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Zune software eating all available memory and page file under PP1

Question
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Hi everyone, I have searched all over and can't find this anywhere but on the Zune forums:
http://forums.zune.net/0/1/273028/ShowPost.aspx#273028
That is my post about 12 replies down. I've used Zune software with vista for over a year now and no trouble at all. After installing PP1 3 days ago and bringing my other 3 drives online, I put on my favorite playlist. My WMA's are stored in the shared music folder on the WHS (HP Mediasmart).
By the third song, my mouse got all jumpy, frequent vista circle, etc. I pulled up the task manager and zune.exe was hogging about 1.4gig of memory. I had to count the zero's to make sure since I have never seen that many numbers on task manager before.
I think it's more than coincidental that this problem starts after the WHS pp1, and is also present on my wife's notebook. I dont know that it's really a WHS bug and reportable though since I can't absolutely prove it's WHS unless I move all 12gigs of music off the server, turn if off, and fire up Zune? I'm a little new to this beta testing thing, just trying to do my part to make this thing work great.
I am running media player 11 right now, for the past hour and a half and it is holding steady at 44k memory used...Sunday, June 22, 2008 12:40 AM
All replies
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I would suggest filing a bug report on Connect anyway - while you say you cannot prove it is PP1, you are also saying it wasnt there before PP1 - so its worth filing to bug report even if it turns out not to be WHS just so it can be eliminated.
AndrewSunday, June 22, 2008 6:20 AMModerator -
I am having the same issue, and had started that post over on the Zune forums. I had my WHS shares set to read-only before the PP1 came out, due to the concern about corruption of the files. When I installed PP1, I started up Zune, and I thought that Zune was just going through and doing a huge metafile update to all my files (which I'm sure it was doing as well). But then I noticed things getting slow -- looked at memory consumption, and the zune software was using about 3.5 gigs (based on what Vista was reporting), and the page file (nearly 10 gigs) was just about full too. Once I closed the Zune software, pagefile memory went back down to about 1.5 gigs. (Running Vista x64, SP1)
It generally happens after about 2-10 minutes of having the Zune software up and running. Just all of a sudden, then memory starts going crazy. I've had it go up to where the zune software either crashes, or Vista says that it is using too much memory and asks if I want to shut it down.
Monday, June 23, 2008 2:00 PM -
Ken, assuming you're granted access to build 1776, you would uninstall the previous version, then install the new update as follows:
- Download the new version to someplace you can reach from a Remote Desktop session on your server (probably the server shares).
- Log on to your server using Remote Desktop.
- Start → Control Panel → Add/Remove Programs.
- Check "Show Updates" if not checked.
- Scroll down until you see "PRERELEASE Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 (KB944289)". Select that item.
- Click "Remove".
- If prompted regarding other users, click "Continue".
- When the Software Update Removal Wizard displays, click Next and wait for the uninstall to finish.
- You will probably see a prompt that the removal requires a reboot to complete. Reboot your server by unchecking"Do not restart now" and clicking "Finish".
- Your server should now reboot. It's normal for this to take several minutes. When it's finished, log back in to Remote Desktop. YOu will probably see a warning about your connector being the wrong version on any desktops that are joined to your server. Ignore the warning for now.
- Run the update. If you can't, try copying it from the location where you have it stored to the administrator's desktop on the server.
- Once the wizard has started, click Next.
- Agree to the EULA, and click Next.
- The update will install. When it finishes, your server will need to be restarted again.Uncheck "Do not restart now." and click Finish to restart and complete installation.
Sunday, June 29, 2008 3:08 AMModerator - Download the new version to someplace you can reach from a Remote Desktop session on your server (probably the server shares).
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How do you get "granted access"? Is there going to be another beta / RC that is open to public?Sunday, June 29, 2008 5:02 AM
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Microsoft makes that determination. Some users are granted access to new builds more or less immediately (including Windows Home Server MVPs and certain others; the technical term for this group is "guinea pigs"
). For other testers, I believe it's based on bug reports submitted; if you've submitted a bug report that may be corrected by the new build, you may be granted access to it. Possibly there will be a broader release of one or another new build before PP1 is released; I don't have a schedule that I could share with you, however.
Sunday, June 29, 2008 1:25 PMModerator -
Torpex, I found your post over on the Zune.net support site and followed your link here.
I too am experiencing the exact same thing with Zune consuming all available RAM and rendering my system unusable, however, I believe the problem rest with WHS PP1 not zune.
I'm running Windows Vista Ultimate X64, Zune 2.5 x64, and WHS PP1 rtm 1800.
After reading through your posts and the posts here, I decided to remove PP1 from my WHS and the problem is gone. I can associate all of my monitored folders to the WHS shares and Zune does not have any problems consuming RAM.
