Toast 8 & 9 Crash On Startup And Freeze Shutdown

[rooinekpilot]

There was never a problem with Toast 7. I got 8 and the trouble started. I got 9 in the hope that the upgrade would include a fix. Got latest update still in the hope of a fix. Read the forums and there are many who give similar problem reports that say I'm not alone, but no answers that work for this one. Here is my problem. Toast won't work . I try to start it in the normal way and nothing happens. I check the "force quit applications" window and it tells me Toast is not responding. (the same scenario with 8 and 9, I had to manually removed 8 and reinstalled it - it worked once and the same problem occurred). I force quit and the message disappears but Toast is still there in the background and will not quit and totally prevents shutdown or restart. The only way to shut down is to pull the plug on the power. After I had manually removed Toast 8 I installed 9. It worked once! Then I "foolishly" shut down my computer wanting to save electricity and not have my wife moan at me for wasting power. When I next wanted to use Toast it would not work - problem as described above. I have tried everything suggested by way of a fix as mentioned on the forum. No joy. I have tried disk utilities, Cocktail, OnyX, TechTool, Apple Disk Utilities, cleaned the cache, removed the preferences and the com.roxio.Toast.plist so often my fingertips are sore from the keyboard and my delete key is starting to smoke (not really). I have followed the instructions in the Roxio Knowledgebase several times under the title "Toast does not launch or crashes" which is a pretty good description of the problem I am having - minus the shutdown issue. I can only come to the conclusion that this is a problem that Roxio must solve because nothing else seems to work except a complete manual uninstall and new install every time I want to burn a disk which seems a stupid waste of time. Perhaps 8 & 9 were alpha or bad beta versions but they just forgot to tell us! As you can tell I'm venting and am pretty fed up . Toast is a great program if and when it works - pretty interface - but I want to do more than look at the install screen.

 

System. Mac G5 with OSX 10.4.11 2 gig Ram

 

Help anyone?

[physicsguy]

This is no joke. It's all happening again. SAME PROBLEM! And always when I'm in a panic to get a job out. Crap program.

 

I guess I'll have to waste another ten times what the upgrade cost me in trying to fix it. Or better yet can anyone suggest some software that will work and be reliable?

 

This is a long shot, but I noticed Toast 8 & 9 will not launch if you are using VNC or Mac Screen Sharing, but Toast 7 runs fine. Are you accessing your Mac with Toast on it thru VNC or Screen Sharing?

[rooinekpilot]

Just a little advice when using Techtools deluxe or pro it can have a nasty affect of corrupting some system or even app files. Yes I have been caught out and had to do a clean install of the system to fix the issues.

 

You may be better off trying to gra if you don't already have is Alsoft Disk Warrior it can repair directory and some file damage and works by far better than tech tool pro.

 

Now for a few questions which may help lead to the oddities you are seeing.

 

Do you have any third party haxies or system add-ons installed? eg: unsanity haxies are known to cause weird issues.

Could you please list what codecs you have in HD/Library/Quicktime and also Home/Library/Quicktime if one exists there.

 

Also are there any crash logs for toast in eiether of the HD/Library/Logs or Home/Library/Logs these can usually be helpful in finding the crashing cause in most cases.

 

 

 

 

I have now tried everything to get this piece of trash called Toast 9 Titanium to launch. There are no crash logs for Toast - technically it doesn't crash because it doesn't launch. I've looked again through the forum for clues and all I find is that many many people have this problem. I notice that much of the advice mentions removing parts of Quicktime to solve the problem. Didn't work for me - anyway I use Quicktime almost daily so if it's a choice between Quicktime and Toast guess which one will end up permanently in the trash? This is a Roxio problem. They haven't bothered to reply to my request for help yet either. Does anyone know a similar product for a Mac? I doubt I'll get my money back. Toast is now Toast in my mind!

 

Thanks to all who have tried to help.

