Winamp Not Quitting

[redteamwins]

Hey folks, I've been a loyal and die hard Winamp user since 1997. This program is still great.

Maybe this has been posted a million times already but I'm having a tough time finding relevant posts or effective solutions.

Winamp is not quitting properly.

That is, if I try to close Winamp, it disappears, but it remains in the Windows Task Manager (winamp.exe) indefinitely. I have to end the winamp.exe process before Winamp can start again.

This is very annoying. I have completely uninstalled Winamp and reinstalled it - also restarted the computer, etc. Winamp still does not quit.

I have a stock installation - no special plugins. I will attach a plugins list anyway.

I am on a Dell Vostro 1520 laptop running Windows 7 SP1

Please let me know if you have any solutions or suggestions. Thank you.

[redteamwins]

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem.

[ryerman]

Originally Posted by redteamwins

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem.

Not exactly. However, it often takes 3+ minutes for my Winamp to close. It's mildly annoying. Maybe there is some 3rd party utility that could be used to kill Winamp.

[joan bail]

I cannot close Winamp either. I tried to uninstall it and it won't uninstall until I close the program that is still open. What can I do?

[joan bail]

I can't close Winamp. There is a program running and I can't close it. Can't uninstall until I close the program. I need help.

[ryerman]

Originally Posted by joan bail

I can't close Winamp. There is a program running and I can't close it. Can't uninstall until I close the program. I need help.

Use Task Manager.

Right click on the taskbar, start Task Manager, find winamp.exe in the list of processes and end that process by right clicking on it and choosing End Process.

Don't end any other process unless you are sure you know what you're doing.

Jim

[MrSinatra]

Originally Posted by redteamwins

I am on a Dell Vostro 1520 laptop running Windows 7 SP1

yep, me too. win7 32bit sp1 on dell m1530

task mngr will close it. def a prob. i wonder if those of us "afflicted" have large ML and lots of art?

[DJ Egg]

Hmm, strange....

There was an age-old NDE bugfix in 5.61 which used to make Winamp take longer to close:

* Fixed: [nde] Saving the mldb up to 3 times on Winamp exit (v2.95/5.0x bug)

But ever since that bugfix, Winamp now closes within a mattter of seconds for me.

My guess would be one of the pmp plugins causing a problem. maybe?
All I can suggest for now is that you temporarily move all in/out/vis/dsp/gen/ml/pmp DLL files out of the Winamp\Plugins folder (except for in_mp3 and out_ds) into eg. Winamp\Plugins\Off
and then reopen and close Winamp to see if the problem persists.
If it doesn't, restore the plugins one at a time and repeat the reopen/close procedure until the problem reoccurs.
Let us know which plugin was to blame.

Start with the pmp_*.dll plugins

[redteamwins]

Ok, I decided to give this a try.

I made a folder on my desktop called "winamptest" to move the plugins to.

So far all I have experimented with is removing the PMP plugins. These are the PMP plugins I have in my winamp\plugins folder:

Nullsoft Android Device Plug-in v1.4 [pmp_android.dll]
Nullsoft iPod Plug-in v0.83 [pmp_ipod.dll]
Nullsoft Creative NJB Plug-in v0.54 [pmp_njb.dll]
Nullsoft PlaysForSure Plug-in v0.95 [pmp_p4s.dll]
Nullsoft USB Device Plug-in v1.4 [pmp_usb.dll]
Nullsoft Wi-Fi Device Plug-in v1.2 [pmp_wifi.dll]

Also - I have pmp_activesync.dll ... which was present when I created the my_plugin_list.txt file in my original post, but which isn't mentioned in the file. Hmmm

So, I started up Winamp with all the plugins in the original folder and tried to quit. It wouldn't quit. I did "end process" in the Task Manager and force quit Winamp - then I removed all of the pmp plugins, started Winamp, quit ... and Winamp quit properly. I started adding the pmp plugins back one by one in alphabetical order (starting with activesync) and starting and quitting Winamp.

