Author Topic: 3.4.b2 black screen crashing...  (Read 1700 times)

maneframe150

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3.4.b2 black screen crashing...
« on: January 22, 2017, 07:29:37 PM »
I recently downloaded 3.4.b2.  I'm running it on an updated Windows 10 PC.  During my first tournament run last night, I had 4 occasions of the TD crashing to a black screen.  I had to force quit the program each time and then open it back up from it's last auto save point.

I've searched the forums and I see where people have complained about this but I'm unable to find the fix.

Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Corey Cooper

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Re: 3.4.b2 black screen crashing...
« Reply #1 on: January 23, 2017, 06:05:38 PM »
A few people have run into this, but unfortunately (again) I'm not one of them.  I routinely run the application on 3 different PCs and 6 or so virtual machines, and I've never run into this issue.  Like I believe I've said before, it could be a memory issue, with the most likely culprit being the changing of screens in the main window.  If your layout does that a lot, I highly recommend reducing the frequency of screen changes until the next beta of 3.4 is ready (3.4 beta 3), where I've reduced the memory footprint associated with screen changes.  If that's not the case for you, then unfortunately at this time I don't know what is causing the issue.

To be clear, sometime after IE 11 was released all of the PCs on which I run the application did start to display similar behavior, where dialogs opened black, but the behavior was different in that the black color was only very brief.  Some dialogs open black but quickly they render the expected way, so you only see black for a split second.  And certainly the app hasn't crashed with black screens or dialog windows.  (For me anyway.)

It could be a newer version of mshta, which is the container for the application.  The next beta will include an older version of that container.  Maybe that will help.  (Maybe only wishful thinking, too.)

maneframe150

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Re: 3.4.b2 black screen crashing...
« Reply #2 on: February 13, 2017, 08:12:29 PM »
Corey,

I replaced the mshta file as suggested in another thread.  It did resolve the issues with missed key strokes and such.  However, TD still randomly "hangs" up.  I end up having to ctrl/alt/del and manually shut it down and then restart it during my tournaments (about 4 times per tourney). 

I know there is a lot of information out there about this.  Any direction to point me in?

I stream Pandora while the game is on.  So google chrome is up and running with Pandora during the game....Maybe shutting that down would help?  I don't know.  I'm no computer guy.  I'm just a sucky poker player...


Corey Cooper

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Re: 3.4.b2 black screen crashing...
« Reply #3 on: February 13, 2017, 10:32:14 PM »
I wish I could give you some direction.  I leave the Tournament Director application running for days, literally, with screens changing a lot.  Has it ever frozen on me?  Of course, but it's very, very rare.  It's so rare I usually attribute it to something external to the application.

If memory consumption is an issue, shutting down other applications *could* help, but probably won't.  The TD application will start acting wonky long before consuming all of the system memory (with the amount of memory common on most PCs these days).  But it's certainly worth a try.

RichieD

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Re: 3.4.b2 black screen crashing...
« Reply #4 on: February 14, 2017, 11:29:53 AM »
I end up having to ctrl/alt/del and manually shut it down and then restart it during my tournaments (about 4 times per tourney). 
I have a lot of sympathy for users of TD and also Corey.. the various hangup and keystroke issues are unbelievably difficult to diagnose without actually seeing the issue or without any detailed information.
Might I suggest that the next time you have to ctrl-alt-del, you take a note of the memory and cpu usage of the mshta.exe process - I frequently check this during breaks in the tournament and restart TD if the memory is approaching 700K - from experience TD will become unresponsive if the memory usage exceeds 1Gb.
I'm looking forward t the next beta of TD (hint.. hint...  ;) )


Corey Cooper

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Re: 3.4.b2 black screen crashing...
« Reply #5 on: February 15, 2017, 11:42:03 AM »
Agreed.  I have a lot of sympathy for me, too.  ;-)

In all seriousness, that's good advice RichieD.  These errors are just as frustrating to me - perhaps more.  I only wish I had decided to change frameworks a long time ago.  I hope I can pull that one off, and that it ends up helping as much as I am hoping it will.

As for the next beta ... it is SO CLOSE, and I am actually very excited because it is so close.  The feature that has been taking so long, the one that I added because the time was right and I was thinking it wouldn't take a ton of effort, is player images.  And I am right now finishing the last feature part of it, with only two or three small bugs to deal with after that.  Then I can start the process of readying the code for release.  It can't happen fast enough...

cousguy

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Re: 3.4.b2 black screen crashing...
« Reply #6 on: February 24, 2017, 08:42:04 AM »
I recently downloaded 3.4.b2.  I'm running it on an updated Windows 10 PC.  During my first tournament run last night, I had 4 occasions of the TD crashing to a black screen.  I had to force quit the program each time and then open it back up from it's last auto save point.

I was dealing with the same issue with my new Windows 10 computer.  The solution would be to go back to Windows 7 as this seems the most stable Windows with TD in my experience.  I didn't really want to that, so i ended up using a Windows 7 Virtual Machine using VMWare Workstation (I'm sure other virtual solutions would work also).   This has worked great for my last two tournaments. I am also able to use multiple screens in the VM so i'm pretty happy with the experience. 

Getting the black screen during a tournament was never a fun time!