V1.8.5 Windows 7 SP1 issue

[tloebl]

Hi Juan,

under some, as yet unknown circumstances, if I close PI and try to reopen it, I get an error message. When this happens, I go to Task manager and find that the PI process is still running. If I shut it down there I can relaunch it ok. If I just open and then close PI I can't seem to reproduce the problem but it usually seems to happen after extended activity in PI after which I shut it down and try to reopen it. Can't reproduce it each time yet. I'll try to get more details.

Tom

[Niall Saunders]

Hi Tom,

Try keeping the Task Manager 'open' as you shut down PixInsight - how long does it take for your system to actually shut the task down fully?

I have seen some applications take quite an appreciable time to shut down - during which time it is either impossible to re-open them or, when they do re-open, they seem to be behaving in some bizzare fashion.

Let us know what you see.

[tloebl]

My Intel I5 is reasonably peppy but after a full minute it has not shut PI down in Task Manager. After 2 minutes it looks like it's permanently open unless I force a shutdown.

Tom

[msmythers]

Tom

I had a problem like this with Windows 7 a few of years ago when I had all mechanical drives in the computer. What I found at that time was my drives were getting very fragmented over time and my anti-virus was taking it's sweet time about checking the files that PI writes when closing. I ended up excluding all PI folders including the ones hidden by Windows where the PI info is stored and my data folders on other drives. I trust PI and I trust my own images to not have a virus. I scan my PI folders periodical on my schedule and have never had an issue.

That all being said it still took sometimes 10 to 20 seconds for PI to close completely from the task manager. I think some of that is due to windows indexing files on mechanical drives. It got so much better once I switched to SSD's for the OS/programs and PI swap drives.  Now under the heaviest loads the max I've seen is maybe 4 seconds to completely close and generally it's well under 2 seconds. My computer is now 8 years old with an AMD 3.3 GHz X6 processor and only SATA 2 ports so not the fastest machine, haha.

Also if you are operating across a lan that might slow things down.



Mike


One more thing make sure you Windows updates and hardware drivers are current. I can't stress that enough.

[tloebl]

Hi Mike,

My Windows 7 has the latest updates and I am using an SSD. I have uninstalled and reinstalled it multiple times and the issue persists. I did make the mistake of not deleting 1.8.4 prior to installing 1.8.5 but I have repeatedly deleted and reinstalled since. No pattern yet but I'm attempting to figure out under what conditions this occurs. Seems to be more frequent with longer processing time with PI, but I have not figured out which PI operations or combination of operations could cause it.  Not operating across LAN...local operation.  Initially thought perhaps Windows-related issue but my guess is it's application-related since V1.8.4 never did this.

Tom

[msmythers]

Tom

Don't know what to tell you. During testing I never had one issue related to this type of behavior. Maybe Juan can be of more help.


Mike

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Tom,

I cannot reproduce this problem on W7SP1.

if I close PI and try to reopen it, I get an error message.

What error message?

[tloebl]

Hi Juan,

the error occurs when I close PI and try to reopen it. I included the error screens and the screen from Task manager showing that PI is still running after I closed it.

[tloebl]

The error stuff didn't post...

[tloebl]

Sorry....one more screen Juan...

[tloebl]

One more...

[tloebl]

Sorry for the duplicates Juan.

[tloebl]

Juan, I have a hint for you on this Windows 7 issue. In global preferences, special GUI effects,  if I uncheck 'animate autohide windows', and I close PI and reopen it, and then i hover over Process Explorer tab and then move to the right to let it close, after this point if I close PI it remains open in Task Manager. My special GUI effects settings when this happens, are:

 

[msmythers]

Tom

Let me see if I have this correct. With the 'animate autohide windows' selection unchecked and the global preferences set you restart PI, hover to open process explorer then just move to the right which closes the process explorer window. Then you exit PI and PI does not close in the task manager. I believe I have the same setting you have. My normal configuration is all boxes checked.

Here is what I think you are doing and what I get doing those steps.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B13r3kYqTf8NdlIycWdLRTZzR3M/view?usp=sharing


Mike

[tloebl]

Thanks for that video Mike. I have NOT been doing the same thing. I never click FILE/EXIT. When I'm done with PI and am ready to exit, I have always clicked on the X in the upper right in Windows. I guess that's my error...something in PI must still be running in the background.

Tom