DVDD gets stuck while searching for SCSI/ATAPI devices

[rdunzl]

I've just reinstalled my XPsp2 pc and now DVDD 3.5.4.0 get stuck while searching for SCSI/ATAPI devices (in the initialization of the app).

If fact it gets stuck so badly that I have to hardboot my pc every time I try to change something and run DVDD again.

I've installed the Adaptec ASPI 4.6.1021 drivers using forceaspi 1.7, and Smartripper 2.41 works just fine.

I haven't made any changes to the hardware. I could list all the app and drivers I've installed and every change I've made in the registry and in some of the apps but I prefer not to because the list is ugly long and the only thing I can really think of that's important is the ASPI drivers.

Btw DVDD gets stuck in exactly the same annoying way no matter if the ASPI drivers are present to the OS or not, which I find a bit strange (yup, I have restarted after installing the ASPI layer, in fact I have restarted many many times during the last 48 hours..). It doesn't throw any exceptions, it simply just gets stuck.

[CWR03]

Just throwing out a guess here, but are you using a RAID controller? If you are, maybe update their drivers; if not, go into BIOS and make sure it's disabled.

Recently I somehow managed to drop a blank DVD-ROM into my DVD drive (not the burner) and Explorer would hang as soon as I'd open My Computer.

[rdunzl]

Thx CWR03, but unfortuneately it's not the case. I've had plenty of explorer-problems like the one you describe though (erratic/unreadable CD's and HDD's also causes explorer to hang as soon as you read from the drive). I guess that you use AnyDVD or some other auto starting program that reads from your DVD drive when it is run.

My main explorer problem these days are avi's without some kind of index in them, which explorer then absolutely have to generate at runtime to show some info in the status bar. It sucks the juice out of my processor for several minutes, and there's no way to avoid it.

Hmm - I haven't solved my problem yet and I've still got no idea of what causes DVDD to hang when searching for ATAPI/SCSI. A few days ago I suspected DVDD's internet check for updates to be the cause, but since this check (which isn't mentioned in the log) times out and the APP still hangs afterwards I guess it wasn't that.

Since I use image files for reinstalling my pc it's not that hard for me to install a totally clean winXPsp2 and try installing and running DVDD on that to see what happens, so I guess that's what I have to do now...

[setarip_old]

@rdunzl

I believe that in XP environment, DVD Decrypter looks for SPTI rather than (or at least, before) ASPI...

[Taelon]

My main explorer problem these days are avi's without some kind of index in them, which explorer then absolutely have to generate at runtime to show some info in the status bar. It sucks the juice out of my processor for several minutes, and there's no way to avoid it.Sure there is! In Explorer click View --> Customize this folder. Yours is probably set to "Videos". Just change it to "Documents" and it won't scan the files anymore when you open the folder. Note: this doesn't work for "My * " folders, but even on those if you Set the View mode to "List" or "Details" it shouldn't scan them.Hmm - I haven't solved my problem yet and I've still got no idea of what causes DVDD to hang when searching for ATAPI/SCSI. A few days ago I suspected DVDD's internet check for updates to be the cause, but since this check (which isn't mentioned in the log) times out and the APP still hangs afterwards I guess it wasn't that.DVDD, Tools --> Settings -->Events Tab, Turn OFF "Check for Program Updates"

[rdunzl]

@setarip_old:

DVDD 3.5.4.0 log says:
I 23:23:25 DVD Decrypter Version 3.5.4.0 started!
I 23:23:25 Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600 : Service Pack 2)
I 23:23:25 Initialising SPTI...
I 23:23:25 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...

And then it stays there until I hardboot (which I'll do again when I've finished writing this mail).

@Taelon:

Great workaround :goodpost: , although I think I'd try to change the .avi extension's mime type instead because this maybe would give the same effect, only it would be system wide, personal folders and all, but then....
I just did a checkup on MSDN to be able to write this link in here Windows Stops Responding When You Click a Large AVI File in Windows Explorer (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;822430) ...
I was surprised to see that MS has released a hotfix for the problem a few days ago, so this huge annoyance is hopefully extinct by now...

