Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

Help Needed

Timesnapper not recording

Anonymous 08-11-2008, 10:09
I've been using Timesnapper Classic for months. For the past few weeks I've had day or parts of days where it seems to "take a break" and records no images. You can see in the timeline that is was active, but when you play it back there's nothing but blank images. Ever seen this? Any ideas? I would like to continue using it as it is very useful for logging my time, but when I count on it and it doesn't work...

Re: Timesnapper not recording

Anonymous 08-11-2008, 13:51
This has happened to me aswell, but I've got Time Snapper Pro, v3.1.0.31. I've checked "take snapshot also when idle", and unchecked "skip snapshot if identical".. and still I get gaps, sometimes for a minute or up to six.
I see a blank area in the playback-window, just as if timesnapper has taken a break. It has happened while playing a game, while watching southpark and while browsing in ie (my examples so far)...

Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

AtliB 08-11-2008, 14:14
Hello!

Anonymous wrote:
I've been using Timesnapper Classic for months. For the past few weeks I've had day or parts of days where it seems to "take a break" and records no images. You can see in the timeline that is was active, but when you play it back there's nothing but blank images. Ever seen this? Any ideas? I would like to continue using it as it is very useful for logging my time, but when I count on it and it doesn't work...

This is very strange. I remember something like this from way back and the problem then was a faulty video card driver. You might like to see if you can update that. This could also theoretically happen when you're out of memory. You might like to take a look at the log file and see if there is anything noteworthy there (you can either find it in %appdata%\TimeSnapper\ or in the TimeSnapper installation directory)... please report back if you see something!

The fact that the timeline says you're active, means that a snapshot was taken but for some reason Windows gave us an "empty screenshot" back.

Anonymous wrote:
This has happened to me aswell, but I've got Time Snapper Pro, v3.1.0.31. I've checked "take snapshot also when idle", and unchecked "skip snapshot if identical".. and still I get gaps, sometimes for a minute or up to six. I see a blank area in the playback-window, just as if timesnapper has taken a break. It has happened while playing a game, while watching southpark and while browsing in ie (my examples so far)...

For some full-screen applications that access the video card memory directly, TimeSnapper isn't able to capture the screen (it can be done by turning of the hardware acceleration though... which is something you might not want to do when playing games Smile [:)]

). This is normal behavior.

Using filters could also explain the missing screenshots (in case you've told TimeSnapper to skip certain programs).

Thanks
Atli

Check out TimeSnapper, the automatic screenshot journal at www.timesnapper.com

It runs in the background of your computer, taking screenshots of your desktop every few seconds all week long.

TimeSnapper lets you play back your week just like a movie. Use it to improve your work habits and become more productive.

Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

Anonymous 08-25-2008, 11:22
Me again with v3.1.0.31 and gaps.
No filters or memory problems afaik

But I found this in the logg:
[2008-08-25 07:41:47] DB validation and fixing completed.
[2008-08-25 07:41:54] No plugin folder found
[2008-08-25 07:41:54] Command line params: /a
[2008-08-25 07:41:54] Start monitoring
[2008-08-25 07:42:05] Archiving
[2008-08-25 07:42:12] Archiving completed
[2008-08-25 08:42:15] Archiving
[2008-08-25 08:47:45] Archiving completed
[2008-08-25 12:37:05] Archiving
[2008-08-25 12:41:00] Archiving completed
[2008-08-25 16:36:26] Archiving
[2008-08-25 16:40:04] Archiving completed

And between the archiving and archiving complete corresponds exactly with the time timesnapper leaves out.

Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

AtliB 08-26-2008, 11:22
Ok, that might get us somewhere!

Apparently the archiving is taking too long, resulting in no snapshots being taken during that time... which you already know :)

Please tell me your settings for:
- the interval
- archive settings (both space and date)
- Extra low priority? (do you have this checked? are you using Vista?)

