De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

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JMorris
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De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

Post by JMorris »

I hesitate to put this in as a Bug Report since I think it is really a problem with one of my computers. StarTools works well on two of my other computers but, on my HP Pavilion Elite HPE-112y, AMD Phenom II X4 925 Quad-Core, 12 Gbyte RAM, 1 Tbyte hard drive computer running Windows 8 it crashes every time the De-Noise module is used -- either when turning off tracking or on its own either before or after turning tracking off.

It doesn't seem to matter what image I am processing or its size, the wavelet De-Noise process works its way up to Level 6/6 Scale Extraction and then I get a "StarTools-Windows64.exe has stopped working" pop-up.

I'm currently using StarTools Beta 1.3.5.270 but this goes on with earlier Beta versions too, but only on this computer. Curiously, though, I just did a quick test with version 1.3.5.246 and it worked fine -- no crash when using the De-Noise module! Hmm . . .

Any ideas what might be going on here -- just on this one machine?

Jim
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Re: De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

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JMorris wrote:I hesitate to put this in as a Bug Report since I think it is really a problem with one of my computers. StarTools works well on two of my other computers but, on my HP Pavilion Elite HPE-112y, AMD Phenom II X4 925 Quad-Core, 12 Gbyte RAM, 1 Tbyte hard drive computer running Windows 8 it crashes every time the De-Noise module is used -- either when turning off tracking or on its own either before or after turning tracking off.

It doesn't seem to matter what image I am processing or its size, the wavelet De-Noise process works its way up to Level 6/6 Scale Extraction and then I get a "StarTools-Windows64.exe has stopped working" pop-up.

I'm currently using StarTools Beta 1.3.5.270 but this goes on with earlier Beta versions too, but only on this computer. Curiously, though, I just did a quick test with version 1.3.5.246 and it worked fine -- no crash when using the De-Noise module! Hmm . . .

Any ideas what might be going on here -- just on this one machine?

Jim
Thanks for reporting this Jim!
That's very odd behavior... The scale extraction is very taxing on the CPU and RAM though and will show up the slightest of instabilites. That said, if you can replicate it 100% of the time, something else might be amiss. I will investigate... stay tuned!
Ivo Jager
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JMorris
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Re: De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

Post by JMorris »

Thanks Ivo! I sure haven't been able to figure it out.

Jim
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Re: De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

Post by admin »

Jim,

Is tracking enabled while you perform the noise reduction and it crashes?
Ivo Jager
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
JMorris
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Re: De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

Post by JMorris »

Hi Ivo,

This happens whether tracking is enabled or not. I just repeated a series of earlier tests, just to be sure, and it crashed every time. Here is an outline:

Test 1 (tracking on):
Open File
Bin to 25%
Denoise -- preview only -- Crashes when it gets to Level 6

Test 2 (tracking in process of being turned off):
Open File
Bin to 25%
Stop Tracking, Do final noise reduction -- Crashes when it gets to Level 6

Test 3 (tracking off):
Open File
Bin to 25%
Stop Tracking, no noise reduction
Denoise -- Crashes when it gets to Level 6

I don't usually bin to 25%. I did here just to get a smaller image for it to work with. And, again, this is only on one of my computers -- alas, the one on which I'd like to do most of my processing :( . The other two seem to be able to do noise reduction without incident.

In case it makes any difference, I did recently add 4 GB of memory to the problem computer. I've gotten no indication that there is any problem with the new memory and, unfortunately, I don't remember whether I had this problem before adding the memory or not. I can try to remove it, next chance I get (probably not until early next week), and see if that makes any difference.

Jim
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Re: De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

Post by admin »

Thanks for the detailed info and testing Jim, it's much appreciated!
I've completed another valgrind audit of the code, but couldn't find anything that would explain the crashes you're experiencing.
You could indeed be right about the additional memory causing problems. As I said earlier, StarTools will give your system a pretty good workout, quickly showing you any weak components.
Maybe you could do a memtest and see if your system is stable?
JMorris wrote:Hi Ivo,

This happens whether tracking is enabled or not. I just repeated a series of earlier tests, just to be sure, and it crashed every time. Here is an outline:

Test 1 (tracking on):
Open File
Bin to 25%
Denoise -- preview only -- Crashes when it gets to Level 6

Test 2 (tracking in process of being turned off):
Open File
Bin to 25%
Stop Tracking, Do final noise reduction -- Crashes when it gets to Level 6

Test 3 (tracking off):
Open File
Bin to 25%
Stop Tracking, no noise reduction
Denoise -- Crashes when it gets to Level 6

I don't usually bin to 25%. I did here just to get a smaller image for it to work with. And, again, this is only on one of my computers -- alas, the one on which I'd like to do most of my processing :( . The other two seem to be able to do noise reduction without incident.

In case it makes any difference, I did recently add 4 GB of memory to the problem computer. I've gotten no indication that there is any problem with the new memory and, unfortunately, I don't remember whether I had this problem before adding the memory or not. I can try to remove it, next chance I get (probably not until early next week), and see if that makes any difference.

Jim
Ivo Jager
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
JMorris
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Re: De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

Post by JMorris »

Thanks Ivo,

I didn't think it was a StarTools problem but I knew your insights would be valuable and they were! I'll try to test the memory when I get back to that computer tomorrow, though I haven't been able to get memtest to work on this computer yet. (Maybe it doesn't work on a Windows 8 machine?) I can still try to remove the new memory in the other machine and see if that makes any difference.

Jim
JMorris
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Re: De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

Post by JMorris »

Hi Ivo,

I'm sorry I never followed through and gave you the results of the memtest, etc. Nothing seemed to make any difference . . . until today when I tried version 1.3.5.273 . . . and it worked! No crash!

I haven't tested older versions -- maybe some random Windows update made the difference -- but I suspect it was your use of an updated compiler.

Thanks Ivo!

:bow-yellow:
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Re: De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

Post by admin »

JMorris wrote:Hi Ivo,

I'm sorry I never followed through and gave you the results of the memtest, etc. Nothing seemed to make any difference . . . until today when I tried version 1.3.5.273 . . . and it worked! No crash!

I haven't tested older versions -- maybe some random Windows update made the difference -- but I suspect it was your use of an updated compiler.

Thanks Ivo!

:bow-yellow:
That's great to hear!
A bit frustrating that a change of compiler was needed - there were no obvious warnings generated by it that would indicate any problems. Then again, a number of optimisation flags are enabled that could've caused the older compiler to do something strange... :confusion-shrug:
Anyhow, glad it's working!
Ivo Jager
StarTools creator and astronomy enthusiast
JMorris
Posts: 17
Joined: Tue Nov 05, 2013 5:09 pm

Re: De-noise crashes StarTools -- but only on one computer

Post by JMorris »

I just checked Star Tools version 1.3.5.270, which was the one I was using when I originally reported the problem, and it's working now too! Maybe it was one of those Windows updates. I don't really know what my computer does in the middle of the night. ;)

Anyway, glad to have it working again. It's a great program!

Jim
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