Winamp was quitting fine until I added pmp_usb.dll - when I put that plugin back into the winamp\plugins folder Winamp wouldn't quit properly. So I force quit Winamp and took pmp_usb.dll out and started and tried to quit Winamp again ... strangely, Winamp still wouldn't quit properly - even though pmp_usb.dll was not in the plugins folder.

Ok, so I started over and took all of the pmp plugins out again. Winamp would quit properly again.

Then I added them all back and Winamp wouldn't quit properly anymore.

Back to normal.

SO - this time I tried to remove the pmp plugins one by one to see when Winamp would close properly. I started in alphabetical order again.

Winamp would not quit properly until I got rid of the pmp_p4s.dll plugin. Once I got rid of that plugin Winamp would close properly. I even added the rest of the pmp plugins again ... so that the only plugin missing was pmp_p4s.dll and Winamp would close properly! Then I got rid of all the pmp plugins and just added p4s ... Winamp wouldn't close properly!

So maybe there was nothing wrong with the pmp_usb.dll plugin in the first place - I think that maybe I did something wrong after adding back p4s the first time ... it kind of makes sense because usb came right after p4s. I even tried to add pmp_usb.dll on its own and Winamp still quit properly.

I think I narrowed it down - if pmp_p4s.dll IS in c:\program files\winamp\plugins then Winamp will not quit properly. When pmp_p4s.dll IS NOT in c:\program files\winamp\plugins then Winamp will quit properly.

Originally Posted by DJ Egg

Hmm, strange....

There was an age-old NDE bugfix in 5.61 which used to make Winamp take longer to close:

* Fixed: [nde] Saving the mldb up to 3 times on Winamp exit (v2.95/5.0x bug)

But ever since that bugfix, Winamp now closes within a mattter of seconds for me.

My guess would be one of the pmp plugins causing a problem. maybe?
All I can suggest for now is that you temporarily move all in/out/vis/dsp/gen/ml/pmp DLL files out of the Winamp\Plugins folder (except for in_mp3 and out_ds) into eg. Winamp\Plugins\Off
and then reopen and close Winamp to see if the problem persists.
If it doesn't, restore the plugins one at a time and repeat the reopen/close procedure until the problem reoccurs.
Let us know which plugin was to blame.

Start with the pmp_*.dll plugins

[ryerman]

Originally Posted by redteamwins

....I think I narrowed it down - if pmp_p4s.dll IS in c:\program files\winamp\plugins then Winamp will not quit properly. When pmp_p4s.dll IS NOT in c:\program files\winamp\plugins then Winamp will quit properly.

That is good detective work and I'm glad you solved your problem. (assuming you don't want pmp_p4s.dll)

However, I can't reproduce your results. For me, Winamp closes quickly (<3 secs) with or without pmp_p4s.dll.

Winamp used to close slowly for me (see my earlier post) but I recently changed computers and OS. (Vista->7, 1 GB RAM->4, Pentium D->Intel i5). Maybe the issue has something to do with system resources. Also, I haven't re-installed every plugin that I had on my old system so maybe one of those is problematic. I'll report back if anything I install seems to slow or prevent Winamp closing.

Jim

[Tasoli]

Originally Posted by redteamwins

I think I narrowed it down - if pmp_p4s.dll IS in c:\program files\winamp\plugins then Winamp will not quit properly. When pmp_p4s.dll IS NOT in c:\program files\winamp\plugins then Winamp will quit properly.

This solved my problem, thank you very much.

I also went into the plugins -> portable area of Preferences and removed whatever "pmp" plugin was installed there by default.

[veldfuchs]

Originally Posted by redteamwins

I think I narrowed it down - if pmp_p4s.dll IS in c:\program files\winamp\plugins then Winamp will not quit properly. When pmp_p4s.dll IS NOT in c:\program files\winamp\plugins then Winamp will quit properly.

Yep. That did the trick.

