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Old 07-10-2008, 07:20 PM   #1
schwa
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Default Troubleshooting FAQ: Need help? Read this first.

Here are some common solutions to problems. Many of the specific solutions described here apply to Windows, but in many cases there are similar solutions on OSX.

* Reaper crashes or freezes when opening.

Determine if the problem occurs when Reaper is starting, or when Reaper is loading the most recent project. You can open Reaper dry (bypassing the default "load last project" behavior) via Start/Reaper (create new project), or by holding down the shift key while opening Reaper. If the problem persists, the problem is when initializing Reaper; if Reaper opens OK dry, the problem is when loading the most recent project.

* Reaper crashes or freezes when opening dry.

Most often caused by a corrupted REAPER.ini file. You can reset REAPER.ini via Start/Reaper (reset configuration to factory defaults). If you have a lot of custom preferences you want to try to save, you can reset the configuration by renaming C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\REAPER\REAPER.ini, which will cause a factory-default REAPER.ini to be created while preserving your renamed version.

* Reaper crashes or freezes when loading the most recent project (or some other project).

Commonly caused by a buggy plugin. Open Reaper dry, then open the problem project while holding down shift and control (OSX: shift + cmd). This will load the project with all plugins offline. You can then bring the plugins back online one at a time to find the problem. Deleting and re-adding a bad plugin will often clear the problem.

Another possibility is a corrupted Reaper project file (.RPP). Open the problem RPP in a text editor such as Notepad and look for obvious file corruption (garbage text, etc). You can try copying the RPP, deleting problematic parts of the copy, and opening it -- this does not have a great chance of success, but it may work.

* Reaper hangs after upgrading OS or hardware on the machine.

Almost always caused by the audio hardware device driver. Try opening Reaper dry, go to Options/Preferences/Audio/Device, set the audio system to WaveOut, select the onboard sound as the device and try again. If Reaper no longer hangs, it strongly indicates the audio hardware device driver is the problem.

* Drivers that hang after a crash.

If REAPER (or any program for that matter) crashes, when restarting REAPER you may get the frustrating message that the audio driver is not available.

If this happens, it usually fixes the problem immediately if you simply cycle the power on the physical audio device, or if it has a reset switch, use the switch. The device should then let go of the driver.

(Cycling the power on a USB device usually means removing and reattaching the USB cable. There are USB switches available that let you do this without having to physically remove the cable.)

(This works because the usual cause of a hung driver is not REAPER being a zombie and holding the driver in its undead clutches. Instead it is the audio device, like a rejected lover, refusing to let go after the program has gone away.)

* Blue screen crash! Aaagh!

By far the most common cause is a buggy device driver (such as for your audio interface or a midi controller). If your computer reboots immediately after the blue screen, right-click My Computer/Properties/Advanced/Startup and Recovery Settings and uncheck "Automatically restart." If you get another blue screen crash, you will have time to read the name of the offending file or process. If the blue screen reports a .sys file, it's a device driver. Search online for the file name to see which device, and look for an updated driver (or, if you just updated the driver, try rolling back).

* Posting a useful bug report

If none of that helps and you still have a crash, it's most likely to get resolved if you post a step-by-step description of how to reproduce the problem (upload a project file if it helps). You need to be as specific as possible because we usually can't fix something if we can't watch it happen. Posting crash information helps too: if you get the Microsoft "Reaper has encountered an error" window, click for more information until you get a window like the one below, and report the module name and especially the offset.


Last edited by Ollie; 11-24-2019 at 08:18 PM. Reason: MacOS clarification
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Old 01-11-2020, 01:37 PM   #2
nicholas
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Default Troublehooting Guide

This document addresses some of the most commonly asked questions on this forum around te general topic of REAPER not working as it should, or as you would expect it to.

It makes a handy download to keep by your side:

https://www.reaper.fm/guides/ReaperT...otingGuide.pdf
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