Friday, July 25, 2008 6:13 AM -
There are postings on Medismartserver.net on this topic. The fix was 1776 build, obtained after a connect bug report. Then PP1 worked without issues. This is not an unknown issue.
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1507
BenFriday, July 25, 2008 4:25 PM -
Unfortunately the thread you've linked to on Mediasmartserver.net is primarily discussing heavy CPU utilization.
We are reporting a problem with Zune software and massive RAM/Pagefile consumption on systems running Vista x64, Zune 2.5 x64, and WHS PP1.
The list of fixes in 1776 does not appear to cover the RAM issue mentioned here.
Friday, July 25, 2008 4:44 PM -
Your right, separate issue. I was'nt reading close enough.
BenFriday, July 25, 2008 4:48 PM -
Ok, so, after continuing to search for a solution to this issue, the problem somehow rectified itself. At least for the time being I am able to run Zune 2.5 (x64) without it gobbling up every last bit of RAM and crippling my PC.
The only thing I have done differently is I temporarily turned off Media Sharing in the WHS console as well as temporarily turning off file duplication for my music share folder. However, they were only off for approximately 15 minutes before I turned them both back on. Afterwards, though, I no longer had the problem being mentioned in this thread. Probably just a coincidence... I don't know.
If the problem returns I'll post again here.
Friday, July 25, 2008 5:21 PM -
Apparently there needs to be a little bit of clarity here... you can't install Zune or WMP11 on the HP MediaSmart Server. I guess if you put WHS on a PC you can.
I tried both installs and the OS is not up to snuff.
That said, hopfully PVConnect will work for videos as installing iTunes will do just fine for other media and I know that works with the 3 appleTVs and other things attached to my network.
The data corruption bug has not been entirely fixed. Well the files won't be corrupted, to be more specific, but if you keep file duplication on then from time to time the console will report your highest numbered drive in the pool as "failing" or "failed".
Turning off duplication prevents this error. I'm sad I can't use that feature, but I just backup the server via a port-multiplied tera-byte tower so no worries. That way I can use all the space on the MediaServer for file storage and not backups of storage.
Anywho, good luck with the Zune bug... looks like in their rush to get everything out to compete with others, HP and MS didn't actually test anything in a real household! Otherwise none of the extensive progblems would be posted in all these forums... or maybe they did know and released anyway lol.Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:30 AM -
Well,
Alot of the folks over on mediasmartserver.net, with Zune and Wmp11 installed on their mediasmart servers, are going to be soooo upset with this news. Thanks for the clarity.
Ben
Sunday, July 27, 2008 3:07 AM -
ShadEF wrote: Ok, so, after continuing to search for a solution to this issue, the problem somehow rectified itself. At least for the time being I am able to run Zune 2.5 (x64) without it gobbling up every last bit of RAM and crippling my PC.
I hate to tell you, but I bet the problem will return. I wonder if this only happens with x64? Because that is my setup too. I think I posted in the other forum that I stopped monitoring the folders within Zune, and then started monitoring them again and it cleared the problem. That actually cleared the problem for a couple of days to the point that I thought it was completely fixed. But alas, it did return. So for the time being I've given up -- I can't monitor the folders in Zune without it gobbling up all available memory and crashing the program. So I've stopped monitoring, and am primarily just using the zune for podcasts.
Just in case someone reads the thread and again doesn't understand the problem:
Windows Home Server Machine
WHS with PP1 (RTM - build 1800)
Nothing relating to zune installed on the home server at all.
Standard specs - AMD 2000+, 512M RAM
User workstation
Vista x64 Home Premium Sp1
Zune 2.5 installed
Intel Dual Core - 4 Gigs RAM
Problem
After launching Zune on the workstation, after some time passes (maybe a few minutes, maybe a few hours), Zune.exe will suddenly start grabbing memory. Zune.exe cpu usage stays low. Zune.exe will continue to grab memory until it uses all available memory, including all virtual memory, and Vista will ask to close Zune as it is using too much memory. Memory usage and CPU on Windows Home Server machine stays normal.
Workarounds
If within the Zune softwaare you stop monitoring all folders residing on WHS, problem will stop happening and all goes back to normal. Won't recur if you don't monitor folders within Zune software.
If you don't have PP1 installed on the WHS server, the the problem doesn't happen. However, you evidently risk corruption of your media files.
Current information as I understand it
WHS team has thrown it back to the Zune team as a zune problem. However, since the problem just doesn't happen without PP1, it doesn't seem like it would be a zune problem. Zune team has not responded in their forums.
Original link I started at Zune.net:
http://forums.zune.net/264039/ShowPost.aspx