Winamp 5.5 crashes because of playlist generator

[toology]

Hello,
I installed the final Winamp 5.5 and I am having a couple of issues, the biggest one concerning playlist generator plug in.

The problems are:

1) If I choose Bento skin when installing Winamp, it won't start up after the installation. The process appears in the task manager and it consumes 50% of my Core2Duo CPU! I reinstalled and have chosen Winamp Modern skin and now everything loads fine.

2) When I started playlist generator it scanned my media library without problems, but when I selected 'play tracks similar to Tool - Eulogy' it wouldn't do anything, then itstarted analyzing the songs again (step 4) and finally said 'Playlist generator failed to initialize). It kept adding more warning messages with the same text until I killed the process with CTRL+ALT+Del.

Concerning problem 1 I would like to point out that I have Window Blinds 6 running, in case that screws something up, but I added winamp to the list of applications not to skin.

My system specs are: Intel Core2Duo, 2gb RAM, Asus Motherboard, Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Platinum Pro, GeForce 8800. Operating system is Windows XP Professional SP2 with the latest updates and IE7.

[DJ Egg]

Strange.

Any chance of seeing HJT and 'List Of Plugins' logs?
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread....d=161361#specs

Can you switch to the Bento skin after Winamp has loaded (with Modern skin)?

For the Playlist Generator problem:
Close Winamp,
Go to either the "Program Files\Winamp" or "%AppData%\Winamp" folder,
then the "\Plugins\Gracenote" subfolder, and delete:
cddbplm.pdb
cddbplm.idx
cddbplm.gcf

This should fix the 'error initializing' problem...
However, it also means that you'll need to scan again.

Did the first Scan definitely complete fully before you tried to use the 'play tracks similar to' feature? And was the pc you're running Winamp on connected to the internet at the time? (required for Playlist Generator scan to work).

[toology]

Yes, I can change from Modern to Bento skin.

I couldn't find the Gracenote files you specifically mentioned, but I went into Preferences -> Media Library Plugins -> Playlist Generator and hit the reset option. Now it's rescanning everything. I'll try it if everything works in the morning, since I'm in Europe and it's almost 3AM here.

I'm not sure about the last question since I left it scanning and went out...

As far as plugins are concerned I have only added Winamp Esentials Pack from your Winamp 5.5 forum post. I'll give you the log tomorrow.

Thanks for a quick reply!

[toology]

Well it went to phase 4 of scanning in about 3 minutes and then the whole Winamp crashed without reporting an error!

[toology]

Here is the plugin list, I hope you can help me use this great Winamp version!

[toology]

UPDATE!

After reinstalling a couple of times, I finally managed to get everything to work by removing all of the Winamp components that I don't need (I deselected them in the installer). I am now able to use the Playlist generator and no crashes so far. Even Bento loads right after installation!

I'm including the current component list.

[chbxxx]

my problem is the same. but than i created a new folder with only 120 songs and make a new scan from this folder. it works fine. so, where is the mistake in my music folder with 6500 songs?

[toology]

Yes, you are right! I seem to have nailed the problem: when I only scanned one part of the media library everything worked. The moment I scanned my whole folder with metal music it started crashing.

The only question remaining is wheather it's because of an unsupported filetype or Winamp having problems with the tagging of my files. I hope the devs can shed a little light on the matter.

Nevertheless, my deselecting of installed components seems to have fixed my Bento problem that I mentioned in the first post.

[pharao]

Hey,
I had ( or have ) the same problem, Winamp crashed; than I deleted the files you mentioned and now I am rescanning..

How long does it take for 55k files in my libary?!


It takes AGES, right?

[DJ Egg]

It took about 4 hours to scan my 30,000+ files, so probably about 7 or 8 hours for you

(which isn't bad, compared to the Predixis thing that it replaced, as that took 3 days at 100% cpu)

[toology]

Sorry to bother you DJ Egg, but do you guys know where the problems is? I really like the idea of the playlist generator feature.

[toology]

UPDATE

I'm sorry if the devs find this thread boring but I want to share my latest findings in case they help.

