(FAQ) Troubleshooting Crashing and Stability

NickHope wrote on 12/3/2016, 5:49 AM

If VEGAS Pro is crashing or behaving strangely, there are many things you can try to troubleshoot it. If the software hangs during rendering then see this post.

1. INSTALL THE LATEST UPDATE

Make sure you are running the latest update of the version of VEGAS Pro that you wish to install, unless you specifically need an earlier release. See "Where can I download VEGAS Pro?"

2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Check that your computer meets the system requirements. For the latest version of VEGAS Pro, the system requirements are here. Note that VEGAS Pro is only officially supported if it's installed on the same drive as your operating system.

3. DISABLE GPU ACCELERATION

GPU acceleration is often responsible for stability problems in VEGAS. Try turning it off in "Preferences" > "Video" > "GPU acceleration of video processing". You will need to restart VEGAS afterwards:

If you are rendering with the Sony AVC/MVC codec, try turning GPU acceleration off in "Render As" > "Sony AVC/MVC" > "Customize Template" > "Encode mode":

If you are rendering with the MainConcept AVC/MVC codec, try turning GPU acceleration off in "Render As" > "MainConcept AVC/MVC" > "Customize Template" > "Encode mode":

If disabling GPU acceleration solves your problem then try updating or rolling back your graphics card's driver. See the section below.

4. WINDOWS UPDATE

Search for Windows Update on your system. This can be done in the Windows Start menu or by pressing the WINDOWS+Q keys on Windows 8.1 and 10. Let Windows check for updates for the system and install any that are available. Restart your machine to finish the process.

Follow any prompts to reboot, and be patient with the update process, which can take a long time. If you have problems, consult the Windows Update FAQ. For Windows 10 you can use this Windows Update Troubleshooter.

5. DISABLE ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

If you run anti-virus software, or some other utility that scans for adware/spyware, try temporarily disabling the software. You may also add the program executable file (e.g. C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 15.0\vegas150.exe) to the exception list for the anti-virus software.

6. CLEAN BOOT

Try a clean boot of your system so Windows will start with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. See How to perform a clean boot in Windows.

7. REMOVE PERIPHERAL HARDWARE

Try disconnecting USB devices, dongles and other peripherals from the system. If that solves your problem, replace them one by one while testing VEGAS until you find the one that causes the problem. Then try updating or rolling back its driver.

8. UPDATE HARDWARE DRIVERS

Update your system's drivers and firmware from the manufacturer's website(s). Drivers installed by Windows Update can cause problems. In particular, try updating or rolling back your graphics card driver from the manufacturer's website or from the NVIDIA or AMD website. Display Driver Uninstaller can help with a clean uninstall. (more about graphics cards here). Also look for updates to your motherboard's BIOS, chipset software and drivers for your sound card, DVD drive, network adapter and peripherals.

9. RESET VEGAS PRO TO DEFAULT SETTINGS

Reset VEGAS Pro to default settings by pressing CTRL+SHIFT on your keyboard while double-clicking the program's icon to launch it. More information here.

10. DISABLE PLUGINS

Try disabling 3rd-party plugins, especially old ones, by renaming the folders they reside in, or moving them to a location where VEGAS won't find them, or by uninstalling them.

Include OFX plugins which may be in these example locations:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\OFX
C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 15.0\OFX Video Plug-Ins
C:\Program Files\VEGAS\VEGAS Pro 14.0\OFX Video Plug-Ins
C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas Pro 13.0\OFX Video Plug-Ins

Also include application extensions which may be in these example locations:

C:\ProgramData\VEGAS Pro\Application Extensions
...Documents\Vegas Application Extensions

If this solves the problem, then re-enable the plugins one by one until you find the culprit.

11. USE VEGAS-FRIENDLY FORMATS

If you have a choice, use source-media formats that work well with VEGAS. For example Sony formats such as XAVC Intra and XDCAM work well with Vegas, and MPEG2 and AVC are well supported. This post lists some formats that don't work well and some converting applications that can be used to transcode media.

12. SET DYNAMIC RAM PREVIEW MAX TO ZERO

Some users have been able to avoid crashes or complete troublesome renders by setting the Dynamic RAM Preview max (MB) value to zero.

Note that if you leave this setting at zero, you will no longer be able to build dynamic RAM previews, and it might adversely affect VEGAS Pro's performance in other ways such as how smoothly your timeline plays.

