Possible Windows Explorer crash under dBpoweramp's influence

[krafty]

Hi.

I'm getting this error all the time.
I don't know if there's anyone experiencing this but here the way to reproduce.
I tried with three different drives and this happens under Windows 10 and CD Ripper current version as of 30.08.24.

CDs rip normally but after a few rips, Explorer no longer opens up. I found it out when trying to look for a log file from a rip.
Windows Explorer cannot be called from foobar2000 (for instance, "Open containing folder") and it when you click the task bar, nothing happens.
You need to kill Explorer from within the task manager and then execute it again.
This always happens when I am ripping CDs with dbPoweramp. I can't recollect this happening in prior releases.

The event log viewer says "Application Hang", exposing a "Cross-thread" issue.

Is there anything I can provide or do so I can map this is not being done by CD Ripper, somehow?

Thanks for any input - and please - check if this is happening silently to you.

[Spoon]

If you close CD Ripper (end task it), if explorer is still stuck, then it was not CD Ripper as it would not be running.

[krafty]

Hi Spoon.

I uninstalled and will do a full re-installation to see what I can grasp and also try your suggestion.
It may be the drive upsetting explorer, but I tested with dbap uninstalled and used EAC and fre:ac to no avail trying to crash explorer, using the drive.

Will report soon.

[krafty]

Ok, I got it reproduced again. Explorer was on a halt - task bar was OK, start menu, too. But if I clicked the folder icon in taskbar, explorer wouldn't come up (although taskbar is running properly). Explorer wouldn't open. The rest of the system kept stable. CD Ripper and the rest of applications. I killed CD Ripper and Explorer didn't come up. I then killed other several applications and nothing. The only thing that got it back was killing the Explorer.exe processes. But this is being triggered in this manner, when I start the CD Rips. Nothing else is halting Explorer. May I suspect something has to do with the Optiarc drive? Or the GPU... I used to have a Nvidia card. This year I switched to an AMD GPU - how can I debug exactly what is going on?

[Spoon]

It could be any of those things

[krafty]

Hi!

I am getting to narrow this. It is not the drive, for sure. I swapped drives and the problem persisted. It was even more frequent as I changed CDs. It looks to me it has something to do with the full install of AMD Software Adrenalin Edition for RX 550 GPU. I uninstalled it, losing the GPU acceleration momentarily, and the problem stopped. Then I did a "Driver Only" install for the AMD Software. I am testing, but it looks like next time I am back to nVidia. The only problem with "Driver Only" installation of AMD software is that it causes issues with Flameshot, if it's not a full install (text is cut off upon a screen capture with comments). So I will run again the AMD Clean Utility and reinstall the Full version. Notice that I did have nVidia drivers installed in the system, for HDMI audio and for the GPU that was no longer in the system. I removed those. I will be reporting back as soon as I get this stable. Thanks.

[krafty]

Nothing to do with dBpa. Just for the record.

[krafty]

Hey folks,

Came here to say that I reformatted this system, reinstalled Windows from ground zero.
And I can't believe Explorer.exe is still crashing under some circunstances I really can ony reproduce by ripping with CD Ripper!
It won't hang with EAC or any other ripping software.

I started to become suspicious of AMD drivers, because I did several tests in Safe Mode with CD Ripper and it never happened again.
LibreOffice started to act up and the issue was similar... not involving Explorer.exe but going "white-ish" window and crashing.
This seems to be related to the GPU driver. In Linux, this does not happen (amdgpu module works great), but then again I don't use CD Ripper in Linux.
In Windows, seems that some applications can't handle the hardware acceleration. Might be Windows itself, or a certain situation where it does, along with some application.

This entire crap started when I shifted from NVIDIA (they do have their issues with HW acceleration and some applications) to AMD. I can't even remember when CD Ripper crashed in 3 years using the previous NVIDIA card. But now I am convinced this is related to AMD.

What I am going to do is: I am going to do more tests and see if I get it right disabling hardware acceleration temporarily.

[Spoon]

Try using Microsofts drivers, not AMDs, they will be basic drivers.

[krafty]

Hi Spoon.