I had been having problems getting WinAmp to quit starting back when I upgraded to 5.63 (I think). But it wasn't that big a deal, because I would just kill it with Task Manager or Process Explorer. I did try to switch to the beta to see if that would fix it, but no go. I finally got tired of it and googled and here's the answer. (For the record, I had been on an older 5.7 beta and the fix worked, so I realized I needed a newer beta, so I upgraded over that, which reinstalled pmp_p4s.dll and the new beta stopped quitting. So I pulled pmp_p4s.dll again and WinAmp resumed quitting. (A failed exit sometimes won't disappear for an indefinite time, even if WinAmp appears to be entirely gone from the desktop. A successful exit quits in 2-5 seconds. This happens even if Winamp is the only program running besides Windows Explorer.)

Windows 7 Home, x64, yadda yadda. I don't have any p4s devices.

max
['And the 3437 changes did not fix it.']

[Batter Pudding]

Originally Posted by veldfuchs

Windows 7 Home, x64, yadda yadda. I don't have any p4s devices.

When you install Winamp you can choose to avoid installing support for Played For Sure devices. This sounds like it will then avoid the "does not quit" problems for you.

Or just delete pmp_p4s.dll from your plugins folder.


There will be some combination of things on your PC that is upsetting this. Maybe thrid party plugins, something odd with a corrupted track, or just random pixie trouble. If deleting that plugin fixes it for you - then go with it.

[DrO]

i have known ml_wire (podcast plug-in) to cause a long delay when closing Winamp at least on my old XP machine where it was most noticeable. otherwise one of the portable plug-ins would be my other guess.

-daz

[MrSinatra]

i think we all have to be open to the idea that there are likely multiple causes/scenarios for this. i use a USB drive with 50k tracks and lots of art, and it wouldn't surprise me if that has something to do with it. it might also be more than one plugin, or certain combos of plugins and settings which can cause it. at the moment i don't have time to duplicate the excellent detective work above, but after documenting how the snes wrapper can crash the browser search, anything is possible.

[redteamwins]

I hope you're able to give this a try in the near future - I would really like to know if you're having the same (or a similar) problem.

Originally Posted by MrSinatra

i think we all have to be open to the idea that there are likely multiple causes/scenarios for this. i use a USB drive with 50k tracks and lots of art, and it wouldn't surprise me if that has something to do with it. it might also be more than one plugin, or certain combos of plugins and settings which can cause it. at the moment i don't have time to duplicate the excellent detective work above, but after documenting how the snes wrapper can crash the browser search, anything is possible.

[Aminifu]

Hi,

Long time user with 6000+ MP3s. I'm using Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit and
Winamp 5.621. I used to randomly have the problem of the Winamp process
still running after exiting the program, with this version and prior versions.
Sometimes after exiting, some Winamp sub-processes would exit and some
would not, thus keeping the main Winamp process running. Win 7 thought
Winamp was still running normally. What solved it for me was changing the
way my antivirus app was running.

My AV was setup to check all files when they are read or written unless excluded.
After adding all the folders (and thier files) to the AV's exclusion list that Winamp,
and the plugins I use, read/write to, the problem stopped.

Winamp and some of my plugins write a lot of stuff to a lot of folders during the
exit process. My AV uses the Windows shadow copy service to access files at the
same time another app has the same files open to limit impact on performance.
I assume this and Win 7's effort to "redirect" where some apps want to write data
to (some of my plugins refuse this redirection) was causing communication timing
problems between the main Winamp process and some sub-processes.

I tried all the other stuff (reinstalling, removing plugins, etc) but changing my AV
setup was the only thing that worked for me. Most of my plugins are old and no
longer supported. I'm lucky they still work. Some of them I would hate losing because
they make Winamp worth having for me.

[MrSinatra]

thats an interesting response, and i know over at squeezebox interference from AV between app and DB can be a major cause of headaches.

[Aminifu]

Hi,

I forgot to mention in my post yesterday, in regard to DrO and redteamwins comments,
I do not use the ml_wire plugin and only have the pmp_usb plugin in my setup. So it
seems to be like MrSinatra stated, "i think we all have to be open to the idea that there
are likely multiple causes/scenarios for this."

As for me, I'd rather run directed virus/malware scans when I make changes to my
Winamp/plugins/MP3 folders than have to check if Winamp completely exits every
time I shut it down and lose whatever changes were made in the session that did
not exit properly.

