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Author Topic: Frequent freezes  (Read 928 times)

mkolmar

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Frequent freezes
« on: April 10, 2023, 10:28:11 am »

Is the issue ever going to be fixed where MC crashes if I click in the UI while it's unreponsive, usually doing the spinning blue circle?

I was trying to tag a lot of files. I've crashed MC29 four times in about 10 minutes. MC becomes unresponsive after I press return to save the artist or album to the file. All I have to do is click into the UI at the right time, and MC will crash. For example, paste artist, press return, switch to Notepad to copy value, click back into MC, crash. Or, paste artist, press return, click somewhere, crash. MC terminates immediately.

MC works quite well for my purposes, but I really have to consider an alternative if the crashes are going to continue forever. I've been putting up with this problem daily since 2018 and it's becoming a deal-breaker.
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Matt

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #1 on: April 10, 2023, 10:52:46 am »

Please try MC30 and post a crash dump if it still happens.  Thanks.
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Matt Ashland, JRiver Media Center

JimH

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #2 on: April 10, 2023, 11:04:47 am »

Most common causes are: antivirus, bad drivers, or bad files.

More details might help.

If you've had that kind of  problem sinc 2018, something may be wrong with your hardware.

See Weird Problems in my signature and the antivirus thread linked from the first thread there.
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mkolmar

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #3 on: April 10, 2023, 01:02:52 pm »

I appreciate the quick response. I have reported this issue a few times, going back a few versions.

Initial impression is that MC30 may not show the issue as quickly or result in the wait/click dialog as readily vs. MC29. Chain of events is:

1. MC works on something that takes at least 2-3 seconds.
2. Click on UI but MC is not responsive to new click(s) at this time
3. MC handles click(s) if it becomes responsive soon enough when task is complete.
4. Usually get Blue circle and/or screen stretch after a few seconds if MC is still busy
5. Sometimes UI lightens with wait/click dialog, especially on 2nd click or double-click
6. If MC crashes, my sense is that the timing of the click can be significant. Seems to crash most often if click happens right as MC UI is responsive again or immediately before. During tagging, as I mentioned, MC was busy for a consistent amount of time that collided with my next clicks.

Steps 1-5 (minus crash) happen easily on a relatively powerful, recent notebook PC too, if MC30 is busy long enough (multiple panes with stats for example). The HTPC is feeble by comparison, but enough to play music or Blu Ray. Obviously the HTPC is slower and more tasks take a couple of seconds or longer.

Let's see how MC30 does in normal use. So far it does not spin out as badly as earlier versions, even as the basic behavior is still happening.
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JimH

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #4 on: April 10, 2023, 02:25:32 pm »

That's not normal.

OS?

Antivirus?

What types of files?

Take a look at the threads I mentioned.
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mkolmar

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #5 on: April 10, 2023, 04:05:11 pm »

OS: Windows 10
Antivirus: Windows built-in
Files: Mainly FLAC, large library, files on NAS, MC library is on local disk

I have previously disabled Windows virus & threat protection with no change, and have been trying to figure out this issue for a long time.

If you don't do anything in MC that takes several seconds to finish, using a fast PC, smaller library, no NAS, this problem may never happen, at least not to the point that you get the wait/quit dialog or a crash happens. As I mentioned, I can reproduce the wait/quit dialog on a fast notebook PC running a fresh install of MC30 by loading a challenging view (panes with album and track counts, durations, size). I also get the spinning blue circle briefly during normal use, but that wouldn't often become an obstacle or escalate because tasks (e.g. load a view, begin playback) finish quickly enough. HTPC behaves worse because it is slower. I do not have similar issues on the HTPC with other apps.
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Matt

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #6 on: April 10, 2023, 04:21:21 pm »

Please provide a crash dump.  The wiki has instructions.
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mkolmar

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #7 on: April 10, 2023, 05:29:02 pm »

Crashed MC30 with logging enabled. No crash dump is written alongside the log, and the log ends with seemingly unrelated background activity. I caused the crash by deleting files from the library, trying to time my next click to the moment when MC would become responsive again.
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JimH

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #8 on: April 11, 2023, 01:16:33 am »

Crash or freeze?

In a crash, MC will disappear completely.
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JimH

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #9 on: April 11, 2023, 01:24:19 am »

Make sure you configure Windows Defender: https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php/topic,114101.0.html

Set up a test library with only local files (without the NAS).  Update the NAS firmware.
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mkolmar

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #10 on: April 11, 2023, 10:13:24 am »

As I outlined, the freezes sometimes escalate to a crash. By crash, I mean MC terminates immediately.

Windows Defender is configured as described a long time ago.

Should be able to test using a USB drive. I strongly suspect network storage contributes to the problem. For example, you should be able to make Windows Explorer itself do the blue circle and go grey by trying to access a network path that is not available. MC may be at the mercy of whatever nonsense Windows OS is doing in this kind of situation.

Does MC read the audio files at all if one is only browsing the library? Assuming thumbnails were already created, not doing import.
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JimH

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Re: Frequent crashes, easy to reproduce
« Reply #11 on: April 11, 2023, 11:13:12 am »

If you have auto import set up to watch a network drive and, for any reason, it's unavailable, bad things can happen.  MC asks the OS to do its job, and if the OS can't, you could definitely see what you're seeing.

Try a local drive, not a USB drive, with a small test library, to see if you can reproduce the problem.
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JimH

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Re: Frequent freezes
« Reply #12 on: April 11, 2023, 11:24:24 am »

Did you try the Weird and Wonderful thread?

Here's an example of a similar NAS problem:  https://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=104047.0
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mkolmar

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Re: Frequent freezes
« Reply #13 on: April 11, 2023, 08:50:56 pm »

I was able to crash MC after the fresh library, during single-folder import, had grown to about 50,000 FLAC files on a USB drive. Most users wouldn't click around as aggressively as I did for the test, but I did crash the app by doing that on purpose.
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JimH

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Re: Frequent freezes
« Reply #14 on: April 12, 2023, 12:54:37 am »

Crash or freeze?

Local test?
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mkolmar

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Re: Frequent freezes
« Reply #15 on: April 12, 2023, 09:16:49 am »

Crash, terminated immediately, no more dialog displayed. Once the library reached a size where the blue circle happens at times, seems like enough mouse clicks at the right time can cause a crash. Library on system drive, all media on USB HD. Is there a way we can tell whether MC is ending or Windows terminates the process?
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