Overlays stopped playing

[hdradio]

While I was at home noticed that PF stopped playing my overlays. NOTHING.
Time announces, commercials etc.

Looking at the log the last overlay played at 09:45.

I 've found the following entry in debug log:

Code: Select all

20/12/2014 11:58:32: OverlayScheduler: WARNING: Overlay 'Time is (exactly)@2014-12-20T12:00:00' not directly processed Current 'Time is (exactly)@2014-12-20T10:00:00' still running (Status (Hidden) background thread still busy, Count=13).
20/12/2014 11:58:32: OverlayScheduler: WARNING: Overlay '_1200_48@2014-12-20T12:00:00' not directly processed Current 'Time is (exactly)@2014-12-20T10:00:00' still running (Status (Hidden) background thread still busy, Count=13).

I don't want to comment anything else at the moment because I 'll be the bad guy again

[radio42]

Me either!
I slowly get the feeling, that it might be your PC or a component of the PC?
From that log entry it really looks like a system issue! - isn't that also the PC on which your VST isn't restoring correctly whereas on other PCs it is working?

The state as written in the log you showed was an extra check I once added to log, if a system becomes unstable.
This can actually only happen in either a (near) out-of-memory situation OR if the thread-processing of the OS got corrupt (please do not ask me how this can happen - that's Microsoft to explain, but it can, if e.g. a system driver becomes instable or is buggy; a hardware component is defect; the OS itself is unstable or a system driver component stopped working - which can be nearly everything, from a device driver to a display driver, an audio component, a CPU, the memory etc. etc).

I try to explain, why this is from a ProppFrexx application point of view impossible to enter such state.
You see, that the Status is reported as (Hidden).
I do change this status as the last line in my code before the overlay player thread ends!
However, the above log entry is only written, after some time, if the overlay player thread is still alive!
As such the overlay player thread is still alive, but the last line was already reached.
As such, there is NOTHING in between which can go wrong - except the system (OS) was unable to terminate the thread after its last line of code.
And this is what happened!

Have you already tried to check your system according to this post?
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=915

[hdradio]

Yes I 've read and tested what you describe in that post.
My conclusion is that if it's a microsoft bug, I can't do much to solve it.
I am thinking to format and reinstall the OS. It's too much work but OVERLAYS HAVE TO PLAY. The whole station future depends on them (if you understand what I mean).

[radio42]

So what have been the results of the tests...as I mentioned a few?
- Did you get any latency spikes?
- Did you get any memory errors?
- Any USB errors?

Not sure if it is only the OS?
As it is often a component or a driver.
I once had a customer using an onboard soundcard - once he changed that to an (in his case RME card) all problems have been gone.
I am not saying, that it is the soundcard in your case...but I simply do not know.

Before you change all components...we might try to identify/eliminate the components.
I personally would start with your 'virtual' devices you mentioned...are these Breakaway-Drivers?
If yes, can you try to exchange them by regular drivers?

[hdradio]

The results were all good.
There are not any virtual devices installed on this pc.

Now that we are talking about microsoft bug. Why is a microsoft bug and not any Developer Express Library bug ? You 've already said that there are bugs on this library.

And how can I find where is the bug if this is not reproducible ? It first happened this morning.

[radio42]

The UI lib is not involved in that part of the code.
But I didn't say, that it is Microsoft bug. I said it could be anywhere.
Finding such bug (if existing) is almost only possible by try and error and excluding or changing components one by one - if finding it at all is possible.

There are a few tools available, which test certain components, like a memory stress test, a CPU stress test, a hard drive stress test etc.
all these tests run various hours and require to run dedicated...so that can take a couple of days even.
But as said, it can also be anything else...
...it could also be a corrupted audio file which brought the system into an unstable state...as far as I remember we already found a few once:
Could that be the same this time?

but when you said the results where all good, I am wondering what tests you did within 1 or 2 hours?
E.g. a memory stress test requires all applications to be stopped.
The latency spike test must run a couple of hours... etc.

Before doing any further test, I would run the system first on a different PC to see if that changes things...
Do you have another backup PC for your station to test with resp. to run the station while?

[radio42]

Do you happen to have a debug log from the above date/time.
Maybe I can identify something from the log - especially identify the overlay which did not terminate correctly (which must be 13 overlays prior to the ones you posted above).
May be that gives us some starting point. E.g. from here we might check the relates time range within the windows event log etc.

So if you have, please post me your full debug log.

[hdradio]

Sent.

Taking a look at debug log I noticed that in all overlays these two lines exist:

Code: Select all

20/12/2014 09:43:33: Overlay '_0945_39@2014-12-20T09:45:00' PrepareOverlayStream (1 entries found).
20/12/2014 09:43:33: Overlay '_0945_39@2014-12-20T09:45:00' PrepareOverlayStream (1 Tracks, Duration=00:00:43.7550000, LengthNext=00:00:43.7550000).

This is the last overlay played.
The next one stops here:

Code: Select all

20/12/2014 09:58:25: Overlay 'Time is (exactly)@2014-12-20T10:00:00' PrepareOverlayStream (3 entries found).

Must be a problem in PrepareOverlayStream. But you know better how to decode the debug log.

[XTended]

Got the same here Bernd, since latest update !!
I will create debug log too of next hour.

Bert Koning
Radio Aa en Hunze

[hdradio]

Thank god. I thought it was just me!
And I was ready to format and reinstall the OS.