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[mindblanking]

I've owned JRiver for quite awhile now and never had any problems until recently.  The last couple of weeks the program goes into "buffering" and then freezes up.  Here are the steps I've taken to try to isolate the problem:

1) Uninstalled and reinstalled JRiver- Didn't fix
2) Uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers for my Schiit Gungnir Dac- Didn't fix
3) Used a different laptop with JRiver installed and the same external hard drive where all my music is stored- Worked perfectly


This leads me to believe that the problem has to do with the laptop itself but I can't for the life of me figure out what to do.  I tried a system restore and that didn't fix the problem.  Any thoughts?  Thanks!

[JimH]

Antivirus?

[mindblanking]

Antivirus?

Deactivated it to eliminate that as a possibility. 

 I think I've narrowed down the problem but not sure what the fix might be.  I noticed that the laptop I use for my music is not "reading" my external hard drive fast enough.  It seems to hang up sometimes and I get a "not responding" message when, for instance, I go into the library, click on the hard drive, click on (for example) Led Zeppelin and then click on an album.  Rather than show me the wav files quickly it's getting bogged down.  On my other lap top this isn't a problem.  So, clearly, the issue is with that laptop not reading the hard drive quickly enough... or maybe anything quickly for that matter.  Is there a solve for this?  Could it be an internal virus? The only thing I use it for is music so I guess I could reinstall Windows 8 and see if that does the trick.  Any thoughts?

[glynor]

Deactivated it to eliminate that as a possibility.  

It may not be the cause, but Anti Virus applications often still cause interference when loaded, but disabled. That's why we recommend uninstalling the application entirely, as a test, and not just disabling it.

Disk access issues, which manifest as the exact symptoms you describe, are often caused by AV applications (even when disabled). If you think about what they're doing, it makes sense. With realtime AV enabled, all of MC's disk accesses for the file are first routed through the AV application, where it runs an algorithm to decide whether to let MC have access to the bit of data or not. All disk access is bottlenecked by the AV application. This happens even when the application is disabled, because the low-level OS hooks are still there and running. It can't just load and unload them whenever it wants, which is why you basically always have to reboot to install or uninstall an AV application. Hopefully the vendor did a good job turning itself off "quickly" but... This can vary, and change over time as it interacts with AV vendor definitions updates, and your hardware (as disks fill up, and OS patches are applied).

As I said at the outset, it might not be that, but I'd suggest it is the "most likely candidate" and it is worth ruling in or out (since doing so is relatively simple).

I also suggest you review the Disks and Locations sections of the Troubleshooting Guide, as those sub-pages contain many suggestions for issues just like this:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Troubleshooting_Guide#Disks_and_Locations

Hope this helps.

[mindblanking]

I thought I had resolved this issue but I haven't.  The program is freezing up and I'm getting buffering issues.  I have Windows 8 on that computer and recently did a "refresh" which basically reinstalls Windows without removing files and folders.  I then reinstalled JRiver.  Worked fine for a few days but now problems have returned.  I noticed the date of the most recent version was late July which is around the time my problems started.  Seems like maybe something in the latest generation of Media Center20 is causing the issue.  Here's what I can offer:

- I run my music from a separate hard drive which has not shown any issues.
- I uninstalled all anti virus, disconnected firewall, windows updates, and windows defender.  I only use this computer for music and JRiver so it wasn't an issue for me.

- It seems like some of my album covers have disappeared.  This seems to be when I have the issue.  I look at JRemote or I look directly at the program on my laptop and notice that album covers I know are there suddenly aren't.  This is when problems start
- I use JRemote but have had problems with buffering even when I access directly from my laptop.
- I sometimes get a message about "failure to load skins noire" or something like that. 

Can anyone help?  I love this program and used it for over a year with no problems before this stuff started happening.  I really don't want to move away from JRiver but if I can't resolve this I'll have no choice.  99% of my music is stored on my hard drive.  I have a Schiit Gungnir, an audioquest Coffee usb cable and I love the sound I'm getting using JRiver.  Thanks!

[JimH]

- I sometimes get a message about "failure to load skins noire" or something like that. 

That points to a problem that is probably not related to MC.  MC is having trouble getting files.  It could be the drive.  It could be the connection to the drive.  It could be the OS.

Move some files to a local drive and test there for a while.

[mindblanking]

That points to a problem that is probably not related to MC.  MC is having trouble getting files.  It could be the drive.  It could be the connection to the drive.  It could be the OS.

Move some files to a local drive and test there for a while.

I've tried that and encountered problems.  Assuming it's the OS, my options would be to complete remove and reinstall Windows 8 or use a different computer.  Question is, how would I be able to restore my JRiver files, tags, etc to the exact state they're in now?  I have albums tagged and renamed as 192/24 for instance and artists such as The Doors vs. Doors, The that I've combined into one folder in JRiver.  How do I ensure i don't lose all of that?

[JimH]

I've tried that and encountered problems. 

The same problem with files played from a local drive?

Please run a benchmark (under the help menu) and paste the results here.

[blgentry]

Question is, how would I be able to restore my JRiver files, tags, etc to the exact state they're in now?  I have albums tagged and renamed as 192/24 for instance and artists such as The Doors vs. Doors, The that I've combined into one folder in JRiver.  How do I ensure i don't lose all of that?

I can't help with your problem, but I can help with keeping all of your JRiver metadata intact *IF* you have to reinstall.  JRiver's database can be backed up and restored.  It gets just about everything metadata wise.  It also gets almost every setting in JRiver, so it's a pretty complete database backup.  It does NOT back up your media.  You'll have to transfer your media yourself.  Backups are made automatically every couple of days.  But you can also run one yourself any time you want:   File > Library > Backup database...

If it comes down to reinstalling, post a topic about it so someone who's more familiar with MC on Windows can give you some additional information.  I just wanted to set your mind at ease that doing a move of JRiver MC from one computer to another is no problem and the database backups are easy and complete. 

Brian.

[Arindelle]

you mention two things, this is what I'd check ...


1) you have an external drive ... connected straight to the PC by USB, I'm assuming? (If there is a choice make sure its connected to a USB3 port; if you have multiple ones I'd change ports stranger things can happen with USB buses). 

2) you mention that you saw an error loading the noire skin ... this is the default JRiver skin, there should be no issues with this. I'd make sure your video drivers are up to date as this can cause issues even for only audio (and could explain cover art problems too). Then I would reinstall the latest version JRiver. Make sure you make a manual backup of you library as Brian suggested (make 2 saving one of the zip files externally just in case ). Takes less than a minute. Just restore your library file.

As you described, you aren't networked, no WIFI connections/router settings to exclude and your AV was uninstalled - you've already reduced where the cause could be coming from