RadioDJ stops playing songs in AutoDJ mode..NEED HELP PLEASE!!!

[tgcsg1]

I really need help with RadioDJ!!!

While in the AutoDJ / Automated mode, the player just stops in the middle of a song.  Stops like it is locked up but the clock (for time) is still going and you can still go in and out of other areas of the program. Once the player stops, I cannot clear out the song that was playing or do anything to the songs in the cue.  To get it going again I have to shut down the program.  The only thing that I have observed once it stops is the VU meter is maxed out. Also, I do not get an error message, it just stops.  I have tried restarting my computer, but that does not help. BTW, I am running Windows 10 on my PC.

I am the only person that runs this very small internet radio station. I started using RadioDJ because I liked all the features.  Since I am at my "real job" during the day, the station runs on AutoDJ most of the time.  I have used the program for more than 6 months without any issues until recently.  Now, without doing anything different, I can't get it to run for more than a song or two without stopping.  I uninstalled the program completely and then downloaded it again and reinstalled it again.  It was worked fine for about a month then just this morning it started doing it again. It does not appear to be related to the music file because it will stop during a song it has played many, many times, plus it's not like it is stopping when one particular song is playing. I have changed the music and have tried playing probably 20+ different songs but it doesn't matter, it never gets any further than the first or second song before it stops.  I do not work out of the "assisted mode" so I cannot say if it does it there or not.   

I know I rambled on a bit, but I wanted to describe and/or relay everything I know. 

Thanks in advance for your help!!

[Marius]

The vu meter thing makes me think there is a connection with the sound card. It is the only case in which i observed such a behavior.
If it's a USB sound card, make sure that the usb cable is plugged correctly and doesn't move. Also make sure that you have the latest drivers for the sound card.

[tgcsg1]

Thanks for the quick response!

It is not a USB sound card.  There is an update available for the driver, so I will download that and see how it goes.

[tgcsg1]

Just a follow up post for anyone who reads this down the road.  My RadioDJ program is installed on my laptop computer. I have Windows 10 installed.  Under my power setting, I have my 'Screen' scheduled to turn off after 5 minutes of inactivity (while plugged in).  The 'Sleep' setting for the PC (while plugged in) is set to 'Never'. This is how the computer has been set up since the day I unpacked it.  So, last night while working on my laptop I discovered that the issue described in my original post happens the minute the screen goes dark.  As long as I am working on the laptop and the screen is active, the music plays.  Whenever I stop working or take a break long enough for the screen to turn off, the second it turns off so does the music.  To fix the problem I have set the 'Screen' setting to 'Never' turn off and have scheduled the 'Screen Saver' to turn on after 5 minutes of inactivity.  The screen saver does not seem to affect how music is played on the RadioDJ program.

The only thing that has changed is I had a Windows Update earlier this week.  Don't know if that is just a coincident or not.  The screen saver "work around' seems to be working, but like I said earlier, the program worked fine for 6+ months with the Sleep / Screen settings being what they were.  Don't know what changed, but something did. 

Just thought I would post a follow-up in case someone was having the same issue.

[Jhonny]

Maybe it sounds a little silly, but I was thinking to use an old PC with win 7 just for RadioDJ to run.

So settings can not be changed by Microsoft (there are no updates if i don't wand them).

The point is I do not trust the win 10 updates, reading through all topics here and on others forums, some times the update reset the setting.

At the time Microsoft freely gave WIN10 to its users, all bell's started to ring to me, a company don't gives anything away for free, it wants to make money.

Think it can save me a lot of headache in this way.

The setup of the PC will be:

Win 7  (.NET is in win7 pressent).
A harddrive 350 GB.
In bord sound cart.
Installed Maria DB.
A Icecast/shoutcast server.
A web server for request or now playing and a html5 or flash player (server like wamp, so you have the choice to run php5 or php7).

I thought about this for a long time. 

[fuzzyfaraway]

It may be that Windows decides to shut something down because there is no mouse movement or typing going on. The laptop is judged by Windows to be "idle" and therefore won't need this or that function or device. D'Oh!