13. MICROSOFT .NET FRAMEWORK

Try repairing all versions Microsoft .NET Framework on your system.

Go to the Windows Control Panel and open "Programs and Features". Click each version of Microsoft .NET Framework then "Uninstall" then "Repair". Windows 7 users can use the .NET Framework Repair Tool.

If that doesn't help then you can try removing and reinstalling them. You can download .NET Framework installers from here.

See this article for more help and other options for repairing .NET Framework.

Although .NET Framework 3.5 is not required for VEGAS Pro 12, 13, 14 or 15, it might be required for some legacy applications or plugins, but it is not automatically installed with Windows 8, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. See this article for help installing/enabling it.

14. MICROSOFT VISUAL C++

Try repairing all versions of Microsoft Visual C++ on your system.

Go to the Windows Control Panel and open "Programs and Features". Click each version of Microsoft Visual C++ then "Uninstall" then "Repair".

If that doesn't help then you can try removing and reinstalling them. You can download Visual C++ installers from here.

Here are some Visual C++ redistributables associated with various applications. Plugins or other features can sometimes require portions of earlier redistributables.

Visual Studio 2012 Redistributable (x64 and x86):
- VEGAS Pro 13
- VEGAS Movie Studio 13
Visual Studio 2008 Redistributable:
- DVD Architect 5 & 6
- Sound Forge 10 & 11
- ACID Music Studio 10
Visual Studio 2005 Redistributable:
- ACID Pro 7
- CD Architect 5.2

15. UNINSTALL/UPDATE QUICKTIME

Quicktime is no longer installed automatically with VEGAS. VEGAS Pro 14 and later versions now read ProRes formats natively, and some other .MOV files such as those containing H.264 (AVC) video will also be read natively by VEGAS. However many Quicktime formats still require Quicktime. Try uinstalling it if you don't need it, or updating to the latest version from this link. Old versions of Sony Vegas Pro such as 10.0 required Quicktime 7.6.2.

16. COMPATIBILITY MODE

Try running the software in Windows Compatibility Mode. Right click on the program's icon and choose "Properties" > "Compatibility". Check "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and choose progressively older operating systems.

17. CLEAR TEMPORARY FILES FOLDER

Try clearing your temporary files folder. This involves some risk (read that post in full) and should be one of your last resorts.

18. DISABLE SO4COMPOUNDPLUG (VP15 AVC / XAVC-S)

VEGAS PRO 15 has a new decoder for XAVC-S files and some AVC files. This codec may cause various issues such as slow loading, stuttering playback, and high memory usage leading to a crash. If your footage is opened by this "so4compoundplug" decoder then you can try disabling it. See this post for more information. If that doesn't help then re-enable it for wider format support.

19. DISABLE QSV

If you have an Intel CPU with integrated Intel graphics you may experience crashes or hangs, for example:

Crash or hang when you click Render As.
Crash when you play AVC media (decoded by so4compoundplug).
Hang when you render Intel HEVC.

In such cases, try disabling QSV. In VEGAS Pro 15 build 361 and later, this can be done with Options > Preferences > General > Enable QSV Encoding and Decoding (where available):

In previous versions, you can disable Intel HD graphics in the Windows Device Manager:

Disabling the other (discrete) display adapter (e.g. AMD or NVIDIA) instead, if you have one, may also help, but the computer's performance may suffer.

QSV can also be disabled just for the Intel HEVC renderer, to improve quality (at the expense of speed) and/or stability:

20. CLOSE VEGAS PRO EXPLORER WINDOW

The VEGAS Pro Explorer window can cause some conflicts. Try closing it. You could also try closing the Project Media window.

21. REINSTALL VEGAS PRO

If VEGAS Pro still won't start, uninstall it using "Control Panel" > "Programs and Features", reboot your computer, reinstall it, and see if it will start. See Where can I download VEGAS Pro? to find the correct installer.

When VEGAS Pro is uninstalled, some folders and Windows registry entries are left behind. You may have a better chance of success if you do a clean uninstall and reinstall, which will remove these (along with your settings).

For (MAGIX) VEGAS Pro 13 build 543 or later, follow these instructions.

For Sony Vegas Pro, see the clean uninstall and reinstall instructions for Windows 10, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 7.

Cleaning your registry (see below) between uninstalling and reinstalling can help clean up remaining redundant entries that could cause problems.

If you have problems uninstalling/reinstalling, troubleshoot with the suggestions in this post.