 

[rooinekpilot]

Actually, my posts are all over these forums, so it's pretty obvious that we do read them. Personally I would do a complete clean install of Toast. Delete anything that has the word roxio or toast in it period, especially including older versions (you mentioned you had version 7 running at one time). If you reinstall Toast on the system this way and it does not work, then my next suspect is the OS itself.

I have personally use Toast 8 and 9 on 3 different systems and have never had the problems that you are describing and quite honestly I see very few posts from others complaining about the same issue.

 

Side Point: I have personally use Toast 8 and 9 on 3 different systems and have never had the problems that you are describing and quite honestly I see very few posts from others complaining about the same issue. Additionally our KB article regarding toast failing to launch is not one of the frequently accessed articles and hasn't been updated for years (until just recently) because of that fact. I am not trying to diminish the frustration and effort you have put into the issue. I realize this is a real problem for you, but it just may be less common then you thought.

 

 

The trouble with a clean install is that I have been a loyal Toast user since about version 3 or 4 and have upgraded each time and through OS7.5 thought OS9 to OSX 10.4.11. It won't install from the upgrade files I have without a previous valid version on the computer. I tried that when I had the issue with Toast 8 and had to copy files from my master backup first so that Toast 9 could be installed. Suggestions? Thanks.

[rooinekpilot]

This is no joke. It's all happening again. SAME PROBLEM! And always when I'm in a panic to get a job out. Crap program.

 

I guess I'll have to waste another ten times what the upgrade cost me in trying to fix it. Or better yet can anyone suggest some software that will work and be reliable?

[John at Roxio]

Rather then deleting the files. Back them up so you can do a manual restore if you need to. You may want to keep notes on the locations of all the files you backup so that the manual restore will be a little easier for you.

 

Case in Point. I had problems running Spin Doctor that came in Taost 9. It turns out that the failure to launch was directly related to having Roxio Boom Box installed on the system and simply deleting the applications and their preferences completely fixed the problem. Specifically it seemed to be Audio Hijack that caused the problem, which I found to be really weird.

[gaper1]

if it worked for some time then it stopped working, it is likely something new you installed that made it happen or a setting you change on your Mac.

[rooinekpilot]

Thanks, I'll try that and let you know.

 

 

Thanks for all your help. Well, it's up and running. For how long who knows. I hope for a long time. Here's what I did. I shut down all my external hard drive to kill any backup files and programs. Then I systematically copied every Toast/Roxio file and folder I could find into separate named folders and compressed them with StuffIt so they would be invisible to my operating system and trashed the originals and emptied the trash. I then ran TechTool as well as repaired the permissions. After a restart I was about to start the process of installing Toast 8 so I could then use the upgrade files for Toast 9. That's when I discovered that I'd failed to remove the main Toast 9 folder in my applications folder. Just for kicks (it sure couldn't get any worse I clicked on the Toast 9 icon and it opened up to the registration/validation code window! I then had to scratch around to find where I'd filed the number. That done and when I input the number BINGO it all started to work. What was corrupting it I don't quite know. I have managed to burn a disk but have not tried to shut down the computer yet. Before the non-responsive problem with Toast prevented normal shutdown. I'll report back if that aspect is not fixed. I have hopes though. It would have been much simpler and faster to deal with if Roxio included an uninstaller with the upgrade files - specially one that removed all the components of any previous versions of Toast except the file that remembers that there was a legal registered copy previously on the machine to overcome the issue that I had before when totally removing the Toast 8 files and having to reinstall them in order for the upgrade to work without swearing at me. I'll now shut down and see if the problem re-occurs. Here's hoping. Thanks again for you help through this frustrating exercise.

[tsantee]

I appreciate that you're still able to retain your good wit given all that misery. The only thing you didn't mention is checking the QuickTime folder in the Root Library to be certain there is no Xvid codec present. You might also temporarily remove any third party QuickTime codecs to see if that may be a source of the trouble. Also, consider creating a new user account and try running Toast when logged on to that User.

