Quicktime Memory Leak? System Freezes

[skulpture]

Hi Everyone.

This is my first post so hello to you all and I hope this is the right place to post this problem. I felt it was better here because I feel it a RAM issue rather than a system issue.

I am a Digital Creator and Interactive AV designer. I work on all sorts of stuff in and outside of work. But it all revolves around apple mac products 99% of the time. I use a product called Isadora created by Troikatronix. I am actually a pro user, beta tester and forum moderator. But my knowledge stops when it comes to 'advanced' stuff like crashes and RAM problems and it was suggested I ask you guys.

So, the scenario:

I have the very latest Mac Mini 2012. Standard spec. 4 Gig ram, 500gig HD, running Mountain Lion. The Mini will be running a patch that I have created in Isadora that allows users to pick and playback 6 videos. If no video is selected then it plays one of three demo videos. All this works and it is something I do very regularly. However, I have been testing this system and after 2-3 hours Isadora doesn't crash; just locks up and I get the spinning beach ball as soon as I move the mouse, press a key, etc. I have checked all the usual; nothing to do with energy saving HD power down, screen savers, etc.

My thoughts:

I have a feeling this is something to do with the memory leak in Quicktime. As this system needs to run for 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. I need it to stop hanging up. The guy who created Isadora is fantastic and is doing a great job developing the software (he is probably a member on here actually!) but I wanted to explore this for myself and somehow investigate it myself. He has mentioned memory leakage in quicktime a while back.

So my thoughts are that since my little machine only has 4gig RAM this small leak is building and building until the system gets bottle necked and locks up? Could this be right?

Possible solutions?

Well I don't really know.... but:

1) An apple script or terminal code that runs every hour to 'flush' or 'reset' RAM? Does this even exist?

2) Restart the software every hour/two hours? Not very efficient and not good for the users who use this system!

3) Will downgrading quicklime help? (however Isadora clearly uses the Quicktime framework so it might not work)

4) Something else....

I have a crash log but it means nothing to me.

Sorry for the ramble. I hope it makes sense and I would be thrilled if someone could spend 5 minutes investigating this.

Isadora is free to download if anyone wishes to try it (for general interest and to perhaps to see how it works)


CRASH LOG

Thanks,

Graham (skulpture)

[vanakaru]

I have experienced similar problems with long time runs. So if somebody could look into this would be great.

[hayne]

First thing to do is always to gather info about the memory usage and CPU usage of the application causing trouble. Do this with Activity Monitor.
Also look in the logs (with the "Console" application) for messages around the time of the problem.

If the application is taking more and more memory, then the problem could be a memory leak. If so, it is likely a problem for the developer to solve, not you - it is more likely something they are doing wrong than something wrong with a system framework like Quicktime.

Restarting the troublesome app is one possible work-around.

[hayne]

Looking at the crash log you provided, I see that the IsadoraCore process is not taking up much memory (see "Task Size") so it is unlikely to be an issue with a memory leak.

But I see that it is running a huge number of JavaScript threads. I suspect something going astray there. (Again, this is something for the developer to solve, not you)

[vanakaru]

Thanks hayne. Restart has been the only solution so far. But with these self running installations in the gallery it is sometimes difficult to find a person who would be brave enough to push any buttons on the computer.

[hayne]

The usual solution for any program that is not stable enough to run for a long time is to have it set up to periodically shut down and restart. This could be done via a supervising AppleScript for example.

[skulpture]

Hi,

Thank you very much for the reply Hayne.

I wonder where the javascript stuff is coming from? Hmmmm.

I have since redesigned the patch so not as much video is being played over the 7 hour day and after two days of testing it lasted without a crash so I accept *some* responsibility for it not being as efficient as it could have been...

Saying that the creator of the software has stated that isadora still should not have crashed.

I see you mention that we should look and take note of activity window for "Task Size" I sound like a total noob but where is that? I only see PID/Name/user/CPU%/Threads/Real mem/Kind/Virtual mem ?

One thing I did note was that on my old patch the USED System Memory creeped up to about 3.10 GB and it was around that zone it started to hang up. During the two days last week that it ran fine after the patch being redesigned it didn't go any higher than 1.94 GB and it always starts at 1.70 GB (i've literally just booted up now at 9:05 AM and its 1.70 GB)

So, sorry for the ramble and long-ish reply but it might help.

Thanks again for looking into this.

[vanakaru]

Quote: Originally Posted by hayne The usual solution for any program that is not stable enough to run for a long time is to have it set up to periodically shut down and restart. This could be done via a supervising AppleScript for example.

I like that idea.

[skulpture]

I've already created an applescript for that but it wont let me post the link cos it has the word k-i-l-l in it (I think)

Luckily my patch is working fine now. But I am still interested in this issue.

[hayne]

Quote: Originally Posted by skulpture I've already created an applescript for that but it wont let me post the link cos it has the word k-i-l-l in it (I think)

More likely it was because you weren't a fully-fledged forums member yet.

[skulpture]

Ah I see.