Computer sometimes freezes when changing control values

#1

Since half a year I'm experiencing problems while being live.
Each day it happens a couple of times that when I change the value of a knob either by mouse or by using the up/down keys of the keyboard, my whole computer completely freezes up and needs a hard restart (shutting it down manually using the external on/off switch of the computer).
First thought it was a problem with my usb-hub or old external harddrive, though even when the axoloti is connected directly while these are unconnected, it still happens.

I'm using a fairly large touch screen (55") and have brought the resolution down before already, as the knobs were behaving weird on the higher resolution, so the resolution shouldn't be a problem anymore.
Windows 10 is up to date and also running latest version of axoloti firmware.
The computer processor is rather old, though it's still a quad core.

Not sure this is a bug of the axoloti software though, but if someone has any idea of what's making this happen I would be glad to know.. could this be a problem in the usb-port of my computer perhaps?

in taskmanager it also tells me the energy use of the axoloti software is pretty high

#2

Which computer is it?

An older one or up to date?

#3

I think it's about 5 to 10 years old, not sure, bought it second hand on an auction thinking it was only a touch-screen, but seemed to contain a computer too.
Haven't had this problem at the start using this computer, so it might have to do with some update of windows, axoloti or some hardware of the computer getting old and buggy.

I now see it's a quad core i5 running at 2.5Ghz each.

#4

Yeah I was thinking it might be because it was an older computer, maybe some power management is not working properly.

But yeah it is really hard to tell what it might be.

#5

I've been having the exact problem for a few weeks now (maybe months, don't know with modular time), needing to save before each "live button press" because of it (and having lost hours of work).
My setup hasn't changed much I don't thing, at least hardware wise.
But like you, it's always while changing the value of a knob with the mouse.
I don't have a touch screen, but I am using Windows 10 in 2K resolution (and actually I don't seem to have those jumping problem anymore, in HD, maybe since changing graphics card driver, or something)
The whole PC just freezes, I can do a reboot with the reboot button, or like you, by the on / off switch, but anything else doesn't work.
The funny thing is that the patch continues fine, so I've found myself using a "soon to be lost" patch as long as I could.
I thought it may be the USB too (as it's the only thing that changes hardware wise), but now that I see that you have the same problem...

What could we do the try and debug this situation ? (I need to test my other computer so see if it does the same thing)

#6

the funny thing... that brings up memories..
had a patch running, completely tweaked with limited randomisation. Then computer froze and I lost all the tweaks, but the patch kept running. I kept it running for over 2 hours before rebuilding the patch (and somewhere screwing up, not getting there again), but those were some funky 2 hours!

#7

Sometimes I am also wondering why Axoloti uses 25% of my cpu:

Screen Shot 2019-05-18 at 14.08.02.png797x83 16 KB

#8

yes, for a program showing what a circuitboard is doing, it's asking a lot of cpu.. you'ld expect it more to be like 2%...

#9

might it perhaps be that the amount of modules in my folder is causing extra load on the computer?
ti's definitely taking longer to load nowadays..
I've been thinking quite some times to clean out my folder and remove modules that I don't use anymore, but then again, this would break other people's patches if they have used the module..

#10

Yeah, I agree. If I run 2 or 3 Axolotis at the same time, it gets even worse. As you say, after all it is only an editor, it is not creating any sound on its own, so I dont get why it uses so much cpu.

#11

i think the main reason is that it uses java and java gui stuff is often not very efficient. at least i have seen countless applications that are very inefficient on osx/linux that use java....

#12

@lokki
I dont know much about Java, but I believe it if you say so :wink:

#13

this is getting ridiculous.. three times in a row while trying to set up the patch for creating a new module. Wasn't even able to start coding yet when it froze, just the first knob I turned and bam.... start over.

#14

for what it's worth, on osx the following happens since a few months: if you start the patcher and take a patch live, the first knob you turn will usually reset/reboot the axoloti hardware and disconnect from the patcher. afrer that, it usually works for that session

#15

I'm now noticing that's it nearly impossible to dial a knob with my mouse without causing sparse noise, even with fine adjustment and while the value is interpolated to audio rate.
It just looks like my computer is having more and more problems with sending the control data over to the axoloti.
I think I've restarted my computer about 15 times yesterday because it froze, 3 times in 2 hours today already.

#16

That sounds really strange. Don't really know what to say here. Does it crash only when Axoloti is connected or was the crashes also happening when Axoloti is not connected?

#17

and it disapeared again today.. I'm not getting this..
though still had about 20 restarts in 2 days.. :S