SHOUTcast Ate My CPU Cycles!

Drowsex · 4th April 2001, 01:10

The SHOUTcast Source DSP seems to be eating my CPU. When I connect a stream to my DNAS (tried both local and remote), the stream begins to skip horribly. I can disconnect the stream and the songs play fine. I've encountered the same problem on two different machines. My machine is an Athlon 600, 128MB SDRAM, 40GB 7200RPM hard drive, 32MB agp 2x video with a direct 10/100 ethernet connection to the remote DNAS. It's running a fully updated version of Windows Mellinium. The other machine is an AMD K6-2 500, 64MB SDRAM, 10GB 5400RPM hard drive, 8MB agp 1x video card with a direct 10/100 ethernet connection to the remote DNAS. It's running a fully updated version of Windows 98 Second Edition. Both computers are running WinAMP 2.73 and SHOUTcast Source DSP 1.8.0. I've tried several different broadcast bitrates and frequencies but to no avail. I have tried the NetShow codecs recommended on the SHOUTcast download page and the codecs which come with Windows Media Player. The problem seems to have just started happening within the last few days. Maybe a daylight savings bug? My computer was broadcasting fine last week, I shut it off for the weekend and now I can't broadcast for more than 4 minutes or so without breaking up. Any help would be greatly appriciated! I'm trying to start an internet based radio station at my school and would love to have a working model within a week. Thanks in advance.

--if any more information is needed please feel free to contact me at jdy1@home.com or ask for it in the thread.

DeSano · 4th April 2001, 01:58

Buy some RAM. RAM prices are dirt cheap right now, unless you're really short on cash, there's no reason not to have at least 256 in your box right now. That should help the problem immediatly.

Drowsex · 4th April 2001, 02:14

The server has worked fine for nearly three months non-stop. Sure, RAM will help any situation but it's not the deciding factor in this problem. If it was, then why would the server work fine until a yesterday and suddenly stop working? Replicating the exact same problem on two computers nearly eliminates the idea of it being caused by bad RAM. Also, something I didn't mention is that my computer has a SB Live Value with the latest drivers and the other machine has a SB 128 PCI with the lastest drivers. Is there a problem with the buffer in 1.8.0?

DeSano · 4th April 2001, 02:44

Did you install any new programs before it stopped working right?

Do you have any roll back software that will restore your system back to when it was working properly?

Reformatting a possibility?

If this is not you're primary box, could you switch to Linux?

Drowsex · 4th April 2001, 03:00

No new software was installed. The computer has not even been on to install software on. No, no rollback software is available that I know of except Windows Restore (or whatever comes with WinME). Formatting is an option but it seems unecessary because of the reproductability of the problem on two completely different machines that both worked fine before but both quit working at what appears to be the same time. I would like someone involved with the SHOUTcast source to please comment. To my knowledge, Linux can not serve as a source stream. I have Linux running my remote DNAS in both situations. My computer is at home and the other is at school. They each connect to their own local linux box's SHOUTcast DNAS. I installed the Win9x DNAS on both machines to make sure that it wasn't an error due to buffering over the network and both machines again began to skip heavily after a few minutes of streaming play over the Source DSP plugin. I have seen that another user had the same problem but no one ever resolved his issue.

Tom · 4th April 2001, 03:16

Drowsex,
Not sure what the problem is but in the past people that have had similar problems have seemed to narrow it down to a program called webhancer. Check to see if you have it and if you do try uninstalling it (Just a warning some people have said after uninstalling there network connection didn't work anymore. You can find more info at webhancer.com and according to them if you uninstall it properly (from the add/remove program dialog) you should be fine)

I am not sure if this will be the cause in your case since it popped up over the weekend (which is very odd). Other than that I would say try running Winamp with the bare minimum plugins:
Shoutcast DSP
MPEG decoder
waveout
try moving all the others to a separate folder just to see if there is interaction between plugins causing this behavior.

Let us know how it turns out.

Tom

P.S. I doubt you will get a reply from a Shoutcast developer here. I think they might read some of it but they rarely reply to comments (of course they will now just so I look like an idiot (which isn't very hard to do))

Highway 420 · 4th April 2001, 03:25

I was also thinking it was some kind of spyware at fault. There's a great app out there somewhere called Ad-Aware 4.55 that scans your system for spyware (including webhancer) and deletes all that crap from your hard drives and registry. The home page is http://www.lavasoft.de but it seems to be down right now. Search the web for Ad-Aware, there may be mirror sites from which to download it. Well worth a try.

Drowsex · 4th April 2001, 03:44

That seems to have been the problem. When I installed WinACE it asked to install webHancer for the freeware to work. I had installed WinACE awhile back though on both computers, I don't why it would start acting up now. Oh well, the problem seems to be fixed, thanks again for all of your help!

DeSano · 4th April 2001, 19:35

Damn Spyware...die cookies, die!

