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[Amleth]

Was working fine until a few days ago, Haven't made any changes to system hardware or settings, or JRiver settings, but now I can't even get through a 30 minute TV episode without at least one crash. The crashes happen even when nothing is playing, too. I can leave MC paused while reading a web page, leaving the room, etc, and when I come back it's no longer running. All my other software seems to work just fine, so no idea what's going on here but it's extremely frustrating.

When it's restarted I get the little dialog box with the three options to tick; I've tried it with them all ticked and all unticked and it continues to crash. I also tried turning the hardware video acceleration checkbox off but no difference, though if it's crashing even when not playing stuff back I don't see how that would have helped anyway.

[glynor]

Please read and follow:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Troubleshooting_Guide

[Amleth]

Okay, I turned on logging 2-3 crashes ago, and exported the zip just now. How do I submit it? The troubleshooting page says to attach it here, but I can't seem to find the option.

The software will be running (minimised or background or during playback, it seems to make no difference), then just quietly disappear, with no error or notification or whatever. When restarted, it will still be on the last file playing with the last playlist open, but when you play that file it will start from the beginning instead of the point where it was interrupted, which it normally does.

Edit: And Avast was installed but after reading the troubleshooting page I uninstalled it and subsequently found the problem persisted. I then enabling logging to capture some crashes.

[glynor]

Click on this link:


If it is too big to attach directly, visit the Logging wiki article for other suggestions:
http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Logging

[Amleth]

Attached.

[Amleth]

I've had another 10-20 crashes since last night. Should I upload a new log?

[glynor]

We really need the log generated immediately on the first re-launch after a crash.

Please also provide whatever other information you can from the What to Include in Your Post section of the guide.

[Amleth]

The log I posted WAS generated immediately upon restarting after one of the silent crashes.

The only thing I haven't already provided from the list of "things to include" in a troubleshooting report is the exact version number of JRiver, but I'm running the latest build (20.0.103). I think this behaviour may have started after an automatically downloaded JRiver update, and I've manually updated two versions since (by manually checking) and the behaviour persists. It's really becoming quite infuriating.

Edit: Fresh log added, also immediately after a crash.

[glynor]

Sorry for the trouble. I certainly understand that it is frustrating. Unfortunately, the log you posted earlier and just now both do not contain a crash dump, which is what I was looking for, and neither records a crash.  I wasn't clear from this line if you had generated the zip file immediately after a crash or not.  MC only keeps the current and previous log files (and any crash dumps from the previous run).

Okay, I turned on logging 2-3 crashes ago, and exported the zip just now.

A few things I can recommend off the bat...

You said:

The only thing I haven't already provided from the list of "things to include" in a troubleshooting report is the exact version number of JRiver, but I'm running the latest build (20.0.103).

20.0.103 is not the latest build.  That is the current "stable" build.  The latest build is 20.0.115.  MC has two distribution channels (just like how Microsoft will have multiple "rings" of updates for Windows 10).  The "stable" build channel is really the "slow" build channel.  As is explained in the Troubleshooting Guide:

The version of MC available on the main external JRiver Download Page is not always, or even typically, the most recent build. The versions offered there are generally older builds that have proved reasonably trouble-free for most users. The version there is the same version that will be seen by the built-in Auto Update system in Media Center. Updates to this build only happen occasionally, if for no other reason than it isn't annoying that it pops up the "Update Me" dialog as often.

It is essential to update to the most recent publicly available build of Media Center before reporting the issue (or trying additional steps to correct it). Otherwise, if the issue has been already addressed, you are only wasting everyone's time.

Note: You can typically install new builds "over top" of existing installs of MC. However, if you are having trouble, a good troubleshooting step would be to try to uninstall MC completely, and then reinstall. The uninstaller does allow you to preserve all existing settings when doing this.

Did you try this?  You should be running 20.0.115 then, but the log also indicates build 103.

Also, I'd love answers to this whole section: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Troubleshooting_Guide#Look_For_Patterns

Unless we can get a Log that shows a crash, and contains a crash dump, we'll have to investigate via other means.  Those questions there are the ones I'd type here to try to help.  So, not trying to be a jerk, or deflective, just trying to get information.

Thanks in advance for any additional information you can provide.

[Amleth]

"Does it only happen during Playback, when you are switching between Media Views, or when MC is sitting idle?"

