Freeze

[wsijster]

I'm using PSX for many years and recently installed it on my new iMac with Intel Core I9 and 64GB internal storage. PSX always ran smoothly but for some reasons it suddenly freezes for a few seconds every few seconds. I have installed the latest version and the latest Java version. No other programs are running at the same time. And I don't have any issues with any other programs.

Anya suggestions what might cause it? 

Thanks for any hints!

Best regards,

Wim

[Will]

When you look at Activity Monitor, do you see anything suspicious? Any periodic spikes in CPU% or memory? Any processes running that hoard resources?

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

Can you try to measure the time between the pauses? If it is a steady rate, say every 5 seconds, it is much easier to figure out what part of the system may be blocking. For example, PSX reads certain files every so often, and if your system has an agressive virus scanner that every time insists on scanning the same multimegabyte file before releasing the file read operation to PSX, you can expect such a pause.

Other disk issues also can cause this, like errors in the file system. It is a new PC so it is not very likely, but what does your system health monitor say about the disk?

Hoppie

[Hardy Heinlin]

I too bought another iMac recently and that box has been having the same problem. I thought it might be a hardware problem in my particular Mac. But now I see I'm no longer the only one.

I have tried various macOS versions and Java versions. It didn't help. I have no idea what it is -- except that I found out that it's related to the Java OpenAL audio interface in PSX. When I go to Instructor > Preferences > Audio and deselect the Audio checkbox and restart PSX, there'll be no pauses anymore. Unfortunately, there'll be no sound either ...

Other audio related applications on that Mac don't have any freezing problems. I'll keep trying to isolate the error.


Regards,

|-|ardy


Hoppie, the pauses occur at random, even on a cold and silent deck. However, technically, there are always some sound loops running in PSX; when they are not audible, their volume is just zero while the software loop keeps running.

[wsijster]

Thank you all for the suggestions! I will follow-up,  check the activity monitor and also deselect audio just to check if it's the same problem Hardy has encountered. The iMac is fairly new  and the SSD is in excellent shape.

I will let you know the outcome!

Many thanks for the your advice!

Best regards,

Wim

[wsijster]

I guess have exactly the same is issue as Hardy. If I deselect audio and restart everything works fine. The pauses occur at random and every few seconds unfortunately. The duration of the freeze also varies a bit. As far as I can tell (but I'm not the greatest expert..) there no unusually activities to be seen in the activity monitor.

Just to be sure I also disabled the Antivirus without any effect, which was to be expected if it has something to do with audio. During the day I will try to keep to isolate the error if possible.

Thanks for your support!

Regards, Wim

[wsijster]

I did find a way to mitigate the freeze... (by accident...)

As soon as I switch the audio on the iMac from the internal speakers to my AirPods everything works smoothly again. I'm not sure if this helps to solve the problem, because it does look like it's a MacOS issue..

I have to go to work now, so if I do not respond to any post during the day... my apologies..

Best regards,

Wim

[Hardy Heinlin]

It seems to be an iMac speaker system issue indeed.

I just did a few more tests. I have no AirPods, but I plugged a headphone into the Mac's headphone jack and ran PSX for 5 minutes without any pauses. As soon as I unplugged the headphone, two pauses occured within 20 seconds. I plugged the headphones in again and the pauses vanished.

I guess the speaker control software in the Mac tries to check something at random, circa 2 to 3 times per minute average. When a pause occurs, not only PSX freezes but the graphics of the entire Mac freeze. The sound will never freeze. During a pause, I can change the volume of the Mac and can accordingly hear the volume change of the engine sound, but the visual volume slider of the Mac will not move during the pause.

I hope Apple will find a solution ...


|-|ardy

[wsijster]

Thanks Hardy!

I guess we have to wait and meanwhile use a headphone or AirPods..

Regards,

Wim

[Timo]

...reminds me of this post:

https://aerowinx.com/board/index.php?topic=5606.msg60684#msg60684

...
I'm "happy" to report that, as long as I'm using earphones (wired or bluetooth, doesn't matter), PSX performs flawlessly. The discrete GPU is still pegged at 100%, but it doesn't affect the fluidity of PSX and I'm getting a constant 70fps. So, it might not be GPU related after all.

Now for the sad part: as soon as I use PSX and the audio goes through the built-in speakers of the MacBook Pro, I start getting the same behavior I mentioned on the initial post.
...

i planned to buy the new iMac 24'' with the new M1 processor, but now i´m unsure...
but maybe there´s a difference between intel and M1 regarding this behavior?!

Timo

[joergalv]

i planned to buy the new iMac 24'' with the new M1 processor, but now i´m unsure...
but maybe there´s a difference between intel and M1 regarding this behavior?!

This issue seems not to be M1 or iMac specific. I see the exact same behavior ( no pauses with headphones plugged in, and pauses as soon as I remove them) on my 2020 Intel MPB.

Joerg

[Hardy Heinlin]

Thanks for the reminder, Timo. I forgot that thread, but now I remember. However, in that same thread at the end, Enrique wrote that a Catalina update fixed the problem:

Quick follow-up:

I'm happy to report that Apple's recent update to macOS Catalina (10.15.4) fixed the issue.

No reference about anything related to this "bug" anywhere in the changelog, tho'.

If that's the same bug, Apple seems to have re-introduced it in their latest OS ...


|-|ardy