Hi George, I have to agree with Tom on this one, either suspect drivers, or some as yet undiscovered conflict running on your PC. The slowdown you describe is a dead giveaway. That the dying program sends some garbage to the K3 as it expires is irrelevant.
Whatever the program/driver is the problem, it's now so lost in itself that it has called for a writeout to an external device when there is no data to send. It has clearly lost its mind. A common bug in a poorly written program is called a "memory leak". That is where a program allocates a certain amount of memory for a transient task, and when the task is done, does not release all the memory back to the "memory pool". This causes available memory to creep down until there is not enough to run. The offending program often crashes, because the same stinky programming causing the memory leak also does not provide a smooth shut down at out of memory with meaningful messages to inform which program is exiting and why. There are variants of this malady, like the one where the program assigns a FIXED large buffer to a usage, and then exhausts it in the same manner. This is a lazy solution to a memory leak that they can't find, hoping to crash just the program and not the operating system. Sometimes these buffers are without boundary code which detects end of assigned space and gracefully exits with understandable messages. The stinky code then proceeds to gradually *overwrite its own program instructions* until it encounters code it is actually running and then it simply goes insane. This is possibly a blue screen or PC hang moment, though later OS are getting better and better at trapping code like this. Outward symptoms to the PC user could be anything. There are other specific kinds of stinky programming that present in the same "What the h*ll is that?" fashion. But there is a way to spy on this stuff as it runs. You run a CPU monitor that displays what is going on in the PC. One of the displays will be active memory, Possibly called memory set, listed by program. Sort on this column and then watch stuff on your system. Often the offending program sticks out like a sore thumb. There may be multiple issues that point to conflicts among things you run at the same time. A better good and free monitor, can be found at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb795533.aspx. On the upper right of this page, under Top Ten Downloads, download Process Explorer and install. This well done monitor does not suffer from a lot of the clunkies that the Microsoft monitors and some of the other 3rd party monitors seem to have. The only complaint I have ever had about it is the default color line of black text on dark grey or purple for suspended processes and packed images. Those can be easily fixed in menu bar>options>configure colors, which also has the color code for what kind of thing each color is. Click on the column headers Working Set, CPU, and CPU Time. Here you can remove or add types from the display by checking or unchecking the line. I would expect Windows 7 should run Process Explorer just fine, though currently I only have an ancient laptop with XP and all else is upgraded to Windows 10 Pro, which at this point seems the best OS Microsoft has ever written. If you really like it, in Windows 10 you can do Process Explorer>menu bar>Options>Replace Task Monitor. I think MS bought it and at some point will simply replace their "Resource Monitor" with this one. It's not yet time to disassemble your K3 and send the pile of pieces back to Watsonville. Let us know what you find spying on stuff. 73 and for sure Good Luck Guy K2AV On Tue, Dec 6, 2016 at 3:21 PM, Tom <tom...@videotron.ca> wrote: > Honestly, I don't believe this is an issue with LPBridge but rather Eltima > drivers. I can run the Eltima serial port monitor and even without traffic > it will always crash after a number of hours. > Always. > There is not much that can be done other than rebooting after some time or > closing it all when you are not using it. > 73 Tom > > -----Original Message----- From: George Kidder > Sent: Tuesday, December 6, 2016 1:37 PM > To: 'Elecraft Reflector' > Subject: [Elecraft] Fwd: Re: LP Bridge crashes with K3 > > > Larry and all, > > I have now tried adjusting the buffer settings. Originally, they were > set full "right" (High, 14 for receive, High 16 for transmit) I moved > the sliders to about 3/4 of full scale - still got a LPB crash in about > 7 hours, while running NaP3 and FLDigi through LPB. I next tried the > "correct connection problems" setting, full left (1) on each. This time > it ran more than 3 but less than 20 hours (overnight run) and while LPB > did not crash, NaP3 did, which requires complete computer reboot. So it > is not clear that the buffer settings are doing anything except to slow > down the reaction of FLDigi to frequency changes - takes about 5 seconds > now. > > So again I am at the end of my short rope! Maybe I should shut down the > system EVERY night. That seems to cure it. > > George > > > -------- Forwarded Message -------- > Subject: Re: [Elecraft] LP Bridge crashes with K3 > Date: Sun, 04 Dec 2016 18:43:53 -0500 > From: George Kidder <gkid...@ilstu.edu> > Reply-To: gkid...@ilstu.edu > To: elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > > > No I have not, Larry. What settings do you recommend for starters? > > George > > > On 12/4/2016 11:02 AM, Larry Phipps wrote: > >> Have you tried adjusting the buffer settings in Device Mgr for your >> serial port? >> >> Larry N8LP >> >> Date: Sat, 3 Dec 2016 09:33:33 -0500 >> From: George Kidder<gkid...@ilstu.edu> >> To: 'Elecraft Reflector'<elecraft@mailman.qth.net> >> Subject: [Elecraft] LP Bridge crashes with K3 >> Message-ID:<a6a9a38b-ed36-ec28-ae6f-e60d63ad2...@ilstu.edu> >> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed >> >> OK, gang! I've tried everything I can think of, and am now looking for >> some additional thoughts. >> >> Equipment: K3 (unmodified) with firmware 5.53, computer (2.99 GHz dual >> core, 4 GB memory) running Win 7, LP-Bridge (LPB) set for 200 mS delay. >> The computer is not connected to the internet, and all programs are >> brought in from another computer using a flash drive. >> >> Problem: At random but long intervals (hours) LP-Bridge crashes, >> displaying error 13 (type mismatch). Clearing this window causes >> program to close. This behavior is seen with no external programs >> connected to LPB, and with LPB set to any polling rate from 200 mS >> (default) to as much as 1000 mS. It is seen when LPB2 is used and the >> baud rate is reduced to 4800. When the crash occurs, the error seems to >> be in a response from the K3 - for instance, the "Rig Received Text" >> window shows "IS 0|00;" while it should show "IS 0600;". In this case >> the K3 was set to CW mode. In LSB mode, the same window shows "CW 6+;" >> where I presume it should have been "CW 60;". This damaged text shows >> up in all windows (Rig received, K3 Com port, Power SCR-IF Aux CAT port, >> etc.) >> >> Attempted resolution includes reloading the K3 firmware and reloading >> LPB from the website after clearing out all remnants of the old >> program. Nothing helps - LPB still crashes when allowed to run for >> several hours. Other programs not affected. Computer is on a UPS, so >> momentary power outage would not be a cause (even if there should be one >> every night!) >> >> Clearly, there is a communication failure between the K3 and LPB, since >> it occurs with nothing else connected. Is the problem with the K3, LBP >> or the Win 7 operating system which sits between them? And what more >> can I try to fix it? >> >> Your thoughts will be greatly appreciated. >> >> George, W3HBM >> >> >> ______________________________________________________________ >> Elecraft mailing list >> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft >> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm >> Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net >> >> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net >> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html >> Message delivered to gkid...@ilstu.edu >> > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to gkid...@ilstu.edu > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to tom...@videotron.ca > > --- > This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. > https://www.avast.com/antivirus > > > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > Message delivered to k2av....@gmail.com > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html Message delivered to arch...@mail-archive.com
