Hilarious! Blew up the DAW!

Bob Womack · #1 06-30-2022, 01:06 PM

Over the last year I've been getting disc errors on my boot drive on the studio's DAW computer but have been limping along. The engineers have built me a new, hot DAW computer with lightning fast drives, processor, and video card. We spent some free time populating it with most of the apps and plugins I needed in advance, preparing for today's install. This morning bright and early we pulled the box and transferred the cards need to move over (UAD accelerator and AES I/O card). We powered up and boom, it was working fine. Slicker than grits.

I spent the rest of the day moving over authorizations to the new box. The final jobs for today were installing and authorizing Drumagog and then Antares AutoTune. We finished with AutoTune and it asked for a reboot. BLAMMO!!! Either we had an infant mortality on the solid state boot drive or AutoTune corrupted the boot data, but the system fell over at the BIOS level. We repeatedly got the blue screen of death followed the BIOS screen. Now we are having fun.

We'll take tomorrow to put the the old box back in and then it's back to the shop to wipe and rebuild my pretty new box. Too bad!!!

Bob

srick · #2 06-30-2022, 01:40 PM

Isn't it great that Microsoft brought back the BSOD for Windows 11. It happened to me after I bought my new Dell system last November. It came with Windows 10, Upgraded to 11 and somewhere during the driver updates (I believe it was a video card driver), it crashed and turned blue. Yikes!

Like you, I started from scratch - And I'm happy to say, no problems since.

Rick

PS - there were other hiccups since that time. IMO, Msoft released Windows 11 with flaws and a lack of a clear vision. Reminds me of when they released Windows 98 and the initial release was buggy and junky. Then, a second release (SE) was needed to make it stable.

jim1960 · #3 06-30-2022, 02:30 PM

The last time I bought a new computer and had to download and authorize everything, it was an 8-hour task. I feel your pain but congrats on the spiffy (I'm assuming) new box!

Bob Womack · #4 06-30-2022, 04:05 PM

We normally make a digital image of the computer before we start moving in but the engineer in charge decided it had been such a smooth built that he didn't need to. Hehehehe. Oh, boy.

Bob

BillyH · #5 06-30-2022, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

The final jobs for today were installing and authorizing Drumagog and then Antares AutoTune.

Bob

Do you like AutoTune better than Melodyne? Thanks

AcousticDreams · #6 06-30-2022, 05:57 PM

So, so sorry to hear that this happened to you. This is one of my worst type nightmares!

A major reason why I just bought a new computer system is that I was deeply afraid that with my old mac something would happen an loose years of photos and info.

My knowledge of computers is so little...so it would be a major event for myself. Actually, this already happened to me once...I lost years of knife making notes and instructions in an instant. Was moving things around and accidentally hit the empty button. I was in shock for days. I was planning on writing a book. In the end, I took it as a signal as it was time to retire anyway. Laughing about a catastrophe is the best medicine.

Hoping that apple will transfer over all of my licensing from music programs to my new computer correctly. Somehow I have a feeling they won't get it all.

Anyway..wishing you well Bob. Hope everything transfers back with the least of problems.

Bob Womack · #7 06-30-2022, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillyH

Do you like AutoTune better than Melodyne? Thanks

I've never used Melodyne and I've been using AutoTune for many years. I've learned to make it work. It's down to that. Believe it or not, doing this for a living can mean less time to learn.

Bob

rick-slo · #8 06-30-2022, 06:27 PM

There are ways to try and fix startup blue screens without having to reinstall everything. Any code on the bluescreen?

jim1960 · #9 06-30-2022, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BillyH

Do you like AutoTune better than Melodyne? Thanks

I own and have used both. Autotune is easier and quicker to use but Melodyne delivers superior results and is much more flexible.

Bob Womack · #10 07-01-2022, 04:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick-slo

There are ways to try and fix startup blue screens without having to reinstall everything. Any code on the bluescreen?

Nope. Just a mention of a process error. We checked the BIOS screens as well and everything appears normal so the bet is that the boot drive FAT was banjaxed. Our engineers are pretty good. They'll figure out the best approach. And, after all, they built the beast from scratch!

Bob

Glennwillow · #11 07-01-2022, 08:37 AM

Oh, what a shame after all that work, Bob! I have been there myself...

- Glenn

KevWind · #12 07-01-2022, 08:57 AM

Ouch and Double Ouch

Being a Mac guy I can only imagine and sympathize

Just kiddin'. and hope you get it up and running quickly

Bob Womack · #13 07-01-2022, 10:27 AM

Well, VJ, the engineer, got it working again and will be bringing it back to my machine room. We'll see what got zapped!

Bob

Chipotle · #14 07-01-2022, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

Nope. Just a mention of a process error. ]

I'm sure they'll get it sorted, but so annoying! I hate error messages that don't actually help. There is an old saying in software engineering: "Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle."

That also reminds me of a computer story. I was working for a company that was doing some work for a Japanese company, and they had sent us their software along with some instructions so the non-Japanese speakers could at least try some functions. Then some kind of error message popped up. I had studied a little Japanese, so since it was 3am in Tokyo or something, they asked if I could figure it out.

After laboriously translating with my Japanese dictionary at hand, I determined the error message said: "There has been an error". That was it.

Bob Womack · #15 07-01-2022, 07:03 PM

We got the two computers switched out again and carried the new one back to the shop on a stretcher. When I last saw VJ he was shaking his head, staring into a monitor and trying to figure it out. I went back to the studio and began verifying that the room was ready to roll again.

At about twelve noon I got a call: "You want me to bring it back? Its up." I agreed and shut down the old box. VJ brought in the new box and we traded cards and connections and fired it up. I asked what the problem was and got, "Mphglbiglly glaphtogmorf." Or something like that. "I reinstalled Windows." Okay.

Well that means we've got to reinstall and re-authorize practically everything. We got a fair amount done this afternoon but we are creeping up toward the same point we were at when the machine blew up last time. We'll set a restore point before we try it again, but that will be next week after Independence Day. I'm off Tuesday for my anniversary as well, so it'll be Wednesday before I can continue.

Bob