Display Update Pending...

[KiRKman]

Hello,

I installed version 6.61 release now, and I still experience the problem with the always pending display updates which I already had in the beta releases.

I now have a totally different set of downloads running, so it's not a problem of specific files. Version 6.60 still has no problems at all.

This problem seems to be related to a different style of display update which is being used in 6.61. Because when I'm in the Download tab in 6.60, I can scroll up and down without triggering a display update. Everything I actually see and the items above and beyond seem to be cached somehow. But when I'm in the same Download tab in 6.61, I cannot scroll up and down at all without triggering a display update. Nothing above and beyond I see seems to be "cached".

If I now scroll down just a little bit in the list, every new line shows "Display Update Pending: 82" for example. And this is running forever...

Let's say this is finished after a minute or so, then I scroll up again - but I don't see the old lines which I saw before, it's just "Display Update Pending: 82" again. To me it seems that I only actually have the items I see right on screen; every other item has to be loaded from disk? Which consumes much time...

There has to be something very different in the way 6.61 deals with the display. I even get this "Display Update Pending" in the Servers tab. And when using 6.60 I don't have anything like that. With the same computer, same Data Folder, same nbi! Is version 6.61 very memory consuming?

[Quade]

As an experiment, disable all of your servers. Restart newsbin and see if it still does it.

I've got no other reports of this which suggests it's something specific in how you're using Newsbin. I'm wondering if crazy numbers of connections would cause this. Disabling the servers will reduce the frequency of engine locking. I have a feeling the real problem is that the engine is locking and the GUI can't get the data to display.

[Manfi]

Hi
I just installed today 6.61 and have exactly the same problem. In each column is "Display Update Pending: >60174>". Also I had a massive memory leak.

Manfred

[Quade]

Try the same experiment.

[Manfi]

I've restarted about 5 x . Whenever the memory greater than 12'000'000 K, I had to cancel. I think it has to do with the number of records in the download list. May be, as more such 'Display' records in the list are present, how more memory is required. As I only have 2000 records, the memory remained stable.

[KiRKman]

It's not even possible to open the Files List tab - I just get blank lines with the year 1970 as date instead of file names and their paths I suppose this happens because the display can't update properly.

I've got six servers configured, priority is 1 to 6. However, usually only the first server is being used. The others are just fill servers without header download. Every server has four connections - should be no problem at all. Most of the time Newsbin has just four connections open (to the first server). I don't need more because of my slow internet connection (~ 6 MBit/s). Don't tell me Newsbin isn't able to handle four connections and 6 Mbit/s overall downstream

When I pause Newsbin and then have a look into the Windows process list (task manager), it's always using 70 to 90 percent of processor time. Although it's doing nothing (paused mode and servers disconnected). This actually is the only process in the list never being idle.

I now closed version 6.61 and ran the installer for 6.60. After installing I opened Newsbin - now version 6.60 - and everything was fine again! Downloads started immediately, no "Display Update Pending" whatsoever, and my Files List was there again, too. No more 1970s

I changed no files, didn't even reboot or something. Just installed version 6.60 and started it right away.

Conclusion is that I'm perfectly fine running version 6.60. It's working great and I'm very satisfied with it. But I still want to know why I can't use version 6.61... What could possibly make the difference?

@Manfi: Are you using Remote Administrator or Acronis True Image Backup? That's the only software "special" on my system. Everything else is standard stuff...

[Manfi]

@KiRKman: No, I use none of the two programs

[Quade]

So, you didn't try what I asked you to try?

High CPU usage is probably the cause. It's not clear why you have high CPU usage. If you're happy sticking with 6.60 then I guess that's it. If you ever want to try a newer version. You might want to try my experiment and let me know the results.

[Quade]

Do you guys use "NZB Autoload"? I'm wondering if you're pointing it at a full folder and the high CPU is caused by it looking for NZBs in a mass of files.

[KiRKman]

In my case: No.

No AutoLoad and no integration into other software such as SickBeard. Newsbin completely works on its own. NZB download only at the moment, no groups loaded.

[Manfi]

Yes, I have read a large NZB (download list from 6.56).

So, I read a NZB in two ways:

-"Drag and drop" on the download list

-Over file/load NZB

[Quade]

Ok thanks.

So the answer is neither one of you use NZB Autoload. At this point I'm just waiting to see if other people report the same thing and are willing to try some testing.

[cathaven]

I've been suffering from this issue for ages now. Still have it with NBP 6.70 - Build: 4600.
I run Windows 7 & only have the one News server - Giganews.
I tend to load largish download lists & I see an awful lot of "Display Update pending" in my list, although they do gradually display.

I have another issue in recent months, which may, or may not be related. It seems to be taking NBP an age to write the finished files to the hard drive. When I have a large download list, I always end up with a long list of completed files, displayed in blue, but not yet transferred to the destination folder. In fact it seems to take longer to do this than it takes to actually download the files. I'm wondering if I'm developing memory issues?

