BUG: OpenKJ becomes unresponsive randomly but frequently in Windows

[backstagekaraoke]

OS: Windows 10, 20H2 - build 19042
OpenKJ: 2.1.38-unstable

Device config

HP Notebook - 15-db0076ax
OS: Windows 10, 20H2 - build 19042
Windows Defender: Disabled
Windows Updates: Disabled
Also no third party AV software installed that could mess with OpenKJ
Just completely clean install of Windows 10, 20H2 - build 19042, then drivers, then OpenKJ.

Symptoms

Randomly OpenKJ will become unresponsive when trying to launch the next karaoke track.
So the previous karaoke track finishes, break music comes back in, you then double click either the Singer name to launch their next unsung karaoke track, or just double click the song itself. Break music fades out, but then you get the standard windows blue wheel.

It will sit there, and if you then click anywhere else on OpenKJ, you get the standard grey overlay, where it says the program is not responding. Task manager also states the program is not responding.

Only way to resolve is kill the OpenKJ process and reopen OpenKJ.

The latest reports from this host is that its happening randomly but between every 4-5 songs and their shows this weekend.

They also restarted the laptop a couple of times, however trying to do this when you have a room of 100 people is a show stopper.

Here are their OpenKJ debug log files from their device.
openkj-debug-2022-08-27.log
openkj-debug-2022-08-26.log

[SchmalzTech]

It may not be related, but it looks like the one log I am reading is indicating that you're running the 32 bit version. Not 100% sure if this is the case, but you might want to try the 64 bit version if you are. 32 bit software is limited to ~4GB memory addressing, thus you cannot utilize all of the available system memory in a modern computer.

Looking at this message in the log:

[2022-08-27 01:01:17.864] [warning] [GStreamerGlobalLog] [gstreamer] [audiosink] - error writing data in gst_directsound_sink_write (reason: unknown), skipping segment (left: 1764, written: -1)

A quick web search indicates one possibility for this gstreamer error could be a lack of memory available to the program causing this.

Edit: I am going to guess you are probably already using the 64 bit version. I just looked at mine, and it appears that it installed the 64 bit version in c:\Program Files (x86)\OpenKJ

[backstagekaraoke]

SchmalzTech

Nah running Windows 10, 20H2 64bit.
Potentially maybe gstreamer bundled with OKJ might be 32bit though?

[SchmalzTech]

My thought was maybe you ran the 32 bit installer on your 64 bit windows, but it appears that the 64 bit version mistakenly installs in the 32 bit Program files location. If that's the case, each 32 bit program running is limited to using 4GB of your RAM.

One other thing I would try is to go into the settings in OKJ and instead of using the "Default" as the sound output device, which relies on Windows to correctly select and grab a hold of your audio device, specify the audio device you want to output to. Maybe that will make a difference. I use two separate sound cards, one for break music, the other for karaoke playback. I specify the device for both. That way I have hard controls for each on my mixer, and I have not had any issues when I hard select my devices. I have been working with A/V programs for 20+ years, and it seems like since Windows 8, the audio device handling has gotten a little less predictable. I am in the habit of selecting specific devices in any program I use that supports it.

I have not yet tested the latest unstable. I am on 2.0.8 on my test and production machines. I will start testing the latest in the next couple days.