PHD "Error 121...", WHAT??

[Ross G]

Hello,

For months I have been guiding with PHD using a guidescope with a QHY5 camera attached.

I am using Windows 7, 64 bit and connecting the QHY5 camera to PHD via ASCOM 5.
I have not had a problem until tonight. All of a sudden I am getting an error message "...failed with error 121:the semaphore timeout period has expired...".
PHD locks up, the message keeps appearing and I have to switch the laptop off to stop it.

I am completely stumped!

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks.

Ross.

[Visionoz]

Must be a "disease" afflicting only PHD + QHY5 - mine starting giving me errors every now and then - worked like a charm before with W7 64bit, ASCOM6 - now I've got to reboot in order for the camera to be recognised again !!!??!!!???

Cheers
Bill

[Ross G]

Hi Bill,

Are you getting the "...error 121..." message?

I thought it was a PHD error, but after some searching on the internet today, I think it might be a more general Windows7 error.

Still a mystery though as I have not changed anything on the laptop.

Ross.

[Terry B]

This is curious. I have a new lappy with win764bit. I have tried to install my QHY guider on it. The guider works well on my old puter running XP with the old non ascom driver.
I have ascom 6 on the new puter. I installed the drivers for the guider along with the ascom driver. It seem to recognize the guider but if I try to take an image with either PHD or CCDsoft I get the same loop as you describe. I has to be killed using task manager.
I assumed I had a driver issue with the QHY5. I think more info is needed.

[Ross G]

Hi Terry,

It is a clear night tonight so I am going to test everything again.

Ross.

[Visionoz]

No Ross - not the same error message - I suddenly had "failures" in the comms between the OS (Win7 64bit) and the two cameras; QHY5 & CCD OSC so the last few nights when it was cloudy I've been toiling away trying to nut out why things are going southwards out of the blue!!

To start off with I had a great struggle getting the QHY5 to go on right with W764b and also ASCOM 6 when installing had blurted an error message about missing something (I believe 'twas something to do with .net or other - I ignored it and ASCOM 6 continued happily to finish installation) but thereafter for more than 6 months everything worked fine; even with my ASCOM-driven Sidereal Technology scope driver for my G11 and with EQMod for the EQ6 Pro - BUT NOT ANYMORE since a few nights ago!!:mad2:

I'm planning to can the harddisk and re-install everything from scratch again

HTH
Cheers
Bill

[cventer]

I would also check out the QHY5 itself. Plenty of reports of frimware getting corrupt on these and needing a reflash when USb driver issue start showing up.

[Visionoz]

Perhaps, but most unlikely because the QHY5 & CCD OSC cameras still work fine on my older XP SP3 pc with no issues last night when I did a dry run "looking into a pea-soup looking sky" (before the rain!!) - most likely something in W7 (after many "free high-priority" updates from M$oft) has caused this I believe; as the comms are being handled at the underlying low-level stage of the OS ie the "drivers" - so methinks a clean install of W7 is in order

Cheers
Bill

[Ross G]

Hi,

The error message happened on Friday night. I searched the internet and ended up in computer programming forums where I was way out of my depth.
I did understand though that the error was a Windows 7 one, not a specific PHD error message. I thought the problem might involve the fact that 2 different cameras are downloading images on the same USB port so I uninstalled the computers USB drivers and then let the computer re-install them. This procedure has solved "strange" computer problems in the past.
Saturday night was clear so I set up again in my back yard.
I felt like a genius....everything worked perfectly all night. Not a single error message or hiccup. I went to bed happy.

Sunday night I set up again and the error message was back within 15 minutes of starting.
I didn't panic. I was able to close PHD without switching off the computer. I plugged the QHY5 into a usb port on the opposite side of the laptop to where the imaging camera was plugged in.
Everything worked perfectly for over an hour and then the message was back. It was not as severe this time. I was able to click cancel twice on the message and it then disappeared.
Everything then worked perfectly again until I packed up at midnight.

The random nature of this error has me worried. I am lucky to get 4 good imaging sessions a year so if this had happened away at Coonabarabran I would have been in big trouble.

I could wipe the laptop and re-install everything, but there would always be doubts.
Do I need to take a spare laptop with me when I go away?

I am continuing my search.

Ross.

