MuseScore crashes on startup.

• Oct 15, 2019 - 04:22

I am completely unable to access the latest version of MuseScore because every time I open the program, it crashes instantly. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the program and it still happens. I tried installing an earlier version of the program and updating to the latest version and it still happens. I've tried opening an individual score and it still crashes. Other people I know personally who use this program aren't having this problem, and I don't know what to do. I'm using an HP Pavilion x360 running the latest version of Windows.


Comments

See the Handbook on how to start from the command line for your OS, and try the "--F" option. If that doesn't fix it, a reasonable guess is an incompatibility with some device driver or DLL or other system component, so see also thr "Known incompatibilities" section.

I've got the same problem. It does run occasionally, but intermittently freezes and I can't replicate the freeze. I've uninstalled, re-installed, used earlier installers and updated, but still freezes without warning. I disabled "Autosave" in a vain hope that might be the cause, but no it still happens. I've paused synchronising with Dropbox in case that was the problem - no luck. Do you use Livedrive for back-up? I wonder if that's worth looking at. In the meantime Musescore 2 is working perfectly well as it has for the last 4 years.

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

I should have begun my last by saying, "after 'reverting to factory settings' at least twice with no success......".
I'm running a PC mini tower with Windows 7 Home, AND a laptop running Windows 10 and I'm having the same problem on both and I can never replicate the problem. I'll dig into the handbook as you suggest.

In reply to by hopefulstrider

Do you get a chance to send a crash report? Have you? If not, let it crash again and put a note in the report that refers to this thread (just copy the web address) so someone will know this is your crash report. They can then examine it and maybe have a better idea why the crash is happening...

...I just realized this is happening on both a windows 7 and windows 10 system. Do they share any hardware, like a printer?

In reply to by mike320

They do share a printer but are not hardwired.
I've just been digging around in my Windows File Structure (Windows 7 Home) on my PC and note that I have two Program Files in my C: drive
One is named "Program Files" (where the M3 has been installed) and one named "Program Files (x86)" where the M2 has always been. I've just moved the M3 folder to the "Program Files (x86)" folder and run M3 again. Early indications are that it has improved the situation. It opens much quicker - loads a big file (120 bars + 8 voices) quickly and hasn't yet froze. Could it be something as simple as that?

In reply to by hopefulstrider

No. Those folders are just the default places for 32-bit apps (like MuseScore 2) vs 64-bit apps (like MuseScore 3). Moving a program from one folder to another doesn't change anything about it - a 64-bit program remains a 64-bit program, it doesn't run any differently just because it's in the folder normally used for 32-bit programs. Any perceived change in performance you are seeing is unrelated. Unless, I suppose, the folders on on different drives (highly unlikely).

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Well Marc, as unlikely as it sounds, I've been using M3 most of the day on my PC, created a SATB + piano piece of 20 pages, 8 voices and 85 bars all without a single freeze! The previous day it was freezing every few minutes and taking ages to resolve itself - the ONLY difference is that I've moved the M3 executable to the same folder as the M2 executable - and yes they are on the same drive. I've made no changes to back-ups, shared online folders, anti-virus or firewalls or anything else. I'll try the same thing on my laptop tomorrow and see if that has the same effect. That's computers for you!

In reply to by hopefulstrider

I don't find it the least bit surprising that you're using MuseScore 3 all day without it freezing - I've used MuseScore virtually all day every day for almost a year now and can report the same!

Whatever other gremlin might have been causing problems on your machine the other day, apparently it went away. Could have been a device driver or DLL that updated, another program that shut down, who knows. Or maybe since you say you created a score and there are no problems with thatr, this just demonstrates the problem is specific to the score you were working on previously. I don't know. I'm just saying it's not technically possible that merely changing the folder would be the relevant change - it's just coincidence (post hoc ergo proctor hoc).

In reply to by hopefulstrider

There is a difference as to which windows libraries are loaded depending on when you run a program from the x86 (using WoW64 compatibility libraries) or the normal Program Files directory.

