MM2.0 (Build 544) freezes while looking up freedb

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tralla
Posts: 75
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2003 1:18 pm

MM2.0 (Build 544) freezes while looking up freedb

Post by tralla »

Hi all,

I installed Media Monkey (Build 544) over my old Songs-DB installation and found that it retained almost all my old settings except for the Gold registration. I definitely liked this.

However, when entering CDs I twice had the problem of MM freezing completely when looking up CDs in freedb: I have 2 CD drives and since I'm still entering my collection I use them both. SDB never had a problem with this, now it seems that MM has. Once I had an MS Access Update error with this but unfortunately I can't give you any details. As written, the program freezes completely, so I can't be more specific. :-(

Cheers, Susanne

P.S.: I don't really like the new name. The old one just says what it is, plain and simple. However, if the name MEDIA Monkey means that support for multiple media (my LP collection...) will be added soon, I won't say anything against it. ;-)
rusty
Posts: 8398
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

MM2.0 (Build 544) freezes while looking up freedb

Post by rusty »

Susanne,
We had problems of this nature (when 2 CDs are used) in earlier builds, but thought we had them licked. To help debug this can you tell me:
-what build of Songs-DB were you using that didn't have the problem
-assuming CD Reader is being used for playback, which drivers is it using (ASPI or Win32--you can find this out in the CD-reader configuration screen)
-what set of steps reproduces the problem.

thx.

-Rusty
rusty
Posts: 8398
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

MM2.0 (Build 544) freezes while looking up freedb

Post by rusty »

Also, in Control Panel / Regional Options: under Numbers, what symbol do you use for 'Decimal'?

I ask because we noticed a bug that may possibly be related to this issue that occurs when user use anything other than a '.' to represent a decimal.

-Rusty
tralla
Posts: 75
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2003 1:18 pm

Post by tralla »

Rusty,

I don't think the problem occured with build 540. Unfortunately, I can't reproduce it at will - I *think* it may be related to switching CDs very fast on one drive and doing an "Add Tracks to database" on the other but it's not deterministic. If it happens again, I'll try to remember the exact steps.

Configuration:
1: Control Panel / Regional Options: I use ',' (colon) for 'Decimal' (German setting).

2: CD-Reader: Do you mean the MM plug-in (CD Reader v1.95 (x86))? It says that both drives are ASPI. The master is a Toshiba DVD-ROM SD-M1612, the slave a TEAC CD-W524E .

Hope that helps, Susanne
rusty
Posts: 8398
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

MM2.0 (Build 544) freezes while looking up freedb

Post by rusty »

If you're able to determine repro steps, try changing your configuration to use a '.' for Decimal to see if it has any impact (doubtful but a possibility).

Also, one other question: Are CDs associated with MediaMonkey (i.e. when you insert a CD does it automatically play in MM)?

Note: when the bug occured in earlier builds, it only seemed to happen when the CD being queried was not already in CDPlayer.ini.

-Rusty
rusty
Posts: 8398
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

Post by rusty »

fyi, as far as I can tell, there haven't been any cd-related changes between build 540 and 544. Also, here's some info from the release notes that might be useful:
  • Problem: Error messages when playing CDs (usually on a system with multiple CD drives).
    On some systems, MediaMonkey will have trouble playing CDs, due to an incorrect mapping
    between physical drives and their associated drive letter. This typically occurs when
    drive letters and IDE interfaces are not in the same order. This can be resolved by
    configuring the the CD Reader Input Plug-in:
    -Click 'Tools' | 'Options' | 'Input Plug-ins' | 'CD Reader' and press 'Configure'
    -Highlight each drive, and Configure each interface to use 'Win32' instead of 'ASPI'
    or
    -Highlight each drive, press 'Configure' and change the 'ASPI device' to the physical
    device that actually maps to the drive letter in question.
    -->Once you press 'Ok' (3x) and exit the options dialog, your problem should be solved.
    More information about how Windows assigns drive letters can be found here:
    http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... -US;234048

    If CD problems persist, you may want to install version 4.6 of Adaptec's ASPI drivers.
    More information about this can be found at:
    http://aspi.radified.com/aspi.htm

    If you still experience error messages, you can disable digital CD playback, by deleting
    the in_cdreader.dll plug-in from the /plugins directory.
Although you're not experiencing the same problem, it sounds to me as if the problem is CD-driver related, and thus any of the approaches suggested above might also work.

-Rusty
tralla
Posts: 75
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2003 1:18 pm

Post by tralla »

Rusty,

thanks for the fast feedback. Will keep the "Decimal" problem in mind.

Associations: All audio is associated with Winamp. MM is also configured to use Winamp as the default player, and I don't use autostart on my CD drive.

The freeze definitely happens when freedb is queried, i.e. there is no entry in cdplayer.ini for any of the two CDs in the drives.

The CD drives are configured in the right order, and I'm running ASPI 4.71. I'd like to keep these drivers set for the time being as I'm using other tools that need them.

Anyway, if the problem reoccurs I'll try to get you more information.

Cheers, Susanne
tralla
Posts: 75
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2003 1:18 pm

Post by tralla »

Rusty,

not exactly the same problem but here's something I *can* reproduce (no settings changed):

Two CDs in the drives, queries to freedb go through okay.
I right-click drive Y (the slave) and "Add tracks to database..."
I right-click drive X (the master) and "Add tracks to database..."
CD in drive Y is added.
Media Monkey says "Reading tracks" in the status line but doesn't react any more. You can click on items or get a search form but you don't get any data. For all practical reasons, the program is dead.

Task manager says that the program is running. When I shut it down via task manager, I get a "Program doesn't react" message.

Does this help any?
Cheers, Susanne
tralla
Posts: 75
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2003 1:18 pm

Post by tralla »

Sorry, it's me again, forgot something:

When I get Media Monkey in this state and try to exit it via the "File" Menu, it says "There are threads running. Terminate them?" Clicking "Yes" doesn't do any good, you have to terminate via Task Manager (see previous post).
rusty
Posts: 8398
Joined: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:39 am
Location: Montreal, Canada

freeze while looking up freedb

Post by rusty »

It appears that this bug had 2 causes:
1) UI freeze due to error messages in response to CD removal. If the user doesn't click 'OK' _or_ inserts another CD without clicking 'OK' the UI becomes unresponsive. This has been fixed in RC-2 by changing some of the MM default settings (basically we've set the CD Player plug-in to not generate error messages, since it was these messages that were causing the problems). Note: you .ini file will not be replaced with the .ini file from the new version of MM unless you uninstall the old one. If you don't want to lose your settings, simply disable error messages from within the CD Reader plug-in.

2) Some thread handling problems in the app led to the fact that the task manager had to be used to get out of this situation. This has also been fixed in RC-2.
tralla
Posts: 75
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2003 1:18 pm

Post by tralla »

Sorry about the late reply. The problem is definitely with thread handling: A combination of trying to write into the library and trying to read tracks from another CD at the same time freezes the app reproducably. My database is now some 11MB - a lot more than when I started with Songs-DB, so maybe the problem becomes more obvious as the DB gets larger.

I have just installed RC-2 and haven't tried it yet but I'll post my results to this thread later.

Cheers, Susanne
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