Since no one else had done so, I tried your experiment. I paused my downloads, went into Options & disabled the server. All the Display Update Pending messages went away & the files began to transfer faster. I reduced my number of connections from 50 to 20 & it seems to have improved the performance, so I may have been simply over-taxing my system.

I'll give it a while & report back if I still have issues.

[Quade]

I reduced my number of connections from 50 to 20 & it seems to have improved the performance, so I may have been simply over-taxing my system.

50 connections is never a good idea. It simply doesn't buy you anything except a bunch more memory usage and perhaps thrashing your PC.

1 - "Display update Pending" just means Newsbin is waiting for the disk to deliver the display data. If your disk is tapped out it might take awhile.

2 - Newsbin can download faster than it can unrar. In cases like this you'll see the download complete but the files haven't assembled yet. You can probably prevent this by telling it pause download during unrar. It's in the performance options.

[cathaven]

Yeah, I'd been upgraded by my ISP to a new 150MB/s superhub a while back & changed it to 50 as an experiment to see if it would better make use of my new download speed. Then I completely forgot I'd done it until I looked today. Otherwise I would have realized the experiment was a failure a lot faster.

I prefer to unrar by hand later, so that's disabled anyway.

I'm currently still getting the backed up downloaded but not written to disc thing, but that's no more than I expected, as I'm downloading directly to an old external USB2.0 drive, which I can't write to anywhere near as fast as I can download, so I just pause it every so often to let NBP catch up. I could also use the speed limiter I guess.

[Quade]

I'm currently still getting the backed up downloaded but not written to disc thing, but that's no more than I expected, as I'm downloading directly to an old external USB2.0 drive, which I can't write to anywhere near as fast as I can download, so I just pause it every so often to let NBP catch up. I could also use the speed limiter I guess.

USB2 is probably a terrible bottleneck in this case.

[indigital]

I've to admit, I'm frequently seeing "Display Update Pending" entries with the leading white exclamation mark on a fully red circle too inside the "Downloading Files" window (in v6.70 B4600). Something that didn't occur in any older versions I used to use.

As far as my hardware goes, I don't consider an i7 and 2 SSDs (on the 1st the NBP instance is running, and the 2nd is the landing drive for the downloads) to be a bottleneck.

I'm pulling the downloads from 1 usenetserver with 25 connections. However, if I unfold the entry of the usenet server inside the "Servers" window, every of the sub-entries, the connections, is listed as "Display Update Pending" too.

[Quade]

How much do you have in the download list, failed and wish lists? Something is preventing/slowing Newsbin's ability to read the data out of the download DB.

Might be worth deleting the downloadsv3.db3 file to clear it than see what happens. This will clear the download, wish and failed lists.

[indigital]

Downloading Files: 129
Wish List: 0
Failed Files: 78
File List: 8024

I'll follow your advice in the next round of downloads, quade.

[indigital]

A small update:
This "Display Update Pending" in fact has, if it lasts for a longer time, a negative impact on the download speeds.

A manual deletion of the old entries in the "Download Files" window restores the speed and eliminates the pending status.

[KiRKman]

I've to admit, I'm frequently seeing "Display Update Pending" entries with the leading white exclamation mark on a fully red circle too inside the "Downloading Files" window (in v6.70 B4600). Something that didn't occur in any older versions I used to use.

I'm pulling the downloads from 1 usenetserver with 25 connections. However, if I unfold the entry of the usenet server inside the "Servers" window, every of the sub-entries, the connections, is listed as "Display Update Pending" too.

This is exactly the same problem I was facing. I reverted back to release 6.60 because I couldn't find any solution to it, and I'm still using 6.60 without any problems.

Of course I tried deleting the databases and lists and I started a completely new set of downloads afterwards, but the problem persisted. I could even keep all files in the program and data folders except for Newsbin Pro itself and change between the versions 6.60 and 6.61 - with 6.60 running perfectly and 6.61 not working straight at all.

Just to clarify this and to further describe what I'm doing:
Version 6.60 runs perfectly. So I close the program and install 6.61. After that I start the program - now 6.61 - again. All data is still there, but it doesn't work at all; even after some hours it's still frozen with the display update pending.
So I close the program again and install 6.60. Guess what? I start 6.60, all data is still there, and downloads start immediately. Everything is running fine.

I've got no antivirus software blocking Newsbin Pro 6.61 or later, and no personal firewall either. I never found out what makes the big difference between version 6.60 and 6.61 or later on my system. Hence I'm staying on 6.60, although I'd like to use newer versions of course. It really is a strange problem. Not many users seem to be affected.

[Quade]

Be curious if you still have this issue with 6.70. I made specific changes to reduce this by storing more of the download list in memory instead of using pure demand loading.

All that "Pending" means is that the data to display is currently not in memory and needs to be loaded from the download list db. If other things are using the download list, like you're adding a bunch of files, then they might be pending for awhile.

When you click on a + icon to expand a set, Newsbin has to go to the download list again and get the data. Same thing, if you're download list is busy, there might be a delay before it's loaded and displayed.