Already answered. It happens whether playing back or paused, foreground or background. If playing,. the audio skips and garbles for a fraction of a sec, the display refreshes (I have auto switch turned on to change film to 24Hz, etc), and then MC is just gone, and I see my desktop or whatever window was underneath. If in the background when it crashes, there's no sign it's crashed until you notice its icon isn't on the task bar anymore.

"If it only happens during Playback, does it only happen with particular types of files?"

Happens seemingly at random. It's happened twice getting just 16 minutes into the movie I'm trying to watch right now.

"Does it only happen if the source files are on a Network volume? If you move the files to the system drive, do they work properly?"

Happens playing back from a local disk, over the network, or not playing anything at all.

"If it happens at idle, try disabling Auto-Import in the background and see if this makes the problem stop."

Okay, will try that.

"If you are using Media Network features, does it only happen on the Client, or the Server, or both?"

It's only happening on this one machine, with a local library.

"Are Thumbnails building or any other processes running in the background?"

There's no little progress box in the Action Window suggesting anything is happening in he background, although I'm generally in full screen watching stuff or MC is minimised when it crashes, so there's no way to see for certain if it was doing something else at that exact instant. Wouldn't the log show if a process like that was running and was interrupted, though?

[glynor]

There's no error message from the OS of any kind?  That is very bizarre.  The crash reporting on Windows is something the OS does.  It is like something is killing MC's process externally, or it is being intentionally closed (though not via any normal means).

Sure you don't have any remote controls or automation scripts run amok?

In the most recent of your logs (logging start 3/06/2015 10:51 am, I assume a European-style date), the last thing the main thread (4200) was doing was:

* Starting up a playback thread (3512) at 0779412.
* Downloading/checking for Podcasts at 0786728, which appears to finish normally.

The playback thread ran till 0805729 (26.3 seconds). Then the log just stops.  It doesn't even shut down, it just stops.  No crash is shown (not surprising, considering no OS crash dialog comes up), no crash dump, nothing.  Just stops executing, as though killed in Task Manager or Process Explorer.

It could be a GPU or other hardware hault (overheating CPU, bad RAM), but I don't have much to go on.

In any case, do the uninstall/reinstall and make sure to use the latest build (20.0.115, pinned in a post at the top of this board).  If that doesn't help, disable auto-import and let us know if you see any changes.  You can check to see if background processes are running via the Reporter (instructions in Troubleshooting Background Tools, linked in the Troubleshooting Guide under the Background Tools section), but that typically applies more to hangs and poor performance, than this kind of thing.  Auto-import could be a culprit (sudden, non-correlated to playback, crashes are often due to a corrupt file in a Watched directory), but... I don't see Auto-Import doing anything in your logs, and it doesn't look like a normal crash.

Still, I can't say I've seen too much of this kind of thing, so...  ?

[glynor]

In the earlier of your logs (Starting logging: Date: 2/06/2015 8:38 pm), the main thread (4824) had just finished a database save (but it finished), and the playback thread was again active.  Looks like it may have actually been paused though.

A little earlier, it detected a change to DLNA devices on your network (or something like that):

Code: [Select]

0938502: 3288: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleConnection: Start
0938502: 3288: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleRequest: UDP: 192.168.1.1: NOTIFY: http://239.255.255.250:1900*
0938502: 3288: Sharing Plugins: CSSDPWorker::ProcessNotify: ssdp:alive: uuid:87f92e6c-053b-4771-8f2e-ac215883ca10::urn:schemas-upnp-org:service:WANPPPConnection:1
0938502: 3288: Sharing Plugins: CHTTPListenerWorker::HandleConnection: Finish (0 ms)
0938502: 2348: Sharing Plugins: CUDPSocketReader::Accept: Start
0939017: 4824: Sharing Plugins: CMCDLNA::DLNACore_DevicesChanged: Start
0939017: 4824: Sharing Plugins: CDLNACore::AddRenderer: Start
0939017: 4824: Sharing Plugins: CDLNACore::AddRenderer: Finish (0 ms)
0939017: 4824: Sharing Plugins: CMCDLNA::DLNACore_DevicesChanged: Finish (0 ms)
But, again, that appeared to finish.  I do see a lot of these in both logs:

Code: [Select]

