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Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
- Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
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Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
TvE > 2022-12-31 07:03
Hi there,
My first post :-)
Background
I think I have finally found a worthy replacement for my faithful FileBoxExtender as that is having issues on Windows 10.
So I have now installed QAP via choco
Code:choco install qap
Bugreport
1. Install QAP (v 11.5.10)
2. Immediately after installation an "onboarding" alert is presented (we're using this and that shortcut etc).
3. Using the link provided here to navigate to the shortcut definitions to make changes.
Now the app gets unstable and crashes
4. Relaunch the app and repeat the same actions => get the same result (crash)
5. Relaunch the app and close the onboarding and start using the app
Now I wil start using the app and see if there are more stability issues.
While typing this post I had the "Customize" alert open.
When switching to this (to get the version number) it reported "Not Responding" for ~5s. This behavior have been observed a few times.
Questions- Is this normal / expected behavior?
- Can I add any other information to assist in getting to the root cause (event logs , log files etc.)?
- Is this normal / expected behavior?
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RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
Jean Lalonde > 2022-12-31 11:04
Welcome the the QAP forum TvE.
No, this is not the normal behavior and this type of issue has not been reporter before. I don't know if this could be related to the Chocolatey installation. I'll ask the user who registered QAP to take a look at this in case this is related.
If you uninstall QAP and re-install it using the normal Easy Setup file, do you get the same issues? -
RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
TvE > 2023-01-01 06:54
(2022-12-31 11:04)Jean Lalonde Wrote: No, this is not the normal behavior and this type of issue has not been reporter before. I don't know if this could be related to the Chocolatey installation. I'll ask the user who registered QAP to take a look at this in case this is related.
If you uninstall QAP and re-install it using the normal Easy Setup file, do you get the same issues?
Hi Jean,
Thank you for the nice greeting!
I do not think that the choco based install is the issue, to me it looks like a very simple wrapper just adding a few arguments to the installer to let it be installed silently.
I have a lot of SW installed without issues via choco (https://github.com/tveyben/boxstarter/bl...-win10.txt)
BUT of course I followed your suggestion and uninstalled via choco and installed via a normal download :-)
Within 2 minutes I observed the same symptom.
I was displaying the HELP section and navigated between the different tab's (Getting Started ... Tips and tricks etc), then the "Not responding" state occured.
I also visited the OPTIONS and got the same "Not responding" state ...
FWIW I did enable "TC integration" (as I only use TC as a file manager), that's so far the only customization I have made (well I was prompted during the installation and was very positively surprised to that feature!)
I'll:
- Make Windows Update install all updates (if any - did this 5 days ago...)
- Reboot the PC
- And then see if the behavior changes
Code:$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop';
$toolsDir = "$(Split-Path -parent $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Definition)"
$url = 'https://www.quickaccesspopup.com/download/archives/quickaccesspopup-setup-11_5_10.exe'
$packageArgs = @{
packageName = $env:ChocolateyPackageName
unzipLocation = $toolsDir
fileType = 'EXE'
url = $url
softwareName = 'Quick Access Popup'
checksum = '39dbbb2c5886f8203447d8e4b399677d'
checksumType = 'md5'
validExitCodes= @(0, 3010, 1641)
silentArgs = '/VERYSILENT /SUPPRESSMSGBOXES /NORESTART /SP-'
}
Install-ChocolateyPackage @packageArgs - Make Windows Update install all updates (if any - did this 5 days ago...)
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RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
Jean Lalonde > 2023-01-01 08:50
Thanks for the follow up TvE. You could also try to disable temporarily your anti-virus or anti-malware to see if it has anything to do. Let us know. -
RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
TvE > 2023-01-01 09:19
- Windows was fully up to date
- A reboot made no difference
The symptoms are the same - BUT I have now explored further and see a periodic (not intermittent) pattern:
- Launch QAP
- Open OPTIONS
- Observe (no user interaction)
Every 60 seconds (thus periodic!) QAP changes to the "Not Responding" state for 15 seconds (AND focus changes from the OPTION to the CUSTOMIZE window). This pattern repeated 5-10 times before I exited QAP.
I also made another test, where I continously scroll in a text document, the scrolling speed decreases to ~10% at the exact same time of the QAP in "Not Responding" state (though the too-slow scrolling was only in effect for ~5s).
After exiting QAP there is no longer imposed a decrease of scroll speed in "my scroll test"
Are there any periodic background tasks occuring every minute that are polling something???
While clicking in the different sections in the OPTIONS I also encountered this strange rendering of the GUI (might give a hint to what goes on behind the scenes:
https://freeimage.host/i/2023-01-01-1512...gs.HuMOh8l
If needed I can generate a video of the behavior... - Launch QAP
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RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
Horst > 2023-01-01 09:37
(2023-01-01 09:19)TvE Wrote: - Windows was fully up to date
I suggest disabling the QAP database which you don't need for normal usage.
- A reboot made no difference
The symptoms are the same - BUT I have now explored further and see a periodic (not intermittent) pattern:
- Launch QAP
- Open OPTIONS
- Observe (no user interaction)
Every 60 seconds (thus periodic!) QAP changes to the "Not Responding" state for 15 seconds (AND focus changes from the OPTION to the CUSTOMIZE window). This pattern repeated 5-10 times before I exited QAP.
I also made another test, where I continously scroll in a text document, the scrolling speed decreases to ~10% at the exact same time of the QAP in "Not Responding" state (though the too-slow scrolling was only in effect for ~5s).
