Show stopped

[WayneKremer]

Bad news. On the 3rd night with my shows set to pre-load, it began doing the slowness all over again. So, with the shows set to pre-load, it at least bought one to two nights of normal speed.

I wonder what is causing this. Memory leak? Something external?

[Ed Slonka Jr]

Well, the problem continues. My show just stopped three hours and 10 minutes into the show. This is the second time.

It finished a sequence and did not play the next one. My pc is set not to sleep. I have 3 seconds set as the delay in between and am running it preloaded tonight and it still stopped. The status window showed the last song finished at 8:40 and nothing loaded. I had to reboot my pc to get the show running again.

I said knock on wood but it happened anyway. I jinxed myself!

Dan we need some help!!!

[WayneKremer]

Here are some videos of the symptoms. First, an example of the super long load time with the sequence starting, then stopping, then starting again:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raajV9M387E

And here is an example of what is shown on the video load form including "not responding":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT8SX64EquA

Is this what everyone else is experiencing?

Wayne

[knyurk]

mine hasn't done the slow load, but the blank not responding screen is the same. My show worked fine tonight. BTW I am using windows 7, is everyone else that is having these problems?

[WayneKremer]

I'm running Windows 7 x64.

[jeffl]

I have been having sticking channels and static lights that get shutoff during the show. After a ton of testing I happened to have system sounds turned on and found that my USB port was connecting and disconnecting during my voice overs.

Why only in one spot I don't know but after swapping out my PC for an old laptop it runs like a charm.

Most people don't have an arsenal of old hardware to be able to do this, but if you have another machine it would be worth a test to setup and try.

As for me I'm hoping to get a new motherboard and have a solid machine working that I can use for next year.

This year has been painful because of this.

[rgardner518]

knyurk wrote:

mine hasn't done the slow load, but the blank not responding screen is the same. My show worked fine tonight. BTW I am using windows 7, is everyone else that is having these problems?

I'm running Windows XP SP3, LOR version, 2.8.12. Since Black Friday without "any" issues. Until yesterday! In the middle of a show, I noticed from my window, the LED light was flashing on my controllers. So I went to my computer, and I was there was a pop-up, non-responsive screen. I clicked OK, and closed LOR. That pop-up, shut down my show, and dis-enabled the scheduler. So I installed 2.9.4, and its been running without "any" issues again! (knock on wood).

But Whats the "preload" thing all about? I don't notice any slowness, I don't think?

[Ed Slonka Jr]

OK, THIS IS GETTING FRUSTRATING!!! THE SHOW STOPPED AGAIN TONIGHT THE SECOND NIGHT IN A ROW AND THIRD TIME SO FAR.

HAD 7 CARS IN FRONT OF THE HOUSE AND THE SHOW JUST STOPS TWO AND A HALF HOURS INTO THE SHOW. WHAT A KILLER!!!

WHAT IS GOING ON? THE COMPUTER IS NOT SET TO SLEEP, I HAVE THE INTERNET TURNED OFF SO A PROGRAM CAN'T TRY TO UPDATE AND THE ONLY WAY TO GET IT TO GO AGAIN IS TO REBOOT.

THE STATUS WINDOW JUST SHOWS THE LAST SEQUENCE LOADED AND IT DOES NOT LOAD ANOTHER ONE AND IT IS NEVER AFTER THE SAME SEQUENCE. IT HAS HAPPENED BOTH WITH THE PRELOADED AND NOT PRELOADED.

[jeffl]

The only time I have seen this was when I unplugged my USB cord while the comm port was in use. I have been having USB port issues on a desktop but it would only loose it's connection for a second and then pickup again.

The only way I realized this was I had system sounds turned on and heard the connect/disconnect sound.

[WayneKremer]

After I rebooted my machine earlier today, I figured my show would run nicely...and it did from 5:30PM to 10:00PM, THEN during the first second or two of the shutdown sequence, the LOR monitor crashed.

I noticed that some people have this problem and some people don't. Could the common factor be those that have a shutdown sequence? It would make sense to me as the first show after a reboot is smooth, but the FOLLOWING night everything starts to go downhill. What's in between? The shutdown sequence.

Just thinking out loud....

Wayne

[Kevin N]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned yet...but if you are running via USB, do you have the filtered USB cable? I had all kinds of problems without it. Dan recommended I try it (3 seasons ago) and not a problem since.

Hopefully this might help. Good luck on this!

Kevin

[LightORamaDan]

WayneKremer wrote:

[snip] I noticed that some people have this problem and some people don't. Could the common factor be those that have a shutdown sequence? It would make sense to me as the first show after a reboot is smooth, but the FOLLOWING night everything starts to go downhill. What's in between? The shutdown sequence.

Just thinking out loud....

Wayne

Very few people are having a problem with their shows. We have not received a single trouble ticket with this issue .... But as we can see in this thread there is certianly a problem....

I will make sure that Bob get involved with this thread...

Have you seen any errors in the log?

As suggested earlier do you have Ferrite Filters (black cylinders) on the USB Cables(s) being use to connect the USb485 adapter(s) to the computer. Good thing to have even if it is not the cause of this issue. In general if it is a USB issue then the show player (monitor) will freeze but unplugging the USB adapter will unlock things. (Not the "crash" that was described).