[nukeum82]

ive had this problem and in 3 yrs i have now found a possible solution.
install the latest winamp WITHOUT the media players plugins.
not sure which one it is but this has worked 100%


-enjoy

[Aminifu]

Hi,

Bad news. My workaround of stopping my AV realtime scanning of Winamp
related files is not a 100% solution. It just made my random issue of the Winamp
process not quitting much less frequent.

I'm fairly sure in my case, it's caused by the 3rd party plugin Matrix Mixer writing
it's configuration data to an .ini file in the main Winamp plugins folder instead of
where Win 7 wants it to be. It seems that the developer is still active on another
site. I'm trying to contact him.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by Aminifu

I'm fairly sure in my case, it's caused by the 3rd party plugin Matrix Mixer writing
it's configuration data to an .ini file in the main Winamp plugins folder instead of
where Win 7 wants it to be. It seems that the developer is still active on another
site. I'm trying to contact him.

Contacted the developer and he released an update that now stores the plugin's
settings in %appdata%\Winamp. So far nomore Winamp process still running problems.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/winampmatrixmix/

[quickfixer]

Just a quick note for anyone reading this having same issues as me.
I'm using Windows 7 x64 and ' Winamp doesn't close properly '
So i went to my C:\Program Files (x86)\Winamp\Plugins and put all but USB ".pmp" files into a seperate folder, restarted winamp and it solved my issue.
Now winamp closes in the matter of 2? or so seconds, doesn't duplicate process in TaskMan like it was doing so before.
Thanks for above poster for tip, this works.

[winampchamp]

i had the same problem a while ago and figured out that there was extra media plugins which were either making winamp to heavy so a reinstall fixed it!

[klod54]

Hello everybody
I'm using Windows seven x64 and I followed quickfixer's instructions : I moved all pmp*.dll in a new folder.
Now winamp close properly
I'm very happy
Thank you quickfixer

[xpmule]

yup old news
i've seen this bug myself too and its the Portable Media Player plugin.
If i use never versions then i get a crash on shutdown and if i use older ones
the program hangs on shutdown and has to forced closed.
But it does not happen to me all the time now i've down graded my version
and clean re installed v5622 and things seem better, i did this a couple months back.
if use any newer one i get a crash on shutdown, and this only happens if my PMP
is plugged in (Sansa Fuze+)
Combine that with winamp transferring album art that is waaay too small
for the screen leaving huge bright ugly white borders. Gotten to where i don't care anymore.
Poor features, poor performance and a no real interest in fixing any user submitted issues leaves me looking for an alternative media player.
I've comments numerous times that atleast the simple basic ability to disable
album art transfers (mtp mode) would be nice, never mind the fact that it wouldn't be
much effort for winamp devs to modify their mtp transfer code. I know because
I coded a commandline tool that transfers albums+album art using MTP on windows
And i had no stupid issues at all !
Winamp is just poorly coded and managed by people who don't seem to care
And the other people who said the same thing as me are ignored too

[MrSinatra]

ok, so i am using win7 64 bit
5.63

full, bento, and no "extra" plugins except one for nunz 5.11

all my music is on my system drive, ~450gigs worth, and very little art embedded.

winamp almost never exits taskmngr, but then i renamed 4 of the pmp files, and it did. then i renamed the other three, (activesync, android, wifi), and BOOM, it didn't! the problem was back, even though all the pmps were given a .de extension.

that means the problem, for me, which has now followed me to a new laptop and new install, is NOT solved by renaming pmp files.

the gui disappears, but the process remains. i really find it hard to believe that the devs have not, or can't, reproduce this issue.

any other ideas?

[MrSinatra]

i am having more luck getting winamp to fully quit with the pmps disabled and the Avast AV sheilds temp disabled. but i think how long winamp is open, and how much it is made use of, also impacts it; meaning more of either means less likely to close properly.

[Aminifu]

Hi MrSinatra,

Winamp.exe is 'talking' or trying to 'talk' to something that is not shutting down properly. Turn your AV back on. Winamp needs to work with it. Worst case, you may need to change your AV app.

