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PBX randomly does not launch table or launch screen (PBX/FX3)

MetallicaVPin

By MetallicaVPin
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MetallicaVPin Advanced Member

MetallicaVPin

Posted
Posted

Hi!

I'm troubleshooting why my instance of pinballx is randomly failing to launch a table/emulator.  Everything else works fine.  I can't seem to pin the problem down to identify what triggers the issue.  It is somewhat hard to replicate other than keep launching and closing tables until it happens.  Sometimes it happens after 1-3 launch requests, sometimes, takes 5-10 launches for the problem to occur.   When the problem occurs, after I enter the game from the PBX menu the playing field screen goes black, the loading screen does not display, it sits at the blank playing field screen with all PBX/b2s screens/processes running, and am required to kill the PBX process to exit.    I was able to get a process monitor trace when the issue occurs.   I confirmed, PBX does NOT reference/execute the VPX process, at all, like it should.

For example, in attached log files, I launched many games just fine and then closed the games.  I had closed out of T2 (VPX) then went to execute Total Annihilation (VPX) at 7:47.   TA did not load, nor did I see the loading screen.  

  1. I have a 3 screen cab setup, teensy w/addressable LED, zebs i/o plunger controller v2, win10
  2. Using dmdext w/virtual dmd, doflinx, xpadder, some VPX tables use pup
  3. Issue occurs with launching both VPX and FX3 tables (these are the only two types I run at the moment)
  4. Applies to all tables (random occurrence, not just one table)
  5. Yes, this issue only occurs when launching the table via PBX.
  6. I am running PBX 4.32.   I've had this issue since 4.10 and 4.11.   Upgraded to 4.32 in hopes it would have been corrected.
  7. Attached my Pinball X xml, ini, and log files.   I would have provided procmon output but it's somewhat large.

<7/19/2020 REMOVED REFERENCE TO PROCMON SCREENSHOT OF DLL FILES AS THEY WERE NOT RELATED TO THE PROBLEM DESCRIBED ABOVE>

Thoughts?    Thank you!

 

pinballx_files.zip

 

Draco1962 GameEx God (Top Rank)

Draco1962

Posted
Posted

Hard to read the image but I noted what looks like Access Denied string. If you are running PinballX and any of your emulators in Run as administrator, disable that.

Also, please attach your pinballx.ini and log.txt files separately (not zipped) in reply to this thread for review.

 

scutters GameEx God (Top Rank)

scutters

Posted
Posted

No idea what those file access errors you see in procmon are.

Have you tried installing PinballX 64bit?

Also do you know the last version of PinballX you were using when you didn't have the issue? 

 

MetallicaVPin Advanced Member

MetallicaVPin

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Hi all, thanks for your reply.   Good news and bad news.  Good news is PinballX was being ran as administrator (I purchased this cab from another builder).  Running PinballX as non-admin did improve stability.  I ran through loading and closing 60 tables with waiting 5 seconds between table load and pbx interface load no problem.  I wasn't able to do that before!   If this is a solution to many odd problems like mine, a good feature request might be for PinballX to post a message in it's log file with something like "Warning: You are running PinballX as administrator and doing so is known to cause problems.  It is not recommended to run PinballX as Administrator." and/or process owner username and group membership. Feature request reference

Bad news, I'm still getting the issue.  However, recreating it is now even more difficult.  Seems to happen any time I want to show off my cab to my friends (figures, right? haha).  It happened to me last night once after a few hours of idle.  After a reboot, played a game for 5 minutes, then ran into issue again.  Weird.

I'm going to upgrade to v.latest 4.33 today and keep trying to find a way to recreate the issue.   Might stick with 32bit for now as I'm concerned about upgrading to 64bit due to compatibility issues.   I agree it is worth a try.  I'm backing up files but if I wanted to revert back to 32 bit, would I just run the PinballX installer again and not select 64bit?

I don't recall when I started having the issue.  