Dan

[WayneKremer]

Dan, I didn't put a ticket in yet because I was trying to narrow down the problem. That's just the IT in me. I have 4 networks:

• 
  
• 1 - 485 serial adapter
  
• 2 - USB 485 cables with ferrite filters
  
• 1 - old Dasher serial adapter

I have seen previous lockup problems with interference and not having the ferrite filters on my commercial display in Guam. This problem is not like that at all. All of my lights and controllers are performing like they should (i.e. no missed commands, none staying on when they should be off, etc.).

The problem seems to be something more internal to the LOR control panel and the method of playing the sequences. Here is my best description: After a fresh reboot earilier in the day, my show will be snappy and load/play sequences from one to another for the entire night. It's the NEXT night that things go wrong. Sequences take very long to load and LOR even starts the media file and the lights before it decides to stop and wait for the rest of the load (which continues to take quite a bit of time). See my youtube video links earlier in this post to see an example. Even totally exiting out of the LOR control panel, going back in and re-enabling the schedule does not fix the problem. The only fix is to reboot the system.

Last night everything was going great until the shutdown sequence ran...in which the LOR monitor crashed on. I was thinking it might have something to do with that since the shutdown sequence is in between the shows from one night to another. Just guessing there though.

I can provide everything you need to test this out, just let me know. If you need my media files, you'll need to get me an FTP server since I have many large files. Thx!

Wayne

[Frank Picozzi]

LightORamaDan wrote:

WayneKremer wrote:

[snip] I noticed that some people have this problem and some people don't. Could the common factor be those that have a shutdown sequence? It would make sense to me as the first show after a reboot is smooth, but the FOLLOWING night everything starts to go downhill. What's in between? The shutdown sequence.

Just thinking out loud....

Wayne

Very few people are having a problem with their shows. We have not received a single trouble ticket with this issue .... But as we can see in this thread there is certianly a problem....

I will make sure that Bob get involved with this thread...

Have you seen any errors in the log?

As suggested earlier do you have Ferrite Filters (black cylinders) on the USB Cables(s) being use to connect the USb485 adapter(s) to the computer. Good thing to have even if it is not the cause of this issue. In general if it is a USB issue then the show player (monitor) will freeze but unplugging the USB adapter will unlock things. (Not the "crash" that was described).

Dan

I've also had the "crash" problem. No issues with sequences loading though. I wouldn't really descibe it as a crash. The program just freezes up. The log just says loading sequence (whatever song). The first time it happened I rebooted but after that I just unplugged the USB and diasbled the schedule, the plugged the USB back in and enabled schedule and it ran the rest of the night. It's happened twice.

I do use a ferrite and this is the same laptop that has run my show for three years now and the settings have never been changed. The laptop has Vista and I upgraded LOR this summer but I think I stopped at 2.8.8.

I think there is a bug somewhere. If you figure this out I will but you a meat lover's pizza

[Ed Slonka Jr]

Dan,

I did put a trouble ticket in last night and Brian responded about having a filtered USB cable.

I did not have one on but do now and will run show tonight and see how it goes.

Thanks for the support!!!!!!!

Ed

[morrisonstreet]

Wanted to chime in with my problem, not exactly sure if it's the same thing.

I'm using videos for the first time this year...still programming it all, but trying it out as I go. I have two whole songs ready to go. One plays flawlessly from the sequence editor. The second one has an obvious lag from the very start. the lights are a second or two behind the beat. However, if I swap out the video for just the mp3 version of the song, it plays just fine.

I'm working to have video in all my songs...I hope I'm not in for a lot of trouble with this.

[knyurk]

I just wanted to throw my info in to give whatever feedback may be worthwhile. I am running the filtered usb. However, I have not had a problem of the blank control panel and (not responding) since I changed my computer to never sleep and preloading files. I did have one weird thing happen last night when a sequence started playing two mp3 files at the same time but it only happened for one sequence and did not happen the rest of the night.

[Frank Picozzi]

I haven't had any issues four nights in a row now. I have just left the computer on and the USB plugged in and the schedule enabled. I'm not going to even touch it until the end of the season or if there is another failure.

[rmturner54]

I'd like to chime in also on this issue. I do not run the filtered USB cable. My show ran flawlessly last year from thanksgiving to first week in Jan. My started as ususal thanksgiving evening no problems. I leave Friday to out of town, come home Sunday afternoon and my wife tells me the lgts did not work Fri or Sat night. I tried to disable the show schedule and got the non responsive message. LOR tray was locked up. Had to reboot computer to correct problem. I am using the same laptop as last year. XP home edition sp2. The show ran fine for 3 days, I then updated a few sequences in the show. I left out of town for the weekend again and same results Fir/Sat lgts did not work. Discovered same non responsive message . Rebooted computer , back in business. I have everything on my laptop disabled, sleep mode, internet, firewall, anitvirus, auto updates.

I did update to Ver 2.8.10 for this year, last year I was using an older version. Cant remember the number, but is was several versions back.

[jeffl]

I wouldn't be afraid to downgrade to what you had last year. I ran rock solid last year as well and it was nice.

This year I'm exhausted but from what I can tell I'm now running good. I have a new motherboard coming for my desktop unit I'm going to try again next week.

I really wish there were some windows system messages or something to go on but there isn't anything.


Also, have your wife reboot the machine daily if that works. It's a pain, but a small price to pay.