StarTools

Hi,

I've had this happen several times now - setting samples in SVDecon, and StarTools just disappears.

It's ok with a few samples, but if I try to add more - say, 10+ - no matter if I do this slowly to give it time to keep up, it still happens.

This is with 1.8.512alpha, running on a Lenovo T440P laptop with 8GB RAM, running Windows 10.

It's probably a limitation of my system but I'm just reporting it in case it helps. It's quite frustrating because it's that last step after all the other modules, just before the final Color module reveal!

If this is because my setup isn't quite up to scratch for this specific operation (it handles everything else fine) then maybe StarTools could, say, limit the number of samples that can be taken using some sort of algorithm based on the system spec, or give some sort of indication as to what a 'safe' number of samples would be? Just a thought.

Thanks, Brendan

Might not be it, and would probably crash someplace else before getting to SVD, but have you increased the TDRdelay? (in case only happening in GPU)

No, and don't even know how to do that! How would I go about doing that?

Here's the link on ST explaining it. The instruction link from there tells you how to fix it. https://www.startools.org/downloads/tec ... nstability

But really, you just go into regedit as administrator, and go to this key: Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers

While that key is highlighted in the tree on the left, in the window on the right you will see some stuff like (Default), and some words like maybe DxgKrnlVersion etc. In the white space below, do a right click for new, and select DWORD. Make two new words, one is TdrLevel, which I have set to 3 on mine (note the toggle between decimal and hex, though for 3 it's the same). The link from the ST page above explains the options there. The other word, which establishes the timeout delay, is TdrDelay. On my desktop I created that at 30 seconds. Can't remember for my laptop, might be 30 or 60 seconds. The first time I set the laptop to 10 seconds but I still had eventually had a crash on some complicated ST module, so went back in and made the delay bigger.

You're just setting the timeout period for Windows to think the GPU is stuck or in an infinite loop or whatever. Now, with this change, if you ever get a "true" GPU hang for some reason, just remember you'll have to wait out your new delay before Windows nukes it and resets.

Cross fingers that's all you need!

Thank you!

I'll see how I get on with SVDecon. When I said everything else is fine, I meant everything else in StarTools - as it has been also for the previous two years! It's just SVDecon, when selecting samples, that seems to crash it. If I select just two or three samples and wait for the processing to stop, that seems to keep it alive, so I'd rather live with that than make what seem to be system-wide changes to settings.

Thanks for such a comprehensive response though, really appreciate it.

BrendanC wrote: ↑Sat Oct 02, 2021 5:44 pm Thank you!

I'll see how I get on with SVDecon. When I said everything else is fine, I meant everything else in StarTools - as it has been also for the previous two years! It's just SVDecon, when selecting samples, that seems to crash it. If I select just two or three samples and wait for the processing to stop, that seems to keep it alive, so I'd rather live with that than make what seem to be system-wide changes to settings.

Thanks for such a comprehensive response though, really appreciate it.

It's really not that bad, Brendan. Worth a try, anyway. Based on the specs you posted in the other thread re HDR, that 4600 gpu could be rather lacking, and so maybe really is what's holding you back. The stock Windows TDR delay is only 2 seconds. If you really don't feel like bumping it to 30 or 60 seconds like I did, why not just try 10 and see if that allows you a few more sample stars? And if it doesn't you can always just go change it to 2 seconds which is the "factory" setting.

I've had almost exactly the same problem as Brendan, on my main desktop. My particular variant is that the first time I use SVDecon after switching the machine on, all will be fine. All subsequent attempts will crash in SVDecon exactly as Brendan describes when adding more sample stars.

If I reboot the machine, all is fine for the first image I process. And then the problems start again.

Thanks for that suggested solution - I'll try tweaking that registry parameter to see if it helps.

BTW other than the crashes I do love the new SVDecon.

Paul

PaulE54 wrote: ↑Mon Oct 04, 2021 2:21 pm I've had almost exactly the same problem as Brendan, on my main desktop. My particular variant is that the first time I use SVDecon after switching the machine on, all will be fine. All subsequent attempts will crash in SVDecon exactly as Brendan describes when adding more sample stars.

Do the crashes happen on the non-GPU version?
Do let me know if these crashes persist after the TDR tweak!

Hi Ivo. Got round to testing it now. Modified registry and set delay to 15sec. Still OK on first use after starting machine and still crashes on 2nd and subsequent uses when adding stars for SV Decon after around 10-15 stars. Haven't tried the non-GPU version, I'll give that a go next. I'm still on the version before the latest HDR changes (512 alpha). Is it worth going to the 516 version?

Paul

Do you have to reboot the whole computer in order to get back to "first use" which allows all your sample stars? Or just close and restart ST?

I normally don't use that many sample stars, but I tested it out this morning on my desktop. Same dataset, just processed a little differently each time and at differing crops/bins. The first one I was working at about 3K x 2K resolution, went through all the modules in standard sequence to get to SVD. I picked 22 samples scattered throughout, and finished the image. I then closed ST (which closes out the log so I can rename it specific to this session), and restarted ST to go again. In SVD I got up to 16 selected sample stars and continued on without issue.

This was in 1.8.516a Windows GPU.