Edit metadata -> Bluescreen

[alfred.s]

Hello,
from time to time my computer crashes to a bluescreen while editing metadata.
It happens with all version of calibre within the last year (and maybe even longer). When not using calibre/edit metadata, the computer runs 24/7 stable, without any crash. The crash happens approx once every 10-100 ebooks. No problem to edit the same ebook after the crash.

Vista business (32bit), SP2, german
HP dc7900, core2quad, Q9400, 2.66Ghz, 4GB RAM
Calibre running with german interface

Does anybody have similar problems or any ideas?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by alfred.s

Hello,
from time to time my computer crashes to a bluescreen while editing metadata.
It happens with all version of calibre within the last year (and maybe even longer). When not using calibre/edit metadata, the computer runs 24/7 stable, without any crash. The crash happens approx once every 10-100 ebooks. No problem to edit the same ebook after the crash.

Vista business (32bit), SP2, german
HP dc7900, core2quad, Q9400, 2.66Ghz, 4GB RAM
Calibre running with german interface

Does anybody have similar problems or any ideas?

What version NUMBER of Calibre Windows?

Have you run a disk (bad sector, damaged file system) check?
Have you run the Library Check Maintenance tool (your DB may have suffered)

[itimpi]

There is no way that anything Calibre does should ever be able to Blue Screen your PC. A Blue Screen suggests that you either have an underlying hardware fault somewhere; bad device driver; or corruption of the Windows install.

[BetterRed]

Probably memory faults, look in the Event Log, also google Vista memory test

Read Owners manual for details of memory upgrade/replacement

Could also be a flaky power supply.

BR

[theducks]

I am a fan of Memtest86+
Available on many Linux live CD or
you can bur a bootable CD http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...64125504,d.b2I


Note: Failing/clogged fans (CPU, chipset, GPU) can trigger the BSOD

[alfred.s]

Originally Posted by theducks

What version NUMBER of Calibre Windows?

Originally Posted by alfred.s

It happens with all version of calibre within the last year (and maybe even longer).

I am doing regular updates. But it is not depending on the version.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Probably memory faults,
Could also be a flaky power supply.

Originally Posted by alfred.s

When not using calibre/edit metadata, the computer runs 24/7 stable, without any crash.

It is running for three years now 24/7. Doing a lot of CPU work, Memory consuming software and data intensive tasks. Work and games. And it NEVER crashed unless running calibre.

[BetterRed]

@alfred.s - There are ~3.5 million active calibre installs, 85% of which are Windows, i.e. ~3 million on Windows. AFAIK you are the only person with this problem, hard to believe it could be the calibre software.

In 2011 I was ask to look at a Vista system that was getting an occasional BSOD, but only when running Quicktime, and only when watching MOV videos, AVI's were fine. But no problems in Office, Quicken, Autocad, Photoshop, Elements etc.

Windows event log was showing memory faults shortly before it crashed, ran the Windows memory test, it detected some errors. So we replaced the DDR2 memory. Voila no more BSODs when running QT or anything else.

Why only QT and why only MOV's? No idea - all I know is that the owner was happy and I got a book voucher.

BR

[chaley]

Memory problems are very often pattern sensitive, where "pattern" means both data patterns and access patterns. That is why sometimes particular file types trigger errors; they might contain problematic data patterns. Applications contain both data patterns (e.g., their code) and access patterns (e.g., how they read & write the data being processed), which is why one application runs but another doesn't.

[alfred.s]

Memtest was running for 15 hours, completing 10 full passes without any error.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by alfred.s

Memtest was running for 15 hours, completing 10 full passes without any error.

Good, that gives more confidence in the hardware.

One thing to note: as itimpi said it is not possible for a user-level application to directly cause a BSOD. Those come from the operating system. A user-level application can trigger bugs in the OS, but if that happens and it isn't caused by hardware, then (again as itimpi said) it is an OS software bug or a corrupted windows install where the data on the disc has been changed.

The candidates for OS software bugs consist mostly of device drivers. The windows kernel is very stable, but the same cannot be said for third-party drivers such as those for graphics, network, or any other exotic hardware you might have.

A hardware candidate not checked by memtest is an external disc. Sometimes the cables or the enclosure are approaching faulty, generating errors under heavy load. It could be something like a failing power supply that cannot supply enough current to handle the max load such as when all the cores are running. Lastly, as theducks said it could be heat. This too would be load sensitive, failing when the machine is under heavy load and generating more heat than normal. It could also be due to local environmental factors such as the temperature in the room containing the computer or even a pet cat sitting on the computer, reducing the amount of heat radiated by the case. (Yes, I know, this happens almost never, but it did happen once to me. She liked being warm.)

There are programs available that push all the CPUs to 100% and keep them there, testing both power supply and cooling capacity. These two articles discuss stress testing and suggest tools.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/h...y-faults/16438
http://www.pcworld.com/article/20288...-hardware.html

[alfred.s]

External discs can be ignored. There are none.

CPU-load: I'll give it a try. But wathing the task-manager shows an average of 15-20% CPU load (one core at max. 50%, one at max 40%, two at 10-15%) while editing metadata.

Calibre-database: I'use a temporary database for editing the ebooks. It's only containing the books to be edited and emptied as soon as I am finished.

No pets ...

[alfred.s]

And the reader is not attached while editing.

[BetterRed]

Graphics adapters can be the source of these sort of problems, I usually over configure graphics adapters i.e. install more than I need, but on one system I talked myself into using a low end graphics adapter. After not much more than a year the machine would intermittently die - no blue screen, just turn itself off.

Long story short - since I threw out the low end adapter, and installed an ASUS GT640, the system has run fault free for over 2 years. It's now my development machine so I'm mainly running editors, browsers, compliers, IDE's etc. I usually have 8-10 programs running that I'm switching between, plus there are 20+ proglets on stand by in the tray. I had a suspicion at the time that running Word or Visio exacerbated the problem.

BR

[alfred.s]

Yesterday it happened again while editing metadata. CPU-load was 8%, the system was cool.

It says:
"Blabla ...
A driver has overrun a stacked-based buffer.
blabla ...
*** STOP: 0x000000F7 (0xE49F9CB0, 0x4681356C, 0xB97ECA93, 0x00000000)
blabla ..."

Are there any specific driver used for editing metadata?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by alfred.s

Yesterday it happened again while editing metadata. CPU-load was 8%, the system was cool.

It says:
"Blabla ...
A driver has overrun a stacked-based buffer.
blabla ...
*** STOP: 0x000000F7 (0xE49F9CB0, 0x4681356C, 0xB97ECA93, 0x00000000)
blabla ..."

Are there any specific driver used for editing metadata?

Editing metadata will use:

• the hard disc driver to fetch all the metadata for the book
• the graphics driver to paint the window, including the covers
• the mouse driver for the obvious reasons
• the network driver if you download metadata
• the hard disc (again) to write the metadata

Also, all the standard drivers such as the bus and IO subsystem will be used, but I think we can put those aside.

Given that the message explicitly mentions a driver and stack overflow my guess is that BetterRed has it right, your graphics system is buggy. There are a lot of widgets in the edit metadata window. Perhaps the complexity exceeds what the graphics driver can handle. Failing might require that something else be running in the background behind calibre, which could increase the load on the graphics subsystem. It also could be time related, requiring something else to happen on the computer to increase the stack size required.

Too bad it doesn't tell you the driver name.