Maybe its time for you to post a configuration report. If you really have a full install, why? Do you regularly use all that stuff? Winamp will load almost everything in its plugins folder, whether you use it or not or it is active or not. Visualizers are among the few things not loaded.

Don't just disable stuff, move the files to another folder for safe keeping. Make a copy of winamp.ini in the safe keeping folder, then use notepad to search the real winamp.ini for sections related to the stuff that was moved and delete those sections. Each section has a header enclosed by "[ ]" brackets. Look for whole sections, not entries within various sections. Sometimes sections are separated by a blank line and sometimes not. These sections will be recreated if and when necessary. If you are not comfortable with editing winamp.ini, then don't.

Are you familiar with an app called "Process Explorer". It lets you see all the files winamp.exe is actively using and provides information about each file that could be useful in finding the problem. Select winamp.exe in the top window and chose to view dlls in the bottom window (should be the default option). Beyond what is normally shown, you can right click on a file and view its properties info. Process Explorer can also tell you what threads are still active when winamp.exe wont shutdown, chose to view handles in the bottom window. But finding which files are associated with these threads is not easy for someone not skilled in how programs work.

If the problem remains after moving the first group of files, pick some more to move. Hopefully you will find the component causing the trouble before winamp.exe is depleted of the minimum support files needed for it to run.

Once winamp.exe shuts down properly, start moving files back, 1 at a time. If you find the bad guy (or guys) and you need to use it, there may be ways to 'fix' it or find substitutes.

I know this is drastic and a lot of work, but it is how I finally found the plug-in that was causing this problem for me. For me it was a 3rd party file, but it could be a Nullsoft provided file that is not happy with your system for whatever reason. If its not a plug-in or is a critical plug-in, you will have a substantial reason for giving the devs some real hell.

[MrSinatra]

i have used process explorer, but i'm no expert at it. i'll see what i can figure out.

the AV is easy to enable / disable, good for testing.

renaming dll exts is like deleting them, i see no reason to actually delete/move them?

my guess, as the problem has followed me now, is that its the ML plugin, and the size of my ML. too big to close.

[MrSinatra]

i still have all the pmps disabled, and the AV is off, and winamp still won't close properly.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by MrSinatra

i still have all the pmps disabled, and the AV is off, and winamp still won't close properly.

my guess, as the problem has followed me now, is that its the ML plugin, and the size of my ML. too big to close.

I suggested removing files because another user reported disabling did not work for him, but removing did. I know it doesn't make sense, but that's what he (big_blue) reported.

Since you don't use WA for video, it can't hurt to disable/remove the AVI, DirectShow, Flash, Matroska, and NSV input decoders. They are not in my configuration. I also don't use the LineIn Plug-in.

To save resources (however small), I also remove the Output and DSP plug-ins I'm not using.

Also since you disabled all the Portable Media Player plug-ins, it should not hurt to disable the Portable Music Player Support in the library group, unless it also supports some other required things. I still have it enabled because I use the USB Device Plug-in for my PMPs.

Unless WA is working with your library files when you shutdown, having a very large database file should not matter, imo. This is something that Process Explorer can show you (if the library files are open or not). On second thought, with the Bento skin showing the media library, they probably are open. See what happens if you switch to a non-library window before you shutdown.

You really don't know if some plug-in file with a totally illogical relationship is causing the problem until you test by removing/disabling it.

[DrO]

disable gen_ml and if it's ok, try working on the ml_* - i know ml_wire (and possibly ml_downloads has been known to cause it), but never consistently.

-daz

[MrSinatra]

i'm still testing, and this will take time because the issue itself was intermittent and seemed to depend on a number of factors, HOWEVER i may have found the culprit:

gen_orgler.dll

i have everything else enabled, including AV, but orgler has a ".de" on its extension, so its disabled. since i have done that, i have not had winamp refuse to shutdown.

but its still early in my testing, so we'll see if that holds up. just fyi, i DO use orgler, and when its enabled, i am signed in and reporting my stats to it.