So it could be that you have an instability/incompatibility with a 64-bit library (perhaps the sound driver?) where-as that doesn't exist when running on 32-bit libraries.

In reply to by jeetee

Hmm, really? I was not aware of that. My understanding was that the determining factor was whether it was a 32-bit or 64-bit program, not what folder it came from. But if I'm wrong, then I apologize for the misinformation! Still, the fact that it also sounds like we're talking about two different scores is a significant difference as well.

Will be interesting to see if the old score still runs without problems when MuseScore is in the new location, and also if the new score shows problems when MuseScore is run from the old location. And to see if the problems still exists with the old score / old program location/

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I think that as long as the short cut (on the desktop) points to the exe in the bin folder of the version you want to start, that folder can be anywhere. So if you move the M3 folder to Program Data (as opposed to x86) and start from the exe in the bin folder ( or create a short cut to the desktop), MS should start. One question would be if it was a "move to" or "copy to" the x86 folder. If the M3 folder was still in the "Programs Folder" it might be hard to determine success. He said at one point that he moved the folder, then later he said he moved the exe. Big difference. I'd be surprised if just moving the folder made it work. If it did, there might be some kind of computer problem. But, who knows.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

...and so it continues ... I've tried to open the old score from the new location and the freezing is back. I've copied that file and deleted all the contents of the copied file and it opens and closes with no problem. Therefore I've attached the offending file (the one that freezes all the time) and see it you can discover what the problem is. Here's hoping.

Attachment Size
M3 file that freezes.mscz 29.92 KB

In reply to by hopefulstrider

Like a whole new instrument/staff? Tried that (new instrument at bottom of list, select the entre top staff, copy, click first measure of new bottom staff , paste - no issue). Can you try to come up with the specific step-by-step procedure guaranteed to cause a problem on your system, then list those steps precisely? Could be something very specific about the actions you are performing.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

OK Marc, if you can do that without issue, its got to be my PC then.
Here's a step by step record of trying to open the file:-
Boot up PC
login with Admin privileges
Double click M3 icon on desktop
Rectangular Musescore blue logo appears immediately
Sometimes I get "Previous session quit unexpectedly - Restore previous version?" I select N
In 5 secs the program opens - with no score in place and Palette and Navigator open
Click File>Open and browse to folder in C:Users/Owner/My Documents called Musescore3 open it and select "Silent Night" select Open.
Screen immediately fades to whitish tinge and cursor turns into circle of doom and rotates - CPU usage rockets and fluctuates between 60% and 100%
After 2mins35s the file opens momentarily - CPU usage drops to 2% then immediately rockets up to 50-60% for another 2mins or so. Then CPU usage drops to 2% again. When the circle of doom turns into a cursor then any single click on anything ie. Menu item, Palette, Note, Bar or Navigator sets the CPU rocketting again 50-60% for another 2 minutes or so. This repeats over and over again until it finally settles and the CPU usage drops and stays at about 2%. I then attempt to Export the file as an .xml (with same single click and 2 minute wait to resolve) and eventually succeeded. The whole process from opening the program to exporting the file took 22 minutes.
So my PC is looking to do something, but I can't figure what. I enclose a screenshot of the Task Manager.

Attachment Size
freeze file Task manager.jpg 193.91 KB

In reply to by hopefulstrider

Well obviously something is extremely wrong. You say you did the facotry reset - can you now go View / Synthesizer and verify MuseScore_General is the only soundfont listed on the Fluid tab, and nothing is listed on the Zerberus tab? Then go to Edit / Preferences / I/O and tell us what you see there?

To me it seems mostly like a driver conflict, I'd also recommend updating anything/everything that might need it, not that I know what that might be but maybe Windows 7 has some sort of tool to check?

Also interesting would be to see the Task Manager listing showing the process list, not the graphs, while the problem is occurring.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I've just opened M3 and opened the 'frozen' file and the program was behaving itself perfectly for about 5 mins - then it froze.
I can confirm:
Musescore_General is the only soundfont listed on Fluid Tab
Nothing is listed on Zerberus tab
I attach screenshot of I/O, and screenshots of Processes for M3 open (not frozen) and M3 open and frozen.

