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USB driver hangs


disneyman
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socalezrider wrote:

I am using a Dell desktop. I have everything sitting on a table in close proximity to each other (the monitor, the fm transmitter and the USB485 adapter). I also have a small radio on the floor next to the table.

Whenever I turn the switch off, you can here the popping noise through the radio over the music playing in the show. I am wondering if I should plug the FM transmitter into a different outlet from the rest of the equipment. Problem is I need it to be close to the computer for audio out connection.


I'm a little confused here. If you mean you've turned the transmitter power off, your going to hear a pop or click and then nothing on your radio other than static. That's to be expected.

I'm disappointed to learn that your problem, if it's the same as mine, occurrs on a desktop. That shoots down some of my theories.

The transmitter causing problems when powered off or on is only symptomatic of a bigger problem. I could create the problem without the transmitter used at all so I know, in my case, it is not the primary cause.

Having said that and without a real fix for the problem, I can't suggest that moving the transmitter further away via a longer audio cable is going to help you but it wouldn't hurt. Long audio cables are fairly cheap.

Is there any possibility that your Dell isn't grounded? A simple multimeter or a friend with one could quickly determine that. Even going through a UPS, there should be a good ground.

In my case, using different outlets didn't make any difference. At one point, I had power off of everything and my Laptop still crashed.

One more question, is your adapter a USB485 or USB485B?
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The adapter is the USB485B.

The show is running and the lights are flashing and the music is playing and being transmitted with the FM transmitter. I turn the radio on, very low, so that when the light show hangs, I am alerted right away. Don't really have front windows on my house to see the lights.

When the light switch in the room next to the room where the system is is switched on and off is when you can hearing a popping noise over the shows music. The light switch is on the same wall as the outlet where the system and transmitter is plugged into. So the electrical interference is being picked up either by the computer or by the FM transmitter and being heard through the radio receiving the signal.

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socalezrider wrote:

The adapter is the USB485B.

The show is running and the lights are flashing and the music is playing and being transmitted with the FM transmitter. I turn the radio on, very low, so that when the light show hangs, I am alerted right away. Don't really have front windows on my house to see the lights.

When the light switch in the room next to the room where the system is is switched on and off is when you can hearing a popping noise over the shows music. The light switch is on the same wall as the outlet where the system and transmitter is plugged into. So the electrical interference is being picked up either by the computer or by the FM transmitter and being heard through the radio receiving the signal.


Thanks for the clarification.

What kind of lights do you have in the next room? Are they incandescent or flourescent?

I don't have a portable flourescent light to test with but a simple 100 watt light produced no sound at all from my transmitter.

If your lights are flourescent, that is another matter as they are subject to a lot of problems.
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socalezrider wrote:

The adapter is the USB485B.

The show is running and the lights are flashing and the music is playing and being transmitted with the FM transmitter. I turn the radio on, very low, so that when the light show hangs, I am alerted right away. Don't really have front windows on my house to see the lights.

When the light switch in the room next to the room where the system is is switched on and off is when you can hearing a popping noise over the shows music. The light switch is on the same wall as the outlet where the system and transmitter is plugged into. So the electrical interference is being picked up either by the computer or by the FM transmitter and being heard through the radio receiving the signal.


Other questions I forgot to ask. Do you have any light dimmers in this next room or is there any other device that is automatically turned on with the light switch?

Is it only the room next door or can you duplicate the problem (noise on the radio or system crashes) with any light switch in the house?
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Just the room next door, the laundry room switch, no dimmers either. And as one would expect the light controlled by the switch in question is flourescent. You think that is what the problem is?

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socalezrider wrote:

Just the room next door, the laundry room switch, no dimmers either. And as one would expect the light controlled by the switch in question is flourescent. You think that is what the problem is?


Flourescent lights are always suspect. They must definately be grounded at the least and many are not. Check for the proper grounding first and then look at the light closely to see if it's flickering. I can't tell from here what the next step would be depending on what you find but consider replacing the tubes or balast or the whole light fixture if the noise dosen't subside.

