Something in the prefs may have corrupted something.

Try holding down the Ctrl+Shift key when you start Vegas. This will reset all of the internal prefs of Vegas.

Do you use any VST audio FX? Have you installed anything new recently?

Peter

I did try installing a new version of iTunes. It won't install for some reason. That happened before Vegas stopped working. I did, however, install some math software to help with tutoring my son. It does have a multimedia component to it. Perhaps I will try uninstalling that.

I tried reinstalling my hardware audio drivers after the problem occurred, but that didn't fix the problem.

What a pain...

Don't use any VST audio FX.

Just tried holding down the Ctrl+Shift when starting Vegas. It didn't seem to make a difference. Is there anything special to do? Just double click on the icon and hold down the keys?

Does Vegas write anything to any logs? It sure would be helpful to know what error is occurring.

Do you have any other audio apps open before Vegas? My Vegas 8 does not like to play at all if there is anything using the same driver and already open. It's very ungraceful and simply crashes at startup. Close the other app, and Vegas works fine. I get the same with SForge. Yet on another system, SForge gives me a warning that the audio driver is in use, and switches to Microsoft Mapper.

(hold your keys down before double clicking)

I saw this once, a year or so ago.

The program appeared to begin its start up procedure correctly but when it got to "initializing audio engine" it just vanished competely without trace. (Actually I suspect that the problem was actually caused by whichever stage comes after "initializing audio engine" but you never get to see that message because it immediately kills the application.)

I don't know what caused it and I never found a neat way to solve it. In the end I just uninstalled Vegas and then re-installed it, which fixed the problem and it hasn't ever happened again.

Mark

OK. Tried holding down the keys. Didn't help. I also tried closing all applications and then starting Vegas. That didn't work either.

I uninstalled all software that I recall installing in the last two weeks, uninstalled iTunes, manually cleared the registry (man, Vegas 7 leaves garbage all over the place!), rebooted, and then reinstalled Vegas. It is still broken. The only thing left I can think of is perhaps Microsoft issued an automated patch that broke something. That wouldn't surprise me, but I am just not sure how to track something like that down.

BTW. I am running Windows XP 64-bit. This has not been a problem before now. I've been running and happily editing/rendering for a long time now on XP 64.

Huh - it's just done it again. Gets as far as "initializing audio engine" and then - pouf - Vegas 8 disappears without trace

Once again uninstalling and re-installing has fixed it but it's a pain to have to then reconfigure everything just how you like it.

Is there any way to get Vegas to write a startup log that might allow someone at Sony to see what is going on the next time this happens?

Mark

I'll second that request. Uninstalling and reinstalling does nothing for me. Support sent me a list of things a mile long to try. None of them worked. I really wish I knew what was happening. I'd like to use my software. It was expensive! I'd love to upgrade to Vegas 8, but if 7 won't even run, then what's the use. I can't afford to buy 8 and have it not run either. *sigh*

In the past I have had Vegas terminate on start-up and it has always turned out to be a VST plug-in. If you use any VST plug-ins in Vegas or any other audio/video application, try renaming the VST directories. For example the most common path is
"C:\ProgramFiles\Steinberg\VstPlugins" temporarily rename it something else like "C:\Program Files\Steinberg Hidden\VstPlugins". Other programs from other vendors often have their own specific directories.
This way is fail safe for loading Vegas and avoiding any "3rd party" plugs.

Violet. Thanks for the pointer. I installed Vegas on an old laptop to see what it does when it starts up. It went by pretty quickly, but I *think* the next step after the audio is VST. So when I saw your post I got excited. Unfortunately , it didn't work. :(

Well, I got Vegas to start, but it's still not working correctly. I just uninstalled a software package called "DVD Solution", which came with my motherboard (includes something called DVD CyberLink). The package has always been on my computer, however it may have been upgraded at some point. There must be something in it that conflicts with Vegas. Now Vegas starts, but I get the following error message:

"The MSSQL$SONY_MEDIAMGR service does not exist or the current account does not have enough privilege to manage it."

And the media manager pane in Vegas is blank. I uninstalled and reinstalled both Vegas and the Media Manager but that did not fix the problem. I then checked "Add/Remove Programs" in the Control Panel. Sony Media Manager 2.2 is installed. I went into the Services menu and found "SQLAgent$SONY_MEDIAMGR" but it was not running. When I tried to start it, I got the following error:

"Could not start the SQLAgent$SONY_MEDIAMGR service on Local Computer. Error 1068: The dependency service or group failed to start."