[Aminifu]

Originally Posted by MrSinatra

i have everything else enabled, including AV, but orgler has a ".de" on its extension, so its disabled. since i have done that, i have not had winamp refuse to shutdown.

I assume everything includes the portable media player plug-ins you use.

Orgler is another WA component I don't use, but with the problem being intermittent, that kinda makes sense. It's probably a race condition that lets the sequence of things get out of whack during shutdown. Just thinking out loud__, maybe winamp.exe is waiting for orgler to finish a status update and orgler is waiting for input from something that has already shutdown in order to finish the update. Although, usually some kind of timeout is used to prevent these kind of endless communication loops between modules.

Anyway, if you are able to confirm it is orgler causing your problem, it gives the devs something to look into (when one gets the time).

In the meantime, if it turns out to be orgler, is there a way to shutdown orgler before you shutdown WA? That may provide a work-around until the race condition, or whatever, is found and fixed. It is a hassle having to look for and force a winamp.exe shutdown from time to time and redo what was not saved because of it.

Good thing it doesn't seem to be an issue with the major library plug-ins. That would have been much worst news.

[MrSinatra]

everything is everything, whether i use it or not. only orgler is now disabled.

i would be willing to bet we haven't seen more reports of this b/c so few people use orgler to begin with. my guess is that orgler doesn't cause the issue IF you don't "sign in" with it in prefs. since thats the default posture, most people don't have the issue.

so, i could re-enable it, and then just sign out and leave it signed out, to test that theory. if it is a race condition pertaining to the back n forth between orgler and its web server, that would not surprise me. but i want to leave it as is for a few days, to keep testing it this way, just to be sure its nothing else BUT orgler causing the issue.

[Aminifu]

Hi MrSinatra,

I've never tried to use Orgler, but I am curious about it. I had been thinking about trying it as another source for finding new music before I read about your issue with it interfering with Winamp shutdown.

I just read in a thread from last month that the 'Top Songs' and 'Top Artists' links were not working. Had they started working again before you disabled it? If not, was it providing other useful features or were you just waiting for those two to start working again?

I've read requests asking for more social media type features in Winamp, but it appears (from the number of related posts) that most would not use them. Do you think that is due to lack of awareness of Orgler in particular (it has been available for some time now) or lack of interest in general?

[MrSinatra]

first, i should report that i still have orgler disabled, and have not yet since had a problem with winamp closing.

Originally Posted by Aminifu

Hi MrSinatra,

I've never tried to use Orgler, but I am curious about it. I had been thinking about trying it as another source for finding new music before I read about your issue with it interfering with Winamp shutdown.

i'm no orgler expert, but i don't think its really for music discovery. it seems to just report what you play to winamp servers, and they then aggregate it. kinda underwhelming actually.

Originally Posted by Aminifu

I just read in a thread from last month that the 'Top Songs' and 'Top Artists' links were not working. Had they started working again before you disabled it? If not, was it providing other useful features or were you just waiting for those two to start working again?

it did stop working some time back, and i haven't checked since. all i used it for was to report to winamp my stats. it DID show me as signed in, so i think the only issue was in showing what was displayed.

Originally Posted by Aminifu

I've read requests asking for more social media type features in Winamp, but it appears (from the number of related posts) that most would not use them. Do you think that is due to lack of awareness of Orgler in particular (it has been available for some time now) or lack of interest in general?

both, and i'd add that orgler for most people is not appealing. there is no reason for them to use it, no utility in it.

[DrO]

orgler never achieved what it was aimed to do with things seemingly breaking and being left broken, i would assume that it's best to think of it going the way of 'winamp remote' (note: that is not an official response so i don't know what is going on with it as a whole).

-daz

[MrSinatra]

hey DrO,

i'm cool with that, its what i figured, HOWEVER, it still ships with winamp and if someone uses it, i presume that since it caused the closing issue for me, it could also do so for others, therefore i consider it a bug and winamp should either fix it or depricate it, and should at the very least confirm it and acknowledge it officially, seeing as how efforts have been made to identify it.