Twice this week my VirtualVP has hung up twice and startwatch is not restarting it. It always happens when I am at work. I have it excluded from my AVG and Spysweeper. I have to restart my computer to fix it. Using version 1.1.4.22.
Chuck
email me the following files:
virtualvp folder-
log.txt
startwatch folder-
startwatch.ini
log.txt
alert.txt
along with a brief description of how it’s failing (crashing?, loss of vp connection?, other?, any popup dialogs describing problem?)
Steve
Well it did it again Steve. The VirtualVP icon in the start try is yellow when I come home. The only thing different is that it hung up for a couple of hours and it shut its self down or startwatch did but did not restart. Startwatch shows stopping under the state column. I will send you those files here shortly.
Chuck
I continue to have this same problem. VirtualVp will run for awhile during the day, when I come back in to work the next morning, it has stopped saying COM port does not exist. Yesterday I upgraded to 1.1.4 hoping that it would fix it. No luck.
I am also running the CP210x driver. This was upgraded from the N8VBvCOM driver as I was experiecing the same problems. So apparently, upgrading the driver didn’t not work either. It runs on a Win2k machine.
Can you assist?
Well so far my problem has not happened since my last post. I looked through my software and my AVG Spyware updates where happening around that time so I changed from updating a every couple of hours to once a day. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Chuck
Well it happened again this time at around 1744 20 April. It shows locked or hung up in the startwatch alerts tab like it has the other times plus had to restart my computer to fix it.
Chuck
Edit: It happened again yesterday at about 1145 am. I am puzzled on what is going on.
I have been experiencing these exact symptoms for months. VirtualVP has never run continuously for more than 4 days without hanging the entire system (standalone WinXP system for weather server functions only). Back in November 2006 the resolution was to tolerate the problem till VirtualVP version 2 which was to be released near the end of the year (2006) became available. Then came StartWatch which sounded like a temporary workaround, but it also has not been reliable. I am having the same problems as Chuck mentions in this thread.
I can’t tolerate these disruptions with my weather server system so I have shut off VirtualVP and StopWatch. The system is running only WeatherLink, ImageSalsa and Oddcast. It has been running for 10 days without incident or intervention. If I want to see my WeatherLink display, I’ll just have to get use to going into the other room to look at the weather server systems display.
I have given up on Steve with VirtualVP v2. At this point my hopes are on Davis WeatherLinkIP which from I believe will make VirtualVP obsolete. It’s a more costly solution, but the money spent so far has not produced anything but problems.
Maybe I can writeoff the $49 as a charitable contribution, since I didn’t get anything for my money.
Dennis
:-({|= World smallest violin…
Thanks for that positive and thought provoking commentary… I have a stock tip for you. :binky: BUY PAMPERS, apparently there are so many cry babies in Michigan the stock is going to skyrocket!!
I have worked with Steve on several things and have always found him to go above and beyond to help me! Maybe you forgot this was a hobby? I believe all these guys write the software for the love of it, not your lousy $49!
Why don’t you try working with Steve rather than blasting him in public! :cussing:
I know this wont help fix people’s problems but I just wanted to say that I have been running VirtualVP now (on W2K on a slow media type PC) for ages without a single hiccup. So it can and does work fine. At present I only have it talking to WD and nothing else, but I did have two copies of WD and VPLive talking to it again with no problems at all.
Stuart
I have been running 7X24 since 10-06 with zero problems. Run 3 virtual serial ports and 1 network.
Virtually (sic) the same here…Apart from a few self induced setup problems (I didn’t read the instructions closely enough) VirtualVP has been rock solid for 9 months. It is the keystone of my multiple Wx prog setup on my wx PC and I can’t thank Steve enough. Likewise the sister progs StartWatch and VPLive have proved very, very stable. Money well spent for me.
Mine has been running perfectly as well.
Dennis, you may want to EMail Steve with your problem and see if he can help you out. There may be something peculiar to your machine that he can figure out with some debuging code.
Good luck. - Jim
Dennis,
Email me at
support at softwx.com
Send me your serial number.
If you have a paypal account, I can try to refund to that, or, just include your snail mail address and I’ll send you a check.
If you are just running WeatherLink, and are comparing length of uptime. Make sure you have it in “bulletin” mode since that produces a more comparable situation as far as communications issues go.
Unless I have my messages mixed up (it’s sometimes hard when some of the messages for a particular person’s problem are on a forum and some are via email), the last message I had from andro700 (via email) indicated that setting the option in VirtualVP that allows it to reset the Davis USB driver was solving his issue. If you have a USB data logger, you should try VirtualVP with this enabled.