In the Control Panel, open the Device Manager, then look for a "Power Management" tab on devices such as USB hubs, network adapters, sound cards, mouse. Make sure that "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is UNchecked. (It is surprising how many things Windows assumes that it can just turn off without confirmation!) Make sure you click "Apply" before hitting OK.

In the Control Panel again, open Power Options, then choose High Performance. If you don't see High Performance, there may be a drop-down labeled "Show additional plans." Now select the link for "Change plan settings."

Decide when to turn off the monitor (or not) after a time of your choice. Mine is set to "Never."
Set Sleep mode to "Never."
Select the link "Change advanced power settings."

You won't have to change everything, but a few settings are important to keep your computer awake and functional if you're not typing or moving the mouse.

Set these items:
   Sleep
      Sleep after: Never
      Allow hybrid sleep: OFF
      Hibernate after: Never
      Allow wake timers: ? (probably doesn't matter if the computer never sleeps.

   USB Settings
      USB Selective suspend setting: Disabled
   
   Power buttons and lid
      Power button action: Shut down
      Sleep button action: Do nothing
      (If there is a Lid option, set it to turn off the display ONLY)

   PCI Express
      Link State Power Management: OFF

   Display
      Turn off display: (Choose what makes sense for you.)

   Multimedia settings
      When sharing media: Prevent idling to sleep
      When playing video: (Choose what makes sense for you.)

Other settings probably won't affect RadioDJ, so you can probably leave them. Click OK, then back on the previous window, click on "Save Changes" and give you new power plan a name. On the main Power Options window, make sure your new plan is selected to be the active plan.

Doing the above will reduce the chances that Windows will do something to cause RadioDJ to stop or freeze by unexpectedly turning off a device that RadioDJ depends on.

I hope this all makes sense. Microsoft doesn't make it easy to find some settings. If you have to discover all of this for yourself, it is hard-won experience.

Cheers!

John T
--

[FreerunMedia]

It sounds silly but does anyone thought about the hard drvie stopping and powering down? It is a laptop and to "preserve battery power" it can shut things down when it is not needed even running on mains.

Set the laptop on the "allways on" schedule, go to the advanced power setup and select "screen" never to turn off. Select harddrive to never shut down ( type 0 in the field ) Select never to take any actions when buttons pressed, select never take action when lid close. Don't use the "green" style harddrives, they shut down by themselfs even is constant power is applied.

[JoshTheRadioDude]

It sounds silly but does anyone thought about the hard drvie stopping and powering down?

That doesn't sound silly at all.  In fact, RadioDJ, MySQL, and the music library all reside on an external USB drive for all of the sporting events I announce, and very early on I had to write a batch script to write an empty text file every few seconds to keep it spinning, otherwise RadioDJ would either stutter when starting another song after sitting for a while, or MySQL would just crash outright.  Those low-power drives can be tricky like that.

[Capt_Fuzzy]

Yeah, I'm sure most of us here would agree that using "Green HDDs" with ANY radio automation software is just asking for trouble...

[Marius]

Not to say that mechanical drives have a limited spindle start/stop cycle. So while you will save some power, the hdd will not last that long. 

[JoshTheRadioDude]

Probably no more or less than any other platter drive.  In fact, it's already several years old.  I had to put it in a new enclosure about a month ago due to a failing USB micro-B connection, but it's still going strong!

[Coop59]

Hello Guys,

     New to the Community and experienced the same thing as the original poster and it does seem every time the screen went in to sleep mode it would shutoff the music and would not let me restart. I had to shutdown RadioDJ and then restart. It would then let me load the music and play. So I set the Screen to never and it has rectified the issue. Thanks to the original poster for posting his results.

Michael - Coop59

[DJ Garybaldy]

What's a screen saver?  I haven't used screen saver since I went over to Windows 7..

It's "known to interfere" with the smooth running of software.

Its also an idea to stop your disk drives from going into standby as well.

(Instructions on that can be found elsewhere on the forums)

[JoshTheRadioDude]

Last time I used a screen saver was back in the Windows 98 days.  I'm astonished anyone is still using them these days.

[DJ Garybaldy]

Last time I used a screen saver was back in the Windows 98 days.  I'm astonished anyone is still using them these days.

Pipes or Maze?