PE stops responding, and does not close at all

[tiscando]

Hi, I am running windows vista 64-bit.

I have PE open with the code in the attachment.

This has happened 2 times today, and I think this never happened before:
I changed "spimode01" into "spimode11" on both of the times.

When I click the run button (did not save), PE stops responding; window greys out. I waited (1st time 5 mins, 2nd - 40mins) still not responding. I clicked the close button, the problem reporting window pops up for 10 secs, and the program is still open, not responding. Tried closing it using task manager, even that can't close PE. Window is still there, greyed out.

On the 1st time, after about 30 minutes after the first click on the close button, I had to restart the computer to close the program - not normal for windows Vista, this only used to be normal on the old windows OSs before XP. Repeated the above, also changed the com port, and changed "loop until b0>0 or pin0=1" into "loop until rci=1 or pin0=1", and the above repeated. After the 2nd time, I decide to report here.

One difference of today is that I am using the PCSU1000 oscilloscope on this computer, and had the oscilloscope window open with PE.

I will restart the computer again and open PE without opening the oscilloscope.

Worse still, the computer has been acting as if the hard disk needs defragmenting, even after defragmenting a few times, for about a month. When this problem started is when the disk was severely fragmented because the defragmenter's scheduling was not working (even when the scheduling is turned on and set up, it still says "next time scheduled: never" when I re-open the defragmenter. It took about 16 hours to completely defragment at that time (interrupting at the end of a day, and continuing on the next day).

Even after it has been completely defragmented, the system takes 33 mins to load 55% of 6GB of RAM (no programs open) on booting up, during this (after the desktop and taskbar appears), the programs take more time to load up (including PE, and the user account control).

Any help is very much appreciated.

 

[tiscando]

This is the 3rd time:

I did the same stuff as on the 2nd time, and this time, I went picaxe > program instead of clicking on the 'program' button. Stops responding...

 

[tiscando]

RxD of the usb download cable is 0V.

 

[tiscando]

I am also running the defragmenter.

 

[hippy]

I don't think the problems are being caused by the PICAXE program nor the Programming Editor. It may be triggering the failure but is not likely responsible for the failure.

Not using Vista nor a 64-Bit PC I don't have much advice but I would be considering a complete re-install if my system were behaving as yours is.

 

[tiscando]

OK, I will try re-installing PE soon.

I have just clicked the close button, and the problem report windows pop up for 10 secs, then the PE window does not close.

 

[hippy]

I was thinking along the lines of "re-install everything", Vista and from the ground up. It shouldn't take 33 minutes to boot and Programming Editor plays no part in that. Sounds like something is seriously wrong with the configuration. Don't forget to backup everything first.

 

[tiscando]

Well, it takes 3 minutes to boot, and then 30 minutes before programs stop getting stuck when they load up. During the 30 minutes: constant hard-drive activity; internet explorer does not respond for 2 mins after it's loaded up; PE takes 2 mins to load up. After the 30 mins: programs run as smooth as usual; RAM usage when no programs are open is 55% of 6GB.

All bas and dsn files are backed up on my flash drive.

 

[tiscando]

I have re-installed PE. Today, I opened PE, opened 'amstrad vfd interface.bas', changed "loop until b0>0 or pin0=1" to "loop until rci=1 or pin0=1", syntax checked, saved, then clicked the program button, download screen pops up and can't download (only testing it), changed com port from com1 to com5 (the usb download cable), syntax check, saved, clicked the run button, and the program stops responding.

 

[tiscando]

Same problem again - program window stays open even after the problem report windows popped up.

Next time, I will test it by changing parts of the program, not change the com port, and click 'program' each time to see when it freezes here.

 

[tiscando]

Tried again:

only when I click the 'program' button after I have changed the com port, even though I plugged the USB cable in a different port, PE crashes and...

 

[tiscando]

Does not close at all.

 

[tiscando]

Even when I use 'end task' in the applications tab of task manager, or try to end the process of 'progedit.exe' in the processes tab. Any more processes linked to PE? csrss.exe?

I might try and re-install the USB download cable drivers.

On the very first time this problem happened, I remember that I didn't change the com port. From this, all the times so far happen after I change the com port for the USB cable.

 

[hippy]

I might try and re-install the OOSBEh download cable drivers.

What are these OOSBEh download cables and drivers ?

 

[tiscando]

TechGuys remote assist

The picaxe USB download cable's drivers.

Or, I happen to have TechGuys remote assist installed on my computer when I bought it. I might give it a try to see if they can solve this problem, and a couple of other minor faults.

 

[tiscando]

PE only stops responding completely if I plug in the picaxe usb cable and then I click the program button, even without changing the com port. It doesn't completely crash if I don't have the download cable plugged in.

