Softube troubles with Protools 2018 - "Access violation occurred"

[nOrakat]

Hi,

All my Softube plugins were working fine not long ago and now when I try to load any of them I get this error:

"Access violation occurred, unable to read location: 0x000000000000002C"



Has anyone seen this problem when trying to bring up a Softube plugin?

I tried reinstalling all my iLok / Pace drivers, and also tried resetting the preferences folder on Protools. That did not work.

I read an article that said reinstalling the Protools drivers worked. Would that mean reinstalling the entire program since there is no separate install for the drivers?

[sw rec]

If I was going to reinstall anything, it’d be the Softube plugins. It doesn’t sound like a Pro Tools problem, or a driver problem. Or an I-lok problem, strictly for license authorizations.
Did ANYTHING change, like a Windows update, which is notorious for resetting all your Windows preferences? They (Microsoft) do sneak those in from time to time, and they’ve been known to mess with a previously working rig.

[Darryl Ramm]

Have you started with standard troubleshooting and trashed prefs (especially the Pro Tools plugin cache). See troubleshooting under "Help Us Help You" up the top of each DUC web page. No I am not confident that will necesarilly solve the problem, but it's easy standard stuff to get out of the way... just about every time there is any problem.

Softube plugins are doing some magic to run on AAX so it's quite possible something went wrong with multiple of them.

As sw rec says try uninstalling and reinstalling the Softube plugins. Make sure you install a version claimed compatible with your OS and Pro Tools versions.

Reinstalling Pro Tools is typically a waste of time and the one of the last things to try.

Make sure you have disabled updates on you system. Avid Link and Softube Central flaky bloatware should be (edit:) uninstalled. And ideally you have disabled all antivirus software and done other standard optimizations.

[Bob L]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

<snip-a-rooni>

Make sure you have disabled updates on you system. Avid Link and Softube Central flaky bloatware should be installed. And ideally you have disabled all antivirus software and done other standard optimizations.

Just a guess Darryl meant "Uninstalled".

[Darryl Ramm]

Thanks. I definitely meant uninstalled.

[nOrakat]

Originally Posted by sw rec

If I was going to reinstall anything, it’d be the Softube plugins. It doesn’t sound like a Pro Tools problem, or a driver problem. Or an I-lok problem, strictly for license authorizations.
Did ANYTHING change, like a Windows update, which is notorious for resetting all your Windows preferences? They (Microsoft) do sneak those in from time to time, and they’ve been known to mess with a previously working rig.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the Softube plugins. I even uninstalled and reinstalled Softube Central - their software manager. (I uninstalled the plugins then uninstalled Softube Central and then reinstalled followed by installing plugins.)

Yes I think it may have been after a Windows update which seems to happen every few weeks.

[nOrakat]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Have you started with standard troubleshooting and trashed prefs (especially the Pro Tools plugin cache). See troubleshooting under "Help Us Help You" up the top of each DUC web page. No I am not confident that will necesarilly solve the problem, but it's easy standard stuff to get out of the way... just about every time there is any problem.

Softube plugins are doing some magic to run on AAX so it's quite possible something went wrong with multiple of them.

As sw rec says try uninstalling and reinstalling the Softube plugins. Make sure you install a version claimed compatible with your OS and Pro Tools versions.

Reinstalling Pro Tools is typically a waste of time and the one of the last things to try.

Make sure you have disabled updates on you system. Avid Link and Softube Central flaky bloatware should be (edit:) uninstalled. And ideally you have disabled all antivirus software and done other standard optimizations.

Windows 10 does not allow you to disable software updates. It forces them upon you. I wish I knew a way to stop them.

I trashed my preferences folder for Protools 2018. That did not work.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the Softube plugins. That did not work.

If there is a way to stop Windows 10 updates, it would be great to know how.

Is there a way to install and activate Softube plugins without Softube Central? That would be great to know too.