As for your second suggestion, I'm a little confused about how to find the Events tab when the app gets stuck in the initialization :sly:
But this gives me two ideas: 1)block DVDD in my firewall, 2) add the ip to hosts or lmhosts.sam (can't recall which one atm, and I can't verify since my pc is pretty messed up until I hardboot when DVDD is stuck, all apps on my pc refuses to run and quit...)

However - if this is what causes my problem, then everyone using DVDD should have the same problem.

At this very moment I'm prepared to do the clean XP install, and then I'll install DVDD as the very first app. And then I'll take it from there. I have a log on every thing I've installed and configured on my pc (I've worked as a professional system admin for several years, so I always do this kind of logging). If it works, I'll redo every step in my log and check on DVDD to see what will trigger the problem if anything will...

- I'll be back...

[rdunzl]

Finally I've found out what caused the problem.

It turns out that my secodary DVD Drive is erroneus somehow. If I insert a cd everything goes fine, but if I insert a DVD the system freezes and most of the times I have to hardboot.

Since I almost never use it for DVDs it took me more than a month to realize this.

It seems that DVDD makes some calls to the drive that invokes the same error. Since no other applications I use (smartripper, clonedvd2, isobuster a.o.) has the same effect, I did not imagine that it could be a hardware or firmware error that was the cause.

So now I've unplugged the drive and DVDD is working as it used to :-)

(and I have to realize that I'm not only a DVD backup noob, I'm also a hardware noob)

[Taelon]

wow, weird problem... stranger solution. but glad you got it sorted out. Perhaps it's something LUK! can lookat/change in Imgburn. Perhaps you could send him a bug report?
http://www.imgburn.com/

[rdunzl]

@Taelon: I'll send a bugreport to LUK!- I thought that DVDD was discontinued.

It was not a firmware problem. It was a hardware problem. And then again maybe it was some coincidential combo.

This is extremely embarrasing to me, but I'm going to write it anyway. There's a pin missing on one of my DVD drives' IDE connector...

How could the pin break? - well if you force the cable's connector onto the drive turning it upside down, this will happen - I must have done this very late one night messing with harddisks, and then I must have turned the cable the right way again when the pc refused to boot, without noticing the pin was broken. I simply can't remember when this has happened, but the physical evidence lies before me...

And then I apparently haven't used the drive for dvd's and not used DVDD either until immediately after I reinstalled and updated all software on my system - leading me to beleive it was a software/configuration problem.

So - steps to reproduce behavior:

1) Remove pin 21 from your ASUS DVD-E616 drive (don't do this! - im not responsible for any stupidity other than my own). Install it as master on the secondary IDE Channel, and put some device on as slave on the same channel.
2) Update/Downgrade the firmware to v2.0 that has a bug (version 2.2 firmware fixes the following bug "Solve the time delay spend on slave IDE detection while DVD-E616 setting as Master on Secondary IDE Channel.")
3) Run DVDD

Hmm - I'll try to plug the drive into my pc again in another position, and see what happens - when I've done this final test, I'll send this extremely rare case bug report to LUK! It has taken me a great deal of time to locate the problem, and if he ever get's a bug report on the same symptoms, he'll have a hint on what could cause this.

P.S. If anyone would like to have an ASUS DVD-E616 with only a minor flaw, I'll be happy to KICK the device to anywhere in the world ;-)

[Taelon]

@rdunzl, congrats on tracing the problem to it's source. DVDDecrypter is done, but Imgburn is based on the same code, which is why LUK! might be interested in the report. BTW, you could probably replace the IDE connector on the drive, no need for it to be landfill material yet ;)

[rdunzl]

@Taelon: Encouraged by your post I opened the drive and I found out that the pin wasn't broken, it was just kind of bent / pushed into the device, and I've managed to push it back out. So now the drive is working fine and so is DVDD :-)

It has also fixed a problem I got with my self opinion :-P

So now I have to rule out the firmware bug too.

Summa summarum: If your dvd device's pin 21 is not connected to your system, then your system hangs when you run DVDD. BTW the same problem will occur if you try to open the device's property window in device manager in control panel (I think it's called device manager, I haven't been working with an english languaged version of windows for five years).

Many thanks to Taelon and the other ppl who has come up with suggestions to help me solve my problem.

And now I'll send the bug report or whatever it is to mr. Lightning UK :-)