show random freezing

[bktalon]

Ok so first off, Im not looking for pity or anything like that, just hoping to find an answer to whats happening, I will try to describe the situation to the best of my ability,

I have been running my show for the last 15 years, with minor problems, but have always figured it out with or without guidance from members in here, well this year has been a nightmare. July 30 I had a massive heart attack, the day I am being released from the hospital, I get a call from my wife at 6am saying there is a problem, she wont be able to pick me up, we had a massive thunderstorm, lightning struck a tree, and it came down across the driveway, blocking it and taking out the powerlines, then proceeds to tell me it gets worse, the tree landed on my brand new BMW and crushed it ( found out days later its totaled)

days later we are finding more damage, the power surge wiped out many electronics, including 3 75 inch tvs, ps4 ps5 the pc that runs our show, all 4 high speed usb485 adapters, the fm transmitter 2 pixie16's 6 pixie4's 1 pixie8, 4 CTB16pc's 4 ELL's and fried most of the RGB lighting even some not out of the box yet stored in the basement on the floor in a box all 4 singing probs had the lights blown.

we refuse to lose and have managed to re purchase everything we lost well over $10000 worth, and I have the show up and running again luckily I have multiple backups of all my sequences LOL

here lies the problem, my new pc running windows 11, started out no problems, the show ran great, now over the last few days, the show will randomly "freeze" the lights all turn off, but the music will keep playing. I am unable to stop the show, unless I reboot the pc 

I am running s4 4.416 pro edition license  I have  4 com ports 1 regular and 3 aux ports A B and C when the show is running its smooth but then it happens out of the blue, I do not run any of it enhanced as it never worked for me, if I turn on enhanced none of the lights work. I have no more then 1600 pixies on any given network

I have everything set up the way it was previously before the lightning strike all firmware has been updated, I have run the tests and have not gotten any errors.

this morning I was thinking maybe its the usb ports, so I went into the pc settings and changed it so they dont shut down to save power, I havent run the show yet this morning to test it

I am open to any and all suggestions, sorry if I use wrong terminology lol

[k6ccc]

Sounds like you have had a crappy year.  Do what your cardiologist tells you to do...

A really close lightning strike can do a lot of really nasty stuff.

As far as the show issues, I think you are pointed in the right direction.  Is the show computer a laptop or a desktop?  Laptops tend to be far more aggressive about turning things off "to save power".  Does anything useful show up in the player log?  I was reminded last night that S4 gives less details on what is happening in real time than S6.  If you bring up the Windows Task Manager, or even the Windows Events Viewer, do those shed any light?

Likely not specifically related to this issue, but can you tell what devices (and how many channels in use on each) are on what network, how things are connected, network speed settings, and where in the networks are the ELLs?  The more details, the better.  ELLs and Pixies are largely not compatible.

 

[bktalon]

the show runs off a quad core 4.0 ghz desktop running 16GB ram, windows 11 home, the task manager shows this... pics below nothin to show from event viewer

auxA runs 4 pixie4's  each with 4 50 pixie ribbons

auxB is 1 pixie8 with 6 50pixie ribbons, 1 pixie 4 running 4 50pixie bulb snowflakes and 2 100 string pixie bulb spinners, 1 pixie 4 running 4 pixie 50ribbons and 1 pixie 4 running 2 pixie 50ribbons

aux C is a pixie 16 running 16 pixie 50 bulbs and a pixie 8 running 8 50 pixie bulbs for stars (4 ports) 1 port 100 pixie bulbs large star, 1 port 100 pixie bulb spinner and 2 ports 100 pixie bulb trees

regular network is running 9 regular CTB16pc's  not all channels used running all LED lights 

the ELLs run 4 of the ctb's in the yard all within 200 feet of the first ELL the rest is all hard wired

I am running the show as I do this and its running smooth, I dont know if the usb ports was the problem?

[k6ccc]

Thanks for the detailed answer.  Looks like a good setup arrangement.

Yes, if the USB ports were able to go to sleep it will cause problems.  Please do update if the changes stops the problem.

 

[bktalon]

must have something wrong, it just froze up again :( now I need to reboot the pc because I cant shut down LOR

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

51 minutes ago, bktalon said:

it just froze up again :( now I need to reboot the pc because I cant shut down LOR

Since you got a new PC and Microsoft likes to push OneDrive, I am guessing you have OneDrive setup. The problem is by default, the files will be removed from the device, which will cause problems with real-time playback. At the very least, right click the LightORama folder in Documents and select Always keep on this device as show in the picture. Not sure if this would be your problem or not, but based on the symptoms, it could be likely.

[k6ccc]

That's useful to know.  I don't have anything running Windows 11 - yet.  Even with Windows 10, MS sure seems to be trying to get everyone to use OneDrive.  So far, I'm not using it at all.  

 

[bktalon]

I think you hit the nail on the head, I was just re-syncing all the music on the new pc and I noticed the one drive folder in the sequences, I have been pausing the one drive syncing to make sure there was no lag, maybe thats where its failing?

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

2 minutes ago, bktalon said:

pausing the one drive syncing to make sure there was no lag, maybe thats where its failing?

Yeah if the file is off the device and syncing is paused, it could cause playback to just spin. I think its ok to let OneDrive sync, just set it up to keep the files on the device so they are always at the ready.

[bktalon]

ok I checked that off, whats the best fix for that? all the files are (or were) on my pc, does one drive take them over?

[Jeremiah Ackermann]

5 minutes ago, bktalon said:

ok I checked that off

Sorry, to be clear... that menu item should be checked to make sure they stay on the computer. If you have it unchecked, then they are taken off the computer and stored in the cloud until they have been requested. Windows File Explorer will make it appear they exist, but if its a little blue cloud icon, it means its off your computer. You want green cloud icons or green checkmarks.

Edited November 19 by Jeremiah Ackermann

[MikeZ]

Googling away and I found this thread. I think I’m having a similar problem. Playback in the sequence editor or Simple Show Builder randomly pauses for about 1o seconds, then resumes where it left off. I’ve never had this problem in 14 years, so I’m stumped. I’m also running 4.4.26 on Windows 10. I’ve tried past year show files and the same thing happens. I’ve run with and without control lights, usb dongles. Any help/ideas appreciated!