22. OVERHEATING?

Check that your computer isn't overheating, especially if your problems occur during rendering. Clean out the vents. Consider opening it up to gently clean dust from the inside. Use laptops on a hard surface that keeps the vents unobsructed (e.g. not a bed, carpet or your knee). There are many PC temperature monitors available. I always have Core Temp running minimised in my task bar. An acceptable CPU temperature depends on the individual system. Mine (see ) cruises at about 50°C and goes up to about 80°C during a tough render.

23. HARDWARE ISSUES

Your stability issues may be caused by failing hardware, in particular memory and storage. Test your computer's RAM for problems and replace any faulty sticks. Test your hard drive for faults. Backup/replace hard drives at the first sign of trouble. If you CPU, GPU or memory are overclocked, try setting them back to the standard speed.

24. SCAN FOR CORRUPT WINDOWS SYSTEM FILES

Reboot, run a Command Prompt as an administrator, and try scanning for (and repairing) corrupted Windows system files using the command line, "sfc /scannow". See guides here, here, and here.

25. REGISTRY CLEANING

If you have tried all the above steps, you could try cleaning your Windows registry. For this purpose I regularly use Ccleaner free version. Cleaning your registry carries significant risk. It is recommended to take an image-based backup of your system drive first, for example using AOMEI Backupper or Macrium Reflect Free or Acronis True Image. You can also make an image or create a system restore point in Windows. When Ccleaner asks if you want to backup your registry before cleaning, you should! I usually fix all detected issues and then scan for issues again. Further issues are often found the 2nd time. Reboot afterwards.

26. IF YOU STILL NEED HELP

If the above steps do not help you solve the problem, make a forum post and/or support request, including the following information:

Your system specifications (with reference to step #2, above)
Exactly which version and build number you are using
The exact procedure that causes the crash, or the exact symptoms of the problem, and the exact contents of any error messages
The type of media you are using, if this is relevant. MediaInfo and VEGAS Pro File Properties reports are useful.
Description of any plugins you are using
If VEGAS crashes and displays a Problem Reporting Service (PRS) window, send the error report to the support team by this method.

27. RELATED POSTS & LNKS

Comments

NickHope wrote on 12/5/2016, 10:12 AM

Suggestions for corrections and additions via comments or personal messages are welcome but comments here may be deleted later as this is an "FAQ" post. Please start a new post or use an old thread to discuss subjects in depth or to raise individual cases.

Vidguy wrote on 1/8/2017, 7:06 AM

Thanks I will look into these things..

astar wrote on 1/16/2017, 6:18 PM

Just some of my thoughts:

11. USE VEGAS-FRIENDLY FORMATS:

Cineform - Medium or High is a good all around intraframe intermediate stable codec for HD and 4K material.

AVC HD conversion to XDCAM-EX is more GPU accelerated and stable than editing in AVCHD.

XDCAM-EX is smart render capable, and can be uploaded directly to YouTube like services.

HDCAM-SR-LITE for HD content is like the ProRes intermediate for Vegas, it's stable and GPU accelerated.

RedCode is a Vegas friendly format, although not updated to support the latest log formats from RED.

Consider buying capture gear / camera gear that records in Vegas friendly formats for drag and drop stable timeline editing.

Unfriendly formats:

Anything .MOV - Prores could be considered friendly, but its .MOV which can raise issues. Besides Prores in VP14, all .mov should be re-wrapped to .MP4 or MXF. Basically you need to sidestep any need for Quicktime in Windows.

.MTS material with AC-3 audio - convert this material to .MP4 or .MXF with PCM uncompressed audio.

Iphone / Smartphone footage - re-wrap .mov and iphone footage to .MP4 or MXF format with FFMPEG.

Game capture footage that uses a variable frame rate. This can be the stability issue for some phone formats too. Use "media info" to verify the video format is 30p(29.97) or 60p(59.94) constant frame rate.

12. SET DYNAMIC RAM PREVIEW MAX TO ZERO

I personally believe that this should be set to the default and not changed. I believe there are other problems with the system if this setting change is making a difference. See the section on testing your system memory.

7. REMOVE PERIPHERAL HARDWARE

This is good advice. I might add a sub section on testing your systems DPC latency, to rule out bad drivers or devices. Possibly looking into obtaining a motherboard that scores high on low DPC latency, which would be more optimal for NLE and DAW workflows.

20. HARDWARE ISSUES

Include looking in your Windows system log files for hardware related errors. Resolve those problems before blaming Vegas for instability.