After exiting QAP there is no longer imposed a decrease of scroll speed in "my scroll test"
Are there any periodic background tasks occuring every minute that are polling something???
While clicking in the different sections in the OPTIONS I also encountered this strange rendering of the GUI (might give a hint to what goes on behind the scenes:
https://freeimage.host/i/2023-01-01-1512...gs.HuMOh8l
If needed I can generate a video of the behavior... - Launch QAP
-
RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
Jean Lalonde > 2023-01-01 11:09
The Options window screenshot shows QAP frozen when switching between 2 sections of the options. Switching normally takes a small fraction of a second and is almost not visible. This is absolutely not normal.
Yes, this is probably an issue with the SQLite database. Disabling the database as suggested Horst should solve the issue. It will remove the "Frequent Folders" and "Frequent Files" menus and some other non essential features.
If disabling the database this solves the issue, we could investigate why it slows down QAP or your system that way. Normally the database works without causing any issue, except a very short generally unnoticeable refresh time every 60 seconds. -
QAP hangs for many (>20) seconds at seemingly random times
TvE > 2023-01-01 17:11
Good news:
Disabling the database removes the periodic "Not Responding" issue!
Bad news:
(Trying to) use QAP exhibits the same kind of being stalled state at random (meaning I have not yet identified the pattern) times.
EG.: When initiating QAP (with Win+W) in an open dialog, then often it hangs for ~20 seconds before it shows the menu.
It's often (but not always) after having switched from one app to another.
The cursor is looking like this https://iili.io/HuhN3I2.png while in the bad state
It makes me wonder what goes on when I initiate the shortcut that makes i hang like this, does it need to update any files before showing the menu or...? -
RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
Jean Lalonde > 2023-01-01 20:42
The dynamic menus are updated each time you open the popup menu. This is what take usually a fraction of a second. During that period of time, the mouse cursor displays a blue circle.
About dynamic menus:
https://www.quickaccesspopup.com/tag/dynamic-menus/ -
RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
TvE > 2023-01-02 11:14
I manage to install it on my second PC (let's call it PC-2) and test it for just 5 min today.
* There's no @60s delay (despite the DB setting is still activated)
* There is no lag when triggering the QAP menu
This indicates to me that there still is some kind of a filesystem related performance issue on my PC (let's call it PC-1).
A test using AJA System Test reports a write speed of >1400 MB/s and a read speed of > 2300 MB/s thus in theory there should not be a local I/O issue.
(But I'll try to find other disk test tools to get a second opinion regarding this...)
Is there any way to get debugging data out of QAP, perhaps a debug version that logs the time of the calls and maybe also provide hints to the root cause of this isue I'm facing (which may or may not be a QAP issue)
I did identify two other issues (installer not picking up my TC installation), as that's a seperate issue I created a new thread for that here: https://forum.quickaccesspopup.com/showt...p?tid=2252 -
RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
Jean Lalonde > 2023-01-02 11:32
> Is there any way to get debugging data out of QAP, perhaps a debug version that logs the time of the calls and maybe also provide hints to the root cause of this isue I'm facing (which may or may not be a QAP issue)
There was at some point when developing the database but it has been removed after debugging was finished.
You could try to see how a SQLite application like DB Browser for SQL Lite (https://sqlitebrowser.org/) behaves on your PC-1. -
RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
TvE > 2023-01-03 02:06
(2023-01-02 11:32)Jean Lalonde Wrote: > Is there any way to get debugging data out of QAP, perhaps a debug version that logs the time of the calls and maybe also provide hints to the root cause of this isue I'm facing (which may or may not be a QAP issue)
There was at some point when developing the database but it has been removed after debugging was finished.
You could try to see how a SQLite application like DB Browser for SQL Lite (https://sqlitebrowser.org/) behaves on your PC-1.
Sqlite seems to perform OK
Code:Execution finished without errors.
Result: 147 rows returned in 4ms
At line 1:
select * from Usage
I also tested the portable version of QAP, executing it from an external USB memory stick (a very fast one)
Here I am also able to reproduce the @60s slowdown when the db feature is enabled
While performing my disk performance tests I noticed that launching the AJA system test tool is sometimes also is taking way too long.
Normally it launches immediately, but once in while it takes ~15s.
Now it gets interesting
(Re-)launching AJA every 5 seconds shows that it's slow to launch every minute (at *:45) AND this is both with and without QAP running - thus there must be an issue locally on this PC affecting the performance of QAP as well the execution of the AJA exe (and likely a lot of other file related tasks...!!!
I must track that down
So far I have performed these tests (and not found any issues)
Basic disk check (sfc /scannow) => OK
Memory check (mdsched.exe) => OK
Disk check (boot disk -> proporties -> Tools -> Check) => OK
Any ideas regarding what could be causing this or other tools / tests to perform are most welcome!
I think some of the sysinternals tools might be something I need to investigate now... -
RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
joeNOR > 2023-01-03 08:04
Tools I recommend (as a start):
Sysinternals Autoruns - shows you everything that starts on boot / login, and where.
Sysinternals Process Monitor - Shows you a lot of what happens on your computer.
May require some effort to get into and use effectively, especially the filtering function.
Good old Performance Monitor (Windows) - Can be useful for tracking down what happens.
Recommended to read up on the different perf counters in Windows, and how to use them. (If you are a like me, and easily forgets
)
Happy hunting!
Regards,
joeNOR -
RE: Crashes often (when showing onboarding info immediately after first install
Jean Lalonde > 2023-01-03 09:38
Did you try to disable temporarily your anti-virus or anti-malware to see if it has anything to do?