[rooinekpilot]

Rather then deleting the files. Back them up so you can do a manual restore if you need to. You may want to keep notes on the locations of all the files you backup so that the manual restore will be a little easier for you.

 

Case in Point. I had problems running Spin Doctor that came in Taost 9. It turns out that the failure to launch was directly related to having Roxio Boom Box installed on the system and simply deleting the applications and their preferences completely fixed the problem. Specifically it seemed to be Audio Hijack that caused the problem, which I found to be really weird.

 

 

Thanks, I'll try that and let you know.

[robert06]

Just a little advice when using Techtools deluxe or pro it can have a nasty affect of corrupting some system or even app files. Yes I have been caught out and had to do a clean install of the system to fix the issues.

 

You may be better off trying to gra if you don't already have is Alsoft Disk Warrior it can repair directory and some file damage and works by far better than tech tool pro.

 

Now for a few questions which may help lead to the oddities you are seeing.

 

Do you have any third party haxies or system add-ons installed? eg: unsanity haxies are known to cause weird issues.

Could you please list what codecs you have in HD/Library/Quicktime and also Home/Library/Quicktime if one exists there.

 

Also are there any crash logs for toast in eiether of the HD/Library/Logs or Home/Library/Logs these can usually be helpful in finding the crashing cause in most cases.

[rooinekpilot]

I appreciate that you're still able to retain your good wit given all that misery. The only thing you didn't mention is checking the QuickTime folder in the Root Library to be certain there is no Xvid codec present. You might also temporarily remove any third party QuickTime codecs to see if that may be a source of the trouble. Also, consider creating a new user account and try running Toast when logged on to that User.

 

 

Thanks for your help. It didn't work though. I removed the only Xvid codec file I could find in the Quicktime folder. I've downloaded Express Burn, an Australian CD burner software. Toast is toast. I've spent about $800 of billable time trying to solve the problem with Toast. I'm still open to suggestions - BUT... oh well. I hope Roxio will let me know when they solve this problem (that's if they read this forum). The only thing that is burned is the hole in my credit card account but that's life.

It still has a pretty interface - pity I still can't see it!

[rooinekpilot]

if it worked for some time then it stopped working, it is likely something new you installed that made it happen or a setting you change on your Mac.

 

 

It worked only after the first install. Then when the computer was shut down it would not launch. Eventually after trying many remedies including a clean uninstall of Toast and reinstall it worked immediately after the re-install ONCE then the same pattern all over again. I don't remember doing anything or adding anything during the same time frame that could do this. It's a real royal pain.

 

Thanks for the thought though.

[John at Roxio]

Thanks for your help. It didn't work though. I removed the only Xvid codec file I could find in the Quicktime folder. I've downloaded Express Burn, an Australian CD burner software. Toast is toast. I've spent about $800 of billable time trying to solve the problem with Toast. I'm still open to suggestions - BUT... oh well. I hope Roxio will let me know when they solve this problem (that's if they read this forum). The only thing that is burned is the hole in my credit card account but that's life.

It still has a pretty interface - pity I still can't see it!

 

Actually, my posts are all over these forums, so it's pretty obvious that we do read them. Personally I would do a complete clean install of Toast. Delete anything that has the word roxio or toast in it period, especially including older versions (you mentioned you had version 7 running at one time). If you reinstall Toast on the system this way and it does not work, then my next suspect is the OS itself.

I have personally use Toast 8 and 9 on 3 different systems and have never had the problems that you are describing and quite honestly I see very few posts from others complaining about the same issue.

 

Side Point: I have personally use Toast 8 and 9 on 3 different systems and have never had the problems that you are describing and quite honestly I see very few posts from others complaining about the same issue. Additionally our KB article regarding toast failing to launch is not one of the frequently accessed articles and hasn't been updated for years (until just recently) because of that fact. I am not trying to diminish the frustration and effort you have put into the issue. I realize this is a real problem for you, but it just may be less common then you thought.