Hauptwerk freezing

An occasional problem that I’ve never had before has popped up. I have HW VIII, and am using a 2019 iMac Pro with 256 GB of memory. Without warning, the spinning colored wheel pops up, the audio quits, and the program does not respond to anything I do from the console. The Audio, MIDI and performance control panel shows nothing out of the ordinary; it indicates that there 200 GB free. It’s just as likely to happen when I’m playing with just 2 or 3 stops as it is with large registrations. If I wait a minute or so, everything returns to normal. I tried returning to an earlier backup from a month ago, but this didn’t solve the problem. Any thoughts on the cause and solution?

Thanks in advance,
David

Interesting - I’ve had this problem recently too on a Mac Mini running HW7. I wondered if it was my Focusrite interface as I seem to be regularly afflicted by the ‘No Hardware Connected’ message in Focusrite Control, despite the fact that it is working! Force quitting HW and restarting seems to solve the problem temporarily but it comes back again at random. It happens on both Salisbury and Romsey Abbey so I presume it’s not sampleset specific. And I have around 11GB of RAM free so I’m guessing it’s not related to overloading RAM.

[mdyde]

Hello David and Marcus,

Had any software or driver updates been installed on your Macs when the problem started happening?

Please also:

- Check that all macOS power-saving features are disabled, such as 'App Nap' (a.k.a. 'Power Nap'): https://www.lifewire.com/control-how-ma ... ap-2260788

- Try keeping the audio and MIDI interface(s) connected directly to the Mac (not via a USB hub, for example).

- Run Apple's hardware diagnostics: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102550

- See whether the problem occurs if using the Mac's built-in audio output for Hauptwerk (instead of your usual audio interface).

- See whether the problem occurs using St. Anne's.

- See whether the problem occurs if instead using a 'spare' one of the "Hauptwerk (alt config N)" configurations (desktop shortcuts) with all-default settings (e.g use "File | Revert all Hauptwerk settings to factory defaults"), except select the Mac's built-in audio output, and have no MIDI IN ports at all ticked/enabled (just click on virtual stops and keys for testing) and no MIDI OUT ports at all enabled. And/or try using solely a different MIDI interface if you have one (connected directly to your Mac -- not via a USB hub).

Thanks very much for the reply, Martin. It’s very hard to track down the specific problem as it’s so intermittent and I’ve yet to work out what, if anything, might trigger it. I’ve tried the following suggestions made by you:

- All Mac OS power saving features are disabled,

- The Focusrite Clarett interface is connected directly to the Mac via USB.

- Apple’s hardware diagnostics is telling me that there are no issues.

- It’s not really feasible to test using the Mac’s built in audio as this is a public installation, likewise using St Anne’s would be tricky. As I said, it’s very intermittent. What I have done is setup an alternative configuration so I’ll see how that goes over the coming weeks.

I’ll report back when I know more. Thanks again for your help.

Hello David and Marcus,

Had any software or driver updates been installed on your Macs when the problem started happening?

Please also:

- Check that all macOS power-saving features are disabled, such as 'App Nap' (a.k.a. 'Power Nap'): https://www.lifewire.com/control-how-ma ... ap-2260788

- Try keeping the audio and MIDI interface(s) connected directly to the Mac (not via a USB hub, for example).

- Run Apple's hardware diagnostics: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102550

- See whether the problem occurs if using the Mac's built-in audio output for Hauptwerk (instead of your usual audio interface).

- See whether the problem occurs using St. Anne's.

- See whether the problem occurs if instead using a 'spare' one of the "Hauptwerk (alt config N)" configurations (desktop shortcuts) with all-default settings (e.g use "File | Revert all Hauptwerk settings to factory defaults"), except select the Mac's built-in audio output, and have no MIDI IN ports at all ticked/enabled (just click on virtual stops and keys for testing) and no MIDI OUT ports at all enabled. And/or try using solely a different MIDI interface if you have one (connected directly to your Mac -- not via a USB hub).

[mdyde]

Thanks, Marcus.