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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:19 pm 
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I have just licenced the copy of Audiobook builder that I downloaded and it has crashed three times so far. Each time it crashes it brings my system down, since there is no way to force the program to quit and I have to remove the power from the mac to close it down.

I have made a very simple project, just one CD of 58 minutes which it processed and produced the output files OK. However when I pressed the' save' menu option, the spinning beachball comes up and will not go away. Right clicking on the Audiobook Builder icon in the taskbar shows the legend 'Not responding'.

Using the 'Force Quit' option from the Apple menu shows the program as not responding, and pressing the force quit button has no effect on the program. Selecting reboot or quit starts to close the mac down but it cannot close because it cannot shut down audiobook builder, and requires the power to be turned off before it will shut down.

I have looked through the support messages and found nothing exactly like this, although I note with some alarm that there are several references to severe crashes. This is the first time I have had a major crash on my Mac since i bought it nearly a year ago so you can understand that I am somewhat concerned.

I have attached a profile as you request in the cases I reviewed, but I was unable to attach a crash log as there wasn't one for Audiobook Builder. It would appear that the failure occurs before the crash log gets written out, and since it is impossible to shut the mac down without removing power I suspect that this is the reason.

I hope that you will be able to identify this problem ASAP as I was hoping to prepare some language CD's for a long trip I'm taking next week.


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 3:23 pm 
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We've received one other report of Audiobook Builder acting unexpectedly while saving a Project, but in that case the application actually crashes and leaves a crash report. We have requested additional details directly from that user but have not received a reply from him yet. Your case may be different because the application does not crash and appears to enter an infinite loop, never returning control to you after you ask the application to save the current Project.

Your System Profiler report gave us one possible lead - a file service named Versomatic that appears to have crashed just a couple of minutes after your most recent Audiobook Builder build. We have no reason to suspect Versomatic as a possible contributing cause to this issue other than that given its purpose it may automatically come into play as Audiobook Builder is saving its Project files. We just tested the latest version (build 49) of Versomatic here and a simple Project with 1 Chapter containing 1 File saved fine.


We will need some additional information from your end to continue our effort to determine why Audiobook Builder is not working correctly there. Can you help us by providing the following?

1. Let's rule out Versomatic by disabling it via its preference pane in System Preferences. You can do this under its General tab, toward the top right corner of which you will find a Stop Service button.

2. Reproduce the issue in Audiobook Builder. If it becomes unresponsive after you ask it to save please do not restart your Mac and continue to step 3.

3. Note the time on your Mac. Please jot it down and report it in your reply to this email.

4. Sample Audiobook Builder to determine what it's "thinking" while the beach ball is spinning. To do this, launch /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app. You will see a window full of the currently running applications and processes. Use the field at the top of the window to filter for Audiobook Builder by typing in "audiobook", without quotes. This should filter the list of processes to contain only Audiobook Builder. Double-click on the Audiobook Builder item in the list. This will present a window with detailed information about the Audiobook Builder process. At the bottom left corner of the window you will see a button titled "Sample". Press this button and a new window will appear with the sample information. Use the Save... button at the upper right corner of the window to save a copy of the sample to disk. Please attach the copy on disk to a reply to this email.

5. Also, before you restart your Mac, please create another System Profiler report and send it to us. This will contain the last couple of pages of data from your console.log and system.log. We will analyze each bit of logged data from the time you noted in step 3 forward.

6. Can you tell us if you can get the issue to occur before you build the Project or if it only occurs after you build the Project?


Thanks for gathering this information for us. We'll let you know our findings soon.

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Keith Gugliotto
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Splasm Software
https://www.splasm.com


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:27 pm 
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Well it looks as if the villain may have been Versomatic. I have stopped the service and restarted my machine then created and processed a new audiobook. This went fine and I saved the project without incident. I then reopened the project also without incident.

The copy of Versomatic was a trial version which had gone past it's trial period but was running in save only mode. I had been trying to make up my mind wether to register it, but since I never actually made use of it I will just remove it I think

Do you think it was just a coincidence that this problem occurred, or do you think that there might be an interaction between Versomatic and Audiobook Builder? As I said in my previous note, I have not had a serious crash since I got the Mac. The occasional bomb out from Safari but nothing that took the system with it. As someone who HAS to work with Micro$oft at work you cannot guess how nice it is to have a personal system like the Mac.

I will keep an eye on the program for a while but it certainly looks as if you've nailed it. Well done, and in such a short time too.

Regards,

Chris


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PostPosted: Tue Jan 30, 2007 8:07 pm 
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I'm glad we could isolate the issue and get you up and running.

A couple of ideas about the cause of the issue:

It's possible that Versomatic's method of saving each incremental version of a file somehow ties up the source file for an instant, causing the application manipulating that source file to pause for that same instant. If Versomatic itself crashes during that instant it may leave the application, in this case Audiobook Builder, in a state where it never returns from manipulating that file. That would lead to a beach ball, and possibly to an application that can't be forced to terminate, as you experienced.

Also, I think your version of Versomatic is older than the latest available. While both are version 1.0 the developer seems to be using build numbers as part of their version scheme. Ours is build 49 and is dated about two months younger than yours. An older version may be less stable or less compatible with various file operations. Unfortunately, there's no version history at the Versomatic website so we can't tell if any stability or compatibility changes have been made in the run up to the current build.

I have a hunch something low-level between Versomatic and Audiobook Builder did not go well, likely a simple crash in Versomatic that left a file operation hanging, and Audiobook Builder was left in limbo waiting for that file operation to return. What you experienced there wasn't really a crash, because the application was still technically functioning - it just couldn't get to a point where it could tell you that. If you need it I wouldn't count Versomatic out, though. Give the latest build a try and see how well it works.

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Keith Gugliotto
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Splasm Software
https://www.splasm.com


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