Thank you for the help...standby while I continue to find a way to recreate the issue.  Will post updated log/ini files with 4.33 when ready.

scutters GameEx God (Top Rank)

scutters

Posted
Posted
38 minutes ago, MetallicaVPin said:

Good news is PinballX was being ran as administrator (I purchased this cab from another builder)

That does does mean that be other hidden 'tweaks' on the system. Make sure Pinballx isn't set to run in any compatibility mode too.  Also check visual pinball etc.

40 minutes ago, MetallicaVPin said:

After a reboot, played a game for 5 minutes, then ran into issue again

The issue when it occurs is still a game doesn't launch and pinballx hangs, so for the above you exited a game and and tried to launch another?

43 minutes ago, MetallicaVPin said:

Might stick with 32bit for now as I'm concerned about upgrading to 64bit due to compatibility issues.   I agree it is worth a try.  I'm backing up files but if I wanted to revert back to 32 bit, would I just run the PinballX installer again and not select 64bit?

The compatibility issues were resolved in a later version so you should be good to go to 64bit, you can install to a fresh directory so you leave your current 32bit install if you want - then just copy over your database files and ini to test (so copy databases and config folders, no need to copy media)

Going back to the procmon errors,  an nvidia profile file is shown, and i did find this link https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/program-startup-very-slow-auroradll/b9437ddd-1600-49d3-849d-70bfd5cf3131 re aurora.dll which is also shown in the image... so i suspect the problems there lie with nvidia drivers. Don't know if they relate to your main issue or not.  but it may be worth checking if pinballx has it's own program settings in nvidia control panel rather than using global settings) and/or updating/reinstalling nvidia drivers if you're confident with that kind of thing.

51 minutes ago, MetallicaVPin said:

Will post updated log/ini files with 4.33 when ready.

Cool, make sure the log is after a failed launch. 

MetallicaVPin Advanced Member

MetallicaVPin

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Scutters...thanks for the help. Great suggestions.

Yes, good call. I had also noticed VPX was being ran as admin and fixed that before any testing began. No other exe's seem to be running as admin or with compatibility.  However, that did not fix.   I installed steam and fx3 myself and I know better not to run that as admin.  I checked Pinball FX3.exe and steam.exe just in case.  Yeah, possible gremlins, but I have everything working except this issue.

The issue occurs when a game doesn't launch and pinballx hangs.  Yes,, I exited a game and and tried to launch another.  See below/attached example.

I'm ignoring the dll procmon errors at the moment...sorry, I shouldn't have included that in this thread as I agree as they may not be related.  But will look into that. Thanks for the suggestion!

So...I was able to recreate the issue with PinballX 4.33 64bit.  Per your suggestion (great idea), I installed a fresh instance of PinballX to c:\PinballX64 and copied database/config folders.  I noticed media wasn't displaying so I created a symbolic link to the original 32bit installation media folder.   I had executed the new instance of PinballX 64 4.33, browsed around a few games and successfully launched Funhouse VPX, then Medieval Madness FX3, then exited that game.  I then launched Addams Family VPX at 2:43pm and ran into the issue.   Table did not launch!  This time however I noticed PinballX crashed and had to end program after a minute or so before I pressed the windows key to right-click and close pinballx.   Attached are updated log/ini files and a pic. 

Thoughts?   Thanks!

PBX_4.33_64_crash_0704_1634_Addams_Failed_Launch.jpg

PBX_4.33_64_crash_0704_1634.zip

scutters GameEx God (Top Rank)

scutters

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Nice looking cab!, like the Metallica touch  :)

Is the problem always with a VPX tables? , and can the tables you have issues with launch ok at other times?

Might be time to dive into Event Viewer and see if there's any errors logged in there at the time of the issues. Seems like you know your way around windows, but post back if you're not familiar with it.

 

MetallicaVPin Advanced Member

MetallicaVPin

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Thank you, I have to showcase my cab online at some point, it is VERY nice.  

