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jeffw_00
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| Posted: February 01 2010 at 16:17 | IP Logged
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So it's clear to me now that what's happening is
a) USB PLM hangs up
b) PH tries to access hung PLM, and it ALSO hangs up.
Just got off the phone with an excellent tech at smarthome - learned a few things.
1) They built the USB PLM by taking a Serial PLM and adding (internally) a Serial -> USB converter.
2) there is a known issue with the USB PLM units where a brief power-dip on the A/C side hangs up the converter.
Rebooting the PC, or even disconnecting/reconnecting the USB cable, resets it. They're working on a fix.
They're sending me a Serial PLM, I expect to be very happy with it.
/j
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jeffw_00
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| Posted: February 10 2010 at 19:35 | IP Logged
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So as I mentioned, the last thing I tried was moving the USB PLM to a PCI USB card inside my desktop. Result: 9 days, no failures. So the problem was probably poor design in the USB Hub built into the ASUS motherboard. Still, since SH sent me a replacement serial USB (2412S), I have switched over to it, and assuming no failures for a week or two, that's what I will stay with.
In hindsight, I suspect the problem all along was just the MOBO USB controller, and if I had immediately switched to the PCI card that would have been the end of it, but at this point, if I ship the Serial PLM back, and I have a failure in a week or two on the USB PLM (using the PCI USB hub), I'm going to feel pretty silly.
Edited by jeffw_00 - February 10 2010 at 19:35
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NorthernAl
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| Posted: February 10 2010 at 22:00 | IP Logged
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I don't think the problem was just your usb controller. There are a number of people that have had problems with the 2412U.
Mine would also crash and I tried two 2412Us and then tried a powered USB hub as well. All crashed. A powered USB hub has helped some people but not me. Perhaps your new PCI card has higher voltage or ability to sustain higher current draw or something. The 2412U usb electronics are marginal for sure.
The 2412S fixed all my problems. I have been using the 2412S now for 1 month+ without a single problem.
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jeffw_00
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| Posted: February 10 2010 at 22:32 | IP Logged
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I think, in MY case, that the USB controller was the contributing factor, since switching to a different one cured the problem.
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jeffw_00
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| Posted: February 19 2010 at 13:52 | IP Logged
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Serial PLM still working like a champ - sent back USB PLMs.
So - useful recommendations are:
1) try a different USB controller (PCi card or external)
2) switch to serial PLM
/j
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mike0999
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 03:50 | IP Logged
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Interesting. Jeff, were you running powerhome as a service? I have the usb PLM and was having a hanging problem until I started running powerhome as a service. Don't know if my system behavior is related to what others have experienced, but I haven't had any problem (or at least if I have, it has been very infrequent) since switching to powerhome as a service.
I originally tried an automated nightly reboot to try to hopefully address the hanging, but ran into what seems to be a problem that you also experienced Jeff - my system wouldn't reboot without forcing it. After switching to running as a service, again much much better reliability (except I still have the reboot issue).
I am running XP SP3. Maybe it seems odd that running as a service seemed to help my situation at least.
Edited by mike0999 - March 14 2010 at 04:04
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BeachBum
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 10:31 | IP Logged
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Mike, are you re-booting because your PLM is hung or for another reason? If the PLM is hung then it appears that PH is also hung. The only effective way to clear the hang is to reinit internally to PH when the hang is detected otherwise you may have to use Task Mgr or likes to clean it up.
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jeffw_00
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 11:23 | IP Logged
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I'm using a standard installation. Not sure what i would have to do to 'run it as a service'. However, since switching to a different USB Hub solved my problem, I think in my case it was a HW issue
/j
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mike0999
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 15:53 | IP Logged
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I am rebooting for other reasons. Even when PH is working fine, it won't reboot for me.
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BeachBum
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 16:07 | IP Logged
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And you have "Confirm Shutdown" unchecked? If so maybe you could use Process Explorer to diagnose it further when it hangs.
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mike0999
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 16:27 | IP Logged
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Yep. I am not sure it is actually hanging. It's just not rebooting. But, let me see if there is anything else useful I can figure out.
Edited by mike0999 - March 14 2010 at 16:32
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BeachBum
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 16:35 | IP Logged
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The only thing that came to my mind was using Process Explorer and maybe you could identify which component was causing the hang by taking it down in parts. Other than that I’m drawing a blank.
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mike0999
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 19:18 | IP Logged
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Hey Pete,
Definitely thanks for taking the time to respond. No need to respond to this further unless something that I post gives you additional thoughts.
If I go into the process explorer in the Windows task manager, killing powerhome.exe enables me to reboot. I don't have to kill anything else, although I'll keep investigating to see if I can figure out if powerhome.exe might be using something else that I can kill separately to enable reboot.
Using a Sysinternals process explorer, the only "sub-process" that I see under powerhome.exe is a Sybase database manager, or something like that. Killing that does not help at all.
Using the Sysinternals process explorer, if I right click on powerhome.exe, select properties , and go into the "security" tab, it shows me a variety of privileges for powerhome.exe. There is a privilege called SeShutdownPrivilege and the "Flag" for that says "Disabled" for all users.
That sounds like it might be interesting, although I honestly am not knowledgeable enough with Windows to know exactly what it means. Seems there must be a way to change that that I haven't figured out yet, although again don't know if that is relevant.
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BeachBum
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 20:19 | IP Logged
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Good information. The only thing I would suggest is maybe this thread should be on its own, like start a new one, rather than hijacking Jeff’s post as it probably doesn’t pertain to the PLM.
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mike0999
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 20:23 | IP Logged
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Good point. Sorry.
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BeachBum
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| Posted: March 14 2010 at 23:17 | IP Logged
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No problem Mike as I am guilty of this all the time probably more than most. This is a very interesting subject though.
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Topic: Powerhome Hanging! (It IS the PLM!)