As an as-side, I can't tell you how relieved I am to have my show now bullet proof using my old serial adapter. The only reason I went with this new USB adapter was because I use linkers and linkers require the power boost this adapter supplies when there is not a controller driving the linker and I thougth that that may be the case but it no longer is.

I strongly suggest getting a serial adapter and putting these problems behind you. Pay LOR anything they ask for specail delivery and get the feeling I now have that I can leave the show running and feel confident that when I return, it'll still be running. It's a great feeling.

Maybe, after this all blows over, LOR will give you some credit for shipping when they finally resolve the problem. It's the least they can do.
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I was feeling good Friday when the show ran from start to end without a single glitch. By Monday night (4 consec. nights w/o fail) I was feeling great. Then Tuesday crash!

I do not use linkers, I am CAT5 from the USB485B to the first box and the next, the next and so on.

What exactly do I need from LOR to move away from using the USB485B adapter? Can I get it at a radio shack?

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socalezrider wrote:

I was feeling good Friday when the show ran from start to end without a single glitch. By Monday night (4 consec. nights w/o fail) I was feeling great. Then Tuesday crash!

I do not use linkers, I am CAT5 from the USB485B to the first box and the next, the next and so on.

What exactly do I need from LOR to move away from using the USB485B adapter? Can I get it at a radio shack?


Good questions, Radio shack is not going to help. (Think Sony and Betamax)

From LOR, you can go with the USB serial adapter for $19.95 and then add the rs232-rj45 adapter for 24.95 for a total of $44.90 which is what I have. Instead, You could attempt to go with the lower powered adapter WSB-RS485 but I can't attest to the veracity of this device as this is what you (we) have but the none powered version. It would certainly be cheaper but your on your own here.

Personally I have more than $4K tied up in this endevor and I'll pay a lot for reliability at his point.
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I have a computer that just runs my Light-O-Rama system. It does have Norton protection on it.

It has Windows XP, Media Edition. It is configured to download and install Windows updates. I am running LOR 1.61.

Everything has been working properly until recently. A few Windows updates were installed (only change that I can determine) and a problem has begun.

During a show at around the same time frame each night, the computer crashes and the infamous "blue screen" appears. Once I reboot, everything is OK until the next night when the same thing happens.

I think it might be a conflict with Norton, since I have since uninstalled Norton and it did not crash last night. However, now on reboot, Windows gives me a notice that a "serious error has occurred" wanting me to forward the log of the error to Windows. However, I am now without anti-virus protection on the machine which is connected to the net.

This is the same machine with no configuration changes or software changes (other than the Windows updates) that ran all last year and so far all during this season without problems.

Could this be this same issue with the USB drivers? The problem seems to be a driver conflict. I was thinking it was Norton, but it could be the USB driver.

Mike

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MS_Mike wrote:

I have a computer that just runs my Light-O-Rama system. It does have Norton protection on it.

It has Windows XP, Media Edition. It is configured to download and install Windows updates. I am running LOR 1.61.

Everything has been working properly until recently. A few Windows updates were installed (only change that I can determine) and a problem has begun.

During a show at around the same time frame each night, the computer crashes and the infamous "blue screen" appears. Once I reboot, everything is OK until the next night when the same thing happens.

I think it might be a conflict with Norton, since I have since uninstalled Norton and it did not crash last night. However, now on reboot, Windows gives me a notice that a "serious error has occurred" wanting me to forward the log of the error to Windows. However, I am now without anti-virus protection on the machine which is connected to the net.

This is the same machine with no configuration changes or software changes (other than the Windows updates) that ran all last year and so far all during this season without problems.

Could this be this same issue with the USB drivers? The problem seems to be a driver conflict. I was thinking it was Norton, but it could be the USB driver.

Mike


Hey Mike,

I'm currently running ZoneAlarm (firewall and virus protection) on my laptop that's driving my shows but tomorrow I'll run a quick test on my desktop which uses Norton as a firewall for a test for your benefit. I suspect that Norton is innocent here but will run the test and probably ask for more details afterword on your failure. Strongly suggest that you at least turn on the Windows firewall so you're not too exposed.
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I took Dan's advice and installed the updated RS485 driver but also took Norton completely off the machine for now.

The only reason that I suspected Norton is that it was crashing at the exact same time each evening. I checked for automatic updates, and auto running processes and could not find them.