Anyway, I've converted all of my files into flac and retaged most of my files with auto tag. All of the problems have disapeard and everything works as expected.

So I guess that places the folder either in the tag reader (don't know wich plugin does this) or it crashes when it encounters an unknown audio format.

[chbxxx]

I hope I fixed the problem.
Winamp crashed when the watched folder is bigger than 6.000 tracks. Scanning a folder with 5.963 tracks, it works fine. When I copy into the folder + 50 tracks and scan again, winamp crashed. I hope you can fix the bug.

Excause me for my very bad english.

[DJ Egg]

So all your music files are in one folder then?
(ie. >6000 files all in the root folder, no subfolders)

If we can work out how to reproduce the problem, or if someone provides us with a link to a file which crashes Winamp, then we might be able to fix it....

[chbxxx]

There is a folder "my music". In the folder are 12 sub-folder. It is not important how many tracks in a folder, but the total number of tracks may not exceed 6,000.

translated with google

[BenMilne]

Yes i am also having similar problem. Not sure what type of problem is causing the problem but it's definitely something to do with when you scan a folder.
In answer to your question DJ, I have root folder "Music" with subfolders for each letter of the alphabet followed by subfolders for each artist with that letter and subfolders for each album. My library is about 30,000 files.

Winamp scans the root folder for a short time. Then the player freezes taking about 50% cpu as the thread author said.

Im sure most of my files are .mp3 but there are exceptions so i cant be sure if it's the media type.

I reinstalled the same version from scratch with the same result. Then i reverted back to a previous version and the problem was gone.

Also, i have no plugins or anything of the sort, in fact i just reformatted my computer and winamp was one of the first things i installed.

There is another thread in this forum by banzq who i think has a similar problem. They might be related.

[toology]

My folders are sorted like this: Genre->Letter->Band->Album.

As for what file kept causing the crash, I have no idea since winamp didn't report anything, nor did it create a log that I could find.

In any case, all of my lossy files are mp3, but my losless where in FLAC, WavPack and TAK. I've now converted them all to latest FLAC from RareWares and tagged them with Winamp Auto Tag.

[DJ Egg]

The sample file would really help, heh.

I received one from banzq in the other thread, and it looks like it could be related to the notorious itunes/foobar unsynchronisation issue with embedded art (apic frame in id3v2 tag).

Hopefully we'll be able to fix that issue, and maybe it's the same one as this...?

[DJ Egg]

in_mp3 patch for Winamp 5.5
http://stashbox.org/44399/Winamp55_MP3_Patch.exe

Please test and confirm the fix

If you still get any crashes, then we will need a link to a sample file.

[EDIT]

Please use updated patch below instead

[BenMilne]

Okay, i reinstalled winamp. Same result.

I looked in the preferences under the 'watch folder' part and it showed the file that it was scanning when it froze.

I tried to play the file by itself with the same result. It froze at about 50% cpu.

So it could be something to do with the type of file. Not totally sure if it is the file but its a start.

Anyhoo heres the file. (it's a small mp3 so the size is correct)

[DJ Egg]

The mp3 file in that .rar is corrupt and won't play in any player.

WMP11 comes up with some 'wrong extension' followed by 'can't allocate memory' errors.

Foobar crashes

Winamp freezes

Encspot says 'can't find valid mp3 header' and then freezes

MP3Utility says 'can't locate frame header within first 5,000 bytes'

Though yeah, the fact that Winamp freezes is not good, I guess...

Oh, and this is with the updated in_mp3 I posted in the post directly above yours, although the fix in that is for a different issue to this one (was related to corrupt ID3v2 tags).

Anyway, thanks for the sample file. We shall see if anything can be done about it...

[chbxxx]

I have the in_mp3 patch tested, unfortunately without success. At the moment, when more than 6,000 tracks in My Music folder, will winamp ended. There are only MP3 tracks in the folder.

