troubleshooting... and everything looks normal. The problem is still there... It seems very weird and intermitent. I'm 'bout ready to give up on FLStudio altogether (and hope that no other software is messed up). Or give in, and format my system, hoping that this won't happen again... but since I don't know what causes the problem, I can't really avoid it with any intelligent guessing... One thing I was gonna ask... Does anyone know how I can track what happens when I try to execute the program? Is there a way to see what happens in the background and perhaps "catch" where it gets stuck? Like I said before, the only thing I see is FL.exe from within task manager, and then sits there indefinitely. Any other ideas are welcome!

Nov 8, 2005, 06:07 PM	#9
The_Jiveman DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	well... that's one of the first things I tried... something gets stuck, you kill the process and try again... I appreciate your input though. Anybody else got ideas? Somebody out there's must have an idea how to troubleshoot this thing...

Nov 9, 2005, 04:57 PM	#11
The_Jiveman DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 6 Rep Power: 0	I think I'll format my C drive, after all... What the heck, it might be a good time to refresh my systm anyways. All my files and stuff are on a different partition anyways. And then I'll try to see if I catch what actually creates the problem in the first place(if it even happens at all again). thanks again for your input, dj_stick.