New Version Problems
 

I had a gig tonight and was plagued with a number of problems using the latest version of Hoster.

The first thing I noticed was a very bad lag. When putting in the song number, normally it shows the name of the song right away but not tonight. It took around 5 to 10 seconds before I could tab down to enter the singers name.

I noticed that during this time, the program became unresponsive and the mouse pointer would disappear anytime it was over the program. Everything else in my system seemed to be fine. It was only Hoster that was having issues.

Opening the search dialog box and entering a song name would have the same results...only a much longer pause with the mouse pointer turning to an hourglass.

It seems like anytime the program had to access the hard-drive it did this.

Also, while a singer was singing, I tried to add a track from another singers CD. I got a fatal error Windows dialog box that popped up over Hoster asking if I wanted to report it to Microsoft. Since the current song continued to play, I did nothing until it was done. I then clicked the 'don't send' button. The dialog box and Hoster both closed immediately.

I restarted Hoster and was only able to add tracks from the singers disc while no songs were playing.

It was a very frustrating and upsetting night. I've been using Hoster for quite awhile now without anything like this happening.

Any ideas what could be happening?

By the way, all Microsoft updates had been done (except SP3), and the drive was completely defragmented earlier this week.

Also, I checked task manager while Hoster was running and the cpu load and memory looked normal.

Whatever is happening, I need to have it fixed a.s.a.p. (before the next gig).

Downgrade Possible?
 

Is it possible to rollback to an earlier version to see if these issues will go away?

If so, how would I go about doing that?

It is possible if you still have the setup file for the earlier version. MTU does not keep those where we can download them. That is why they say to save them in a safe place.

If Hoster has been running ok until last night then think about what if anything you have done since the last time you used it before. Could be something you changed or added that may have triggered the slowdown.
Have you tried running Chckdisk to see if the drive may have any bad sectors popping up? Those can give you fits and have you chasing your own tail.
I would recommend you go ahead and do the SP3 update. I don't think it has anything to do with this problem but it can't hurt.
Try un-installing and re-installing Hoster and see if that clears it up. Rebuilding the database wouldn't hurt either as the database file may have a problem in it that is slowing down its response to the program.

I've seen this Behavior when drive is badly fragged or registry needs cleaning.
I would recommend trying this first.

Joe...

Thanks for the reply ddouglass. You're always a wealth of information.

I don't know if you're the same, but sometimes in a state of frustration I don't always think clearly (especially after a long night). I knew I could count on y'all to bring some clarity.

I'm thinking re-install and re-build might be the best bet once everything else is checked out. It really seems to be program related (as opposed to a system issue) since Hoster was the only program having issues. (I also run OtsDJ to play background music and videos between singers. It's always run flawlessly with Hoster.)

Oh, one of the other issues it was having was I absolutely could not change the pitch of any song. This has never been a problem before either. I tried changing the A, B, C audio selection thang and it made no difference. If I entered a song with even just a -1, the song would stutter very bad. As soon as I would click '0' while the song was playing, it would clear up. Real bummer to one of my singers that wanted every song "down one".

Doesn't it just figure...
 

So I get the gig machine out. Get it all setup. Boot Windows, load Hoster, and guess what...no issues.

Now I really don't know what to think. I've started other applications, played videos in OtsDJ. Come back to Hoster...running fine. No lag, key change working fine, searches are as fast as ever. <sigh>

So now I'm concerned about what to do at the next gig when it happens again.

Since I can't determine the root cause or find a definite resolution, I'm left with a big question mark in my mind. :?

The one thing I wasn't able to do last night at the gig was reboot. I shut down and restarted Hoster a number of times without any change. Maybe a reboot would have fixed it. Buy why?

And how do you gracefully go about rebooting your machine after the show has started?

I really love using Hoster and have impressed many people over the years with it. But this uncertainty is enough to give me an ulcer. :f

Guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed that this was a fluke.

I have had computer problems on occasion where i've needed to reboot, so I usually bring my ipod (or some other music source) play a song or two while rebooting...

As far as the other problems, it could have been a background program or task that loaded improperly, or a task that hung up, hogging the processor, seems like that would have been a perfect time for a reboot...as we all know sometimes Windows just doesn't play well, and usually rebooting solves problems more times than not...

Flip

When it happens in a show. I usually just apologize and state we are having a slight technical difficult thanks to Microsoft, reboot and press on. Not much else you can do.

Your post is interesting. If Hoster continued to have a problem after you shut down and restarted, I'd say it was Hoster's fault.

However, since rebooting the computer cleared the problem, this sounds like what I have seen many times with various programs since 1973 (yes '73). It is related to the computer RAM.

1. If the problem happens again, I would suspect your RAM has a bad area that is going bonkers when it heats up... could run find while cooler.

2. I'm not joking here... the size of a RAM memory cell today in the silicon chip is so small that a single Cosmic Ray (Alpha particle) has enough energy to change the contents from a 1 to a 0, or 0 to 1. This was reported about a decade ago by a scientist who was doing some testing USING computers in a deep cavern in the Earth. The Earth shielded the computers from high-energy Alpha particles. Further research by the article author gave conclusive evidence that "random problems" could be caused by the RAM contents being changed once the computer was running.

Since around 1992, I have made this point, and often it "appears" to be the only explanation.

If you continue to have random problems, and Hoster is the ONLY program affected, try loading some other program first, then load Hoster. This "can" place the other program in the "bad RAM" area (depending on the size of that program versus Hoster). If a problem then occurs with the other program, replace your computer RAM.

If the problem continues in Hoster only, then it is appropriate to question whether Hoster is causing this itself.

I'll watch this Thread and see if others report the same slow down as you have here. If not, it may indicate this is a "system" related problem, not a deficiency in Hoster.

Our Beta Testers on 4.00 have reported slowness as you have. However, it doesn't "go away" when they reboot so I don't think your problem with 3.321a (see Help > About Video Hoster dialog for the running version) is what they are experiencing with 4.00.

its less time consuming and cheaper to replace the ram.

Never mind
 

:tI found the answer myself. I didn't have any trouble installing 3.321 on Vista, so I never knew about the "a" version to fix this problem that others were having.


Just curious- What is the difference between 3.321a and 3.321? And why is there an "a" version?

There are some good free RAM test programs available. Search the web for them and test your RAM to see if the test can tell you which one. Be sure to run the test long enough for the computer to heat up good.

I agree this could definitely be a RAM problem, but I don't think heat would be a huge factor because the problem described was happening right away and continued thoughout the night with no appreciable change (for the better or worse).

I am certainly going to test the RAM I have to see if I can find any issues with it. If so, it would actually be a relief and an easy enough fix.

Thanks a bunch for everyone's suggestions and ddouglass, YOU ROCK! :g

Im also curious about the difference between 3.321a and 3.321?

3.321a is to FIX installation problems on Vista. Doesn't appear to be any other changes.

I see that v 4.0 is scheduled for release (on XP) for Monday.

Has this 'slow down' issue been addressed?

What was determined as the root cause and resolution?

The slowdown in 4.0 has been fixed. You have to understand there is a lot of new code in it that is not related to your problem. All they have had to do is fix some errors in the code for 4.0 which happens anytime you write new program parts. We also had to do some updating on our computers as well such as IE7 and SP3.