Building font cache never ends - SOLVED !

[windozer]

EDIT: Before you read any further. This problem has been solved. VLC is not the problem. I had two corrupted font files in my Windows installation.
In case you have a similar problem, check the font files in your Windows fonts folder. I have installed East Asian languages support and it seems something went wrong when installing this. For full details of the hassle I had, read further.
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I just installed v1.1.0 and started it for the first time. Then it said it'll build the font cache and that this will take only a few minutes. Well, it should rather say "This will only take forever ". Because it never stopped. It just kept scratching on my harddisk as if some heavy process was low-level formatting the same area on the disk again and again. I actually was worried it will do damage to my HDD. And it made my machine virtually freezing; not a complete freeze, but everything got so hang and stuck that I could barely open the task manager to finally kill vlc.exe.

Anyway, I already read some postings about files that contain subtitles, etc. But I didn't try to play a file with subtitles, only a simple avi with standard divx codec. I also tried other avi files, but the same thing happens. I didn't have any problems with version 1.0.5 and so I wonder what changed in the new version so that this problem occurs? I properly uninstalled the previous version and its cache and prefs, so this ain't the cause. So what could it be? Is there any workaround for this? Because I really like VLC and don't want to switch to another player.

Thanks for any help in advance.


Using VLC 1.1.0 on Windows XP SP3 Professional

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

How long did you let it?

[windozer]

How long did you let it?

Half an hour at least. As I said, it never stops. It's an endless process that keeps scratching my HDD in a repetitive manner, such as hanging processes do. Tried everything so far, re-installing VLC also didn't help. I reverted to version 1.0.5 now, but I'd like to upgrade still if the problem gets fixed in a future update.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

How many fonts do you have in C:\Windows\Fonts?

[windozer]

How many fonts do you have in C:\Windows\Fonts?

148 fonts. Default number of fonts shipped with Windows XP is 136.

Edit: I've been testing with the portable version now, but the problem persists

Edit #2: I don't know if this is important to mention. But I have also installed support for East Asian languages. Maybe this is an issue?

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

This might be an issue, I will try.

[windozer]

Thanks a lot for your kind support. In the meantime I stick with version 1.0.5. And if I find the time, I will do more tests on my computer with version 1.1.0. I really want to find out what the problem is.

My system is a Windows XP SP3 professional, basically a fresh installation, because just a few days ago I wiped the old installation and recovered an untouched install from a disk image backup. It's also completely updated with all updates/hotfixes via Windows Automatic Update. The system is definitely virus free and was scanned for malware accordingly.

Two things on my system are different from most default Windows installations:

- I have additionally installed support for East Asian languages, which I need for language learning
- For security reasons, I have disabled some Windows services that are usually running in the background per default

Anyway, I don't think it has to do with those services, because it hangs when updating the font cache. And so perhaps there are fonts from the East Asian language support that VLC has a problem with, even though the previous version of VLC doesn't have any problem. This is the first time that a VLC version does not work on my system :-/

[traycer]

windozer,

I'm running Windows 7 with about 485 fonts, and it took 1.1 a couple of minutes to build the font cache the first time it ran. I don't think I specifically installed East Asian language support, although I do have various Chinese fonts loaded.

Grab ProcMon (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysi ... 96645.aspx) and have it show the files vlc.exe is accessing. That might give you a clue as to what it is doing, and if it is indeed reading the same font over and over again.

[windozer]

Grab ProcMon (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/sysi ... 96645.aspx) and have it show the files vlc.exe is accessing. That might give you a clue as to what it is doing, and if it is indeed reading the same font over and over again.

Thank you !!! This was a very good advice. I found the problem. Indeed, VLC tried to read the same font file over and over again. In the process monitor's list it said: DEVICE DATA ERROR. It happened when VLC tried to read the font file "batang.ttc". Then I removed that font and this time VLC seemed to complete the job. However, it got stuck again. This time it was the font file "mingliu.ttc". So I also removed this font and ran VLC again. Et voilà! - VLC is working!

Strangely though that it gives me a DEVICE DATA ERROR. Because I can read, open, copy or move those files within Windows without any problems. I can open those fonts in a font viewer or use them in a text processor and get no errors. But if VLC tries to read them, then there's this error

I wonder though, if it has to do with the font file size. Because the two fonts I removed are considerably big in file size:

batang.ttc - 15.5 MB
mingliu.ttc - 8.41 MB

Most fonts installed are just ~200 kByte. On the other hand, besides Batang and Mingliu, there are a few other big fonts, too, which do not cause any problems:

gulim.ttc - 12.8 MB
msgothic.ttc - 7.88 MB
msmincho.ttc - 8.71 MB
simhei.ttf - 9.57 MB
simsun.ttc - 10.0 MB

I wonder now, if my HDD is damaged or has bad sectors after all. I'll do a check later and will report. Also, I'll try to get hold of a fresh copy of those two font files and see what happens when I install them again.

Below is a screenshot of Process Monitor when the error happened at reading the mingliu font.