[chbxxx]

screenshot: http://scifi.pages.at/zaehrstoerer/pic/winamp55_lol.jpg

[chbxxx]

If the playlist generator scans runs Step 1 / 4, 2 / 4 and 3 / 4 flawlessly. Only in Step 4 / 4 breaks it off when the folder is greater than 6000 tracks.

Translated with google

[BenMilne]

Okay, i deleted the track that was causing the problem for me. Then i did a rescan of my music folder and there was no problems.

My library is over 28,000 files and it worked fine. So im guessing there is a problem when Winamp encounters some type of bad file.

..oh by the way this was without that patch also.

[ch-world]

That in_mp3 Patch solved the problem for me.
I have 1270 files in the library currently.

[DJ Egg]

@chbxxx
Please could you confirm whether the "Playlist Generator could not be initialized" problem occurs if you use the default English language in Winamp instead of the German translation.

If yes, then I guess we'll need to look into the problem.

I've got a D:\Music folder with about 30,000 files in subfolders, and I don't have any problems whatsoever. So I'm not sure why the problem occurs for you if there's 6000 or more files in subfolders.


@BenMilne
Cool. That's good to know.
Still, we'll need to look into why that corrupt file freezes Winamp.
Ideally, Winamp should just skip/ignore it instead.


@ch-world
Thanks for the confirmation

[DJ Egg]

UPDATE

in_mp3 patch for Winamp 5.5
http://stashbox.org/44502/Winamp55_MP3_Patch.exe

This also fixes the "Winamp UI freeze when loading corrupt mp3's" issue,
eg. the mp3 in BenMilne's attachment above.


_________________________________________________________


@chbxxx
Please test this latest patch.
The amount of files in the folder shouldn't bear any relevance.
Maybe one or more of those extra files is corrupted or something?

By the way, please could you also test with the default English translation in Winamp, just so we can eliminate the possibility of the problem having anything to do with the German Lang Pack. But hopefully, this newer in_mp3.dll will fix the problem.
We shall see...

[chbxxx]

But why does it work when music folder is < 6000 tracks ??????

PS.: Scan in the English version is running, but it takes time.

[chbxxx]

Scan crashed with the English version as well. In parallel with notebook tested, also crashed. Tomorrow I send new logfiles. Tested with current in_mp3 patch for Winamp 5.5.

Translated with google language tool

[Sl1pStream]

I updated in_mp3.dll as the forum suggested, but I continue to get an error every time I right-click on a newly-created mp3 file. I'm don't even get to the point where I can look at the id3 tag, the mere opening of the menu crashes winamp.

However, it works fine with double-clicking on the song title in the main window. It's the playlist editor that I have trouble with.

(Unrelatedly, I am very frustrated with the new format of the id3 tag dialog box, despite the new information it allows one to customize. Is there a way to disable that and view it the 'classic' way? I find it especially annoying when it no longer lets me add a custom genre title before ripping a cd; I must edit each mp3 separately afterwards.)

I've added an mp3 that causes the problem to occur (it DOES open in the mp3tag id3-editor program):
http://www.2shared.com/file/2394104/...own_River.html

[Edit --> DJ Egg]

Reuploaded here, to a site that doesn't have fullscreen popup ads.

http://stashbox.org/44614/01%20-%20G...wn%20River.zip

http://stashbox.org/44614/01%20-%20Gravenhurst%20-%20Down%20River.zip

[Sl1pStream]

Here are my plugins...

[DJ Egg]

@Sl1pStream

The sample file plays fine here, and there's no crash when viewing File Info
(see screenshot attachment)

At a guess, the problem is being caused by one or more of the following 3rd-party plugins:

Nosefart NSF player v1.5 (x86) [in_nsf.dll]
TNSe's Sound core from NESten for WinAmp [in_NSFten.dll]
ShnAmp Plugin for WinAmp, by Wayne Stielau - V2.02 03-03-2002 [in_shn.dll]
SidAmp v1.33 (x86) [in_sid.dll]
Winamp2 Video plug-in v2.6 (x86) [in_VID4WA.dll]
shutAMP v2.1 [gen_shutAMP.v21.dll]


There's an updated ShnAmp (V2.04 16-12-2006) available here:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=257776

I'd seriously consider ditching Vid4Wa plugin, since Winamp's default in_dshow can play just about any videos anyway, as long as the corresponding DirectShow Splitter/Filter is installed on your system.