0952979: 4824: General: CMCUICore::SystemPowerManager_UpdateActions: Start
0952979: 4824: General: CMCUICore::SystemPowerManager_UpdateActions: UI Mode: -995; Playing: 0
0952979: 4824: General: CMCUICore::SystemPowerManager_UpdateActions: Playback state: 1
0952979: 4824: General: CMCUICore::SystemPowerManager_UpdateActions: Finish (result: 0) (0 ms)
But those look generally normal.  I'm not sure what the Playback state: 1 is about.  My current log (MC sitting open and visible, but idle) the correlating lines look like:

Code: [Select]

12824954: 9644: General: CMCUICore::SystemPowerManager_UpdateActions: Start
12824954: 9644: General: CMCUICore::SystemPowerManager_UpdateActions: UI Mode: -999; Playing: 0
12824954: 9644: General: CMCUICore::SystemPowerManager_UpdateActions: Finish (result: 0) (0 ms)
I'm not sure what that is.  Mine doesn't show that Playback state: 1 part, even when playing-but-paused.  When playing, it lists Playing: 1, so your playback isn't active.  But... There's a Playback Thread getting data and giving it to CBitrateMonitor.  So... Is it paused?  Or is something else happening?

Do you have the WDM Driver active?  Maybe that's what the playback thread with Playing: 0/Playstate: 1 is all about?

In any case, not extremely suspicious, except that it just...Stops. Not a huge amount to go on.

[Amleth]

WDM is disabled (since I can't turn it on without it periodically replacing my Playing Now list with some sort of stream link thing that doesn't actually play if double-clicked). I was looking forward to the WDM feature to run game audio without the Windows mixer munging it, but it's just not usable when it does the above while you have a MC session open.

Perhaps the "playstate" is related to display mode switching? I have that enabled, but keeping the same res (1080p) and changing refresh rates only according to content refresh rate.

Anyway, after my last post, I disabled auto import, and the crashing seems to have stopped. I tried manually running auto import afterwards and it induced a crash. Strangely, after restarting from that and trying again, it was able to complete a scan and now it seems to no longer crash even with auto-import turned back on. Bizarre. Even more so since the logs don't seem to show the import starting and failing, even though it would run for a minute or two before causing crash, and would scan thousands of files.

I'm still running the latest "stable" build (though the name seems a bit ironic at the moment).

Also, I notice that TMDB import is still not working. I guess that fix hasn't made it's way to the stable build yet?

[JimH]

If you can find a file that causes the crash, we'd like to see it.

[6233638]

WDM is disabled (since I can't turn it on without it periodically replacing my Playing Now list with some sort of stream link thing that doesn't actually play if double-clicked). I was looking forward to the WDM feature to run game audio without the Windows mixer munging it, but it's just not usable when it does the above while you have a MC session open.

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=97913.msg676687#msg676687

[glynor]

I'm still running the latest "stable" build (though the name seems a bit ironic at the moment).

As I mentioned, it means stable as in: it does not change quickly, not stable as in "works better". It is the equivalent of Microsoft's slow ring for updates on Windows 10.

Also, I notice that TMDB import is still not working. I guess that fix hasn't made it's way to the stable build yet?

Correct.

[mwillems]

WDM is disabled (since I can't turn it on without it periodically replacing my Playing Now list with some sort of stream link thing that doesn't actually play if double-clicked). I was looking forward to the WDM feature to run game audio without the Windows mixer munging it, but it's just not usable when it does the above while you have a MC session open.

I would also add: http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/WDM_Driver#Problems_With_Streaming_Video_Using_Media_Center.27s_Internal_Browser_and.2For_Erasing_Playing_Now

[CountryBumkin]

I'm not a computer geek - so I can't help much (plus you got one of the smartest guys on the forum helping now) but I'd like to add that I 've had plenty of similar crashes, freezes, and issues over the years which, in my case, have always been due to some issue with my computer (never a JRiver program bug). I had bad memory once, a faulty CPU fan, bad NIC, corrupted Windows program, you name it.

What might help is to run the Windows Resource Monitor (ctrl+Alt+Del >task manager >resource monitor) and keep it open while watching a Show or Movie to see if anything unusual shows with CPU, Disk Load, memory , etc. This worked for me to help me figure out that my small SSD drive was filling up with Temp files during playback and causing a freeze. Windows also has a built in Memory tester and there are some good third-party "system testers" available for free.

Since your system is freezing/crashing often, it shouldn't take to long to find the cause.

Good Luck.