I think the oscilloscope installation might be making the unstabillity of the picaxe usb cable even worse, past the minimum working point. Now it's also affecting PE's downloader, as well as the computer boot-up (reported earlier), if connected.

I'll try the remote assist technology soon.

 

[hippy]

The picaxe oUSBe download cable's drivers.

Sorry, I have no idea what you refer to, no idea what "picaxe oUSBe" is.

It sounds like it could be a device driver conflict within Vista, but with the background of the other problems, using an OS and architecture I'm not familiar with, it's hard to give any specific advice.

I would suggest uninstalling all software and drivers (*) which may be related to the issue, re-booting and re-installing the Programming Editor by itself. Check that works over a hard-wired serial port. If it does, the problem is not with the Programming Editor. Then install the AXE027 or USB010 USB download cable and check that works.

(*) You may have to connect USB devices in order to be able to uninstall their drivers. If software doesn't completely uninstall, or Vista is remembering drivers despite being uninstalled, Vista may get itself confused even if that software or those drivers are not used. This may necessitate a complete Vista re-install in order to start from a clean sheet.

Having found myself in similar situations with other OS's, I take the pragmatic approach that it is usually far quicker, and overall less painful, to reinstall an OS and applications than it is to keep banging one's head on a wall or going round in circles with the solution none the closer. Even if one isolates the cause it may still be necessary for a complete re-install to resolve it.

A re-install also allows the problem to be determined in a much more controlled manner if it is a systemic problem; the last thing which changed which then stops something working is related to what the problem is. If it's an underlying problem elsewhere ( and your setup seems to have that ), unless those are resolved first it may be pointless to try and resolve other problems if it's down to those issues. You are just wasting time on trying to fix a problem in a manner which won't fix it.

 

[tiscando]

The picaxe usb download cable.

But I don't have a serial port on my computer.

I am calling techguys remote assist to see if they can fix this problem.

 

[tiscando]

I failed to register with the techguys remote assist, so I 'll try again when I can (in a week).

I will just re-install the picaxe usb download cable's drivers, see if it is any better for PE.

 

[Technical]

Does the oscilloscope use an FTDI chip aswell (this chip is inside the AXE027)?
If so you may have two different types/versions of the FTDI driver trying to run at the same time - this ccould cause a DLL issue under Windows. If so, try uninstalling the oscilloscope and trying agian.

 

[tiscando]

The oscilloscope uses a pure USB connection. Just a normal USB cable connected to the computer and to the oscilloscope box.

The oscilloscope is a velleman PCSU1000, with software that can also run some other USB and LPT oscilloscopes, function generators and dataloggers, but I just click on PCSU1000 USB every time I run the software.

 

[hippy]

Looking at the http://www.vellemanusa.com/us/enu/product/view/?id=522377 page, the "How to update your PCSU1000 drivers" info indicates a COM port connection is established, and looking in "PCSU1000 USB Driver: for Windows XP / Vista / Windows7 (32-bit and 64-bit)" shows these to be FTDI drivers.

Although the scope looks to be a direct USB device physically, all they've effectively done is put an 'AXE027 equivalent' cable inside the unit, and you are conecting similar to using an AXE027 with a USB extension lead.

The conflict described by Technical in Post #21 could occur, so uninstall the scope software and its drivers.

 

[tiscando]

Yesterday, PE was working OK when I have opened the device manager; ran the oscilloscope; tested the axe027 with PE's terminal using the oscilloscope - looks OK. Then, PE's downloader was working normally. Kept the device manager open, and was using the oscilloscope at the same time.

So maybe I'll do the above again next time I try to download picaxe programs, to see if it works again.

 

[tiscando]

Opened PE; ran the oscilloscope; plugged in axe027; opened PE's serial terminal; tested OK; first download worked okay.

Maybe I have to exersise the serial cable before I press the download button, like I did above, to make it work and not crash.

 

[tiscando]

boot/system RAM usage bulge (overdrive/overrun)

After I installed a big update (called vista service pack 2), it solved the problem of that 55% of 6gb ram system overhead slowing the pc down - Now it's only 28% without any programs open; a lot better!

I was not sure what caused that extra 27% of 6gb RAM bulge. Maybe a bit of malware contributing to this managed to sneak past Norton antivirus and stay undetected, causing an unneccessary amount of RAM usage


Did anyone have this similar thing?

Computers at school seems to get slow over time. When they get slow, I see constant hard drive activity (HDD indicator constantly lit), and it much sooner comes to a point when they basically can't fit all that possible RAM bulge (unneccessary RAM use) in their average-1GB of RAM. Recently, I didn't see computers at school get slow in this sort of way as often as I used to 2 years ago.

In my case, the constant hard drive activity stops after 30 mins. In a computer-at-school's case, it would go on forever, and the system needs to be re-installed to make the computer run at full speed again.