14b8: Crash on "Looking for control surface"

Hi,

I've been running v12.5.6 stably for a while on a laptop with Windows 8.1, 8 GB, and using Intel 5500 graphics.

Recently, I have tried a number of times to upgrade to one of the v14 beta versions (14b5 through 14b8) for better performance. Unfortunately, all the v14 betas get stuck on the "Looking for control surface" without any other options than closing the program from the Task Manager.

I have searched the Forum for similar experiences, and tried manually erasing the "Program Files\Blackmagic Design" and "ProgramData\Blackmagic Design" directories prior to installing, but without any luck so far. I have looked through the log file and only found the following three lines that seem to indicate something possibly abnormal:
[0x0000192c] | SyManager | ERROR | socket failed to connect to server, error: 10061
[0x0000192c] | SyManager | ERROR | DRIVER: open /var/tmp/davinci_socket failed
[0x0000192c] | SyManager | WARN | Failed to load user preferences.
From the log, the "socket failed ..., error: 10061" line appears to repeat itself every 10s until the program is manually shut down.

Would you have any ideas on how to proceed? Here is a link to the log files:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B26V0 ... GRZSFpOZGs

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Niels

i think you have the exact same problem as me, i started a topic here: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=63367

I came across an old post from a v14b1 user who had installation problems; his only working solution was to create a new Windows user and install from there.

I tried to replicate that procedure (Windows 8.1): created a new user, uninstalled v12, deleted the ProgramData\Blackmagic Design directory, logged in as the new user, installed v14b8, and it runs without a problem. I have no clue why the user would matter, except possibly that my main account is on Windows domain at work, while the new user is a local user. Resolve might expect full access rights to something that is centrally managed (?) Perhaps the very helpful support team could look into this? I have marked this as "partly solved" since it is a little annoying to work from a separate user account, but it works.

Thanks for a great program,
Niels

A follow up on my "Partly solved" post: I logged into my work account and v14b8 also runs smoothly from there, so the installation problems are fully solved for me.

OK, so things didn't work out after all: Getting Resolve 14b8 and 14b9 (just installed) past the "Looking for control surface" is a hit-and-miss thing. When it works, they run super-well but unfortunately the program will only run a few (random number of) times after re-installing it.

I have tried just about everything I can think of, including disabling the firewall during start-up and manually erasing any trace of Blackmagic in the Registry Editor prior to installing. I hope that this problem will magically be ironed out in a production version.

Edit: I have attached the log files that include:
- 1 fully successful run,
- 1 successful start but ending in a crash when trying to delete an audio channel in the Fairlight panel,
- 3 unsuccessful starts, in all cases hanging on the "Looking for control surface".
Perhaps it may aid in finding the error to see the logs from a successful start using my configuration.

I finally found the root cause of my problems with Resolve crashing on "Looking for control surface":

My Lenovo laptop by default uses a Conexant audio driver, and whenever that was in use Resolve would hang, while Resolve would start up perfectly when the laptop was connected to a docking station using a separate audio driver. I know from previous times that Conexant audio drivers can cause problems but simply didn't make the link for Resolve before now.

My solution was to uninstall the Conexant driver and use the standard Microsoft "High Definition Audio Device" driver instead; Resolve now starts stably under all the conditions I have tested. This works under Windows 8.1, but may not work reliably under Windows 10 set for automatic driver update/replacement.

If you experience this problem it might be worthwhile trying to disable your device drivers one at a time to see if there is a conflict.

Thanks again to Blackmagic for a great product,
Niels