Sound Cue System 9.5.1 Freezes in Windows Vista

[nortonl]

Hi - sorry to be so late to the party. I know Show Cue System is the new version and I dunno if anyone will even bother to help me anymore, but I thought I'd give it a go.

I've been hired by a small theater here in Los Angeles to do the sound design for their show. They are using Sound Cue System Version 9.5.1 on a Windows Vista laptop. Every time I try to exit the program, or click on a "start time" in the editor, the program freezes up. They told me that it had worked fine on Windows XP before they upgraded the system, so I tried it on an XP machine and see that there are pop-up help balloons that occur every now and then. There is a check box to not remind me again, and there is a menu option to clear all checkboxes so that the balloons come back.

It is my theory that Windows Vista causes SCS 9.5.1 to freeze up every time one of these helpful balloons are to appear. Again, I know I'm late to the party, but I'm for hire by this company and this is what they have for me to work with; I am forced to use this version of SCS on their Vista laptop. Is there a way to tell SCS 9.5.1 to NOT remind me again WITHOUT having the balloon pop up in the first place? For the balloon will not pop up in Windows Vista, the program just freezes entirely. Any and all assistance with a workaround or something I'm missing to do this is immensely appreciated. Thanks,

Norton

[Mike Daniell]

I suspect the problem is not related to the pop-up messages but is due to some device or file that cannot be opened on that machine. What may have happened in this case is that a message box has been displayed but is hidden behind the splash screen. (This issue has been fixed in SCS 10.)

Try holding down the left Ctrl key when you start SCS. This will causes SCS to start without opening the last-used cue file. Then open the demo cue file (demo.scs). If that opens OK, try opening your required cue file. If you get the same freeze as before, let me know - I can provide you with a version of the program that doesn't force the splash screen 'on top', so enables you to view any message box that is displayed at this time.

[nortonl]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I attempted your solution but I am still encountering the same error. It happens when I am in the editor, for example, and click on the "start time" field. The program will just freeze up, instead of popping up the helpful tip. Or when I click in the "loop start" field - same thing. And when I go to close the program, the whole thing freezes up instead of the pop up helpful tip telling me to turn my speakers down. I've tried on several Vista machines and it is the same result, whereas on an XP machine, the helpful tip pops up and I am able to click the check box telling it not to remind me. Any other ideas? Thanks so much -

Norton

[Mike Daniell]

To supress all the pop-up tips that have a 'Don't tell me this again' checkbox, you need to run regedit or some other registry editor. Look for the entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sound Cue System 9\Options\TipControl. If TipControl does not exist, then create it as a new String Value. Change (or set) the Value Data to NNNN. Then start SCS 9.

[nortonl]

A HA! That's done it, yes. Thanks for the quick help.

Norton