As for the other four, I suggest that you disable them temporarily (eg. by moving the DLL files into some backup folder somewhere) and see if the problem goes away. If it does, then re-enable in_nsf, in_nsften, in_sid, gen_shutamp one at a time, closing and reopening Winamp inbetween until the problem recurs. This way, you'll know that whichever of the plugins you restored last was to blame, and will need updating by the author (maybe there's even already updated/fixed versions available somewhere?)

And that's assuming it wasn't one of the old ShnAmp or Vid4wa plugins to blame.


ps. Although not related to the problem at hand, I recommend that you switch to DirectSound Output (out_ds) instead of WaveOut (out_wave).

Oh, and yeah, I totally agree with you about the new Gracenote Editor thing not allowing custom genres. I hate that just as much as you, especially when it keeps sticking 'General' at the front of everything.

____________________

[Sl1pStream]

Thanks for the help. I got it working again. It was in_nsf.dll that was the problem file.

As for my aside about the GraceNote thing, am I right in assuming that it is released by them and simply implemented in Winamp, meaning you don't have much control over it? Either way, if you don't like it either, any chance it can be disabled/changed to the old dialog box?

Thanks again.
Donovan

[chbxxx]

My problem (see above) is still not resolved. More precisely, if the limit of 6000 tracks in the music folder is exceeded, winamp crashed, when playlist generator is scanning. The Scan breaks in step 4/4. Can anyone help?

[CBM4032]

I have the same problem with Winamp 5.5, bento skin, English version, none of the suspect plugins and about 25.000 songs which are organized in subfolders genre\band\album on an Athlon 2600+ with 768MB ram, W2k-sp4 and internet access (1.5Mbit/sec).
The first scan crashed after 5 hrs in step 4/4 by terminating Winamp without error message.
After rebooting the computer and pressing "Reset Database" I did a rescan and it finished after 9 hrs without an error.
I did a "Play tracks similar to..." and after about 2 minutes i got may playlist with 20 songs.
Since this point I always get the warning message "Playlist Generator failed to initialize" over and over again till I terminate Winamp as soon as I use the "Play tracks similar to..." option.

[DJ Egg]

@chbxxx and anyone else who is still getting a crash when using Playlist Generator....

As we cannot reproduce the problem,
all I can suggest for now is that you temporarily downgrade

from: Winamp 5.5 Final (build 1640)
to: Winamp 5.5 Public Beta Preview 3 (build 1600)

If you can get the Error Reporter to kick in when it crashes, then please attach to your next reply here the report.zip that it generates (which should contain: _crash.log and _crash.dmp) files.

In the beta, see: 'Winamp > Prefs > Error Feedback' for more info & config.

If we can get the Winamp generated crash logs, then maybe it will give us a better idea of what's going on, and help us to fix the problem....

[foxyshadis]

Originally posted by CBM4032
The first scan crashed after 5 hrs in step 4/4 by terminating Winamp without error message.

This might be the problem, given that crashing seems to somehow corrupt the cddb database in a way the plugin can't recover from yet.

DJ Egg, thanks for fixing the problem for me, a regular close during creation doesn't seem to break it now, but I've also haven't been too hard on it.

[foxyshadis]

I spoke too soon. It caused a weird hard disk lockup issue - I suspect the flaky soundcard, or maybe just overheating, though it hasn't before, or just using too many file handles - and after rebooting, I could create playlists, but it still gives a crash on closing. It seems to be finished building though. I'll try to get a debug report when I can back everything up.

It also isn't responding to alt-f4 or right-click-close, but does close if you choose exit from its menu.

[DJ Egg]

Even though I haven't personally experienced any of the reported issues, something tells me that ml_plg is in need of a good debugging session.... unless the bugs are actually in the Gracenote libraries...