With the new driver and the lack of Norton, I had no issues last night. Will again evaluate the situation and report back.

Was able to figure out that one of the error codes indicated a driver problem, so that might have been it.

Anyway, keeping my fingers crossed and will report back.

Mike

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MS_Mike wrote:

I took Dan's advice and installed the updated RS485 driver but also took Norton completely off the machine for now.

The only reason that I suspected Norton is that it was crashing at the exact same time each evening. I checked for automatic updates, and auto running processes and could not find them.

With the new driver and the lack of Norton, I had no issues last night. Will again evaluate the situation and report back.

Was able to figure out that one of the error codes indicated a driver problem, so that might have been it.

Anyway, keeping my fingers crossed and will report back.

Mike
Ran a test of my show using Norton's NIS 2008 with no problems.
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Ok, think I have my problem diagnosed. It was not the Norton, it was falsely accused. It was indeed the USB RS486 driver. The new (updated) driver seems to have solved the problem. Two nights, no problems, after the driver upgrade.

Thanks for everyone's help. If there are any new developments, I will let you know.

Mike

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Well, I had started a thread with the same problem so I will add to this one too....I am too going through the same thing....in order to have to show running for one night I have to go to download the update for the driver.

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I am a Vista User and installed the latest upgrade from the LOR web site which helped alot on my lockups, but I still locked up about 3 or 4 times a night after that upgrade. I think I found another problem with Vista and maybe XP that causes this lockup problem. When I disabled my screen saver and set the computer power management to High Performance instead of energy star my problems have seemed to disapear. Knock on wood.

Vista Fix:

From your desktop right click with the mouse and a menu apears on Vist, select Personalize, then select ScreenSaver, Set Screen saver to None, then click on Change power settings, Select High Performance. Mine had Energy Star Selected and I think it was the problem. I applied the fix 12-22-07 and havent locked up since.

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On the same note, you need to make sure that your computer settings are changed so that it will not go into the standby or sleep modes.

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Well Computer Ran 3 Days in a row with no problems and then BANG christmas eve locked up twice:?.

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disneyman wrote:

Well Computer Ran 3 Days in a row with no problems and then BANG christmas eve locked up twice:?.


Bummer. Were any of the computers you tested on desktops?

Because I can re-create the problem with ease, I'm going to do more testing shortly with version 2 and see if the problem is still there using this adapter. I'm guessing it'll still fail under the same conditions.

I see by your post's that your failures weren't too consistent but if they are reproducible, you might want to run Windows Task Manager as I've mentioned in a previous thread to verify the cause. I failed to mention in that thread that after the applications "LorMonitor" and "LorTray" go into the "not responding" mode (2-4 seconds after the cause), the show continues until that sequence ends so unless one is watching the task manager closely during the show, the actual cause of the hangup could have been a minute or two ago depending on how long the show (that sequence) is.

I image that many are shutting down their shows now that Christmas is past but this problem will need to be resolved or folks may have the identical problem next year even with LOR2.

Hang in there.
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Here is my latest test of this usb adapter.

Testing with a new laptop with Vista and using LORII (2.0.12) it still fails but with more difficulty. I had to plug and unplug the transformer for my transmitter 7 or 8 times before it crashed.

This is the first crash of my Vista system and am slightly annoyed that it was still necessary to reboot to recover.

I made a statement earlier that after the application hangs up that the sequence continues to the end. this not correct. The music continues to the end but the video stops.













lor

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LightORamaDan

lkinsey wrote:

[snip]
I image that many are shutting down their shows now that Christmas is past but this problem will need to be resolved or folks may have the identical problem next year even with LOR2. [snip]






Most people have not had a problem with their USB adapters and have had shows run for weeks without issue.

We know that USB driver problems have affected a few percent of users and we will work through out the year to harden things. This is something we are not going to ignore.

When we are on the phone with a customer the one thing we never want to say is "there is nothing I can do to help you" so we will be working on it.
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  • 6 months later...
Guest wbottomley

socalezrider wrote:

Is there any update/resolution to this problem yet? Please advise.

1st question... are you expericening this problem?
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