# How can I read/interpret an .nicrash file — since NI won't?



## alanb (Nov 8, 2017)

A few weeks ago, Kontakt started crashing frequently (always immediately after I double-clicked on an .nki/.nkm file in the Kontakt file browser), usually bringing Cubase down with it, and it shows no sign of letting up.

Updating Kontakt from v5.6.8 to v5.7.1 didn't fix things.

Updating Cubase from v8.5.20 to v8.5.30 didn't fix things.

This morning, I created a brand new Cubase project, and loaded a single instance of Kontakt. I tried to load a SampleModeling trumpet . . . boom, Kontakt crashed.

Kontakt is, basically, useless until I can figure out what's going wrong.

The good news is that I have a few dozen .nicrash files, which may hold the key to solving this seemingly intractable problem.

The bad news is, I can't figure out how to open them . . . and the NI tech support person who is (sporadically) helping me with this issue says that the 'ground level' NI tech people aren't able to open/read .nicrash files either, only the NI developer team can . . . and THEY won't bother to look at one unless a sufficient number of customers have opened support tickets with the same problem.

The corresponding Cubase crash dump files all say

*Unable to load image C:\^ VST Plug-ins, 64-bit\Kontakt 5.dll*

but they also say 

**** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for Kontakt 5.dll*

. . . which means that only NI knows what each hex string means.

Does anyone have any experience opening and interpreting .nicrash files who can share some knowledge on the subject?

THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!


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## EvilDragon (Nov 8, 2017)

I remember a friend of mine having issues with Cubase 8.5 and Kontakt (many versions of Kontakt). The solution was to revert to Cubase 8, then it worked fine...


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## alanb (Nov 8, 2017)

EvilDragon said:


> I remember a friend of mine having issues with Cubase 8.5 and Kontakt (many versions of Kontakt). The solution was to revert to Cubase 8, then it worked fine...



Oh, ED, I was really hoping that you in particular would be able to help me figure out what the problem is here... or, at least learn how to read those %$#@!^ .nicrash files...... :-(

Cubase 8.5 actually added lots of stability over 8.0, so rolling back isn't really a great option — especially since it leaves the problem un-addressed, perhaps to flare up again post-rollback.


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## EvilDragon (Nov 9, 2017)

Well, in that one particular case, it rendered all of my friend's projects that had Kontakt instances in them, unloadable. So he had to revert to 8.0 and it all worked. Worst thing was he was in crunch time catching deadlines. Take from this what you will.


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