4th April 2001, 02:14	#3
Drowsex Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 13	It's NOT a RAM problem unless it's a memory leak The server has worked fine for nearly three months non-stop. Sure, RAM will help any situation but it's not the deciding factor in this problem. If it was, then why would the server work fine until a yesterday and suddenly stop working? Replicating the exact same problem on two computers nearly eliminates the idea of it being caused by bad RAM. Also, something I didn't mention is that my computer has a SB Live Value with the latest drivers and the other machine has a SB 128 PCI with the lastest drivers. Is there a problem with the buffer in 1.8.0?

4th April 2001, 03:44	#8
Drowsex Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 13	Ahhh. . . a common link That seems to have been the problem. When I installed WinACE it asked to install webHancer for the freeware to work. I had installed WinACE awhile back though on both computers, I don't why it would start acting up now. Oh well, the problem seems to be fixed, thanks again for all of your help!

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4th April 2001, 01:10	#1
Drowsex Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 13	The SHOUTcast Source DSP seems to be eating my CPU. When I connect a stream to my DNAS (tried both local and remote), the stream begins to skip horribly. I can disconnect the stream and the songs play fine. I've encountered the same problem on two different machines. My machine is an Athlon 600, 128MB SDRAM, 40GB 7200RPM hard drive, 32MB agp 2x video with a direct 10/100 ethernet connection to the remote DNAS. It's running a fully updated version of Windows Mellinium. The other machine is an AMD K6-2 500, 64MB SDRAM, 10GB 5400RPM hard drive, 8MB agp 1x video card with a direct 10/100 ethernet connection to the remote DNAS. It's running a fully updated version of Windows 98 Second Edition. Both computers are running WinAMP 2.73 and SHOUTcast Source DSP 1.8.0. I've tried several different broadcast bitrates and frequencies but to no avail. I have tried the NetShow codecs recommended on the SHOUTcast download page and the codecs which come with Windows Media Player. The problem seems to have just started happening within the last few days. Maybe a daylight savings bug? My computer was broadcasting fine last week, I shut it off for the weekend and now I can't broadcast for more than 4 minutes or so without breaking up. Any help would be greatly appriciated! I'm trying to start an internet based radio station at my school and would love to have a working model within a week. Thanks in advance. --if any more information is needed please feel free to contact me at jdy1@home.com or ask for it in the thread.

4th April 2001, 01:58	#2
DeSano Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: NJ Posts: 121	Buy some RAM. RAM prices are dirt cheap right now, unless you're really short on cash, there's no reason not to have at least 256 in your box right now. That should help the problem immediatly.

4th April 2001, 02:44	#4
DeSano Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: NJ Posts: 121	Did you install any new programs before it stopped working right? Do you have any roll back software that will restore your system back to when it was working properly? Reformatting a possibility? If this is not you're primary box, could you switch to Linux?

4th April 2001, 03:00	#5
Drowsex Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2001 Posts: 13	No new software was installed. The computer has not even been on to install software on. No, no rollback software is available that I know of except Windows Restore (or whatever comes with WinME). Formatting is an option but it seems unecessary because of the reproductability of the problem on two completely different machines that both worked fine before but both quit working at what appears to be the same time. I would like someone involved with the SHOUTcast source to please comment. To my knowledge, Linux can not serve as a source stream. I have Linux running my remote DNAS in both situations. My computer is at home and the other is at school. They each connect to their own local linux box's SHOUTcast DNAS. I installed the Win9x DNAS on both machines to make sure that it wasn't an error due to buffering over the network and both machines again began to skip heavily after a few minutes of streaming play over the Source DSP plugin. I have seen that another user had the same problem but no one ever resolved his issue.

4th April 2001, 03:16	#6
Tom Moderator Join Date: Apr 2000 Posts: 4,485	Drowsex, Not sure what the problem is but in the past people that have had similar problems have seemed to narrow it down to a program called webhancer. Check to see if you have it and if you do try uninstalling it (Just a warning some people have said after uninstalling there network connection didn't work anymore. You can find more info at webhancer.com and according to them if you uninstall it properly (from the add/remove program dialog) you should be fine) I am not sure if this will be the cause in your case since it popped up over the weekend (which is very odd). Other than that I would say try running Winamp with the bare minimum plugins: Shoutcast DSP MPEG decoder waveout try moving all the others to a separate folder just to see if there is interaction between plugins causing this behavior. Let us know how it turns out. Tom P.S. I doubt you will get a reply from a Shoutcast developer here. I think they might read some of it but they rarely reply to comments (of course they will now just so I look like an idiot (which isn't very hard to do))

4th April 2001, 03:25	#7
Highway 420 Senior Member Join Date: May 2000 Location: Lawrence, KS Posts: 161	I was also thinking it was some kind of spyware at fault. There's a great app out there somewhere called Ad-Aware 4.55 that scans your system for spyware (including webhancer) and deletes all that crap from your hard drives and registry. The home page is http://www.lavasoft.de but it seems to be down right now. Search the web for Ad-Aware, there may be mirror sites from which to download it. Well worth a try.

4th April 2001, 19:35	#9
DeSano Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: NJ Posts: 121	Damn Spyware...die cookies, die!