306 Chapter 11 TROUBLESHOOTING Avid software installation CD-ROM, you can do custom installa- tions to replace drivers, codecs, or anything else you may suspect as being a problem. You may want to reinstall the entire Avid application just to start from a clean slate. You may want to move all your AVX plug-ins and AudioSuite plug-ins to another location so they don't get erased; however, if you suspect that the plug-ins may have something to do with your problem, you may want to rein- stall them as well. Be sure you have all the registration informa- tion for plug-ins that require being registered the first time you use them. Version Numbers You should always have, either in the back of your head or writ- ten down someplace accessible, the version number of almost everything associated with your system. First and foremost is the version number of the current Avid software. You should know it down to the last digit because every small change in the software has a reason. Avid puts out what they call the gold version of the software, the most tested and most stable version they can achieve within the time allowed before it must be released. Version 11 is an example of a gold release. Release dates are based on complicated interrelationships all lining up at the same time. If, after the gold version is shipped, some features didn't make it into the software, even though they were planned, there may be other releases with an extra decimal point. Release 2.1 is an example of that since it included the color-correction inter- face for Symphony. There may be some procedures that were not tested and appear to have problems, so there may be another revision called a patch release . A patch release is meant to fix one or two small problems. This would be version 6.5.1v2. The important thing to remember about all these releases is that you might not need any of them except the gold version. The other versions have not been tested as thoroughly as the gold release because of the importance of getting out a fix in a timely manner. Most of the time this is not a problem, but asking for a patch release if you don't absolutely need it pushes the envelope unnecessarily. It is always best to have all the systems in your facility running the same version of the editing software. Most versions are for- ward compatible, but not backward. This means that a bin cre- ated in version 5.5 opens fine in version 6.5, but not the other way around. Once a bin has been opened in the higher version, it has been converted forever to that version. By just opening the