Altbinz freezes then crashes

[D1]

I have vista, Altbinz has been fine since the last 6 months but all of a sudden now when I load it up it downloads fine then the kb transfer meter freezes and stays on amount of kb it was downloading then the app stops working.  I have to sometimes kil AB through task manager.  This is horrible it never did this until now.

Any help greatly appreciated, thank you.

PS: I even tried reinstalling and overwriting files of 27.1 and 27.2 and even reinstalled fresh copy.

[Hecks]

More info needed.  Please post any relevant messages in your Alt.Binz log and Windows event log, and memory/cpu usage when freezing happens.  Is it the same with every NZB?  etc.

"All of a sudden" needs some explanation, too.  What exactly changed on your system?  Anything new installed, Windows updates, etc.?  As much info on your system as possible please, or we're just fishing around in the dark.

[D1]

" A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. "Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available. " 

Vista sucks big time.  Is there a way to go back and uninstall a windows update, that may be the issue.  I usually ignore windows updates but it did it while i was asleep and I think thats what did this.

[msnippe]

quite a stretch, one app crashed and then suddenly Vists sucks

[al15]

same problem here - it starts with 0.27.2
i use Vista64 ultimate SP1- download starts as usual but
after some time vista freezes ...

with 0.27.1 all is working fine

thanx
AL

[Hecks]

Still no usable information in this thread ... none of us here are psychic, believe it or not, so you'll need to provide some basic debugging info.

Edit: dare I ask if either of you installed Vista SP1?

[al15]

hi,
here my the last rows from my alt binz log, but there is no error message inside:
[19.03.2008 21:56:52] [T2] Article started 29/157 [5026]-[ab@EFNET]-[]-[31/76] - "wrx.part28.rar" yEnc
[19.03.2008 21:56:53] [T6] Article finished 142/157 wrx.part27.rar
[19.03.2008 21:56:53] [T6] Article started 30/157 [5026]-[ab@EFNET]-[]-[31/76] - "wrx.part28.rar" yEnc
[19.03.2008 21:56:53] [T20] Article finished 17/157 wrx.part28.rar
[19.03.2008 21:56:53] [T20] Article started 31/157 [5026]-[ab@EFNET]-[]-[31/76] - "wrx.part28.rar" yEnc
[19.03.2008 21:56:53] [T12] Article finished 15/157 wrx.part28.rar
[19.03.2008 21:56:53] [T12] Article started 32/157 [5026]-[ab@EFNET]-[]-[31/76] - "wrx.part28.rar" yEnc

there are no log entries inside the windows log... vista freezes and i have to reset the whole computer....
lg
AL

[Hecks]

For a bug to be identified and fixed, it must be reproducible.  Simply running Alt.Binz 0.27.2 on Vista does not reproduce this bug, so it must be something on your system, which you'll need to track down yourself.  Vista shouldn't fail without at least some report in the event log.

Follow some basic trouble-shooting steps like: temporarily disabling all applications you don't need while downloading, disable antivirus, firewall, Windows Defender, UAC, etc..  If you don't crash you know it's one of those, re-enable each of them until you identify the culprit.   You could also install some tools like Process Monitor and Process Explorer to get more info on what's happening on your system when downloading.

[D1]

Ok so I went into the log to investigate this time.  I saw how it starts off ok usually and then it says something is locking this from downloading for certain files or for others its goes into red font saying

"Date Time Month Exception Cannot Create File ''''.The filename or extension is too long."

Now I have been using AltBinz since last October and this has never occured and the filenames are not that big at all and I always disable windows defender and the antivirus etc.

Is there a way too shorten the file names?

When i disconnect in AB, it still keeps putting the error message in the log.

As far as I can see I have MS Vista Home Premium.

I checked my windows updates history, and 2 updates were installed on March 12, so I am uninstalling them and will check.

[Hecks]

Filenames in this context mean the full path to the decoded file.  The decode thread will fail if it's too long, although I'm surprised it crashes Alt.Binz on Vista (it doesn't on XP with the same error).

The length of the path depends on how you name your folders & subfolders.  For example, if you download to subfolders and name these after the NZB filename, then you should make sure that you use short names and not the full subject.  This is quite easy to manage in practice.  In fact, as I said in another thread, I've never *once* had this problem in over a year of Alt.Binz versions.

Still, it would useful if Alt.Binz could handle this error in a different way, and in fact this has been on the request list for a while ...

[D1]

I do name the download folders short names, always had that habit.  But even after uninstalling updates it still is crashing on me after it works for few minutes.

"Access violation at address 00422DEB in module 'altbinz.exe'. Read of 050D0000"

And then sometimes the altbinz error boxes multiply.

[giel77]

I do name the download folders short names, always had that habit.  But even after uninstalling updates it still is crashing on me after it works for few minutes.

"Access violation at address 00422DEB in module 'altbinz.exe'. Read of 050D0000"

And then sometimes the altbinz error boxes multiply.

Got the same error as written above, using Alt.Binz v. 0.25.0 on Vista without SP1,

Tried several things, deinstalling new versions, shorter file paths, etc,

Alt.Binz hangs with above error and after a restart deconding stops but downloading goes on,
All files stay in temp folder but won't decode,

Hopefully there is a solution for this bug, using Alt.Binz for some while know with great satisfaction but if this bug won't be fixed I have to go back to NL

[Hecks]

If 0.25.0 worked for you before but doesn't now, then obviously something must have changed on your system.  Alt.Binz didn't just spontaneously develop a bug.  Until we know what has changed in your setup and can reproduce the error, there's little that can be done.

This is of course assuming that it's a problem common to everything you download, and not just certain files.  If the latter, post a problem NZB for testing.

[D1]

Finally fixed the issue.

I went back into control panel and restored my computer settings to an older date when I knew altbinz was working fine.  Then I tried AB and still had same issue.  So at that point in control panel i uninstalled AB and reinstalled 25.0 then pasted the latest update version.  Its been fine since.

I lost my download que, but I picked up wherever it left off and it has been ok.

[Thor]

Finally fixed the issue.

I went back into control panel and restored my computer settings to an older date when I knew altbinz was working fine.  Then I tried AB and still had same issue.  So at that point in control panel i uninstalled AB and reinstalled 25.0 then pasted the latest update version.  Its been fine since.

I lost my download que, but I picked up wherever it left off and it has been ok.

Same problem here. Picked a restore point and that fixed it. No reinstall done. Working now, but the problem is still out there.

BTW, I had a NZB which I didn't get all the files because I had some of them on store brought DVDs. But I had a problem with the DVD, so I went to get the other files. So, here was a NZB that worked before, stop working, and start back working after the system restore. Seems to me some type of debug module is needed to get some data. Also, when Altbinz crashes, but doesn't ends (it uses up to 40% of the CPU until stop via Task Manager).