The major problem is that I also use Filmora. When I use the Microsoft AMD drivers, Filmora does not recognize the system as having the GPU being hardware accelerated - this sucks quite a lot for video editing and exporting. Although DirectX says everything is working okay, Filmora 13 nags about not having GPU acceleration enabled.

I did some tweaks to the Adrenalin software, let's see if this damn thing changes... turned on some features that may change something to it.

There is also the "PRO" version of the driver, from 2022 - AMD Software: PRO Edition - Revision Number 22.Q4
The one I am using is the "Adrenalin Edition", from 2024. AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition - Revision Number Adrenalin 24.3.1 (WHQL Recommended).

Perhaps If I test the other driver?

We'll see.

Thanks for that tip, though.

[krafty]

It was funny as I had just posted the reply above, my system almost crashed... Chrome definitely did, because of the "optimized" settings. Then, Explorer needed a restart again. I removed the Adrenalin Edition Driver and now am trying the PRO driver - looks like this is more like an enterprise driver, with fewer features and more stability. Filmora is not complaining about hardware acceleration, so everything looks good. Will try to rip 20 CDs tonight and see if that little thing keeps crashing. If it does, I swear it will be the end for AMD...

[krafty]

Alright folks. I can confirm the issue with Windows native applications getting hung are AMD software. Now I am using the suggested Microsoft AMD Driver for the GPU. It works well and the system is stable, but as I said, Filmora Video Editor greys it out on the hardware acceleration option. Well... for now I will not care about Filmora. My next white box setup will be Intel and NVIDIA.

[krafty]

Hi! The quest continues. I resumed my ripping under the Microsoft Basic Driver and again, Explorer.exe hung up after 4 rips.

Here's what I did:

Uninstalled completely all AMD software with AMD clean up utility.
Reinstalled the latest AMD software Adrenalin Edition - just got an update and it was released on 1st Oct 2024.
The stable Explorer did not last long enough, being hung after another few rips.

So here is what I did. I changed CDGrab.exe properties:

- Execute this application in compatibility mode [Windows 8]
- Disable full screen optimizations [checked]

Change high DPI settings:
- Application DPI [checked]
DPI High Scale substitution:
- Substitute the DPI adjustment. Adjusment executed by: [ Application ].

Now, I resumed ripping again and am trying to crash this to no avail...
I'm on the 24th new rip and Explorer did not hang yet.

Am going to try a few more dozens CDs. But by this time it was supposed to have hung.
Could it be that the AMD software is causing a cross-thread issue with dBpa, and changing to conservative (sandboxing) settings is preventing driver and application to make Explorer act up?

[krafty]

Alright. Managed to make Explorer.exe hang again. The mistery will go on. :-P

[krafty]

Fear not merry gentlemen, for I have found the OFFENDING SOFTWARE...

Microsoft OneDrive is our application that is running on background and affecting Explorer.exe whenever I run dBpoweramp.
Windows is 10, latest version 22H2, build 19045.5011. If you have your system updated, you will noticed that some applications like WhatsApp Desktop and OneDrive itself, have been revamped to inherit Windows 11 theme. This happened a few months back, possibly this year or the end of 2023. God forgive me to have cast my rage upon AMD Radeon drivers for they have nothing to do with the Explorer.exe crashing and hanging. It is, it is our beloved service that integrates with Desktop: OneDrive... oh yes, OneDrive... OneDrive...

I have been suffering several weeks, but you will find out that if you have the same exact setup as I have, you might encounter this issue. In my case, I had two OneDrive accounts integrated and syncronizing with local system folders. And from time to time, after sequential rips, Explorer.exe would fail to come up and would only do it if restarted from Task Manager. An harmless but yet very very very annoying behaviour that could lead one's mind to craziness.

It is not clear to how how exactly Explorer.exe gets upset with either dBpoweramp or OneDrive, but for this I know, dBpoweramp's presence is making OneDrive jealous or something. The solution is to kill the OneDrive background service and no Explorer.exe halting ever again. But this only happens whenever dBpa is running and ripping. What could it be? Why this piece of _________ is making Explorer.exe crash under dBpa's presence but never when dBpa is not running?