[nOrakat]

I discovered that if I load an instrument from Softube - For example, Model 80, that I can actually play the instruments default preset that is loaded and listen to it. However if I click on the plugin to bring up the graphical user interface, you get the error dialog again.

----

I also found this comment on a forum thread with a similar error:

"Just in case anyone is actually following this thread still:
This is about Protected Mode on modern Intel processors.
When the operating system first boots up, it has absolute privilege to access any memory location or I/O location.
Once it has set itself up, it creates tables of permission rights for memory and I/O accesses, and spawns a whole load of other spaces for
application programs to run. Those applications are restricted to accessing memory and I/O in accordance with the permission tables.
This is protection against one application running amok, and breaking other applications, or the priviledged operating system.
The operating system is absolutely in charge, and the applications are not.
It should therefore be impossible for someone to hack into your computer, but because Microsoft provide doors for the CIA to get in, so can everybody else.
As I previously said, the operating system is absolutely in charge.
Privileged instructions belong to the operating system. All other programs are User."

https://homerecording.com/bbs/thread...d-help.359758/

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by nOrakat

Windows 10 does not allow you to disable software updates. It forces them upon you. I wish I knew a way to stop them.

You *can* disable updates with Windows 10. It is easiest if you have Windows 10 Professional. But there are other workarounds/hacks for Windows 10 Home. But all a reason to run Professional. A Google search will turn up lots of sites that describe the options you have to do this.

Thanks for the list of what you tried. Good stuff. But have should also just plow through and try all the other standard troubleshooting things (described under "Help Us Help You" up the top of each DUC web page) like moving *all* plugins out of the plugin folder? Just in case other plugins are part of the problem here (maybe unlikely but you just want to exclude as much stuff as fast as possible). Pro Tools uninstaller does not remove plugins. Just move the entire Plugin Folder content out of there. You can then reinstall the core and system plugins by rerunning the Pro Tools install again. Or you can run the installer just for the plugins (in the installer: Pro_Tools_2023.9.0_Win\Pro Tools\ISSetupPrerequisites\Avid Effects\Avid Effects Setup.exe). Test everything works OK, then try manually installing one current Softube plugin from it's installer and see if that works OK.

What do the Pro Tools log file show for this? %LocalAppData%\Local\Avid\Logs\ProTools_*.txt

Anything interesting noted in the Windows event log at the same time?

You should also be testing from a newly created user account, and testing with a different audio interface will exclude other issues, including driver, regardless of how unlikely that is likely to be. Just plow though all that standard stuff, and you should really have just done all that before posting here. If that does not find something interesting then you are likely up for doing a clean Windows install. It is easy to get suckered into wasting more and more time on stuff when just trying a clean window install is more efficient. A clean install onto a spare partition or get an new external USB SSD (a Samsung T7 or T9 is probably a good choice). Do a clean Windows install to that, ideally Windows Professional from a genuine Microsoft installer, not an OEM installer or recovery partition. Install the bare minimum drivers by hand, like GPU and audio interface and install and Pro Tools and test. Then one Softube plugin. Just do this all quickly to test. If it works then install what else you need/move your data over to that partition, eventually clone that partition over your old install. Make sure you have backups before you start this. When troubleshooting you can often make more progress by making big bold moves than trying to step though lots of stuff slowly.

Is there a way to install and activate Softube plugins without Softube Central? That would be great to know too.

You just run the plugin installers that Softube publish on their Website. They do a good job of making all that easy to do. Log into your Softube account on their web site and you can also look at your licenses, provision to iLok etc. All their installers are available under their Support>Download section. You do not need to use Softube Central which has been quite buggy at times at least on MacOS. Or at least run it and then fully disable it when not in use. Softube product uninstallers all in the usual Windows place.

[nOrakat]

Hi Darryl,

Thanks for all the info.

You're right - there are links to install the software plugins in my account and it looks like it installed it without using Softube Central (though not sure if it used it in the background). There are no installer files, however, to download that I can find.

Softube finally got back to me with a solution (below).