[WT-support] WT freezes randomly with contest recorder on

[dl2alf]

Hi all,

 

we had the same experiences here @DL0GTH and @DK0NA a couple of times.

Please see my findings below:

 

The Windows sound subsystem doesn’t seem to have a proper exception handling at least for all versions until Win10.

If any call to one of the subsystem’s procedures runs on failure, the call hangs infinitely but no exception is thrown.

Depending on the design, this behavior can cause serious problems in the parent application.

 

Regarding Win-Test we observed the following when using  an USB sound card for recording:

If we unplug the soundcard during an active recording, Win-Test freezes immediately (probably due to above).

Same happens when storing Win-Test log & recordings on a network drive and the network dropped out for a moment.

 

My suggestion to avoid this:

 

Use an internal sound card for recording whenever possible.

Use a reliable local drive for saving the log & recordings (no USB stick or disk)

 

@Larry: my tests are somewhat outdated with an older version of Win-Test. But it should be easy for you to reproduce the above mentioned behavior with  current versions.

As a workaround in my own applications I’m using a separate thread for audio recording and another one the supervise the audio thread.

This can be done easily by monitoring a heartbeat or by checking the file size of the recording. If the audio thread hangs I simply kill it and start it over again.

This will cause a short dropout but better than freezing the thread or application.

 

Hope that helps!

 

73 de Frank, DL2ALF

 

 

Von: support [mailto:support-bounces at win-test.com] Im Auftrag von Bob Wilson, N6TV
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 10. August 2023 10:35
An: Win-Test support mailing list
Betreff: Re: [WT-support] WT freezes randomly with contest recorder on

 

I've also had some trouble with recording lately on Windows 10, but I blamed it on also running HamCap (Ionoprobe + VOACAP) continuously at the same time (map display), which seems to get stuck in a loop after a few hours, messing up the recorder, but not the rest of Win-Test.

73,
Bob, N6TV

 

On Thu, Aug 10, 2023, 1:10 AM Christian Janssen <chris at dl1mgb.com> wrote:

Hi Laurent,

last year, we had the same issue here at the station when we had audio recording running. We then switched off the audio recording and the freezing was not anymore.

The audio recording was done in that way that a new file is created every 40 Mb (around 1 hour). The freezing happened randomly about 3 to 7 hours after starting the audio recording.

My feeling is that something in Windows 10 wants to get access to the audio resources, doesn't get it and creates trouble. Windows 10 is known to be a trouble maker with audio...

73s Chris




Laurent HAAS - F6FVY schrieb am 10.08.2023 09:43 (GMT +02:00):

> Hi Chris
> 
> Le 10/08/2023 à 08:07, Christian Janssen DL1MGB a écrit :
> 
>> We have a 3 PC setup (Windows 10), 1x IC7610, 1x Flex 6400, 1x TS590. All WT
>> 4.47.4. All three are now running for two days, all three with contest
>> recorder on. Randomly, WT on any of these three can freeze and has to be
>> aborted and restarted.
> 
> Are you saying that it's because the recorder is on that Win-Test 
> crashes, or is it a coincidence ? To be fair, I personally never 
> recorded over 48h or so in a row (the mp3 file size is around 600 MB in 
> that case).
> 
> For the record (pun intended), we have several Win-Test running on 
> remote stations for days or weeks in a row (with no recording) and only 
> power outages make them restart ;-) But, there are running on Win7 
> machines (for those I know).
> 
> 73
> 
> Larry - F6FVY
> 
> -- 
> 
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> 
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