problem converting a poor Penguin mobi file

[anacreon]

I bought this morning Chabon's Yiddish Policemen's Union, which is ridiculously "heavy" (14.5 Mo for some 500 pages according to amazon). I saw it had a lot of "pictures" (chapter headings and separations), which are a prossible cause. I started a conversion this morning, which lasted so long (and slowed my pc) that I stopped, and started again this afternoon. It was very slow going to 47%, then 67%, but now it seems blocked at 67%, though the little weel is turning, sluggishly, bottom right of the calibre window.

I've just copied the details (at 154' since it started):

Spoiler:

Conversion du livre 1 sur 1 (The Yiddish Policemen's Union)
C:\Program Files\Calibre2\pylib.zip\dateutil\parser.py:336: UnicodeWarning: Unicode equal comparison failed to convert both arguments to Unicode - interpreting them as being unequal
Resolved conversion options
calibre version: 1.18.0
{'asciiize': False,
'author_sort': None,
'authors': None,
'base_font_size': 14.0,
'book_producer': None,
'change_justification': u'original',
'chapter': u"//*[((name()='h1' or name()='h2') and re:test(., '\\s*((chapter|book|section|part)\\s+)|((prolog|pr ologue|epilogue)(\\s+|$))', 'i')) or @class = 'chapter']",
'chapter_mark': u'pagebreak',
'comments': None,
'cover': u'C:\\Users\\ISABEL~1\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\calib re__ozypp\\unburh.jpeg',
'debug_pipeline': None,
'dehyphenate': True,
'delete_blank_paragraphs': True,
'disable_font_rescaling': False,
'dont_split_on_page_breaks': False,
'duplicate_links_in_toc': False,
'embed_all_fonts': False,
'embed_font_family': None,
'enable_heuristics': False,
'epub_flatten': False,
'epub_inline_toc': False,
'epub_toc_at_end': False,
'expand_css': False,
'extra_css': None,
'extract_to': None,
'filter_css': u'margin-right,,margin-left,margin-bottom,padding,margin-top,padding-right,padding-bottom,padding-top,font-family,margin,padding-left',
'fix_indents': True,
'flow_size': 260,
'font_size_mapping': None,
'format_scene_breaks': True,
'html_unwrap_factor': 0.4,
'input_encoding': None,
'input_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.InputProfile object at 0x00000000060A8E10>,
'insert_blank_line': True,
'insert_blank_line_size': 0.5,
'insert_metadata': False,
'isbn': None,
'italicize_common_cases': True,
'keep_ligatures': False,
'language': None,
'level1_toc': None,
'level2_toc': None,
'level3_toc': None,
'line_height': 0.0,
'linearize_tables': False,
'margin_bottom': 5.0,
'margin_left': 5.0,
'margin_right': 5.0,
'margin_top': 5.0,
'markup_chapter_headings': True,
'max_toc_links': 50,
'minimum_line_height': 120.0,
'no_chapters_in_toc': False,
'no_default_epub_cover': False,
'no_inline_navbars': False,
'no_svg_cover': False,
'output_profile': <calibre.customize.profiles.IRexDR1000Output object at 0x00000000061F9358>,
'page_breaks_before': u"//*[name()='h1' or name()='h2']",
'prefer_metadata_cover': False,
'preserve_cover_aspect_ratio': False,
'pretty_print': True,
'pubdate': None,
'publisher': None,
'rating': None,
'read_metadata_from_opf': u'C:\\Users\\ISABEL~1\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\calib re__ozypp\\w41nid.opf',
'remove_fake_margins': True,
'remove_first_image': False,
'remove_paragraph_spacing': True,
'remove_paragraph_spacing_indent_size': 1.5,
'renumber_headings': True,
'replace_scene_breaks': u'',
'search_replace': '[]',
'series': None,
'series_index': None,
'smarten_punctuation': False,
'sr1_replace': None,
'sr1_search': None,
'sr2_replace': None,
'sr2_search': None,
'sr3_replace': None,
'sr3_search': None,
'start_reading_at': None,
'subset_embedded_fonts': False,
'tags': None,
'timestamp': None,
'title': None,
'title_sort': None,
'toc_filter': None,
'toc_threshold': 6,
'toc_title': None,
'unsmarten_punctuation': False,
'unwrap_lines': True,
'use_auto_toc': False,
'verbose': 2}
InputFormatPlugin: MOBI Input running
on C:\Users\ISABEL~1\AppData\Local\Temp\calibre__ozyp p\xhosfm.mobi
Extracting text...
Adding anchors...
Extracting images...
Cleaning up HTML...
Parsing HTML...
Converting style information to CSS...
Creating OPF...
Parsing all content...
Parsing dummy.html ...
Forcing dummy.html into XHTML namespace
Merging multiple <head> and <body> sections
Parsing styles.css ...
Reading TOC from NCX...
Merging user specified metadata...
Detecting structure...
Flattening CSS and remapping font sizes...
Filtering CSS properties: , margin-left, margin-right, margin-bottom, padding, margin-top, padding-right, padding-bottom, padding-top, font-family, margin, padding-left
Source base font size is 12.00000pt
Removing fake margins...
Found 3 items of level: div_1
Found 41 items of level: div_3
Found 19 items of level: div_2
Found 2281 items of level: div_5
Found 334943 items of level: div_4
div_1 left margin stats: Counter()
div_1 right margin stats: Counter()
div_3 left margin stats: Counter({u'': 41})
div_3 right margin stats: Counter({u'': 41})
div_2 left margin stats: Counter({u'': 1})
div_2 right margin stats: Counter({u'': 1})
div_5 left margin stats: Counter({u'': 2281})
div_5 right margin stats: Counter({u'': 2281})
div_4 left margin stats: Counter({u'': 334943})
div_4 right margin stats: Counter({u'': 334943})
Cleaning up manifest...
Trimming unused files from manifest...
Trimming u'images/00011.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00092.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00033.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00097.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00012.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00098.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00028.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00014.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00002.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00003.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00007.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00006.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00016.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00019.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00022.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00026.jpg' from manifest
Trimming u'images/00037.jpg' from manifest
Creating EPUB Output...
Splitting markup on page breaks and flow limits, if any...
Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_0
Splitting on page-break at id=calibre_pb_1

I will now interrupt the conversion since I need my computer. I'm very annoyed - I never had problems converting kindle formats up to now, so I usually choose the cheaper price, whithout minding the format, but I won't any more, unless I can solve this.

[theducks]

It was still grinding away.
You threw away all that effort.

Unless you are running on battery, let it run (minimized in background). It can take 24 Hours or more for some complex conversion (looks alone don't determine complexity).
Calibre conversions CAN be CPU intense. The fans may run at speed. That is why they are put there, just allow good airflow. Modern computers will protect themselves if the get too hot, but helping the cooling out (and a good de-linting) never hurts

[anacreon]

Thank you. I'd decided to do it on my holiday pc, newer, less lint, and I can still use my desk pc. I last used it a couple of months ago, good occasion to update everything. But then I discovered the 15 Mo was the oxford dictionary which amazon had sent simultaneously!

So converting it to an epub is not appropriate, and I don't think I would be able to convert to kobo dictionary format: I've glanced at the appropriate thread, but find it daunting.

PS: the book conversion worked fine.