Musescore locks up when making a network call with active AVG Internet Security

• Dec 31, 2011 - 00:13
Type
Functional
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Status
won't fix
Project
MuseScore

Downloaded Musescore 1.1 (several times). Installed. System appears to load; Musescore 1.1 initial page comes up, and the sample, along with the side panel. Then no activity will make it function. However, it will use from 30 - 50 per cent of computer resources (per task manager). Only way to get its attention is to kill it through task manager. To reopen, asks if want to restart the unexpected terminated program. Makes not difference if yes or no. Still hangs again. Did reboot of my system. No change in symptoms.

Downloaded from different sources and mirrors. No change in results.

Older versions worked. This one does not. This is on Windows XP, SP3.

Cheers.

Mark

Comments

• Jan 1, 2012 - 19:14

Thanks for comments. No known hardware or software incompatibilitie, the best i could check. I did some more experimenting. Turns out the problem was not with MuseScore per se. The hangup was with the side panel touting some sort of "help". When i clicked the "remove this permanently" the problem disappeared. So if there is a hardware / software incompatibility with that "help", it's something I think I'll not sweat. If anyone wants to comment on that help column (which was included with the download, I guess), I'll maybe look into ti. Don't know how I would get it back, since I permanently closed it. Anyhow, thanks for the comments. I consider the matter comatose at this point.

Cheers.

Mark

Reply

• Jan 1, 2012 - 19:48

Further experience. F7 does indeed bring up Connect. And it immediately goes into "locked" state, with sucking up about 35% +/-of CPU cycles, plus about 20% +/- of machine cycles in lsass.exe within system. I am using Firefox as the btowser; don't know if that might be a problem. Can try IE. Will do so, and report back.

Reply

• Jan 1, 2012 - 20:05

IE made no change. The machine cycles are sucked up by msscore.exe, not by the browser, unless there is some incompatibility there. I doubt it, since both browsers had no effect on the connect lockup.

I think it best I not worry about connect, unless there is a simple fix.

Thanks for the information to date.

Cheers.

Mark

Reply

• Jan 2, 2012 - 09:11

Hey Mark, thanks for digging into this. Hopefully we can reproduce the problem and fix it.

One question dough: do you have a firewall running? If so, shut it down for a moment and restart MuseScore with MuseScore Connect open (F7). I'd like to see what happens.

Reply

• Jan 2, 2012 - 17:51

Sent by Mark:

Hey, Thomas!  You have apparently put your finger on the problem.  I disabled the firewall and the Connect came up in working order.

My concern is that it should not be necessary to disable a firewall to access this part of the Musescore system.  So that might be an area of investigation and change

I don't know if firewalls differ in function.  I am using the AVG Internet Security.  It seems not to have trouble with most similar functions.

If there is any further information you need from me, please feel free to contact me.  And thanks for looking into this situation.

Reply

• Jan 2, 2012 - 18:09
Title Musescore 1.1 Locks up ⇒ [.1.1] Musescore Connect locks up when firewall (AVG Internet Security) is active
Status (old) needs info ⇒ active

Reply

• Jan 2, 2012 - 18:09
Title [.1.1] Musescore Connect locks up when firewall (AVG Internet Security) is active ⇒ [1.1] Musescore Connect locks up when firewall (AVG Internet Security) is active

Reply

• Jan 4, 2012 - 10:05
Title [1.1] Musescore Connect locks up when firewall (AVG Internet Security) is active ⇒ Musescore locks up when making a network call with active AVG Internet Security

Same problem here: http://musescore.org/en/node/9697#comment-32499
In that case it's MuseScore checking the internet to see if there is an update available. That network call triggered AVG and caused MuseScore to go wild somehow. We are digging into it.

Reply

• Jan 4, 2012 - 13:42

Lasconic reproduced the problem. See the screenshot below:
avg-block.png

When he selects Block or Allow, everything is fine. But when he closes it, MuseScore hangs.

Coming closer to the solution.

Attachment Size
avg-block.png 194.52 KB

Reply

• Jan 4, 2012 - 14:44

Indeed, I installed AVG internet security 2012 and I can reproduce the hang. MuseScore hangs if I close the window or if I "block the communication for this application". I'm trying to find what AVG is doing to block the process to access the internet because apparently it causes the MuseScore process to hang and to use a lot of CPU, so it's blocking the process quite deeply...

At least, we have a workaround... If AVG prompts you, Allow MuseScore and check "Save my answer as a permanent rule and do not ask me next time."

If it doesn't prompt you anymore,

  1. Open the AVG user interface (right click on the AVG icon, close to your clock -> Open AVG User Interface
  2. Click on Firewall
  3. Click Advanced Settings
  4. Click Applications
  5. Find MSCORE.EXE in the list and double click it
  6. Change Application Action to Allow for All

Reply