EDIT:
---------
As it turns out, batang.ttc and mingliu.ttc are unicode fonts for East Asian languages

batang.ttc - unicode font for Korean
mingliu.ttc - unicode font for Traditional Chinese

However, the following fonts are used for East Asian support, too:

gulim.ttc - Korean
simhei.ttf - Chinese
simsun.ttc - Chinese

Whilst the fonts themselves might be a problem, I'll still check my HDD for errors and do a few more tests.

EDIT #2:
---------
Problem solved! Alright then: Those files are corrupt or whatsoever. VLC is not the problem! The thing is that I made a mistake. I thought I had already tried to copy those two files. Instead, I accidentally only moved them. So I tested this properly and tried to copy them to an external HDD. I can copy all font files, except for those two for which I then get a data error. So they are corrupt or my HDD is wrecked (hopefully not). Now I'll scan for errors.

Thanks a lot, traycer! You saved a lot of time for me! And in case I need a new HDD, I have to thank you even more. And somehow I have to thank VLC as well. Because of this early warning I might be able to prevent more damage that would have done by a corrupt HDD. Now I can respond to this problem ahead in time and perhaps - if needed - get a new HDD soon. But I still hope it's just the files that are corrupt or some minor things as a few bad sectors that don't affect the rest.

EDIT #3:
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The two font files were corrupted! After replacing the two files with fresh copies, VLC player was able to build the font cache with all font files! Now checking my HDD for bad sectors, which will take a while...

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

Amazing infos. You guys rock.

[Omaham]

I agree: this information is superb... but it didn't help.

I am running Windows 7 on a rather powerful quad-processor machine. There are 230 fonts in my fonts folder and VideoLAN took well over half an hour with no sign of ever finishing building the font cache with everything else moving at a snails pace in the meantime. Ultimately I had to use Task Manager to shut down the PROCESS VLC.exe, as simply trying to shut down the program didn't have any effect, even using Task Manager to try to shut the program itself down.

This is particularly annoying since VideoLAN worked FINE with ver. 1.1.5. I noticed it had actually rebuilt the font cache a day or so before 1.1.7 came out and it took maybe 2 minutes tops. I install 1.1.7 and it goes to rebuild the (just-rebuilt) fonts and freezes. I shut it down, and tried again a few times with the same thing happening EVERY time. I - of course - uninstalled 1.1.7, including all settings and caches, and reinstalled 1.1.5 figuring it was a Win7/VLC v1.1.7 conflict, but now v1.1.5 is doing the same thing.

So I got the Process Monitor, and found that it continued to try to read "simsun.ttc" [Asian languages I'm guessing, which I do not use] over and over.

I went to copy that font to another folder 'just in case' and had difficulties. So I gave up on trying to keep a backup of it and just went to delete it.

Windows 7 says, "this is a protected system font and cannot be deleted".


Since Windows won't allow me to delete it, and since VideoLAN won't ever finish building the font cache if it is there (so that it will actually get to a point where it can play files), what can I do?

[rumit]

Hi
I had the same problem and i have managed to delete the 2 mentioned font.
I want to reinstall the font buy i cant find any free link to download these 2 fonts
can anyone please help me in downloading these 2 fonts again

thanks in advance

[rumit]

To delete the system font follow the link below and you will be able to delete the fonts

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10 ... elete.html

[rumit]

OPTION ONE
To Delete Fonts in the Fonts Folder

1. Open the Control Panel (All items View).

2. Click on the Fonts icon.

3. Select a individual font or font family that you want to delete.
TIP: To select more than one font at a time, press and hold down the Ctrl key while you click on each font.
NOTE: A individual font only has a single page on it's icon. A font family has more than one page stacked on it's icon. It means that it has more individual fonts included in that font family. If you wanted to only delete a individual font in the font family, you will need to click on the font family to see the individual fonts inside the font family first.


4. Click on the Delete button on the toolbar.
NOTE: You can also right click on the font and click on Delete. If delete a font family, then it will delete all of the individual fonts in the font family as well.

5. Click on Yes to confirm the deletion.
NOTE: The left screenshot is for a individual font, and the right screenshot is for a font family.



OPTION TWO
To Manually Delete Fonts in Registry Editor

1. Open the Start Menu, then type regedit in the search box and press enter.

2. If prompted by UAC, then click on Yes (if in administrator account) or type in the administrator's password (if in standard account).

3. In regedit, navigate to the location below.

Code: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts

4. In the right pane of Fonts, right click on the font name that you want to delete and click on Delete.

5. Click on Yes to approve the deletion.

6. If you have 64-bit Windows 7 Installed
Note Note
To also delete the font as well in 64-bit Windows 7, you will also need to do this step.

If you have a 32-bit Windows 7 installed, then skip this step since doing steps 1 to 5 will delete the font in it.

A) In regedit, navigate to the location below.

Code: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts

B) Repeat steps 4 and 5.

7. Repeat steps 4 to 6 for any other font you want to delete

8. When finished, restart the computer to apply.

That's it,
Rumit