Peculiar Issue with REW - Laptop going bad?

[AustinJerry]

I have been using this laptop for several years without any issues. I am running REW 5.20 beta 8 64-bit with ASIO V2.11 beta 2 on a Windows 10 64-bit laptop using the HDMI interface to my AVR. Here is a description of the sequence of events that reveals the bizarre behavior:

1. I run a typical measurement sweep, say the center channel, 15-20,000Hz, at a measurement level of 90dB.
2. I observe the resulting measurement in the All SPL screen, no smoothing, and it looks perfectly normal.
3. I generate a Waterfall, and everything still looks OK.
4. I switch back to the All SPL screen and when I apply a 1/6 smoothing, the measurement disappears from the screen!
5. When I switch back to the Waterfall screen, the screen is now blank, and the scale on the right now shows -120 to -150dB!
6. I switch back to the All SPL screen, and when I change smoothing back to "No Smoothing", the measurement re-appears. Toggling between No Smoothing, and any other smoothing setting results in the measurement completely disappearing.

Re-booting the laptop does not resolve this peculiar issue. I am hoping that some obscure new REW setting is causing this behavior, rather than something wrong with my laptop hardware. If anyone can shed light on what is going on, that would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: I should add that when I save the measurements and transfer them to my desktop PC, which is running the same versions of the software, I do not see similar issues.

 

[John Mulcahy]

I'm pretty confident it won't have anything to do with your laptop

Can you post an example mdat, please? Ideally save it immediately after measuring, without any attempt to smooth it. Even if it appears fine on your desktop. Also please check the REW log files on the laptop (location is in the About REW dialog) to see if any errors have been logged.

Try resetting the REW preferences on the laptop (Delete preferences and shut down in Preferences menu).

 

[AustinJerry]

Thanks for your quick reply, John. I have followed your instructions.

1. Took one measurement and immediately saved the file, which can be downloaded here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/llo3azd1bpzyf28/2019-4-13 Test File 1.mdat?dl=0

2. Applied 1/6/ smoothing. Measurement did not disappear from the screen.
3. Generated a Spectrogram, which looked normal.
4. Returned to the All SPL screen and toggled smoothing again. When selecting 1/6 smoothing, the measurement disappeared (probably because it is now lower than the 50dB lower limit on the screen).
5. Re-generated the Spectrogram. This time, it showed -120 to -150Db (obviously wrong).
6. Saved the measurement file that is now showing the issue:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/f2nptaktflgh85e/2019-4-13 Test File 2.mdat?dl=0

7. Checked the REW log file and didn't see any errors:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j4jx5c8as5rvfsu/roomeq_wizard0.log.txt?dl=0

I then reset REW preferences and went through the same steps a second time. Results were the same, with the same bizarre issue.

 

[John Mulcahy]

Quite puzzling. Try uninstalling REW on the laptop and reinstalling it.

 

[AustinJerry]

OK, I will have a response tomorrow.

 

[AustinJerry]

OK, I ran some more tests.

1. Uninstalled/re-installed REW, issue still exists.
2. Using REW 5.20 beta 8, opening an old measurement file (from 2017), the issue does not present itself.
3. Using the same test file on my desktop computer, there are no issues.

Note that this issue only starts appearing after I generate a Waterfall or Spectrogram, and then go back to the All SPL screen. As long as I don't generate the Waterfall or Spectrogram, I don't see the issue.

So, it is not like I am dead in the water. I can continue running measurements on the laptop, and then transfer the measurement file to my desktop computer for analysis. But there must be an underlying cause for this very strange issue.

 

[John Mulcahy]

Could you post screenshots of your laptop waterfall and spectrogram settings, Jerry?

 

[AustinJerry]

Settings screenshots:

I checked, and the settings I use are the same on both the desktop PC and the Laptop. Another anomaly is that the Spectrogram looks different on the Desktop and the Laptop.

Desktop Spectrogram:

Laptop Spectrogram:

I also used the Windows "Steps Recorder" to record the keystrokes and screens as the issue is being reproduced. The Steps Recorder is an interesting tool--let me know if you find it useful. You can download the session recording here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jzwauwarmfmqlf2/REW Issue Steps Recorder.zip?dl=0

Step 1 shows the initial measurement sweep, using the test file I sent you.
Step 2 shows the normal-looking Waterfall.
Step 3 shows returning to the All SPL screen.
Step 4 shows a return to the Waterfall page and a click on "Generate" to re-generate the Waterfall.
Step 5 shows that the Waterfall is no longer displayed, and the vertical scale now shows -120 to -150.
Steps 6 thru 9 return to the All SPL screen and setting the smoothing from No Smoothing to 1/6 smoothing.
Step 10 shows that the measurement has disappeared from the screen in the background.

At no point in the steps recording are the Poltergeist captured on the screens.

And still no errors in the REW log.

 

[John Mulcahy]

Thanks Jerry. Already looks broken at step 2, since most of the waterfall is missing. After you first load the file is all of the impulse response present?

 

[AustinJerry]

AFAICT, the laptop impulse looks to be completely there:

The waterfall is definitely broken. Laptop waterfall:

Desktop waterfall:

BTW, when I installed REW on the laptop, I specified 1GB memory usage, but on the desktop, I specified 2GB memory usage. Would that cause any difference?

Edit: I re-installed using 2GB memory usage, no difference.

 

[John Mulcahy]

I'll need to send you a debug build to work out what is happening on the laptop Jerry, but I won't be able to do that until next week (away on holiday just now). Will be in touch next week.

 

[AustinJerry]

Thanks, John, no hurry.