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[tlongacre]

Jim,

Please post your system info from MC/Help and copy your message above to a new thread.  You may have a Windows stability problem that is not entirely MC.

Updating your Windows OS from IE/Tools/Windows update would be a good place to start.

Okay, here goes --

My original message:

I've primarily done one thing with MC 9 -- rip CDs and move them onto my iPod. Generally speaking I have been successful, the iPod xfer works great. However, overall this is one of the buggiest pieces of software I've ever used. And MC 9 is not considerably worse in the things I've experienced than MJ 8, so that worries me a bit (and keeps me from purchasing).

Basically, the program crashes itself or my computer VERY often. I finally figured out that I can't really do anything else on the computer while I'm ripping, that helped. But, for instance, when it can't find CD info on YADDB, it will get caught in a loop of analysing devices and flips on and off of a CD interminably -- playing the first few seconds of a track and then going to analysing devices, then playing the first few seconds of a track, etc. If I can jump in and start ripping or pop the CD out, it will stop, but often closing and reopening MC 9 is not enough to stop this and I have to reboot the machine.

After ripping several CDs, it often just freezes or freezes the computer and requires a reset (with the reset button).  

On my Win98SE machine, if I open the Properties window, I can only change one item, then I have to close Properties and reopen it to change another item -- or at least click out of the window and then back in. This doesn't happen on a WinXP machine.

I've been hesitant to use a lot more features -- to try burning or creating playlists or anything, because I'm afraid it's just gonna come crashing down. Also, I'd be happy to start adding to the YADDB, since I'm amazed at some of what is missing, but I can't really see how to do that.

A stupid question -- if I have the Properties window open, is there some way to scroll through from one track to the next (like when I need to manually add the track names)? When I press the forward arrow -- this seems like the obvious icon to do what I want -- it goes to playlist. I don't even understand what that is for. . .  

Thanks.


Here's my system info:

Media Jukebox  9.0.88 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center\

Microsoft Windows 98 SE
Intel Pentium III 498 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 261 MB, Free - 62 MB
Resource Info: System - 36 %, GDI - 63 %, User - 36 %

Internet Explorer: 6.0.2800.1106 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.50.4916.400 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.00.2800.1106
Shell32.dll: 4.72.3812.600
wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0001) , ASPI for Win32 (95/NT) DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: N/A

Ripping /   Drive F:   Copy mode:ModeBurstBigBuffer   CD Type:Auto   Read speed:Max
 Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: Yes /  Calc replay gain: No /  Copy volume: 32767
 Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: Yes  Soundfile:   chord.wav

Burning /  Drive F: SONY CD-RW  CRX100E   Addr: 0:0:0  Speed:4  MaxSpeed:4  Lib:2  GHS:1  Use MJ Engine:No
 Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Two second gap: No /  Write CD-Text: Yes
 Use playback settings: No /  Normalization: None


My system is as up-to-date as can be according to Microsoft -- I've installed all the updates they had available at least about a week ago. Also, the general instability with MJ 8 and MC 9 I have experienced on this machine, my machine at work (also running Win98SE, but only 350 mhz) and to a lesser extent on the WinXP machine that is my roommate's.

If you see something off that I can fix on my end, I'd be thrilled. I think MC 9 is an excellent program and I'm very frustrated by the instability.

Thanks.

[KingSparta]

>> Resource Info:
>> System - 36 %, GDI - 63 %, User - 36 %
this is one reason why your system\MC May\will crash

System Resources is too low!!

you need to stop all programs, if your using Skins turn them off, if your using Norton System turn it off.

>> the general instability with MJ 8 and MC 9
MC9 is not perfict yet but Windows 98 Is really not stable so thats another problem.

[JimH]

Take a look at what else you're running.  You must have a lot going on with the machine to use 200MB of memory.  Win98 isn't as forgiving as Win2000 or WinXP.

Look especially at anything running in the background.  Real's ActiveStartCenter, for example, can cause problems and is easy to disable in their preferences.  File sharing programs, etc.  Disable everything you can, just to test.

Stability can also be related to memory problems.

I would also recommend checking google for similar stability problems.

Once you've done that, let us know what you find.  It's easier to find a problem if you can narrow things down.  "It always crashes when..." is what we're looking for.

[tlongacre]

Well, I don't have general instability problems -- only with MC 9 (and also with MJ and I am having them on 3 different computers, so I don' think it is just this system.

