Problems with GameEx startup when left between launches for a few weeks

[stigzler]

Hello chaps. I often get this when I don't work on my cab for a few weeks. GameEx plays the intro sound, but then gets stuck on the "loading" screen

Log attached - you can see it just sat on the loading screen until I terminated it.

Any ideas appreciated

 

 

log.txt

background_log.txt

[RedDog]

Quick shot in the dark: Have you checked for security programs asking to allow GameEx access to the internet? Every time there is an update, my anti-virus asks me. I know that some programs are unable to continue until I give it the OK. Disable HideOS (if you have it running) and then either run GameEx in windowed mode or Alt-Tab back to desktop to make sure there isn't a hidden dialogue box waiting for you.

[stigzler]

cheers red - naw it wasn't that. Not sure what it is. I restarted and ge booted ok. The pattern is failed launch after no boot of the pc for a while. No pc errors. It could also be contingent upon a pending update thinking about it, although because stuck - no prompt to update

[RedDog]

I recall now that you reported similar behavior in April, but there really wasn't a resolution was there. It just started working again.

It appears to be stalling at "Testing Main Loop Once: Processing Frame". I see from the log you waited 4 minutes before manually shutting it down. Have you just let it run until it crashes or times out (an hour, two hours, all night...ok all night is a bit extreme I admit). However, maybe a Windows crash dialogue will appear or the log.txt will register more information.

I don't know what "Testing Main Loop Once: Processing Frame" is myself. Maybe someone else will come along who does know. 

My other thought was that you might be running out of RAM. I see that you have 6GB installed which is OK, but not great for a basic Windows 10 machine. As I sit here typing on my recently booted Windows 10 Home box, it is using 5.7 of my 16 GB. If you also have other programs sucking up the RAM or one that has a memory leak, maybe it's causing the machine to hit the page file a lot. Since it takes weeks for the PC to get into that state, you might consider looking over the CPU/RAM/etc usage in the task manager (or other monitoring program) to see if anything there is weird at the time. It's just something to consider if we can't come up with any other ideas.

[stigzler]

Good idea - yeah I really must upgrade the RAM on the rapidly becoming obsolete hardware (and it was sooo advanced when I started building it 5 years ago!)

Funnily enough, once I did get it working, I left it running on attract mode. Worked fine for about 3 hours, but had a full GE crash @ one point (the full error screen). That error screen did mention "memory leak" but I just put it down to one of my plugins as I think one of those has a memory leak (researching what a memory leak actually is is still on my to-do list)

 

[Draco1962]

Have you looked at where you have your paging file? On our application servers at work, we have a separate partition dedicated to a paging file.

While not necessary for our needs, I have found having it on a separate and larger drive from c: for speed and ensuring any corruption of the paging drive spares the OS.

[stigzler]

Ah - now you've found my Achilles heel, Draco! Partitions/networks - have a real blind spot for that malarkey. Think I'm best not fiddling else I might blow up the internet. 

[Draco1962]

Blow it up. It's overrated.

[Tom Speirs]

You could always turn off background mode under GameEx online settings.

[stigzler]

whassat do when its on?

[Tom Speirs]

It downloads assets (artwork) and allows you to use https://online.gameex.com when GameEx is not running. Ben calls it a virus. lol.

[stigzler]

hmmmm... i'm hoping you haven't been peeking at my plans for world domination..

[stigzler]

On 6/25/2018 at 3:29 AM, Tom Speirs said:

You could always turn off background mode under GameEx online settings.

OK. Just come back to this a after couple of weeks - still happening + this didn't fix it.

Still getting stuck on the loading screen. Alt+Tab reveals the GE window title with no info "GameEx ||||"

No clues in log - any other ideas?

log.txt

[Tom Speirs]

Hi, not entirely sure but it certainly looks like a plugin issue,

[Adultery]

^^ specifically LCD/LED Plugin by the look of it (I was really more making sure it wasn't one of mine, lol).

[Draco1962]

1 hour ago, Adultery said:

^^ specifically LCD/LED Plugin by the look of it (I was really more making sure it wasn't one of mine, lol).

Had a thought, but then decided I needed to research further and thought was invalidated, so, nevermind!

 

[Tom Speirs]

Just so I better understand, is the issue intermittent? Does it happen after a reboot? (Windows needs reboots )

[stigzler]

Yeah. It seems to be working fine now. I'm wondering if it's linked to mapped network drives not mapping - I was having difficulties with these being mapped at startup. No difficulties = no issues with GE loading. Time will tell...

[Draco1962]

4 hours ago, stigzler said:

Yeah. It seems to be working fine now. I'm wondering if it's linked to mapped network drives not mapping - I was having difficulties with these being mapped at startup. No difficulties = no issues with GE loading. Time will tell...

Tried using UNC paths instead? I know, it's a daft suggestion.

[stigzler]

Not daft at all, but doesn't work for my setup (long story to cover, so I won't!)

Cheers for thew suggestion though.