Avoid over clocking, use the max memory speed your motherboard chipset was designed for and not over clock speeds. This goes for CPU/GPU overclocking too.

Motherboard chipset are not created equal. Chipsets like X99 and Xeon are far superior to general low cost desktop motherboards. Consider the fact that the end users budget choice of hardware purchase is the cause of instability.

Dual Channel Memory - most desktop mother boards will only use dual channel memory with 2 DIMM slots. Adding memory to your system filling the slots can cause your system to drop back to single channel mode, which can actually slow your system down. "Winsat mem" command can verify your memory bandwidth is within dual channel speeds.

Memory testing - Memtest86+ is the best way to test system memory and memory controller. Memtest should be able to run overnight, and for several full passes with ZERO errors to consider your memory clean and stable. If you get errors, you need to replace your system memory, reduce speed its running at, or find compatible DIMMs that will pass the tests.

Verify your GPU is actually interfacing at 16X speeds with GPU-z or similar utility that reports the GPU interface speed being used. Adding additional interface boards on a low end motherboard can cause the GPU to drop back to 8x or 4x speeds. 4X and 8X are not fast enough to keep up with the bandwidths needed for monitor display and OpenCL needs.

NickHope wrote on 1/16/2017, 10:07 PM

Thanks for the useful feedback astar. Just one comment:

Unfriendly formats:
Anything .MOV - Prores could be considered friendly, but its .MOV which can raise issues. Besides Prores in VP14, all .mov should be re-wrapped to .MP4 or MXF. Basically you need to sidestep any need for Quicktime in Windows.

Some AVC in an MOV wrapper will be decoded quickly and smoothly by compoundplug.dll just as if it were AVC in an MP4 wrapper. So it's only necessary to consider re-wrapping if the Vegas file properties show that qt7plug.dll is being used.

alderny wrote on 3/9/2017, 2:29 AM

This worked for me: I have been using Vegas Movie Studio 14.0 Platinum since the 25th February (11 days now) and it had been stable, until I tried to run the welcome.vf project. It would not play that without crashing, and it crashed at a different position on the timeline each time, but never reached the end. Initially I updated the NVIDIA graphics driver, but that made matters worse as VMS would now crash before it had even finished launching! However, firstly I discovered that the driver I downloaded wasn't the latest version after all, and secondly it was impossible to uninstall all of the NVIDIA drivers and other software from my PC. That is until I came across a utility called DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller). DDU has to be run in Windows safe mode, but it thoroughly cleaned out all of the NVIDIA software on my PC. Then, ensuring that I had the installation file for the latest driver, I installed the graphics driver only - none of the other stuff like 3D Vision Driver, NVIDIA Update, PhysX and HD Audio Driver. VMS now launches perfectly, and I've just played the welcome.vf project 3 times without a problem.

This shows how sometimes it is easy to blame VMS, when the problem really lies elsewhere.

CogDiv wrote on 3/9/2017, 8:43 AM

Motherboards are not the sole source of contention for PCI-E lane fallback issues, as the number of PCI-E lanes supported by your system is primarily determined by the processor these days.

For example: To fully utilize two GPUs at 16x, one for the OpenCL acceleration (AMD) and one legacy GPU for the codecs' CUDA acceleration (Nvidia) one will need a processor that provides more than only 28 lanes. Thus the reason I have to upgrade from an i7-5820K to an i7-6850K (40 PCI-E lanes provided, and none provide more, yet).

@astar "winsat mem", nice! Many FCLGA2011v3 socket based systems and processors are quad channel, and not following the motherboard manufacturer's validated memory component list can certainly lead to memory bandwidth challenges. Some systems do require all DIMM slots to be populated to provide full memory bandwidth (quad channel support), and some specify not all as you pointed out. This i7-5820K system is not quite utilizing all the DDR4-2400 DIMMs optimally, but hopefully the new i7-6850K will (for both of these processors, and recent Xeons, the memory controller is on the processor die).

Windows System Assessment Tool
> Running: Feature Enumeration ''
> Run Time 00:00:00.00
> Running: System memory performance assessment ''
> Run Time 00:00:05.16
> Memory Performance                           48373.35 MB/s
> Total Run Time 00:00:06.41

LongIslander wrote on 12/4/2017, 3:26 AM

A good one to add to the list is that the system Page File MUST be turned on. (it is by default in windows) I was getting crashes non stop because I had it disabled! Even IF you have enough ram Vegas seems to need/use the page file regardless. This fixed my timeline crashes!

shanedk wrote on 12/31/2017, 6:27 PM

I think I've come to realize something: I don't think Vegas likes transparent PNG files, at least when rendering via GPU.

