PinballX freezes when scrolling through tables

[gromit]

My cabinet runs on Windows 10 64-bit, Intel I5-2500K, Nvidia GTX 960, with a 3-screen setup. My problem is with PinballX freezing after scrolling through the preview selection tables. The PF video is 60FPS and the BG and DMD videos are 30FPS (all F4V format). I can scroll through 20-25 tables before the problem occurs. The PF image will freeze, but I can scroll 1-2 more tables before it just freezes up. I then need to sign out of Windows using Ctr-Alt-Del.

I recently re-installed Windows on a new drive, so this is basically a virgin system with a new install of PinballX andall of the supporting software for a cabinet. I've been following Terry Reed's posts regarding FPS problems, so I only made the PF video 60FPS - trying to avoid any video problems. I haven't seen any other posts regarding this problem, so it must not be that prevalent... but I can't seem to fix this.

Any thoughts?

RESOLVED:  Re-Installing the video drivers from the PinballX main site did the trick! No more freeze-ups....

 

[Totaltimo]

On 8.4.2016 at 3:59 AM, gromit said:

RESOLVED:  Re-Installing the video drivers from the PinballX main site did the trick! No more freeze-ups....

 

Hi Gromit,

as I have the same problem: What do you mean with "video drivers from the PBX main site"? I would really try what you did, but I cannot find the a.m. drivers.

Regards

Timo

[Draco1962]

He is referring to the LAV codecs found here on the WWW.PinballX.com site. 

[Totaltimo]

Thank you Draco, I'll give it a try!

[gromit]

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a temporary fix. It started doing it again the same day. I uninstalled PinballX, re-installed it, re-did the table videos at 30 fps and it still freezes up sometimes. The only way out is ctl-alt-del. The problem occurs randomly... it's not a certain table, as it's non-repeatable.It doesn't happen as often as it did before the codec install, but it's still often enough to be bothersome. If anyone had this problem and fixed it, I'd love to hear it.

[Draco1962]

1 hour ago, gromit said:

Unfortunately, it turned out to be a temporary fix. It started doing it again the same day. I uninstalled PinballX, re-installed it, re-did the table videos at 30 fps and it still freezes up sometimes. The only way out is ctl-alt-del. The problem occurs randomly... it's not a certain table, as it's non-repeatable.It doesn't happen as often as it did before the codec install, but it's still often enough to be bothersome. If anyone had this problem and fixed it, I'd love to hear it.

Have you upgraded to the latest PinballX version? If so, please provide fresh copies of your pinballx.ini and log.txt files immediately after the issue occurs. Also, you may want to be sure that you have the latest video drivers for your GPU installed. Since this is only occurring for a few, it is likely something in the setup of the machine or OS so you may be instructed to check some other areas outside of PinballX.

[gromit]

I do have the latest Nvidia GTX 960 drivers and the current PinballX installed. It's pretty much a stock Windows 10 install, as this is just used for a PinCab. I will send the requested ini\log files the next time it freezes on me.

 

Thanks Draco

[gromit]

OK... started up PinballX and then began scrolling through the tables. I made it through about 50-60 tables, when it froze. I have the 2 files you asked for.

log.txt

PinballX.ini

[Draco1962]

Can you try removing the startup videos to see if this might be causing the issue?  I ask because of this in your log.txt file:

22:03:42.0  4/20/2016:  Load Startup Video: C:\PinballX\Media\Startup Videos\Namsan Startup Video REAL PINBALL.mp4
22:03:42.0  4/20/2016:  Load Startup Video: C:\PinballX\Media\Startup Videos\Loading.mp4
22:03:42.3  4/20/2016:  Started

I assume that this is a complete file following the freeze you mention. Remove the files and lets see if the issue occurs. If not, then add just one back and test again. Please provide an updated log.txt file right after the error if it occurs. Thanks!

 

 

[gromit]

I removed all start up videos, althoiugh the problem doesn't occur after startup. It happens after I scroll through X number of tables. I made the follwing 2 tests:

Attempt 1) I just started PinballX with no startup videos. The first table showing was Ghostbusters. I started scrolling using the right arrow key. I made it to Godzilla (1 table)... the table video froze. The scrolling continued to Goldeneye. PinballX froze showing Goldeneye's Wheel image, BG video and playing table audio. I had to CTR-ALT-DEL to sign out. I logged back in and this is the resulting LOG file.

Attempt 2) Started as above with Ghostbusters... scrolled all the way to Sinbad (approx 60 tables). Table video froze. Scrolled to Super Mario Brothers - BG video froze. Scrolled to Tee'd Off. Wheel image displayed and PinballX freezes. Saved this log file in a new directory. Looked at both log files, and they were identical, so I'm just sending the original log file. It doesn't show any more info than the one I sent yesterday.

It's very difficult to determine a cause since the freezes are not happening on the same files. One time it works on table X, the next time it will freeze on it.

BTW, when I press CTl-TAB to put the focus back on PinballX (just in case it jumped to another program), it does nothing. It shows 3 PinballX processes - Main screen (PinballX) and 2 PinballX Back Glass icons - a black rectangular box and the other is the BG image. 

Hope this helps.

log1.txt

 

UPDATE!  I was going to test the problem by running PinballX by skipping different elements. I started by renaming the Table Audio directory so it would not be used when browsing tables. This seems to have done the trick! I was able to browse 100's of tables without freezing up. So I will need to convert the audio files.

Presently they are in MP3 format. Encoded by Lavc57.30. Variable bit rate. 44100 mhz. WinAmp shows 128 kbps, while doing seperate properties check shows varying bitrate values for each file.

So the question is:  What format should the audio files be? MP3 or OGG? What about the bitrate? Variable or constant?

Please let me know... and Draco, thannks for your help and speedy replies - much appreciated!

Update 2: When I went back to the PinCab, it was frozen again. While it was playing random tables, it froze with the screen showing the Metallica wheel image and the BreakShot table video and BG video. Thought I had it!

[monza]

On 4/18/2016 at 0:16 AM, Draco1962 said:

He is referring to the LAV codecs found here on the WWW.PinballX.com site. 

Thanks, updating these codecs fixed another issue I was having getting both table and backglass videos to play at the same time.