40 mb of the usage is Media Center itself (which obviously was open when I did the system info check) and your System Info gives *vastly* different reads than Norton System Works. Right now, for instance -- I rebooted, checked MC 9, it said I had 102mb free. Then I closed the two biggest background apps running -- ZoneAlarm (firewall) and NAV (actually there were a couple of other Norton programs which I closed, can't seem to get them to not run). Now MC 9 says I have 94 mb free (huh?). Open IE6 to write to you and I'm down to 81mb free.

Norton's System Info, however, says that with all this running (MC 9, IE6, but no Zone Alarm or Norton), I am only USING 77mb. That would leave roughly 180mb free.

I really don't have much running that I could kill. And if I have to kill everything to run MC 9 then it is not terribly useful. The only other things happening are a keyboard driver, a mouse driver, resource monitor, task scheduler, webshots tray, a network driver and a pda comm program waiting for connection.

What is your System Info reading for memory usage? The Norton read seems more accurate to me given the list of what is running, but maybe it is hiding something?

Are there any programs that are known to cause conflicts with MC 9? Recently, at least, when MC 9 crashes, it usually says the fault was in <unknown> or in mediajukebox.exe (it used to crash kernal32 or user.exe).

I'll turn everything off and then see how it goes. So far, it always crashes at about CD rip #4 or 5. . .

What about this thing about it analysing devices over and over and over and over? I thought it only happened when it checked YDDB and didn't find anything, but it happened today after it DID find the CD. But it kept doing the same thing -- read the CD for a couple of seconds, play it, then "flip" away and start all over again. That is the worst and it only seems to have started happening in the last few days.

Thanks.

[JimH]

Well, I don't have general instability problems -- only with MC 9 (and also with MJ and I am having them on 3 different computers, so I don' think it is just this system.

Is anything common to all 3 computers?  Real, for example?  Kazaa?  Norton?  Zonealarm?

[tlongacre]

Common to all three computers. . . Hmm, well, Norton AV for sure, although different versions (NSW2003, NAV2003, NAV corp edition). Kaaza is on both Win98SE machines, but not on the WinXP, and it is not running on any of the machines. Real is on all three machines, also not running (not even in the background on the home Win98SE machine, though parts might be running in the background on the other two machines). ZoneAlarm is only running in the home Win98SE machine. Webshots and the Resource Monitor are running on both the home and work Win98SE machine but not on the WinXP machine. WSCECOMM (the connector for my PDA) is running on both Win98SE machines, not on WinXP. All three machines have 256mb of RAM. Work Win98SE is 350mhz and running on a WinNT network. Home Win98SE is 500mhz and hooked to a network router and then a DSL modem. WinXP is 1.x ghz.

Can't think of anything else.

[JimH]

None of them may be a problem, but the only way to tell is to strip the machine all the way down.  Get rid of everything.

What encoding are you using?  Is it an MC/MJ plug-in?  Default settings?

[Harry The Hipster]

A stupid question -- if I have the Properties window open, is there some way to scroll through from one track to the next (like when I need to manually add the track names)? When I press the forward arrow -- this seems like the obvious icon to do what I want -- it goes to playlist. I don't even understand what that is for

I can help on this one; wish I could do the same with yr more serious issues.

With the Properties dialogue open on the right side of the screen and the current fields on the left,  left click once on the top-most field you wish to modify. make the desired change, then hit the down arrow. That will automatically open the field in that column immediately below, and so on till you've changed everything you need to.

If you need to move to an adjacent column, tab. With the Properties view fully open, you won't be able to see much beyond the far left column, so use the small arrow on the Properties border to hide the Properties dialogue till you're done, then resize it usng the outwards-facing arrow, left clickTools at the bottom, select what you want to do to the re-edited entry (Clean, Rename Files from Prperties, etc.), Apply all Changes (on the left), and close Properties.

Hope you can get straightened out. I'm runing 9 on XP with ZA and am not experiencing any of the issues yr encountering.

HTH

[tlongacre]

None of them may be a problem, but the only way to tell is to strip the machine all the way down.  Get rid of everything.

What encoding are you using?  Is it an MC/MJ plug-in?  Default settings?

Encoding is mp3 VBR custom with the "fast" taken out. I also installed the DFX plug-in and I think that may be causing me some problems. (I thought this last night because it would come up and I couldn't get the splash screen off my screen -- clicked OK thousands of times, clicked the X to close it, nothing worked).