SC runs VERY slowly with Multi-library installed

[chill]

I've recently transferred my SC setup from my main XP computer to a slightly lower spec XP box that is primarily for the kids to do their homework on. It's a nice quiet, low power box, yet SC runs nice and snappy. I had Erland's Multi-Library and Custom Browse plugins installed on the main computer previously, and they worked perfectly, allowing me to separate my wife's iTunes music and playlists from the 'master' library. However, on transferring everything to the other PC, the multi-library plugin makes everything grind to a halt. With it installed, SC takes an age (many minutes) to start up, every click inside the SC interface takes minutes to respond, SC occupies the CPU at virtually 100%, and the hard disk churns away continuously.

I'm at a loss to explain this, since as far as I can see the two SC setups are the same. I've cleared out the multi-library libraries, I've tried every combination of Custom Browse and/or Multi-Library, and I've concluded that even a basic fresh install of just Multi-Library (without Custom Browse), even with no libraries defined, is enough to cause this behaviour.

I did some searching and found reference to a similar problem, but with a much earlier version of Multi-Library. I'm using the current version 2.3.1.

It looks suspiciously like a RAM problem (all the disk churning), as though Windows is having to page memory continuously. The lower spec PC has 1GB, where the previous one had 4GB. Does Multi-Library use a lot of RAM?

[erland]

The number of libraries define will affect the startup performance.

The first time SqueezeCenter is started with a new version of Multi Library/Custom Browse is started it will take a bit longer time because it creates a cache with the menu data to speed up the next SqueezeCenter restart. However, it sounds like you have the startup issues every restart and not just the first ?

Is there any difference regarding installed anti virus software ? This could probably slow down all read and write operations a bit.

It's really strange if you get the problem with no libraries defined and without Custom Browse installed. Is this really the case ?

How does the memory usage look like in the Windows Task Manager ? Are you running out of memory or is there a lot of free memory left ?

[chill]

Hi Erland

Yes, I'm afraid that it's true that the slow performance is there with no libraries defined, and without Custom Browse enabled/installed. All I need to do is tick the Multi-Library plugin (to enable it) and then restart SC, and it runs like treacle from that point on. It's the same after several restarts, but returns to normal as soon as I untick Multi-Library.

In Task Manager I can see that Squeezecenter.exe runs the CPU at 90-100%, and that the memory allocated to it just climbs and climbs the longer I leave it running. At first it is a few hundred mb, and the total commit charge is around 600mb. I have never left it long enough for the commit charge to exceed the 1GB of ram available (although it has got up to around 850mb at one stage), so I no longer believe it is a ram paging issue.

One small correction - I said that any click in SC takes minutes to respond. That isn't quite true - most clicks are just a bit slow, but only clicking on Multi-Library takes a couple of minutes to respond.

A can't think of any other differences in the machines. Both are running AVG Free for virus protection, both have all the XP updates installed, both are running the same versions of SC and your plugins. Only the hardware is different - the original machine is a dual core Athlon 64 X2 4200+ at 2.2GHz with 4GB ram, whereas the lower spec one is a single core Athlon LE-1620 at 2.4GHz with 1GB ram.

[erland]

How are the parameters in "SqueezeCenter Settings/Plugins/MultiLibrary" set ?

If you haven't done so already, could you try to point the directory parameters to two different empty directories and restart the server and see if it makes any difference ?

[chill]

Thanks for the suggestions. I hadn't tried that, but I have now, as well as a few other combinations of parameters.

So, with the two directory parameters pointing to C:\tempempty1 and C:\tempempty2 (both new, empty directories), and all the other options set to 'no' (ie the refresh settings etc), the time between clicking 'restart' in the services panel and the 'open squeezecenter' option being available on the tray icon is:
15 seconds with multi-library disabled
1:20 with multi-library enabled.

Also, clicking on multi-library in 'home'/'extras' takes almost exactly a minute.

So something that multi-library is doing seems to take a minute, even when it apparently shouldn't be doing anything.

[erland]

So something that multi-library is doing seems to take a minute, even when it apparently shouldn't be doing anything.

It still does something, it reads the library templates, but it shouldn't take this long on a reasonable PC.

You can try to enable debug logging on "plugin.multilibrary" in SqueezeCenter Settings/Advanced/Logging and post the log so we can see if there is something strange going on.

[chill]

Hi Erland

I've enabled logging. Attached is an extract of the log file, with two sections related to Multilibrary.
The first is for a restart of the SC service. The second is for just clicking on the MultiLibrary link in 'Home'/'Extras'. In both cases, there seems to be a longish pause corresponding to "Checking for dir: C:\Program Files\SqueezeCenter\server\Plugins\MultiLibrary\Te mplates", and then another corresponding to "Loading configuration from: D:\tempempty2".

The second makes some sense, as I have now set up a couple of new libraries with about 10,000 songs in each (one for my main library, one for iTunes) and they work fine. However, the first pause seems to be the template search that you mentioned. Strangely the folder that the plugin is looking for doesn't exist, although I do have a templates folder at "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\SqueezeCenter\Cache\InstalledPlugins\Plugins\ MultiLibrary\Templates". Is this because I used the Extension Downloader rather than a manual install?