Crash Logs?

[Babz]

OK, I need some help figuring out what's crashing my system...

It is a brand new system, new HD, new RAM, new install of all software, and my first really big project I've done on it, so it could be anything.

Throughout a project, which lasted weeks, DP would crash like 10 times a day or more. Usually it would happen when closing a project (big project). The Welcome screen appears and then 10 seconds or so later DP unexpectedly quits. Sometimes it happens when simply switching apps or switching to the Finder.

You get the screen asking if you want to send your crash report to MOTU, which I did like every time, dozens of times a day.

But is there a way to save or see these crash reports myself? I don't see an option for that.

I'm sending them off into the ether and who knows if anyone ever sees them. I even contacted MOTU by phone and email about it, asking them if they could look at the reports and get back to me and ... Nuthin.

I've never ever had DP crash on me like this, multiple systems, multiple versions, going back decades, so where to begin?

I had hoped updating to DP from 8.0.4 to 8.0.5 and OS from 10.8.4 to 10.8.5 would help, but still getting the same crashes. (Not ready to try Mavericks yet.)

I've tried to look for crash logs in the Console (not that I would know how to read them), but see nothing about Digital Performer there. Maybe I'm not looking in the right place?

Can anyone help me find the DP crash logs on my system and figure out how to read them?

Thanks,
Babz


Here are the complete system specs:

Mac Mini 2.3. GHz Intel Core i7 Quad
16 GB memory
OS X 10.8.5
DP 8.0.5 (64 bit)
MOTU 828 mk3
MOTU MTP-AV usb
UAD-2 Satellite

Third party plugins:
UAD2
NI Komplete 9 Ultimate
Arturia Analog Lab, CS80v, Mini V
MusicLab RealGuitar 3
T-Racks 3
Toontrack EZ Drummer
Electric Keys
BFD2

I believe I have the latest updates for all software, and the projects that were crashing were not using any of these plugins other than a few UAD, Kontakt, Massive, FM8, and Arturia Analog Lab.

[adriano]

Hi Babz,

In the finder go to the "GO" menu, press option key and select Library. Look for the Logs folder and open it, the crash logs are in the DiagnosticReports folder.

Adriano

[Babz]

Thanks, Adriano. I do this, but I don't see anything about DP. All I see is a document called "mdwrite_2013-10-11, etc." with a date modified of over a month ago. (Googling seems to indicate that "mdwrite" is "meta data write", something to do with OS X indexing, BTW).

If I double click on this document, it takes me into the Console app. On the left you can show a "Log List", and it has several main headings that you can drill down into with disclosure triangles. Headings like: "DIAGNOSTIC AND USAGE INFORMATION -> Diagnostic and Usage Messages -> User Diagnostic Reports -> System Diagnostic Reports. But I dig through all of these and I see nothing about Digital Performer, and seemingly no log of the dozens and dozens of crashes I had throughout October.

It may be there, but I'm just not digging in the right place. Can anyone provide any guidance?

Thx,
Babz

[Babz]

OK, digging around a bit more I found a heading "system.log".

I double clicked to open that, and then I searched for "Digital Performer" in the search field of the menu bar, and it seems to list lines of text by date with the words "Digital Performer" in them.

There seems to be this error message in almost every case:

"Nov 11 19:21:35 new-host-4.home Digital Performer[724]: Error loading /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/MOTU Control Surface/CueMixMackieSurfaces.bundle/Contents/MacOS/CueMixMackieSurfaces: dlopen(/Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/MOTU Control Surface/CueMixMackieSurfaces.bundle/Contents/MacOS/CueMixMackieSurfaces, 262): no suitable image found. Did find:
Nov 11 19:21:49 new-host-4.home WindowServer[97]: CGXDisableUpdate: UI updates were forcibly disabled by application "Digital Performer" for over 1.00 seconds. Server has re-enabled them."

Something about the "CueMixMackieSurfaces.bundle". Am I onto anything here?

Babz

[Babz]

UPDATE:

Just got off the phone w/ MOTU tech support and they said that "CueMixMackieSurfaces.bundle" is not a major error. In fact, he was seeing it on his own system too. He advised me to trash preferences, so I did and will work with it today and see if that helps.

He also said that the reports that are sent to the developers from that dialog screen are kind of in a proprietary format, so probably wouldn't help the end user w/ troubleshooting.

It is, however, curious that I am getting all these crashes and not much in the system.log and nothing in the Diagnostic Reports folder, but what do I know...

Fingers crossed for the preferences fix.

Babz

[Babz]

Update:

Trashing preferences didn't fix my crash-after-close issue.

I have, however, learned quite a bit about DP's crash logs. They are not stored where they used to be. MOTU no longer uses the Mac OS CrashReporter to generate logs (so you won't find them where you find your crash logs for other apps). MOTU now uses Google Breakpad to generate logs and send them back to MOTU. The logs are sent to the developers, but unfortunately, they are not in a format that is useful to the end user. (Just as an FYI, you can find the crash logs in a Breakpad folder at ~/Library, but they won't be of much use.) The good news is that DP now has a system for reporting back to the developers, but at the same time the option of troubleshooting via crash logs, for that percentage of technically-inclined end users who might choose to try to dig around in crash logs for answers isn't there anymore, unfortunately.

I am beginning to think that my crashes are specific to this one really giant project with 80+ tracks and hundreds of soundbites. Unfortunately, it is the only gigantic project I have to test with -- it or earlier versions of it.

It could *possibly* be related to a plugin used in the project. It uses the Apple AUPitch (which I've never used before) and Arturia Analog Lab (which is also a first time plug in for me). Possible, but not probable. But I will do some experimenting.

Beyond that, I could test to see if it could be bad memory (since a large project requires more memory -- Activity Monitor says this one is using about 9GB of my available 16GB). Unlikely, but I will test to rule that out.

It is probably some corrupt soundbite out of the hundreds that I will never be able to track down.

Best,
Babz