I've had problems when there are larger semitransparent areas like a drop shadow or glow or something like that against a motion background. It's far more likely to freeze up when rendering. Switching to CPU rendering fixes the problem, except that when it hits that area it grinds almost to a halt. This is the case regardless of what kind of compression I put on the PNGs.

It works a lot better when I re-save the files as TIFF files with an alpha channel. I've never had a problem with the GPU render at that point, and CPU rendering is faster as well.

It's something to try, at any rate.

bluesgeek wrote on 5/16/2018, 10:20 PM

Disabling GPU acceleration solved my problem with Rendering As ProRes LT in SVP 14.

SushiGuy wrote on 9/14/2019, 7:35 PM

Render crashes fixed by setting Dynamic RAM Preview max (MB) to zero 0.
Software: Vegas Movie Studio 16 Suite (Platinum)
System: Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, HP tower
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 2GB DDR5 low profile

fr0sty wrote on 9/14/2019, 7:49 PM

I too have had success with doing this on a i5/GTX 970 based system, it would not render without this. Vegas 17.

AVsupport wrote on 9/15/2019, 2:49 AM

what seemed to work for me to stabilize my system (from previous VP16 onwards) is to disable iGPU in the Bios if you're running an Intel CPU.

Also avoid variable frame rate source media.

nVidia Studio/Creator drivers. ;-)

MikeLV wrote on 1/1/2020, 2:10 PM

If VEGAS Pro is crashing or behaving strangely, there are many things you can try to troubleshoot it. If the software hangs during rendering then see this post.

14. MICROSOFT VISUAL C++

Try repairing all versions of Microsoft Visual C++ on your system.

Go to the Windows Control Panel and open "Programs and Features". Click each version of Microsoft Visual C++ then "Uninstall" then "Repair".

If that doesn't help then you can try removing and reinstalling them. You can download Visual C++ installers from here.

Here are some Visual C++ redistributables associated with various applications. Plugins or other features can sometimes require portions of earlier redistributables.

Visual Studio 2012 Redistributable (x64 and x86):

VEGAS Pro 13

VEGAS Movie Studio 13

Visual Studio 2008 Redistributable:

DVD Architect 5 & 6

Sound Forge 10 & 11

ACID Music Studio 10

Visual Studio 2005 Redistributable:

ACID Pro 7

CD Architect 5.2

I use v16, and troubleshooting a crashing/lockup problem that just materialized out of thin air. Regarding this C++ thing, see screenshot below, do I need all of these? Do they all serve some purpose? Why are there so many?

john_dennis wrote on 1/1/2020, 2:16 PM

Different applications install the Visual C++ that they need. You could conceivably have one or more different versions for every application on your machine. Note that they were not all installed at the same time.

wwaag wrote on 1/1/2020, 2:37 PM

Deleting any of those redistributables is extremely risky since you don't know which apps require them. Bottom line--don't! Alternatively, you could re-install your OS and essentially "start over".

MikeLV wrote on 1/1/2020, 2:46 PM

I don't use that many applications.. At this point, I don't care, I'm taking them all out, and maybe just try installing the latest one and see what happens. Same with .NET 😂😂😂😂

vkmast wrote on 1/1/2020, 3:10 PM

Please note that you were warned... (And I don't think Nick wrote e.g. sections 13 and 14 in the FAQ just for fun.)

Musicvid wrote on 1/1/2020, 4:18 PM

Mike, how on earth would you know which ones not to delete?

MikeLV wrote on 1/1/2020, 5:34 PM

Right now I'm only concerned with getting Vegas to run again, all the other applications can wait.
Upon more troubleshooting, I THINK the problem is only related to .MTS files. I opened another project that had VOB files on it and Vegas seems to be working fine. I tried disabling that so4compoundplug thing, but that didn't help. Will try some searches on the forum about MTS files causing crashes and lockups.

vkmast wrote on 1/1/2020, 5:49 PM

@MikeLV as this is an "FAQ" post, please note Nick's advice in his first comment in this thread (and section 26 in the OP)

Musicvid wrote on 1/1/2020, 8:31 PM

Mike, MTS is a wrapper. Please post your file properties. .NET 2012 is on your computer.