[Windows] Calibre Appears to Not Run, But Uses 10% of CPU

[JSWolf]

I will say this, even though Windows 11 is different and you may not like it, it's best to just get used to it and move on.

[enuddleyarbl]

What I don't understand about this situation is that it's not reproducible. The issue I started with (Calibre, itself, not starting up in the foreground but taking up 10% of the CPU in the background) has been superseded by the Editor having the problem. It's not tied to any particular book. I can edit the same book all day, quitting and restarting the editor without trouble. And then, up rears the problem. I shut down Calibre, kill the orphaned 10% CPU task in the Task Manager and start up Calibre and the Editor just fine. Until it happens again. There's nothing (i.e., logs) on the system (Windows 10 or 11) indicating any kind of problem.

If it happened all the time, it would be solvable. Ditto if whatever isn't liking Calibre popped up a message or left an indication behind. Or, if something showed up in the Event Viewer.

My current strawman is that it might be related to the "Easy Anti-Cheat" software Vermintide 2 installed. That's the first game I've ever played that installed such a thing. But, if it were the cause, I'd think it would happen all the time and some kind of notification would happen on the system.

[kovidgoyal]

Try rebooting in safe mode and see if the problem goes away that's the easiest way of checking if its some third party software interfering.

[enuddleyarbl]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Try rebooting in safe mode and see if the problem goes away that's the easiest way of checking if its some third party software interfering.

If the problem happened all the time, absolutely. But, it can be days between instances of the issue regardless of how many times I start up Calibre or the Editor.

[enuddleyarbl]

Here's a screenshot (blurry because of forum requirements) of the process in Task Manager for the instance of the problem that's just happened:



I've also got a half a megabyte DMP file of that process if it will do any good.

[enuddleyarbl]

And, if I'm doing it right, here's a link to the full-sized (i.e., readable) version of that same screenshot:

https://imgur.com/T2DZR7v

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Here's a screenshot (blurry because of forum requirements)

Take a full size screenshot and attach it. Then it can be made full size so it can be seen properly.

[enuddleyarbl]

Full-sized screenshot is attached just above your post: ninjad (what's the past tense of "to ninja?").

Anyway, I booted into Safe Mode, opened Calibre, highlighted a book, hit "T" to edit it and ALT-F4 to close the editor repeatedly. A couple of dozen times. No problem. I came back into regular mode, started Recording for a Feedback item for Microsoft's Feedback Hub, and did the same thing half a dozen times. That time, it happened and, hopefully, their fine Feedback Recording system caught something. I'd put a link in to that Feedback Item, but 1) it hasn't show up in their system yet, and 2) it's not like any of the diagnostic data will be available from it. When it does show up, just for posterity, I'll add the link.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Full-sized screenshot is attached just above your post: ninjad (what's the past tense of "to ninja?").

ninja'd

[kovidgoyal]

the next step is to start disabling the various services running on the system until your find the culprit. Given that the crash is intermittent, that's going to be an insane amount of work however. Maybe take an educated guess on 3-4 of them disable all 4 see if that fixes it, if so you can narrow it down relatively easily. If not you will just have to live with the crashes.

[enuddleyarbl]

Doing the "T" / "ALT-F4" dance for a bit, I reproduced it again and used AMD's Bug Reporting Tool to send them a report (just in case it's chipset or GPU related).

[enuddleyarbl]

I'm pretty sure this issue has something to do with my AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT or its drivers. I loaded Calibre onto my wife's Windows 10 computer, highlighted the About Calibre (or whatever it's called) epub that it comes with, hit "T" to edit and ALT-F4 to quit the editor about 50 times. No problem. I even moved over a little test epub I threw together about 6 months ago and tried that. No problem. The biggest difference between her computer and mine is she's got an Nvidia graphics card and I've got an AMD one. Her system looks like this:

Computer: ASUS
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X (Matisse, MTS-B0)
3600 MHz (36.00x100.0) @ 3600 MHz (36.00x100.0)
Motherboard: ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO
BIOS: 4201, 04/26/2022
Chipset: AMD X570 (Bixby)
Memory: 16384 MBytes @ 1600 MHz, 14-14-14-34
- 8192 MB PC25600 DDR4 SDRAM - G.Skill F4-3200C14-8GTZ
- 8192 MB PC25600 DDR4 SDRAM - G.Skill F4-3200C14-8GTZ
Graphics: EVGA GTX 1080 FTW2 Gaming iCX (08G-P4-6686)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, 8192 MB GDDR5X SDRAM
Drive: KINGSTON SKC3000D2048G, 2000.4 GB, NVMe
Sound: NVIDIA GP104 - High Definition Audio Controller
Sound: AMD Family 17h/19h - HD Audio Controller
Network: RealTek Semiconductor RTL8125 Gaming 2.5GbE Family Ethernet Controller
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 Professional (x64) Build 19045.2364

and mine looks like this:

Computer:      GIGABYTE B550 VISION D-P
CPU:           AMD Ryzen 5 5600X (Vermeer, VMR-B0)
               3700 MHz (37.00x100.0) @ 3593 MHz (36.00x99.8)
Motherboard:   GIGABYTE B550 VISION D-P
BIOS:          F15d, 07/20/2022
Chipset:       AMD B550 (Promontory PROM19 C)
Memory:        16384 MBytes @ 1597 MHz, 14-14-14-34
               - 8192 MB PC25600 DDR4 SDRAM - G.Skill F4-3200C14-8GFX
               - 8192 MB PC25600 DDR4 SDRAM - G.Skill F4-3200C14-8GFX
Graphics:      AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT
               AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, 16384 MB GDDR6 SDRAM
Drive:         KINGSTON SKC3000D2048G, 2000.4 GB, NVMe
Sound:         ATI/AMD Navi2x - High Definition Audio Controller
Sound:         AMD Family 17h/19h - HD Audio Controller
Network:       RealTek Semiconductor RTL8125 Gaming 2.5GbE Family Ethernet Controller
Network:       Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 160MHz
OS:            Microsoft Windows 10 Professional (x64) Build 19045.2364

If anyone out there has an AMD graphics card, I'd appreciate it if you could highlight any epub (version 2 or 3), and hit "T" to edit it and ALT-F4 to quit the editor repeatedly (maybe a dozen times). Let me know if it's successfull all the time or if it has issues.

[enuddleyarbl]

Definitely the more current AMD graphics drivers or their software (I'm currently on Adrenalin 22.12.2 (12/08/2022), according to Device Manager, that's driver version 31.0.12029.10015 (11/30/2022). I uninstalled them and Windows is running with whatever it defaults to for a driver (no Adrenalin software and Device Manager says version 31.0.12027.7000 released on 10/20/2022). The issue with Calibre no longer seems to happen (a couple of dozen T / ALT-F4 cycles). I started noticing this with their previous Adrenalin drivers (Adrenalin 22.11.1, released 11/15/2022). I'll report this to AMD and possibly try moving back through their older drivers and see if I can pinpoint when it started.

[BetterRed]

My take on drivers, especially video drivers, is leave them be - i.e. IIABDFI. The reason for almost all updates is to support the latest devices, it is rarely to enhance the function or performance of the devices I actually have.

BR

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by enuddleyarbl

Full-sized screenshot is attached just above your post: ninjad (what's the past tense of "to ninja?").

What I suspect Jon was referring to was using either the paperclip icon or the Manage attachments button in the Attach files box below the message box to upload the image and show a thumbnail. Example below: