Memory problems

[Kurgan]

I'd mentioned in a previous post that CAD was eating-up a ton of system memory, and you (Carlos) asked me to try and identify what sort of loaded content was causing it (certain ID3 tags or some other specific, identifiable problem). I'm sad to say that after lots of testing and usage, the answer is: all of 'em. Simply starting Winamp, which in turn loads the plugin, immediately sucks my system dry, slowing other programs to a crawl. I'm stumped.

I'm running XP Pro with half a gig of ram, a 1.2 Ghz AMD CPU (yeah, I know, but it still should be able to handle this, right?), and even have a spiffy GeForce card with a heap of its own memory. Obviously, since nobody else seems to be having the problem, it must be something about my system, but I'll be darned if I know where to look. One thing that occurs is that it might be a good idea to try using it with a different player, just to see if the problem is something having to do with CAD and my Winamp installation (maybe some other plugin or setting doesn't like CAD?). I'll keep poking around and trying things, but if inspiration strikes, and something stands out as a possible culprit, please let me know. :)

[Carlos]

The only thing that can make CAD abnormal is an ID3 cover tag.

Maybe, just maybe most of your cover tags (if any) are not compatible.

Try to disable (or even delete) CAD plugin for Winamp and make more tests.

Testing with another player is a nice idea. I'd like to suggest you AlbumPlayer (AP): http://www.albumplayer.com/

If CAD works with AP maybe a clean Winamp installation could make the trick.

[Kurgan]

Well, I'm pretty sure it's more than just ID3 tags causing the trouble, since it seems to happen immediately at startup, but I'll still give it a shot. However, I think I've got an idea that could help test the tag theory. I remembered one of the specific items I had opened that caused the problem. Winamp and CAD were not running prior to playing it, so if it's a tag error, this'll have it. It's an old vinyl someone converted to MP3, and posted on their album blog. No worries, this is legal stuff. :)

Give this album a listen if you've got a spare moment, and see if it causes your CAD install abnormal memory or CPU consumption. You can grab it from this page: (Note that the archive is password protected, but it's given on the page)

http://youdonthavetovisit.blogspot.com/2006/07/spencer-hagen-orchestra-recipes-for.html

On a side-note, it doesn't get much more humorous than living in a small apartment, surrounded by young kids that play lots of rap music (constantly) with their speakers maxed-out, and then when it's my turn, it's the sounds of old 50s and 60s romance and lounge stuff drifting through the air. God, I'd love to see their faces when I play this stuff. lol

[acidjames]

i'm having the same problem with winamp + CAD RC4 build1

memory usage goes up to 50 Mb after many cover changes, and it seems to slow down my comp


would it be possible to have an installer for the more recent builds ? i tried the last build over the build1 and i had error messages about missing files


edit: managed to install the latest build

memory leak still present, ID3v2 tag reading disabled from CAD options,

maybe it needs disabling in winamp ?

edit2:

i just encountered a funny bug

i set the window display to "normal" instead of "pin to desktop", and unset "lock position"

then i clicked on the "desktop" icon, next to the start button, and CAD just dissapeared and never appeared again :

values in settings.ini were automatically set to :

Left=-245760
Top=-245760

that's pretty funny :)

[Carlos]

Kurgan

I was not able to download the album. Maybe you could send me just one song?

acidjames

1) CAD will always read ID3v2 tag fro title, artist etc. You can disable (remove from the list) the cover tag.

2) Can you send me one of your songs that you're sure that causes CAD to use more memory than necessary?

3) Can you start CAD without Winamp?

4) Can you test CAD with other player? Like AlbumPlayer?

5) So now you're using the last builçd (#613) right?

6) regarding the "dissapeared" thing: Do you use WindowBlinds or have a dual monitor?

[acidjames]

acidjames

1) CAD will always read ID3v2 tag fro title, artist etc. You can disable (remove from the list) the cover tag.

i've done that, working alright

2) Can you send me one of your songs that you're sure that causes CAD to use more memory than necessary?

it seemed like build 1 was the problem

now with the build 613, first start of the program = 7mb (out of 1G ram)
when the cover is not found and fetched from amazon, memory usage goes up to 11mb and seems steady for now

launching control panel = memory usage 15mb, doesn't get back to 11mb after it's closed, maybe that's not a bug but intended by design

i'll continue using it and i'll report more maybe

5) So now you're using the last builçd (#613) right?

yes

6) regarding the "dissapeared" thing: Do you use WindowBlinds or have a dual monitor?

no window blinds, single monitor



seems like the memory leak is fixed, thanks for that fantastic free program, maybe opensourced one day ? ;)

[Kurgan]

Sorry you had trouble with the download. I can upload a single track, but it may not be necessary. I got a bright idea, and copied one of the tracks to a temp folder, where I stripped out the tag from it, and then copied the cover art in with it. Playing the file still produces the unwanted effect, but after having looked at the stats in the task manager, I'm beginning to wonder if it isn't a memory problem at all, but something else. CAD does not appear to be using any abnormal amounts of memory or CPU (although Winamp itself does appear to be eating up more CPU).

The most noticable thing is when I'm browsing on the net. When I scroll up or down on a page, the text gets all garbled until I stop. If CAD isn't running, it doesn't do this, and everything appears normally, even when scrolling.

Also, for whatever it may tell us, I decided to do a test and fire up a different cover art viewer, that "Wallpaper" one that adds the cover art into the Playlist window. When this one's running, it doesn't cause the problem, but firing CAD back up immediately did.

So, if it's not a memory or CPU problem, and doing the same thing via a similar program doesn't have any bad side-effects, is it safe to assume the problem is something specific to CAD and its interaction with my system in general, perhaps something having to do with my video drivers? Just an "out of left field" guess, since, to be honest, this is completely out of my realm. :)

[acidjames]

Kurgan : are you using some programes like YZ Shadows or strange shell mod ? Maybe you're using Windows live messenger with Shadows on borders ? i used to have the same problem with drop shadows on windows

and maybe you could update your video driver too

[Jorell]

CAD takes 3,156K memory for me on Vista x64 using Winamp 5.25 beta after many songs/album changes...

[Carlos]

Only 3,156K memory? :shock:

I didn't know CAD runs on a x64. :shock: Well I think it's because the Visual Basic SP6 Vista support.

Great news! :D

[Jorell]

3,548K now and it's been playing since I last posted ;)