Good news!  After some testing, I was able to replicate the issue.  In summary, displaying a corrupt/unreadable table playing field mp4 video file triggers a condition in PinballX to where the playing field video's no longer play and displays a black playing field screen for all other selected tables.   While I am able to browse to other tables and DMD/Topper/Backglass videos display just fine in this condition, the next table that I launch will fail to launch causing the issue explained in my first post.   This makes sense because when on idle, PinballX would have eventually showed the table with the corrupt video file.    Overall, this may be a potential bug in how PinballX handles corrupt video files and logging.   I have to go to a family picnic and will post more info and some files to see if somebody else can replicate this soon.

scutters GameEx God (Top Rank)

scutters

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, MetallicaVPin said:

Good news!  After some testing, I was able to replicate the issue.  In summary, displaying a corrupt/unreadable table playing field mp4 video file triggers a condition in PinballX to where the playing field video's no longer play and displays a black playing field screen for all other selected tables.   While I am able to browse to other tables and DMD/Topper/Backglass videos display just fine in this condition, the next table that I launch will fail to launch causing the issue explained in my first post.   This makes sense because when on idle, PinballX would have eventually showed the table with the corrupt video file.    Overall, this may be a potential bug in how PinballX handles corrupt video files and logging.   I have to go to a family picnic and will post more info and some files to see if somebody else can replicate this soon.

Awesome!

If it's reproducible it may well be something that Tom can look at, so yes please post the files. Interesting to know if the files in question can be opened in other apps ok (so may be lav filter related in pinballx) or just plain old corrupt files.

MetallicaVPin Advanced Member

MetallicaVPin

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Attached is the mp4 file that causes the issue.   To reproduce, assign this a playing field video.  This file does NOT play with Windows Media Player (or whatever the heck Windows 10 calls it's default junk Movie and TV player) but the file does play just fine in VLC.    Windows Media Player displays error "Can't Play, Choose something else to play. This item is in a format we don't support, 0xc1010103".     The only thing I can see possibly different from other mp4 files is the decoder is "4:4:4 YUV".   However, I'm no mp4 or video stream expert to tell enough if the file is corrupt or simply not supported by PinballX.  Whatever it is clear that PinballX doesn't like it.  

Thank you!

pinballx64bit_4.33_mp4_causes_issue.zip

Draco1962 GameEx God (Top Rank)

Draco1962

Posted
Posted

Not sure why you are getting an error with the link as I sm not able to replicate via Chrome. 

Try the codecs you found.

  • 2 weeks later...
MetallicaVPin Advanced Member

MetallicaVPin

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Hi all.  Sorry for delayed reply, summer is getting in the way.  Good news!  I installed the LAV filters, the repeatable problem is corrected, and stability is awesome.  

Few suggestions for devs/feature requests to prevent users like me from experiencing an issue like this again. 

1. While there are several instructions posted that "highly recommend" installing LAV filters during install, this recommendation is easily missed if one simply goes directly to the download page and runs the installer.  I recommend either A) At the end of the installer wizard, present user a message regarding the recommendation to install the LAV Filters (and provide link)  or B ) The installer provides an option to install the LAV filter codecs within or during the install process, specifically the "Select additional tasks" page of the wizard.  If selected, launch the separate LAV filter installer like when you install wireshark and were prompted to install the separate winpcap/ncap package.

2. During execution of PinballX detect if LAV Filters are installed.  If not, include the recommendation and directions in the log file.  

3. During execution of PinballX detect if exe is running as administrator.  If not, include the recommendation in the log file.  

4. PinballX to detect a corrupt or unplayable media file and not cause the crash/stability can't launch issue I experienced.  If introducing this feature causes delay in media load times, consider an audit feature to detect invalid/unplayable media files in the setup wizard or game manager.

Out of all these options, while option 4 is best I understand the testing/coding effort could be high.  A quick win might be option 1.  My 2 cents..I hope this helps make this software even more awesome.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!  :D

Draco1962 GameEx God (Top Rank)

Draco1962

Posted
Posted

Good suggestions. There are probably several reasons that it is not done already. @Tom Speirs can best answer.

The LAV codecs (LAV Filters the actual name) are free to use, but likely not to distribute as part of another software installation based upon whatever GNU open source guidelines they are published.

Codecs come and go. Shark007 used to be the goto codecs back in the day, but, as software evolves, some lose favor for various reasons to something slimmer, shinier, etc.

So, at best, maybe an easily editable reference if possible.

Please post your feature/enhancement request here:

 

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