Calibre "sleeps"

Fbone · 02-13-2018, 01:07 PM

Is there a way to keep Calibre active when not in use? Is there a setting in Calibre or Windows 7? After a couple of hours Calibre goes dormant and it takes several minutes to "wake up." Then it performs whatever task is in the keyboard cache or some such.

Today, it deleted a few books from its library without my direct instruction.

Thanks

kovidgoyal · 02-13-2018, 03:47 PM

calibre has no code to make itself sleep when unused. And it definitely does not delete books without user interaction (the only exceptions being automated deletion of old news downloads, which can be turned off via the Fetch news dialog, and if you run the content server, then users with write permission on the server, can delete books from your library).

theducks · 02-13-2018, 05:22 PM

Windows sleeps without user keyboard / mouse action if that was your power management.

Big time to recover makes me think it Hibernated. (also a power setting).

Fbone · 02-13-2018, 08:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Windows sleeps without user keyboard / mouse action if that was your power management.

Big time to recover makes me think it Hibernated. (also a power setting).

That's what I thought and checked my settings. However, only Calibre goes "asleep" all other programs are still awake.

I do notice that when awake and idle Calibre uses about 100,000K but asleep it drops to less than 10,000. Then there's a long delay to activate.

It's not a big deal. I can just close Calibre when not needed.

Kovid- Calibre deleted because when Calibre woke up it registered a "del" command either from a click or keypress on another window not intended for Calibre.

theducks · 02-13-2018, 08:30 PM

That is not sleeping per se
It sounds like it is getting swapped out (low memory)?

kovidgoyal · 02-13-2018, 08:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fbone

Kovid- Calibre deleted because when Calibre woke up it registered a "del" command either from a click or keypress on another window not intended for Calibre.

Why would it get a click from another window, even if it was sleeping? And even if it did, there is still the confirmation dialog for deletes. A long time to recover after being unused sounds like windows has swapped its memory to a disk. That will happen if your system is low on RAM, or you have told windows to aggressively use RAM for disk caching.

Fbone · 02-13-2018, 08:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

That is not sleeping per se
It sounds like it is getting swapped out (low memory)?

1% CPU usage and 76% Physical Memory according to WTM.

It's probably a Windows setting. Unused programs memory hijacking even if not needed.

Fbone · 02-13-2018, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Why would it get a click from another window, even if it was sleeping? And even if it did, there is still the confirmation dialog for deletes. A long time to recover after being unused sounds like windows has swapped its memory to a disk. That will happen if your system is low on RAM, or you have told windows to aggressively use RAM for disk caching.

Sigh. Because when I click on Calibre waiting for it to activate, I go on to other work and when Calibre finally recovers it interrupts me and uses whatever mouse clicks or keypress I was performing. Sometimes Calibre wants to add books other times send to device, the second right-click choice.

It's just annoying. If it's disk caching, it must be a default setting as I don't know how to change that.

HarryT · 02-14-2018, 05:57 AM

Sounds like an inactive program being swapped out due to low memory. How much RAM does your PC have?

dwig · 02-14-2018, 10:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fbone

Sigh. Because when I click on Calibre waiting for it to activate, I go on to other work and when Calibre finally recovers it interrupts me and uses whatever mouse clicks or keypress I was performing. ...

If you're doing this, calibre is NOT using whatever mouse clicks or keypresses you were performing. What is happening is that calibre is finally moved into active memory by your OS and is being given focus by the OS. It will then take new entries (mouse and/or keyboard) you make, perhaps made without your realizing that the OS has switched focus to calibre. It's somewhat dangerous to activate a program and then switch to using another while the first launches or is returned to active memory.

ilovejedd · 02-14-2018, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dwig

If you're doing this, calibre is NOT using whatever mouse clicks or keypresses you were performing. What is happening is that calibre is finally moved into active memory by your OS and is being given focus by the OS. It will then take new entries (mouse and/or keyboard) you make, perhaps made without your realizing that the OS has switched focus to calibre. It's somewhat dangerous to activate a program and then switch to using another while the first launches or is returned to active memory.

Yep, this. One of the things I love so much about SSDs (even my fairly outdated Intel X25-M G2 120GB), they're so much faster than HDD on things like this. Before, reloading, for example, Firefox with a few dozen tabs from pagefile effectively brings the system to a halt.

Adoby · 02-14-2018, 04:25 PM

More memory and a SSD would most likely help a lot.

If it is difficult to upgrade it might help to use the ReadyBoost feature in Windows. You can configure Windows to cache the HDD using a USB stick. May be much faster than a mechanical HDD and at least it is very easy and cheap to try if you have a USB stick handy. How good it works depends on how modern USB the PC has and how good the USB stick is.

I donated a 8GB SanDisk USB 2 stick to my dad with an older PC with USB 2 and Win 10, to use as ReadyBoost. He was about to buy a new PC after upgrading to Win10. It helped quite a bit so no need to buy a new PC or upgrade.

https://www.techcrises.com/how-to/in...ve-windows-10/
https://www.techrepublic.com/article...in-windows-10/
https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...-in-windows-7/

haertig · 02-14-2018, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fbone

Sigh. Because when I click on Calibre waiting for it to activate, I go on to other work and when Calibre finally recovers it interrupts me and uses whatever mouse clicks or keypress I was performing.