It is known that the Davis USB data logger has intermittent problems on some people’s computers, but not all. Unfortunately, it is a “feature” of Windows that there is a specific situation where a program becomes unkillable. This situation is when a program is blocked on an I/O call in “kernel mode”. It’s usually a result of a problem in a driver, but fortunately, it’s rare. However, there was a person who was using StartWatch with just WeatherLink w/ a serial data logger. He had a problem with weatherlink hanging every few days. StartWatch couldn’t kill it and taskManager couldn’t kill it when that happened. I even sent him a special program that tries just about every known way of killing a program including some very nasty techniques from the hacker community. None of them were able to kill WeatherLink when it hung. The best we could determine was that WL was probably hanging during network i/o, but could not determine why.
Based on that case, and the fact that there is a particular circumstance where Windows doesn’t allow a program to be terminated, I’ll be adding a feature to StartWatch that gives you the option of having StartWatch reboot the computer if it is unable to kill a program. Vista is supposed to have some new features deep down inside it to address this known problem.
Also note that other programs that insert themselves in the TCP/IP stack (such as ZoneAlarm) to monitor traffic can sometimes also ■■■■■■ up programs which use TCP/IP connections (like VirtualVP), and there is nothing VirtualVP can do about it, and it’s extremely difficult for me to track down the problem since the cause is outside of VirtualVP.
More info:
Microsoft on unkillable programs
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/driver/kernel/Iocancel.mspx
example of how one program can hose other programs
http://www.wrensoft.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1451
If you have a USB data logger Dennis, then that is the root of the problems
(and you would need to be running weatherlink with the bulleting mode window open to duplicate the problem)
your best bet is to get Davis to swap that for a serial data logger. Trust me, years of experience talking here on this subject
rather than publicly insult Steve like you have done when the vast majority of people do not have the problems you are having
Just my 2 cents worth
keep up the good work Steve, and chin up. I know what its like , it takes all sorts to make the world go around, thats all I can say
When I reread my previous post I can see I came across quite harsh (and yes, maybe a bit whiny), I was very frustrated and pissed, having just switched my KVM switch over to my weather server PC to find WeatherLink & VirtualVP hung and a yellow box displayed in StartWatch. Then I see this new thread started by Chuck, which matches my situation, with no resolutions mentioned.
I will be the first to admit Steve is prompt to respond when he is Emailed about problems, which I have done 3-4 times. I also understand (from my own experience) some problems are mentioned here then fixed via personal Emails, so the resolution doesn’t get posted here. Unfortunately, my problem has not been resolved and the frustration level rises with each occurrence.
The weather station is a VP1 (wireless) with a serial port data logger. WeatherLink v5.71 is the only weather software I run. It runs with the bulletin window open and is configured to upload to APRS, Weather Underground, and my personal Web page. APRS & Weather Underground uploads are 5 min intervals, my personal Web page is 15. I also run ImageSalsa to upload a Web cam image to my personal Web page, and Oddcast to upload streaming audio from my NOAA weather radio to Weather Underground. The Oddcast setup is a recent addition. I use StartWatch v1.0.1.54 to start and monitor this software. The StartWatch setup is taken right from the users guide.
My goal for VirtualVP v1.1.4 (and what has not been working reliably) is to allow 2 additional computers to run WeatherLink (and sometimes VPLive) via TCP/IP through my home network. One of those systems is an IBM ThinkPad (laptop) which has it’s network cable or wireless link disconnected abruptly when I take it on the road. This activity is what was suggested that VirtualVP v2 might be more able to tolerate.
I use the N8VBvCom Driver to create the virtual com ports on my weather server and 2 VirtualVP’s TCPIP consoles configured. On the 2 remote computers I have tried both Lantronix Redirector and HW VSP to create the TCP/IP to serial port bridge. I have also tried having VirtualVP configured for serial port consoles and HW VSP at both ends. All of these configurations work initially, but none work for long.
Sorry for the long post, but it gave me a chance to vent, Dennis
I’m taking some time off of working on VirtualVP 2 to make some quick fixes to the 1.x version. One of the things I need to track down is the WD/VVP archive issue. If I can solve the problem you’re experiencing too, that would be nice. From the description you gave earlier, it looked a lot like the USB reset issue, and had chalked it up to that.
The fact that you’re using a VP1 shouldn’t be an issue. I have two consoles. One is a VP2 which is for my personal weather station, and one is a VP1 which is dedicated to development, so I can send it all the commands without worrying about screwing up my weather data. So VirtualVP actually gets a lot more testing time with the VP1 than the VP2.
I’m back on track with the posts here. I had thought I was configured on the forums here to get an email alert when anything was posted on this board, but I was only configured to get notified of replies, not new topics. Being really busy, I was not spending time on the forums, and was just relying on getting notifications (which weren’t happening). I have corrected this mistake.
Steve
SoftWx