And according to the post above, you're also taking snapshots while idle... right? If so, why (out of curiosity :)

And finally, is there heavy load on the machine?

thanks
Atli

Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

Anonymous 08-29-2008, 6:00
Intervall is 10 seconds
removal 3 days
maximum allowed space 5 gb
(jpg, 100% res, 30% quality)
No extra low priority
No vista (XP SP2)

I wanted to capture the screen at all times due to usage as a monitoring software, that makes gaps non-recorded time, and is good technical-wise but bad feeling-wise.

Nope, no extreme load, it even happened once during complete idle with one IE open.

Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

AtliB 09-07-2008, 16:07
Not ringing any bells for me... yet... for how long have you had TimeSnapper installed/running? How big is your TimeSnapper database (%appdata%\TimeSnapper\database) ? (I'm wondering if the database is corrupted)

Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

Anonymous 09-09-2008, 23:26
Have had timesnapper running for six months, there were no gaps in the beginning.

The database folder is 236 MB:
TimeSnapper.DB.v.9.backup 86 MB
TIMESNAPPER.FDB 156 MB
(and no hidden files, just windows that can't do maths right)

Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

Anonymous 09-17-2008, 11:24
Does the previous info say anything? Is 236 mb database a corrupt database?

Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

AtliB 09-17-2008, 15:22
Not at all... I'm pretty *blank* myself at the moment!...

My database is of similar size so it shouldn't be a problem. Do you see any lines like these in your log:

[2008-08-21 00:00:01] Updating index selectivity
[2008-08-21 00:00:01] Index selectivity updated

It's TimeSnapper auto-tuning it self - it should happen approx. once every month. I'm wondering if it's been a long time since it did it last time.

We could always start out with a clean database (by removing the old one) but that would mean loosing all the precious data of course.

What doesn't make sense is that the operation/wait is at some times 0-1 seconds and at other times 5 minutes! That indicates to me that the database is ok (at least the indexes) but rather indicates some fluctuation on your computer (especially since this has never before been reported). What other programs do you have running at the time? (yeah, I'm getting desperate!)

cheers
Atli

Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

Anonymous 09-21-2008, 14:35
Okey, updating index selectivity occurs almost exactly once a month.

Programs normally running (autostart):
F-secure
D-tools (4.12.0)
Netlimiter 2
Timesnapper

Ok, so I have 3 days logg:
19th:
1,10 min
Google Chrome, IE, bitTornado (shad0w's), msn (messenger) Live, 2 word 2007 instances, Peerguardian 2.

4,20 min
2 google chrome instances, msn Live, 2 word, IE, bitTornado, Peerguardian 2, explorer/folder, notepad

4 min (most interesting?)
2 explorer (two ordinary folders), Msn Live (nothing else) (and no activity what so ever)

4,10 min
VLC, 3 explorer, msn Live

20th:
4 min
A stand alone shockwave game, msn live, control panel, 1 folder, 2 bitTornado

4 min:
Guitar Hero 3, 2 bitTornado, Snes9X v1.43, google Chrome,

21st:
4,40 min
Guitar Hero 3, msn Live

5 min
Spore (game), google chrome, explorer, vlc, word 2007, msn live, bitTornado, PeerGuardian 2

9,30 min
Spore (game, minimized), msn Live, bitTornado, IE, Peerguardian 2

and here we are now...
Well, my specs are
2,72 GHz (E6750)
2 GB ram
450 GB (two hdd raid)
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT
100 Mbit and no downloading was taking place during the gaps, and if uploading it is usually around 20 kb/s so nothing big...
(page file 1261 MB of 2676MB)
Win XP SP 3

Hm, just thought of something, I'm saving the screens in a folder on the desktop, does that make an impact?

Re: Timesnapper and Blank images

AtliB 09-21-2008, 17:09
I've created a special debug build for you. Would you mind running it and see what shows up in the log?

You can download it from here:
http://timesnapper.com/Downloads/TimeSnapperProSetup20080921.exe

And then please report back here (or to support@timesnapper.com).

thank you for the patience! :)
Atli