Replace "Calibre" with "Windows" in your above sentence, if you want to correctly identify the culprit.

The problems you are encountering are not Calibre's fault. They are Windows fault. Or you might say they are due to you not providing enough resources for Windows to run effectively. Windows takes a lot of resources. Much more so than every other operating system out there. I can't imagine running Windows on anything less than 8Gb these days, with 16Gb being significantly better. You can still run a really good GUI-based Linux desktop on only 4Gb.

To fix your issue, I would advise adding more RAM if you want to continue using Windows. Or switch to Linux if you want to continue using the hardware/resources you currently have. I think Linux is the much better choice, BUT, if you are not willing to learn something new and expect "Linux to be just like Windows" then abandon the thought of switching immediately and just stick with Windows.

ilovejedd · 02-14-2018, 07:43 PM

That's exaggerating. I'm forced to use 32-bit Windows 7 due to equipment that doesn't have 64-bit drivers ergo, user-accessible RAM is just around 2.5GB or thereabouts. Iirc, it's got either quad-core Sandy or Ivy. With a Samsung 840 250GB, everything's quite zippy. Apart from number-crunching tasks, there's no noticeable difference in performance between that and faster builds with 16GB RAM.

Heck, I've got a couple of Celeron 1037U Mini-ITX builds with 2x1GB DDR3 and 128GB M.2 (SATA) SSD. These were basically built from leftover parts except for the motherboard with embedded CPU. They handle typical user tasks (web browsing, Facebook, Tumblr, Word, Excel, etc) including Calibre (iirc, library of ~3,000 epubs) just fine.

BetterRed · 02-14-2018, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

They handle typical user tasks (web browsing, Facebook, Tumblr, Word, Excel, etc) including Calibre (iirc, library of ~3,000 epubs) just fine.

Curious - how many of those would be running concurrently ?

BR

02-13-2018, 01:07 PM	#1
Fbone Is that a sandwich? Posts: 8,189 Karma: 100500000 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: Nook Glowlight Plus	Calibre "sleeps" Is there a way to keep Calibre active when not in use? Is there a setting in Calibre or Windows 7? After a couple of hours Calibre goes dormant and it takes several minutes to "wake up." Then it performs whatever task is in the keyboard cache or some such. Today, it deleted a few books from its library without my direct instruction. Thanks

02-14-2018, 04:25 PM	#12
Adoby Handy Elephant Posts: 1,736 Karma: 26785668 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Southern Sweden, far out in the quiet woods Device: Thinkpad E595, Ubuntu Mate, Huawei Mediapad 5, Bouye Likebook Plus	More memory and a SSD would most likely help a lot. If it is difficult to upgrade it might help to use the ReadyBoost feature in Windows. You can configure Windows to cache the HDD using a USB stick. May be much faster than a mechanical HDD and at least it is very easy and cheap to try if you have a USB stick handy. How good it works depends on how modern USB the PC has and how good the USB stick is. I donated a 8GB SanDisk USB 2 stick to my dad with an older PC with USB 2 and Win 10, to use as ReadyBoost. He was about to buy a new PC after upgrading to Win10. It helped quite a bit so no need to buy a new PC or upgrade. https://www.techcrises.com/how-to/in...ve-windows-10/ https://www.techrepublic.com/article...in-windows-10/ https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/wi...-in-windows-7/ Last edited by Adoby; 02-14-2018 at 04:36 PM. Reason: Added link to ReadyBoost under Windows 7

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02-13-2018, 03:47 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	calibre has no code to make itself sleep when unused. And it definitely does not delete books without user interaction (the only exceptions being automated deletion of old news downloads, which can be turned off via the Fetch news dialog, and if you run the content server, then users with write permission on the server, can delete books from your library).

02-13-2018, 05:22 PM	#3
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,801 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Windows sleeps without user keyboard / mouse action if that was your power management. Big time to recover makes me think it Hibernated. (also a power setting).

02-13-2018, 08:30 PM	#5
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,801 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	That is not sleeping per se It sounds like it is getting swapped out (low memory)?

02-14-2018, 05:57 AM	#9
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Sounds like an inactive program being swapped out due to low memory. How much RAM does your PC have?

02-14-2018, 07:43 PM	#14
ilovejedd hopeless n00b Posts: 5,111 Karma: 19597086 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: in the middle of nowhere Device: PW4, PW3, Libra H2O, iPad 10.5, iPad 11, iPad 12.9	That's exaggerating. I'm forced to use 32-bit Windows 7 due to equipment that doesn't have 64-bit drivers ergo, user-accessible RAM is just around 2.5GB or thereabouts. Iirc, it's got either quad-core Sandy or Ivy. With a Samsung 840 250GB, everything's quite zippy. Apart from number-crunching tasks, there's no noticeable difference in performance between that and faster builds with 16GB RAM. Heck, I've got a couple of Celeron 1037U Mini-ITX builds with 2x1GB DDR3 and 128GB M.2 (SATA) SSD. These were basically built from leftover parts except for the motherboard with embedded CPU. They handle typical user tasks (web browsing, Facebook, Tumblr, Word, Excel, etc) including Calibre (iirc, library of ~3,000 epubs) just fine.