Midnight Mars Browser, Midnight Mars Browser discussion Options

[MerAB]

So, here is the full error message: (my system is up to date, it's a MacBook Pro Late 09 with 3.06 GHz)

[elakdawalla]

Just thought I'd post something that was not a complaint. I'm moving to a new machine, running Windows 7 64 bit, and my biggest fear about the change was that MMB would break (my old machine was running XP). It didn't break. I didn't even have to re-download the image files. I just moved the entire workspace directory (all 34+ GB of it!) to the new computer, and installed MMB. The first time I double-clicked on the executable it prompted me for my workspace directory, and I told it. Then nothing seemed to happen -- no error, no crash, but the program didn't launch either. I waited a while and after nothing further happened, I double-clicked on the executable again, and it launched just fine, finding the images and indexes and running an update with no problems. Panorama view looks great. Yay!

[Fred]

I've reloaded my PC with Windows 7 64 bit (I had XP), and for some reason, MMB's panoramas are really slow-- ie, when trying to drag with the mouse to move the view around, I get maybe one frame per 10 seconds. Has anyone else had this issue?

I have the latest version of Java installed- version 6 update 26. I forgot to install Java 3D before I ran MMB at first, but even after installing it, the problem still occurs. My version of Java 3d is 1.5.1 (x64). My computer specs are:

Opteron 180 dual-core
2 GB RAM
Nvidia 9800 GT

[elakdawalla]

FWIW I'm running Win 7 64 bit and am not having that problem.

[helvick]

Fred - It should be fine, your hardware isn't cutting edge but it's a decent enough combination and similar to a laptop I used with Windows 7 64bit until quite recently.

However with 64bit Windows 7 and 2GB of RAM there will be significantly less free RAM available than you would have had previously with XP. That can cause you to get into a scenario where there is a lot more memory paging if an application requires a lot of working memory - I can't recall if MMB actually does like to consume a lot of free memory or not though. If paging is the issue then you will see dramatic slowdowns, not just a general sluggishness, which seems to fit the symptom you're seeing with the panoramas.

The only other general advice is to make 100% sure that all of your drivers are as up to date as possible - there can be a huge difference in performance for the generic\rev 1 drivers included in the Windows 7 install media and the most recent ones that are available from the specific hardware vendors.

If you watch what is happening with Task Manager's Performance tab or the Resource Monitor to see how much physical RAM\CPU is in use when the problem arises that could help identify the root cause. Post some details here or PM me if you'd like a second pair of eyes to look at it.

[stevesliva]

As well as Task Manager, your ears will often indicate a paging issue.

[helvick]

Very true

[Airbag]

From what I remember, a big image update will suck up lots of memory as it creates the slide show and does not seem to free that memory until MMB is closed. If you then try to create a pano right after such an update you may well be short of free physical memory, thus resulting in the slowdown.

So, do the panos work better for you if you do them right after starting MMB?

Airbag

[Fred]

Thanks for the replies. The issue occurs even if open MMB and don't do any image updates. The video driver I have installed is one I downloaded from Nvidia's site, and it works fine for the video games I play. I'm wondering if it's an issue with Java3d, since installing that didn't make any difference. MMB requires that, right? I got it from here, and picked "Windows x64". Attached is a screenshot of Resource Monitor while trying to view a panorama. There's not a lot of disk activity, and plenty of available RAM.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[Fred]

A new Nvidia driver fixed the problem.

[CosmicRocker]

For the last several days I have been getting errors in MMB and have not been able to download most of the available images. I was wondering if anyone else was having similar problems. An example of the error messages follows:

CODE

  Check complete Tue Oct 04 11:36:35 CDT 2011
There are 53 new images at Exploratorium.
Beginning image update Tue Oct 04 11:36:35 CDT 2011
Updating Opportunity raw images from Exploratorium
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/... scanning...
Reading http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportunity/forward_hazcam/2011-10-03/... scanning...
1\f\2734\1F370893873EFFBN19P1110R0M1.JPG ERROR Invalid Download: Not found (content length not available: -1)
1\f\2734\1F370894059EFFBN19P1110L0M1.JPG ERROR Invalid Download: Not found (content length not available: -1)
1\f\2734\1F370894059EFFBN19P1110R0M1.JPG ERROR Invalid Download: Not found (content length not available: -1)
1\f\2734\1F370894245EFFBN19P1110L0M1.JPG ERROR Invalid Download: Not found (content length not available: -1)
1\f\2734\1F370894245EFFBN19P1110R0M1.JPG ERROR Invalid Download: Not found (content length not available: -1)
  ...

I recently completed a Widows update, but I didn't notice if the problem began right after the update. I suppose I could do a system restore to a point prior to the Windows update, but I thought I would check here before resorting to that. Does anyone have any suggestions?

[CosmicRocker]

Ok, hundreds of people read this thread after my last post and no one commented, so I must assume it is not a common problem. It is still a serious problem for me, since I still cannot use MMB to follow Opportunity in her latest, exciting explorations. I have performed some tests that have proven this to be quite a mysterious problem.

Two PCs in my house have been unable to download ~95% of the images from Exploratorium or JPL for the past week or two. Both machines get the same error messages (as noted above), but a few images do manage to come down the pipeline (mostly solar images). Here is where it gets strange.

I took a laptop having said problem to a house using a dsl internet connection as opposed to my Verizon wireless connection, and MMB downloaded images like a champ...no trouble whatsoever. I put the same machine back on my Verizon air card connection and the trouble resumed. To double check, I asked my brother-in-law to download and run MMB on his laptop using a different Verizon cellular connection and he experienced the same errors. He connected the same machine to his cable modem and MMB downloaded images without any problems.

I have to assume Verizon Wireless is having some issue with MMB. I have been using Verizon Wireless and MMB without problems for several years until this problem appeared recently. Is there anyone out there using MMB with a Verizon connection and having similar problems?

[mhoward]

Sorry, Tom - I have no idea. Does it allow you to download images at http://nasa.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportu...cam/2011-10-03/ in a web browser? I'm not suggesting that at as a solution, just a point of information.

[CosmicRocker]

Sorry, Mike. I meant to, but forgot to mention that I can directly download images from Exploratorium and JPL sites without a problem using browsers. That is what is really strange about this problem.

[mhoward]

Sorry, Mike. I meant to, but forgot to mention that I can directly download images from Exploratorium and JPL sites without a problem using browsers. That is what is really strange about this problem.

That's bad, then. What the app is doing at that point is trying to read the length of the file, which shouldn't really be controversial. Either they have screwed up some obscure detail of file access over the internet, or maybe they're specifically looking to see if the request is coming from a web browser and if not killing it - I don't know.