Any ideas?

Do you use the Media Manager in Vegas?

If not turn it off in the preferences and restart Vegas.
That'll stop Vegas from starting MM and should avoid your problem.
In V8 MM is an optional install so you can avoid it entirely.

Bob.

Yes, I do use the media manager, so I need it to work. I'm not sure how to import media and pull video off my digital camera otherwise...

Edited: Wait... I use the Project Media tab. What is the Media Manager????

Hi

I just encountered the same problem in Vegas 8.

Please help. Today for the first time I cannot open Sony Vegas Pro 8. When I want to open it, it stalls / freezes and does not want to open whist it is “initializing audio engine” and does not go any further.

I am using operating system XP Professional

The Sony version I am using is 8a (Build 179)

For further info, I have just purchased the plug-in NewBlue 3D Explosions and Transformations and loaded it. Could this have had an effect on it?

I tried re installing Vegas 8 but without success.

Please help as I have so much editing to do

free... I replied to your email.

And today it's done it yet again - got as far as "initializing audio engine" and then - pouf - Vegas 8 disappeared without trace.

Once again, had to uninstall and then re-install Vegas 8.0b to fix it.

Mark

Hi

I would like to share my experience with all those who have problems with Sony Vegas at startup. Firstly I would like to say that I do not have much knowledge about computers. However, I purchased Sony Vegas Pro 8 and loaded it on my Desktop (XP) and Laptop (VISTA). I also purchased some transition and FX plug-ins. Once I loaded Sony Vegas and all my plug-ins and add-on’s, I found that my Sony Vegas freezes at start-up. To be exact, the moment Sony Vegas got to “initializing audio engine” it just did not wanted to go any further. No amount of uninstalling and re-installing solved the problem.

I then opted to re-format both my desktop and laptop and loaded Sony Vegas first. Each time I loaded another program, software, plug-in or add-on, I opened Sony Vegas to see if it opened completely. I then realized that when I loaded certain software, it made Sony Vegas freeze at “initializing audio engine”. What made it ironic was that it was fairly newly developed software.

I then decided to inform the developers of this software and told them about this problem. I was quite surprise when they informed me that they had this problem in the past and that they fixed it on the backend.
I was then informed to reinstall the eCommerce engine (updater windows ews.exe) of which they forwarded me the link. I loaded Sony Vegas first, then the eCommerce engine, and then all my plug-in and add-on’s.

I am glad to say that this has solved my problem completely on my Desktop (XP) and on my Laptop (VISTA). I hope this information will be of benefit to some of you as these Sony Vegas forums has always been of great help and benefit to me.

(I was not sure if I could use other software developer’s names on these forums, however, I am fully prepared to mail you the eCommerce engine – updater windows ews.exe link / file on request). If more information is required, do not hesitate to mail me immediately.

Regards

Lance
________________________________________

I think I've now found what was causing this problem, on my system at least. Just in case it is of any interest/help to anyone else who might run into a similar problem, here are the details.

The problem was that occasionally (maybe once every few weeks) Vegas would fail to start; it would get to the point where the progress message says "initializing audio engine" and would then disappear completely from the screen - no error message, no nothing, just vanished into nowhere. Once this had happened, nothing short of uninstalling and then re-installing would persuade it to work again.

I now think that the cause was an unfortunate interaction between Vegas, Satish's Wax plugin, and one or more VirtualDub filters. I noticed that on the occasions when this problem occurred, a message box appeared and disappeared very quickly somewhat before the program reached the point where it failed, and that this messagebox never appeared on the occasions when Vegas started up OK. Unfortunately most of the time it appeared and disppeared so quickly that you couldn't really see what it said, but eventually I was able to discern that it seemed to be something to do with enumerating .vdfs (VirtualDub filters). Vegas itself doesn't know anything about .vdfs so this messagebox wasn't coming from Vegas, but I did have Satish's Wax program installed as a Vegas plugin and this has the ability, amongst other things, to allow the use of VirtualDub Filters, so presumably this is where it was coming from. I suspected that periodically the Wax plugin decides to scan the system for any new .vdfs it can find and that for some reason one of the .vdfs it was finding caused some sort of error that caused Vegas to go pouf during its startup routine.

Anyway, whatever the exact mechanism for the problem, I uninstalled Wax a while ago and I haven't had a recurrence of the problem since then. I can't be totally certain yet that I'm right about this solving the problem, but I have a good feeling about it.

Mark