WinUAE 2.6.0 beta series

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by thomas

2.5.1 works correctly. I don't know which beta crashed first. b16 does crash.

Knowing which one introduced the problem is very important.

Did some more tests: the crashes from post #256 only happen on WinXP

It could be the usual XP issue that causes random crashes if too much memory is reserved. Does "-maxmem 256" command line parameter "fix" the crash? (without quotes)

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Knowing which one introduced the problem is very important.

It apears that I was wrong, 2.5.1 does not work correctly but behaviour is different. Without logging the black Amiga screen appears for a short time, then WinUAE disappears completely. In the winuae dir I see a minidump file but it is empty. With beta1 as well as beta18 the black screen appears together with a requester saying that a minidump has been written. This requester recurs no matter how often I click on Ok. If logging is enabled, the crash falls through to Windows telling me that winuae.exe has detected a problem and no minudump is written.

It could be the usual XP issue that causes random crashes if too much memory is reserved. Does "-maxmem 256" command line parameter "fix" the crash? (without quotes)

Yes, this option fixes it.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by thomas

It apears that I was wrong, 2.5.1 does not work correctly but behaviour is different. Without logging the black Amiga screen appears for a short time, then WinUAE disappears completely.

Right, it is that common XP issue since memory reservation system was changed (pre-reserve memory at startup instead of when emulation starts, this made internal memory handling much simpler and flexible)

For some reason XP decides that WinUAE process has run out of address space and kills the process or program crashes because some allocation that "can't fail" fails..

I guess it has something to do with "small" 32-bit OS process address space but 32-bit Vista and newer Windows versions't don't have this problem. Perhaps XP has some other limits..

Also my XP virtual machine don't have this problem, perhaps it only happens if some PCI(e) boards or driver(s) need large chunk of address space. (Possible modern GPUs?)

Does http://www.winuae.net/files/b/winuae.zip work better?

[thomas]

Originally Posted by Toni Wilen

Does http://www.winuae.net/files/b/winuae.zip work better?

Yes, this works perfectly.

Also my XP virtual machine don't have this problem, perhaps it only happens if some PCI(e) boards or driver(s) need large chunk of address space. (Possible modern GPUs?)

It is a rather old Dell laptop with dual core, 2 GB memory and Intel 945 Express graphics.

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by thomas

Yes, this works perfectly.

Great. Hopefully it does not cause any new side-effects..

Hi Toni.

i`m trying to reproduce the problem, but i have no luck.
Sorry

[Toni Wilen]

http://www.winuae.net/files/b/winuae_2600b19.zip

Beta 19:

- Reduced internal display buffer memory usage, use MEM_TOP_DOWN VirtualAlloc() flag, this seems to reduce Windows XP only memory reservation problems that cause mysterious crashes.
- GUI allowed cycle exact and JIT active at the same time.

[mark_k]

I wonder whether the XP memory problem would have been fixed if the user applies the hotfix given in this Microsoft support article: Third-party programs that require lots of memory do not run in Windows XP Service Pack 2

(Obviously it's better that WinUAE is changed to work around the problem though.)

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by mark_k

I wonder whether the XP memory problem would have been fixed if the user applies the hotfix given in this Microsoft support article: Third-party programs that require lots of memory do not run in Windows XP Service Pack 2

(Obviously it's better that WinUAE is changed to work around the problem though.)

I don't think this has anything to do with the problem. It would have caused identical problems with older versions (before allocation was changed). Fragmentation would only reduce available memory, it should not cause winuae to crash or Windows to forcibly terminate it. And finally, hotfix was most likely included with SP3.

[Toni Wilen]

http://www.winuae.net/files/b/winuae_2600b20.zip

Beta 20 (RC1) Final in few days:

- AROS ROM updated.
- DirectSound mode crashed if DS sound play cursor got stuck (which normally shouldn't happen)

[Neil79]

I'll wait for final before updating site, can't wait

[Toni Wilen]

http://www.winuae.net/files/b/winuae_2600b21.zip

Beta 21 (RC2) (1-2 days)

- Ultimate Body Blows CD32 pad button problem fix. Hopefully this last minute update does not break anything else