newsbin.com

I have had a problem with previous versions of Newsbin Pro, and I am seeing it again in the latest version 6.50B14: 00 6F 1A D2 A0 90.
This time I have some more information which might help track it down. Here are the symptoms:

Sometimes I will check the status and the download speed will be zero. If I expand the entry at the top of the download list I see that the first PAR file shows as downloaded, but all the other files show as Paused. If I then highlight the paused files and click Resume, their status switches to Idle and then eventually to Downloaded. If I expand several entries at the top they all show the same thing. Trying to do a Resume on an un-expanded entry has no effect -- each entry has to be expanded and the files have to then be selected.

OK. I noticed something for the first time today. If I move down far enough and expand an entry, the first PAR file in that entry shows as Downloaded, and the rest of the files show as Idle. I am guessing here, but it seems like the program works like this:
-- It works its way down at least the first 'N' entries, downloading just the first PAR file of each. Maybe it does this so it knows the total number of files that will need to be downloaded.
-- It marks the other files in each entry (up to a maximum of 'M' entries, which is less than 'N') as Paused, so those other files will not get downloaded yet -- instead the first PAR file in each entry keeps getting added to the queue of files to download.
-- Beyond 'M' entries there is no need to mark the other files as Paused, because they would be too far down the queue to interfere with the PARs.
-- Eventually enough entries have had their first PAR file downloaded, so it is time for the rest of the files in the entry at the top of the list to start being downloaded. Here is where the problem occurs -- those files are not getting switched back from Paused to Idle.

Am I on the right track here? I hope this analysis helps.

Sort of close.

1 - Files are added with everything paused except 1 par file.

2 - When that par file is downloaded and processed, the rest of the RAR files are unpaused.

So, what happens if you have 20 connections and 50 sets of files in the list?

1 - First connection goes to the first file and says "got something for me to download". It's handed the first par.

2 - Second connection goes to the first file and says the same thing. First file has nothing to download so, the next set is queried and it's par is downloaded.
...

The more connections the farther down it goes pulling par files. Then as the PAR files complete, the files in the sets are unpaused.

So, how far it looks ahead is a function of the number of connection, if you run some ridiculous number of connections, like 50 or more. You'll have 50 that need to be downloaded and processed before the first set starts downloading.

Just for grins, how about limiting it to 10 connections or less and see if the symptoms change. The other option is for me to limit lookahead more.

Thanks for the quick reply. The status right now is this:

Server is Giganews.
Number of connections is 6, and has been all along.
Speed shows as 0 Kbps.
I counted down over 100 entries which had the first PAR marked Downloaded and the rest of the files Paused before I finally found an entry which showed the first PAR file Downloaded and the rest of the files Idle. So it looks like the automatic un-pausing is not working right.

OK, so now I have just expanded the first two entries and marked all the files Resume. The files quickly switched to Downloaded (but with a lot of gaps), then speed went back to zero again.

BTW, This is the 64-bit version running on 64-bit Windows 8 with 32 GB RAM. The Task Manager shows 6.5 GB memory used by Newsbin Pro, and the I/O numbers are not changing when the speed is zero.

Now I just took some entries with each a single file, from farther down the list, and moved them to the top. Speed jumped up, they downloaded, and speed went back to zero.

OK, now I just tried something else. I looked down the list and found an entry with the first PAR file Idle and the rest of the files Paused. I moved it to the top of the list. I did not click on resume. The first PAR immediately downloaded, then the rest of the files started changing, one at a time from Paused to Downloading to Downloaded. Eventually all the files from this entry downloaded, then the speed dropped to zero again.

The only way I have found to get the paused entries going again has been to exit Newsbin and then restart it.

OK, so now I have just expanded the first two entries and marked all the files Resume. The files quickly switched to Downloaded (but with a lot of gaps), then speed went back to zero again

Are the gaps red or black?

This isn't by any chance an AMD machine is it? I had a similiar report to this and the machine was AMD. I'm just wondering if there's a common factor there.

Do you have any other machines you can try it on?

I just checked. When the file is done downloading (and status has changed to Downloaded), the progress bar is green with vertical lines of a light gray color indicating gaps, I assume. There are other entries (one file each) which end up with status Incomplete; their progress bars are black with darker gray lines.

This is indeed an AMD machine. I recently put in a new motherboard with an A10-6800K processor. The old motherboard also had an AMD processor. I think i have an Intel machine I can try, but it will take a while to get set up -- I will let you know what I find.

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=32594&p=196857#p196857


I'm going to see if I can figure out what's up but, Dex and I've both noted odd problems that only seem to happen with AMD machines. It had to be some timing issue. If that's the case, it's a bug in Newsbin and I need to figure out why it's happening.

Thanks for looking into this. In the meantime it would be very handy if you added the following feature (which would be useful anyway, even if the bug did not exist):

Right now, if a multi-file entry in the download list is Paused, selecting it and choosing Resume has no effect. The user has to expand the entry, select all the files, and choose Resume.This gets extremely tedious if the download list is long. But if the user could Resume an entire entry without expanding, then one can just select a whole block of entries (or even the entire list) and set them all to Resume in one step.

Was the program designed to work the way it works now? Would it be hard for you to make this change?

In the performance options, do you have "Pause Download during unrar" checked? If so, uncheck it, restart and see what happens.

Quade wrote:In the performance options, do you have "Pause Download during unrar" checked? If so, uncheck it, restart and see what happens.

I have been traveling and just got back to running Newsbin.
I looked, and that option was not checked.

This behavior still persists in 6.50B16 Build 3030.