Zerene startup question - nowTime data

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Macro Photog
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Zerene startup question - nowTime data

Post by Macro Photog »

When I start Zerene I am getting a DOS looking dialog the counts up some nowTime number and eventually times out the start but does eventually go on to complete the routine and Zerene comes up. What am I doing wrong that makes this happen. This only seems to happen the first time I bring Zerene up after reboot. Subsequent instances do not seem to be affected.

Best,

Nick

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rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

This is due to a slow disk system. Given all the behavior you've described, it can be safely ignored.

To explain...

Startup of Zerene Stacker is a two-step process. There's a tiny launch program that reads your configuration file to learn the memory allocation, then the launch program creates another process to start running the real ZS application under control of the Java Runtime Environment.

Rather than trusting that everything will go OK, the tiny launch program sticks around for a while, listening for a positive confirmation from Zerene Stacker that it's now up and running.

If 30 seconds pass without such confirmation, but with the second process still running, then the launch program pops up an error window to report that there seems to be some sort of problem.

The symptoms that you're describing indicate that the second process is taking longer than the allotted 30 seconds to get up and running, but eventually does make it OK.

The reason that subsequent instances are not affected is undoubtedly because Windows has cached enough information that it doesn't need to beat on the disk so hard the next time.

--Rik

PS. This thread seems out of place in the FAQs. I'll move it to Equipment Discussions after you've had a chance to see and respond here.

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nowTime error

Post by Macro Photog »

Rik,

Thanks of the explanation. This is quite strange as I have an SSD for my boot/operating system and a separate SSD dedicated to the Zerene files. The second SSD is not indexed to maximize speed. Both drives have over 50% drive space available (no "thrashing"). Any thoughts?

Best,

Nick

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Post by rjlittlefield »

I agree, this is very strange.

The positive acknowledgement is sent by the main ZS application as literally its first action, immediately after checking the argument list to see what response it's supposed to give. So wherever the delay is coming from, it's before ZS gets control.

Given that you're loading from SSD, two possibilities come to mind:

1. Some other software, anti-malware perhaps, is interposing itself in the path to the SSD.

2. Something in your Windows environment may be altering startup of the Java runtime system. There are few environment variables, typically used for purposes of automated testing or instrumentation, that can cause any Java process to automatically load and execute an arbitrary chunk of code provided by another vendor. I suggest to open a Command Prompt window, type in the command SET (with no arguments), and scan the list to see if there's anything in there about JAVA.

--Rik

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Post by Macro Photog »

Thanks. Will do and will let you know.

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Post by ChrisR »

I suggest this should be moved to
Macro and Micro Technique and Technical Discussions

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Post by Macro Photog »

I apologize for disappearing after asking for help. I was delayed responding to the thread because I was consumed this weekend with an ill-fated over clocking experiment that took my machine down for over 24 hours.

UPDATE:
In an effort to speed up Zerene processing time (especially movie mode) I experimented with a variety of drive placements for the program. Installations on RAM drives, and non-C: SSDs did not seem to yield any real improvement as already proved by Rik. At this time I've returned to a a standard configuration running Zerene my C: (boot) drive (SSD) and my image files are on a separate data SSD disk. Windows Resource Manager indicates latency is down but that was never a significant issue as Rik has already said in other threads.

After each experiment I would uninstall with the Windows uninstall. I can't remember but I think I rebooted after most but likely not all of the uninstalls. This brings me to the "nowTime data" issue. During one of the installations I "acquired" the nowTime issue. I started thinking that maybe, due to my many installs/uninstalls, one or more of them might not have been totally clean - leaving behind remnants of files and registry entries. I have a program called Revo Uninstaller Pro. This program, I believe, is more comprehensive than Windows uninstall. It deletes the original files, then performs a search of the registry for any signs of the program, it also scans the install drive for files/stubs left behind. For the later two operations you can choose each registry point or component to delete. It seems to be very through. I chose to remove everything including the Zerene key file to ensure a truly clean install. This approach worked. I then uninstalled with Windows uninstall from an alternate drive to move Zerene back to C: and the issue returned. When I uninstalled with Revo on C: and reinstalled on C: the issue was again resolved.

Maybe some PC/programming expert can shed some light as to why this worked

Also, I have no relationship with Revo. I like the program a lot but I'm sure there are others that perform as well or even better. It just happens to be the one I'm using right now.

Best,

Nick

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Post by rjlittlefield »

Nick, thanks for the update.

As we discussed in email, I'm pleased that Revo Uninstaller Pro was somehow able to fix the problem, but I'm still baffled about what was causing it in the first place.

By design, Zerene Stacker makes minimal use of the registry. It makes a couple of entries so that Windows can find the uninstaller, a couple of entries so that .zsj files show the ZS icon and are clickable, and a set of entries that keep track of trial info such as when advanced features were first used. Other than re-allowing previously expired trials, I can't see how clearing out any of those would affect startup.

Then there's the configuration file, zerenstk.cfg. Windows uninstaller definitely won't delete that, but again I can't think of anything in there that would affect startup.

I'm still suspicious that some other app installed one of those Java startup environment variables that I mentioned earlier. It's rare, but I have seen it happen a couple of times. Then if Revo Uninstaller happened to identify that thing's registry entry as some sort of orphan, and got rid of it, the startup problem would disappear.

Or something totally different could have been going on, that has not yet occurred to me.

If you encounter this problem again, please try to trap output from Revo Uninstaller so that we can see what it's doing when the problem goes away. Thanks!

--Rik

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Post by Macro Photog »

Rik,

I don't disagree with anything you are saying and I'm not precluding all of this being my fault from the many (at least 10) installs/uninstalls. I'm including some screen shots I took from Revo that may help out. The first two are registry shots and the third is files Revo says it found after the installation. The Revo uninstall is a three step process. The first sets a restore point and seems to be the normal uninstall that Windows performs. The second is the registry sweep that may or may not be more through than Windows. The third occurs last and is a sweep that identifies files left over from the uninstall (first) process. During the last two processes the user has the choice of selecting none, some, or all of the displayed entries. If you choose some or all, Revo will delete them for you. I'm not sure what the analog is to Windows Uninstall but I hope this helps. I also performed the "Set" command you recommended previously and included the shot for that as well. I did not see anything suspicious but I am way out of my comfort zone on this one. BTW...I think it would be great to find something that is interfering with Java. That would allow me to suspend or kill it while running stacks and possibly speed things up. It would also explain why, perceptually, things seem to run slower some days than others.

Best,

Nick

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Post by rjlittlefield »

Thanks for the additional information.

If that Command Prompt window is from a period where startup was slow, then it looks like my suspicions are not correct. I don't see anything in the list of environment variables that I recognize as affecting startup.

The list of registry entries and leftover files/folders looks normal.

This problem seems likely to remain a mystery!

--Rik

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Post by Macro Photog »

Rik,

FYI...the SET info is from the current setup that seems to be working well. It is now processing an image in a PMax stack about every 15 seconds which is about standard judging from past efforts. I'll post additional information if I find any.

Best,

Nick

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