S6 Hardware Utility Scan Delay ??

[Crolab]

I have been using 6.2.18 When I call up the hardware utility to scan my networks, after selecting a network, it usually comes up immediately and begins scanning. One day a few weeks ago, it took about 20 seconds for the scan window to come up and begin scanning. Now it does that every time. Nothing has changed. I have done no mods to anything, yet there is now a considerable delay before the scanning begins. Has anyone else encountered this issue ?? Can anyone tell me what would cause this issue, and/or where to look for a solution ?? Could a Windows update create this issue as they are done automatically on all the computers on our business network ??  If anyone can help, please let me know. 

[TheDucks]

Have you set a 'cap' (Max expected address) so it does not spend time looking for ID's you don't expect.  (Mine is set to 4F as I do have a 40 pixie4 controller. a bit of free ID's included)

[Don]

@Crolab - I've not heard of anyone having the issue you describe. My office PC is updated regularly, and no Windows Updates have affected how long it takes for the HWU to start scanning.

[Crolab]

Everything is still working properly, and it doesn't seem to have affected anything. But that is definitely not normal. Would re-installing the software be something I should try ??  Do you, or does anyone have any ideas on what could cause this or how to get it back to normal. Like I said, it just started all of a sudden one day, and it won't go away, Restarting the computer doesn't help. Something has to have started this.

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

@Crolab You may have a bad cable in your network that is just good enough to get things to work, but its slower because data keeps being retransmitted due to the bad cable (I assume LOR HU could be trying up to X retransmits). I have had animal damage to cables that did not cause complete failure but still be problematic  A somewhat similar situation is a loose connection in the RJ-45 port that could have been fine at setup but worked itself loose.

I have a rabbit or the neighbor's dog chasing the rabbit knocking an extension cord loose multiple times this year and one time also affecting a network cable.

An easy way to test is use a spare/new cable with a single controller that isn't daisy chained. If the HU responds much faster, its certainly some cable, loose connection, or perhaps an issue with an RJ-45 jack on a controller.

Edited January 9 by Jeremiah Ackermann
Added note on how to test.

[Crolab]

Hello Jeremiah,

I have 4 different 2 input com ports with 2 network cables plugged into each. There are actually 8 different RJ-45 runs on my show. I am using Regular, Aux A, Aux B, and Aux C  In the hardware utility, you can only scan 1 of these 4 networks at a time, but this delay happens on all of them. They are on Com 3 (Reg)-Com-4 (Aux A), Com-5 (Aux-B), and Com-6 (Aux-C) Would just 1 RJ-45 connection being loose on 1 daisy chain cause this issue on all 4 com ports ??

[TheDucks]

4 networks exhibit this with different controllers? different cables?

 Something else is wrong.  Over termination (more than 1 on a 'leg' (AFAIK only Pixies have internal Term jumpers. Some of us made a termination cable for the Last controller on the run. 👍)

No termination. Cable runs close alongside power cords for more than a few feet.

My CP takes quite a bit of time to startup (6.2.18) on an old W10 PC. HU starts after that in 10 seconds. So what are you calling the Scan Window. When you click Refresh?

BTW you might reinstall the adapter drivers

[Crolab]

Yes, I am calling the scan window, the window that comes up as it scans the network. My issue is, it has been working fine for 2 months, after I hit refresh, the scan window has always come up almost immediately. Suddenly, it takes a good 15+ seconds for that window to appear, and when it does, the progression scan bar fills the whole line in about a second and then it starts over and scans normally which takes about 30 seconds on average. When it scans normally, it has run this way all the way back to S3 and has continued to run that way all the way though all the upgrades to my current S6 level.  I scan all the networks every morning to make sure all the controllers are reporting. The scan window..(after hitting refresh) has always appeared almost instantly, and starts scanning normally. Now suddenly, I have to wait a long time for it to appear and begin. Something is not right but, as I said before, I didn't change anything, and it happens on all scans. If there was a problem with 1 network run, I would know where to look for network issues or controller port issues, or other connection issues. This seems like something in the software and/or hardware is causing this. This is why I thought a windows update may have changed something that S6 uses. Everything still runs fine when I run my shows, but I still feel something is wrong and I am hoping someone can tell me where and/or what to do to figure this issue out. Maybe I should re-install the software and just see what that will do.

[PhilMassey]

It does no harm to uninstall and reinstall the software and only takes a couple of minutes, so give it a whirl. Always have your data backed up, just in case.

[Crolab]

I re-installed the software and selected the repair option. There is no longer any delay and everything seems to be functional. Not sure why this happened, I would feel better if I knew what caused the software or my registry to become corrupted. The repair function removes and re-installs registry entries among many other things.  Maybe, if I pay a little more attention to the condition of my registry, I won't have these kind of issues in the future. Still wish there was a definite answer, but at least everything seems Ok for now.