Attachment Size
IO tab.jpg 186.53 KB
M3 frozen.jpg 211.75 KB

In reply to by hopefulstrider

All looks good on the I/O tab. Someone more familiar with Windows 7 specifically might be able to comment further on the running processes, but the one thing I see that sends up a small red flag is livedrive.exe. I wasn't familiar with that, after looking it up, I could easily believe that it is somehow causing a hangup in MuseScore's file management (eg, for autosave). So it might be interesting to try disabling that. Also could be worth disabling Avast temporarily to see if that makes a difference, but I think if that causes a problem we'd hear much more about it because it was very popular back in the Windows 7 heydays.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

I've disabled Livedrive - no improvement. I've disabled Avast - no improvement. I've de-fragged the C:drive - no improvement. Last night I ran 'scandisc.exe' - started at 8.00pm it was still running Stage 4 of 5 checking 300,000 data files at 2.00am this morning - had to go to sleep. Up this morning at 7.00am the scandisc programme had completed (I hope) and returned PC to the windows login screen so I missed the final report. Run M3 this morning and it froze after about 5 minutes working on a score. Tried again this afternoon and I completed a short score without issue. I'm going back to M2 for a while..... I have in the meantime looked at Event Viewer and there are several 'errors' listed indicating a Windows VSS issue - is this helpful? Thank you for all your help, it can't be a Musescore problem, I think it must be my PC but it's gonna take greater brains than mine to sort it out.

In reply to by bobjp

Could be getting somewhere Bob - I've attached a Notepad file containing all the details from the VSS error which appeared in my Windows Event Viewer when I tried to open the file that freezes the program. The time of error coincides exactly with when I tried to open the file. No other errors appeared.

Attachment Size
VSS error.txt 1.81 KB

In reply to by hopefulstrider

As I understand it, a VSS error shouldn't shut down software. It probably happened as a result of the shut down. Maybe. The report should list MuseScore as the cause.
Were it me, I would have already run a registry cleaner like CCleaner. But not everyone would agree. Or a cmd line procedure like sfc /scannow. Interesting that the problem seems to only be MuseScore.
Without having your computer in front of us, we're pretty much guessing.

In reply to by hopefulstrider

"login with Admin privileges"
Which computer is this? W7 or W10?
On W10, the account you set up is an adminsrtator's account. However there is a higher level admin account for security and trouble shooting. I don't know all the particulars.It used to be that when you created an admin account, that was the highest level account you could get.
It seems to me that if you are having the same problem on two different computers, that there is something in common between them. Something like education or business software. Some kind of IT restriction. Maybe a good registry cleaning is called for. Something on your network? Try booting disconnected from it. There are ways to start Windows with only basic services.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

@Marc.
It all depends on whether the program uses relative or absolute file paths when referencing the libraries and drivers. If it uses relative paths, then changing the folder would change the libraries and drivers used, but with an absolute path, it would remain the same regardless of what folder you moved the program to. If a relative path was used then moving the program to a folder other than Program Files or Program Files (x86) would probably break it.

In reply to by hopefulstrider

If both programs have the problem at the same time then don't have a problem at the same time then perhaps the printer is sending some signal under certain conditions that is causing the problem. It doesn't have to be hardwired for your computers to communicate with the printer.

Software has been know to cause the problem as well. Someone installed a piece of software (I think it was an accounting software) and caused problems with MuseScore, after a couple of days of trouble shooting the problem was uncovered. So the next question could be, did you add the same software to both computers that might have caused the problem?

In reply to by Jojo-Schmitz

Try to open MuseScore, and note the time. Go to Control panel/Administrative tools/Event viewer/Windows logs/Applications. Scroll through the events to the time you tried to open MS. There should be some kind error message that tells you what caused MS to fail.

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