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Troubleshooting and Gathering Useful Logs

When troubleshooting problems, try to gather as much of the following information as possible. Brief or incomplete descriptions only result in many back-and-forth emails to gather more information and frustration on both ends. Providing the following information helps us respond to and resolve problems more quickly.

Step 0: The Short Answer:

Here is the minimum information that we always want to quickly help fix problems:

Log File: We always want mlog.mmf files (see step 4 below). Zip them up before you send or FTP them.
Good Description: Explain what you are trying to do and what error you are seeing (see step 2 below).
When: Tell us the approximate date & time when the problem happens (see step 2 below). This helps us know where to look in the logs.

If nothing else, please send this information! Often we get screenshots and an incomplete description. Without a log, a good description, and a date & time, we are often only aware of symptoms or the result of the problem.

1. Check for common issues first:

Make sure your drives are not full:
C: drive:
Open Explorer, right-click on the C:\ drive, and select properties.

C: Drive Space

Make sure that you have plenty of free space (i.e. the pink part of the pie chart). If not, look for large files or directories that you can delete. If you have exported many GXF or MXF files to your hard drive these often use a lot of space.

V: drive:
- In AppCenter look in your Recycle Bin. Is it full? Delete these clips to free up drive space. Remember that if you delete a clip in AppCenter it will be moved to the Recycle Bin. If you hold the shift key down when you delete, the clip will be permanently deleted instead.

- In AppCenter in the MediaMonitor window click on the “Look In:” drop down menu.
- Click on “Organize Bins” menu item
- Click on the “V:” drive letter
- On the left it will show used space, free space, and total space. See how much is free.

V: Drive Space

If the V: drive is still full consider exporting and deleting clips.

High CPU common issues:
3rd party applications:
High CPU activity in Windows can result in delays in sending commands down to the real-time processor. This can happen when unsupported software has been installed that competes with K2 Media Client applications. Virus scanners and screen savers can cause this type of problem, too, since they can start automatically and consume system resources. Double-check all software that is installed on the K2 Client to ensure that it does not conflict.

Scheduled tasks:
From Control Panel run "Scheduled Tasks". Make sure that no tasks are scheduled. Some users schedule maintenance tasks (e.g. disk defragmenting) on their work and personal PCs. Make sure that no tasks are scheduled for your K2 Client.

Turn off automatic updates:
From Control Panel run "Automatic Updates". Set the radio button to one of these options:
- Turn off Automatic Updates
- Notify me but don't automatically download or install them.

Setting Automatic Updates to one of these options will prevent Windows from automatically updating your K2 Client. You should contact your Grass Valley service representative to determine which Windows updates you should load on your K2 Client.

2. Document the problem:

Write a good explanation of the problem. A description that is too brief (like "deletes fail") does not help anyone. Try to document the date and time of the problem and clip or bin names involved, if applicable. Knowing what to look for and when to look (date and time) greatly helps us find and solve the problem.

Note any important setup conditions or observations for the problem: does the problem happen only after startup? only after running for 10 days? only after performing a particular sequence of steps?

3. Describe your system:

Get system version number:
For K2 Clients in AppCenter, click on the menu Help / About AppCenter.

AppCenter About Box

Write down the System Version number. It will be a number that looks something like "3.2.58.871".

For K2 Servers, since AppCenter does not run on a K2 Server, you need to manually check a file to see the version of software that is installed. Log.exe is a good file to check. So in Explorer go to the C:\profile directory. Right-click on log.exe. Click on the Version tab and write down the File Version number. It will be a number that looks like "3.2.58.871".

Log Version

Note: make sure that your software versions match between your K2 Clients and K2 Servers!

Get other system information:
Write down:
- the number of K2 Clients and K2 Servers you have
- are these SD or HD systems?
- NTSC or PAL?
- how many player and recorder channels?
- include a system diagram if you have one

4. Get K2 logs:

K2 Clients:
On a K2 Client in AppCenter select the menu "System / Export" Log. This will create a zip file containing:
- the system log: c:\logs\mlog.mmf
- the configuration file c:\profile\config\config.xml
- and a file containing software version info: version.txt (click here to see the contents of this file)

K2 Servers:
On a K2 Server you need to manually zip up the file c:\logs\mlog.mmf. This is because AppService does not run on a K2 Server so a mechanism for exporting and zipping the file is not present.

The mlog.mmf file is always 146 MB. By zipping it you can reduce this to approximately 5 MB.

You can download a log reader for viewing the mlog.mmf by clicking here.

Additionally, you can download LogInjector to add your own messages to the K2 log. Sometimes this is useful for adding details about operations or tests you are performing. Click here to download LogInjector.

For more information about how to use the log reader please see the K2 Logging video in the Videos page.

5. Get Event Viewer logs:

Click Start button / Run and type "eventvwr". Click OK.

We're interested in the Application and System logs. To save these:
- right click on "Application" or "System"
- select "Save Log File As..."
- change Save as type to "Text (Tab delimited)(*.txt)" and type in a meaningful name such as "K2Client07_ApplicationLog.txt".
- click the Save button to save it.

6. TaskMgr checks you can also run:

Click Start button / Run and type "taskmgr". Click OK.

Setup: select Processes tab. Select View menu and "Select Columns..." Add checkboxes to "PID", "CPU Usage", "Memory Usage", "Handle Count" and "Thread Count". Press OK.

High CPU check: select Processes tab. Is the CPU Usage bar graph high (> 70%)? If so, select Processes tab. Click on the "CPU" column header to sort from highest to lowest CPU usage. Scroll to the top. Press Shift & Print Screen buttons together to take a screenshot of this then paste this image into a Word document or into Paint, label it, and save it.

High memory usage check: in the Processes tab click on the "Mem Usage" column header to sort from highest to lowest memory usage. Scroll to the top. Press Shift & Print Screen buttons together to take a screenshot of this then paste this image into a Word document or into Paint, label it, and save it.

High handle count check: in the Processes tab click on the "Handles" column header to sort from highest to lowest handle usage. Scroll to the top. Press Shift & Print Screen buttons together to take a screenshot of this then paste this image into a Word document or into Paint, label it, and save it.

High thread count check: in the Processes tab click on the "Threads" column header to sort from highest to lowest thread usage. Scroll to the top.Press Shift & Print Screen buttons together to take a screenshot of this then paste this image into a Word document or into Paint, label it, and save it.

7. Upload your files and request help:

Create a zip file of all of your files and logs. Give it a meaningful name (possibly containing customer name, date, problem, etc).

If the zip file is greater than 3 MB upload them to ftp://ftp.thomsongrassvalley.com/incoming. Make a separate subdirectory there for your zip file. You can also upload them to your own FTP server and provide us with details on how to retrieve it.

If the zip file is less than 3MB you can attach it to your email message.

Email us at GVDeveloperSupport@grassvalley.com. Explain your problem to us, tell us what you have uploaded, and what help you are looking for.