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Author Topic: MC won't start; Says is already running but isn't!  (Read 4749 times)

Amleth

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MC won't start; Says is already running but isn't!
« on: February 03, 2016, 04:18:45 am »

Can't reinstall as it detects a running MC, offers to close it, then fails to do so, even if installer is run as administrator. Can't delete folder or executable in Program Files either. Says it's open in "Media Center 20", but no such process shows in Task manager. Rebooting doesn't help. Running Win 8.1. Worked fine for 7-8 months up til today.

Wrote a huge, detailed post on the issue but it was lost when I hit the post button and the next page came up as a generic "This page failed to load" IE error page and apparently IE doesn't keep the stuff you type into forms when you hit the back button like Firefox does, so I'm super annoyed now. Weird because I hit "Preview" and that loaded fine, then tried to post immediately after and boom, page load failure. :c The now blank message page has this note in red:

"Your session timed out while posting. Please try to re-submit your message.
No subject was filled in.
The message body was left empty."

What the hell is going on here?
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~OHM~

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Re: MC won't start; Says is already running but isn't!
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2016, 05:29:10 am »

***************You will catch more with Honey than vinegar***************
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fooze

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Re: MC won't start; Says is already running but isn't!
« Reply #2 on: February 03, 2016, 05:33:45 am »

Try booting into safe mode and uninstalling.

Here are some instructions: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows-8/windows-startup-settings-safe-mode
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Arindelle

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Re: MC won't start; Says is already running but isn't!
« Reply #3 on: February 03, 2016, 06:24:16 am »

Can you still open the UI for JRiver at all? You probably have media server or the main program to run at startup.  If you can shut it off, other wise do it from Task Manager or a third party tool that handles start-up options.

Also, there are more than one processes that could be looping .. look for JR*** like JRweb; JRworker, Jrservice and/or Media Center in details. If you stop these processes/services, you should be good to go.

I don't know what caused this of course, but it might require an uninstall as Fooze suggested ... or your registry got corrupted for some reason. If none of the services are running, you shouldn't need to boot into safe mode ... but it doesn't hurt either. That way nothing will be autoloading on boot.

As for the forum .. take a deep breath, it happens .. avoiding IE helps with any forum, if possible, imo

Would be nice to have a draft option, I admit. But these are rarely automatic anyway.

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Amleth

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Re: MC won't start; Says is already running but isn't!
« Reply #4 on: February 03, 2016, 06:22:00 pm »

Try booting into safe mode and uninstalling.

Here are some instructions: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows-8/windows-startup-settings-safe-mode

Yep, thanks, this ended up being the solution. Lost all my settings and codec setup, etc, but at least I kept my Library.

Can you still open the UI for JRiver at all? You probably have media server or the main program to run at startup.  If you can shut it off, other wise do it from Task Manager or a third party tool that handles start-up options.

Any attempt to open it just gave the message that it was already running. After the "successful" uninstall that threw a couple error boxes, left all the files still there, and yet removed JRiver from the Programs and Features installed list and claimed success anyway, it would give a different error, about a component missing. Running the most recent MC 20 installer just gave a message about it already running too. It offered to stop the running instance and continue, but selecting this option would tell you it was unable to stop the running instance and ask you to close it manually (even run as administrator).

There was nothing starting with "JR" or "Media" in the Processes tab of Task Manager, though, nor in the Startup tab, nor any of the services that started with those listed as running in Manage -> Services and Applications -> Services. It was infuriating. Clearly something was running at startup since even rebooting didn't change the behaviour (and booting in Safe Mode unlocked the files for deletion), but I could find no sign of what it was that was being run. In the MC in-program startup options I had it set to run nothing at startup and hadn't changed anything recently, so I don't know how I ended up with whatever it was auto-starting, nor why the installer running elevated couldn't close it automatically.

Also, there are more than one processes that could be looping .. look for JR*** like JRweb; JRworker, Jrservice and/or Media Center in details. If you stop these processes/services, you should be good to go.

Aw geez, never noticed the "Details" tab. Assumed the tab called "Processes" was the process tab like in Win 7, but I guess it's more like the "Applications" tab. Yes, I assume there must have been something lurking in "Details" since it's the only place I hadn't looked, but no way to check now. How it would have been being run without being mentioned in the Startup tab I don't understand, though, nor why it should suddenly have started. And normally when MC is running it does show up in the Processes tab too, as "Media Center 20 (32 bit)".

I don't know what caused this of course, but it might require an uninstall as Fooze suggested ... or your registry got corrupted for some reason. If none of the services are running, you shouldn't need to boot into safe mode ... but it doesn't hurt either. That way nothing will be autoloading on boot.

As for the forum .. take a deep breath, it happens .. avoiding IE helps with any forum, if possible, imo

Would be nice to have a draft option, I admit. But these are rarely automatic anyway.

I only use it on this machine a it's a convertible tablet and IE is the only browser with decent touch support. It constantly loses sessions and other frustrations, though, so I have Firefox installed to use when a mouse is available, but in this case IE was already open and... <sigh>

Still odd that the "Preview" would load just fine, then hitting post immediately after would time out. Was the frustrating icing on an even more frustrating cake of an afternoon.
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Arindelle

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Re: MC won't start; Says is already running but isn't!
« Reply #5 on: February 04, 2016, 03:18:46 am »

Quote
Yep, thanks, this ended up being the solution. Lost all my settings and codec setup, etc, but at least I kept my Library
can't you get these back by just restoring the last back-up library file?
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Castius

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Re: MC won't start; Says is already running but isn't!
« Reply #6 on: February 05, 2016, 03:44:27 am »

So some times on installing updates JRservice.exe does not close.
When this happens. This exe seems to be protected from simple killing it.

So I use process explorer to kill it.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/processexplorer.aspx

But you first have to be running in admin mode. ("show details for all process")
http://superuser.com/questions/701628/program-suspended-in-windows-8-1-cant-kill-it-because-access-is-denied

The standard task manager might be able to do it. But i don't remember having any luck when i tried before.
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