Stability

We take crashes and other stability problems very seriously. We want to know as much as possible about the cause.

This article describes the basic steps you would typically take when facing stability issues. A more detailed forum thread on Interact about troubleshooting stability issues can be found here: How To: Fix MC If It Is Misbehaving (Hanging Regularly or Crashing).

You can help determine why a problem occurred. In this order, try these:

1. Please use the download link above to update your player. If a newer version has been released, please try it. For example, if you're using MC14, but MC15 has been released, please try it. The latest known stable build is always on the download page, but a newer version may be found at the top of each board on the forum.

2. Disable plug-ins and other third party software that you use with MC. We have had some problems with bugs in plug-ins causing problems in the past. The Audioscrobbler plug-in, for example, would crash MC if you weren't logged into last.fm.

3. Problems with Virus Checkers, Pop-up Blockers, and SPAM programs are not uncommon. Please disable these to test.

4. Reboot, reinstall, reinstall your license.

5. Check the Weird Problems thread for similar problems. This thread lists a number of problems caused by other software or hardware.

6. Turn off auto-import. It's under tools/options/libraries.

7. Think about any changes you've made to your system; both hardware and software. Crashes can be caused by a bad CPU, bad memory, bad drivers, etc. A "blue screen", for example, is a hardware or driver issue. Some machines may not be stable under heavy use. The fact that other software works may mean that the software doesn't use the machine in the same way. If you have more than one stick of RAM, consider using just one at a time in order to test.

8. Start a thread on Interact with details about what version you're using, and the events that lead up to the crash.

9. Enable logging in MC and send us a log (to logs at jriver) with a link to your thread. Logging is under MC's Help menu, and there you can also e-mail the logs. There is more information about logging in the 'Logging' section below.

10. Examine the logs and search for the word "crash".

Logging

Media Center can create a log file of what it is doing as it runs. Logging can be enabled under MC's Help menu, and there you can also e-mail logs.

When a crash is recorded, the word "crash" will normally be written to the log.

Each run, a "Log.txt" file is created. The log from the previous run will be renamed "Previous Log.txt". When restarting after a crash, "Previous Log.txt" will contain the crash.

It is recommended that you use the logging dialog to email logs, and it will include both logs in the email.

Logs are stored here:

Windows Vista: C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData\Roaming\J River\Media Center 15

Windows XP: C:\Documents & Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\J River\Media Center 15

Enabling logging when the program won't run

In some cases, a problem may prevent the program from running. In this case, logging must be manually enabled by using the Registry Editor.

1. From the start menu, select Run and type regedit

2. Locate this key (create it if necessary): HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\J. River\Media Center 15\Debug

3. Add (or modify if it exists) a DWORD named "File" and set it to 1

Other Tests

Thanks to glynor for this:

A good, simple first test is Memtest86+. Grab it, burn it, boot to it, and make sure the system can run one full pass on the memory with no errors. Then, boot to windows... I'd get Prime95 to start. It should absolutely be able to run the torture test on "blend" for at least 24 hours with no crashes, warnings, or errors.

Assuming you pass those two basic tests, I'd test the GPU. There are some special-purpose GPU testers out there, but I'm not really a big fan. Many of them seemed designed to crash the system, even if you'd otherwise never see any real problems. If you don't have any newer high-end games to test with, I'd try running a few passes of FutureMark's 3DMark. That should push the GPU pretty hard, but in a realistic manner. Make sure you download and install the LATEST drivers for your graphics card before starting, even if 3DMark warns that they aren't "certified" (you don't care about publishing your score and showing off, just testing).

Memtest86+: http://www.memtest.org/

Prime95: http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/

3DMark Vantage: http://www.futuremark.com/benchmarks/3dmarkvantage/download/

And a great post on Stress Testing by InflatableMouse:

http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=72050.msg487385#msg487385