Crash at startup

[Starfighter]

Hello! Thanks for the best music player I've ever used (long time user and fan here). I recently got my first ever problem with MusicBee, which is that it crashes during startup. I can see the interface for just about three seconds (unresponsive) and then it closes - no error message. That's also why I can't go into Help -> Support -> View settings file to retrieve that information. I have used Windows own log and it claims ntdll.dll (in System32) is the problem.

My OS:
Windows 10, build 1903

My MusicBee:
Version 3.3.7115, always run as administrator

Things I've tried:
Reboot (fixes it for a while but then the problem comes back)
Installing Update 1 (didn't make a difference)
Ran Windows Update (fixed it until a reboot, then the problem came back)
Re-installed MusicBee (didn't make a difference)

I'll revert to an older version for the time being since this problem only occurs with the new version.

[phred]

Go to MB's App Data folder and look for error.dat. Open it with a text editor and copy the data from around the time of the crash (most likely near the end of the file in your case) and paste it here.

[Starfighter]

That file seems to have stopped updating? Very weird! The latest entry is from a couple of days ago (around when the problem first started I think):

2019-08-03 17:03:03 - WPD:Exception from HRESULT: 0x80042003

Before this it's something from 2017 (I rarely experience any problems with MB ).



EDIT:
Since only MusicBee is affected I doubted it'd be about the ntdll file itself, but I decided to give this (found under a "fix ntdll crash error" google hit) a go:

"Winkey + X -> Command Prompt (Admin)

Run these three lines one at a time:

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth"

...and lo and behold, MusicBee works now! I have no idea what that did, but it seems to have worked. Huh!

[Starfighter]

Oh no. Oh no, no, no...  

The problem came back and now it affects all MusicBee versions (I've tried 3.3, 3.2 and 3.1). I'm going to see if I can get more information out of this error.


Edit:

I found this thread regarding the ntdll-error and followed what that user did and after a reboot it is now working again. But I suspect it'll come back since the reboot temporarily "fixed" it before as well.

Edit 2:
Yup, the error is back, crashing at startup. I'm now using foobar2000 as an alternative so I can listen to music but I'm not about to jump ship that fast, I love my MusicBee... Any suggestions?

[Starfighter]

I've finally found a workaround that isn't too much of a sacrifice! I've been using the portable version of MB since yesterday and I haven't hade a single crash.

I just copied over the playlist folder and the config file to get the portable version to contain the same things and look the same and now I'm up and running again. I don't really know if there's any downsides to the portable version compared to the "normal" one, none that I can see during my regular use at least. 

[boroda]

I don't really know if there's any downsides to the portable version compared to the "normal" one

no downsides.

[Freddy Barker]

I don't really know if there's any downsides to the portable version compared to the "normal" one

no downsides.

Would it be a good idea to make MB portable only sometime in the future?
Maybe some benefits to @steven (the developer) if he only had one version to think about!
So simple to make backups of everything with all files being in the same folder.
Freddy

[boroda]

Would it be a good idea to make MB portable only sometime in the future?

the only? it's up to Steven. but the only benefit of 'normal' version is that it can have different settings for different windows users. and i very doubt that any of mb users have more than 1 windows user on his/her pc.

Maybe some benefits to @steven (the developer) if he only had one version to think about!

i don't think that it is important for Steven because portable & 'normal' mb versions are actually the same version with 1 different option.

So simple to make backups of everything with all files being in the same folder.

i think that portable version must be recommended/default for this reason, but again it's up to Steven.

[frankz]

I don't like portable versions of things as personal preference. I remember going from windows 7 to windows 10.  It was easy to reinstall my software and bring my program settings over because they were all in my user folder. I think Windows even did it automatically or fairly automatically.  It gets a at lot more complicated if settings for each program are in their own folders and you have to keep track of what's what portable vs. installer. People do clean OS installs on their systems pretty frequently. YMMV of course. 

[boroda]

don't see any problems with reinstalling windows. all settings will be kept the same way as for installed versions. as for clean windows installation, it would be helpful to have 'mini-setup' for portable version, which will only create the shortcut in start menu.

[frankz]

Like I said, personal preference and YMMV.  I don't like having to remember which things are portable and which are not and copy a bunch of folders around for portable things.  I find it less stressful to have all settings in my user folder.

[hiccup]

Would it be a good idea to make MB portable only sometime in the future?
Maybe some benefits to @steven (the developer) if he only had one version to think about!
So simple to make backups of everything with all files being in the same folder.
Freddy

I would support that idea.
I also have one folder called 'Portable Programs' that I backup as a whole once in a while.
No worries about registry, appdata, local, roaming, administrator rights, AV software, etc.

You can easily backup and restore any portable program.
An installed program usually has nested itself deeper in Windows which makes simply backing it up pretty much impossible.

If it would be the only MusicBee edition available, it would also simplify support for users being confused about version numbers, patches, updates.
Tutorials and answers would be much more straightforward and unambiguous.

[boroda]

hiccup, +1

I don't like having to remember which things are portable and which are not and copy a bunch of folders around for portable things.

why do you need to copy something portable on windows reinstallation at all? i have folder c:\users\my name\software, which contains all portable apps and all installation packages. after windows reinstallation/upgrade i have that folder there, where it was located before upgrade. i'm going through that folder and either install needed app (if it's 'generic') or create a shortcut for app in start menu (if app is portable). creating shortcut is not harder than installing program. it's even much faster.

[boroda]

but i doubt that Steven will develop only portable version anyway. at least win store version can't be portable.

[Steven]

i am not planning to change anything in terms of what type of releases are made available - people have their own valid reasons for preferring one over the other