[Visionoz]

Ross - if you've got "good" results by separating the use of the USB ports then it must be the power issues of the USB ports; ie they are not generating enough "oomph" to drive the two devices simultaneously if you used the side-by-side ones - also in Windows 7 you should actually turn off the "power-saving" mode for the USB ports too as I've come across this subject being talked about in some other forums recently - if I can find the article I'll post the link here

HTH
Cheers
Bill

[Ross G]

Hi Bill,

Thanks, that is a good suggestion and something I had not considered.

Trying to remember back I think I did have the laptop on battery power for the start of the night andn then used the ac adapter later on.

I will do some investigating. I'll let you know.

Thanks again.

Ross.

[Greg Bock]

Hi Guys
my QHY5 was working perfectly over the last few months, then one night 2 weeks ago, it wasnt recognised properly at the start of the session using MaximDL on my Win 7 32 bit desktop.
I eventually got it to be recognised, and take an image in MaximDL after much fussing with drivers, but now I get the error message 'failed with error 121:the semaphore timeout period has expired" once it tries to download the first image. This also persists in PHD.

It also shows the same behaviour when connected to my Win 7 32 bit laptop too.
Did anyone get to the bottom of this and find a cause and a solution?

[OICURMT]

General advice here, but you might want to try to restore your computer to a previous time when PhD worked.

It could be that a minor windows update caused a DLL to fail.

Before you restore a previous date, review the windows update history to see when your computer updated and what it updated.


OIC!

[multiweb]

Yes - low or power fluctuation in the USB line caused the firmware to be corrupted. Send it back to Theo to flush and make a hardware mod so the firmware becomes read-only.

[Greg Bock]

Thx Marc, PM sent

[Greg Bock]

OK, thx again, I have PM'd Theo.

[jjjnettie]

Mine has been doing the same since Astrofest.
I've run it on vista as well as Win7, same dramas.
You don't have to reboot though. Just close PHD using Task Manager, unplug your cables from the puter, then put them back in again.
I know when I'm going to get an error because first Windows sends a message that "this device can work better on a USB2 port".

I did remove PHD from my system and downloaded a fresh copy of 1.14. Worked fine for a few hours, then it packed it in.

I do feel that it's a problem with the camera, not the software.

[Greg Bock]

thx jjj, but I've done all that...grrrr...it plays up on both PHD and MaximDL, and on 2 different Win 7 computers, havent tried the XP PC yet.
Yes, i think it may be the camera, according to Theo anyway, probably send it to him to sort out.
Will keep you posted about success ( or otherwise, fingers crossed).

[multiweb]

Yeah get it done. It's a simple fix. Theo will sort you out.

[Tandum]

Or you can do it yourself if you have the nowse.

Be fearless.

http://qhyccd.com/ccdbbs/index.php?topic=800.0

[Greg Bock]

Thx guys,
its on its way to Theo, I could give it a go I suppose, but too many other things need attention right now, so I'll leave it with someone who knows what they're doing!

[alocky]

I've been having the same problem with a DMK41 and Windows 7 with PHD guiding. As well as not getting the same level of performance I used to get out of the guiding, it only gives me an hour at the most before I get the same error from PHD, or worse, there's a random USB port shuffle, the focuser connection goes, and if I unplug the DMK the QSI camera loses it and crashes as well.
It only happens when I'm running a CCD camera (via sequence generator pro) and PHD plus the guide camera. I use a rugged powered external USB hub on the scope, so I don't think it's a power problem.
PHD and the guide camera alone will run for hours without an issue.
Hasn't worked since April. Getting fed up with it. I was going to use it as an excuse to buy an intensePC - but I noticed the australian reseller charges roughly double the direct from supplier price, but it sounds like it's a problem with windows and not the camera.
Hope somone comes up with an answer, it sounds like there's a few of us with related problems.
cheers,
Andrew

[jjjnettie]

I'm really getting so peeved off with this problem. I lost half a nights imaging last night.
The first target went great 40 subs and PHD didn't miss a beat.
I changed target and it too 3 reboots of the computer and goodness knows how many times I had to replug in the USB's.

I'm wondering how many of you with this problem are using a GPUSB?

[alocky]

I'm using a gpusb - but it's the only thing that doesn't seem to be affected.
If the weather clears again this week I'm going to try running phd on one laptop and the image capture on the other. Just to see if it's a processor load problem.
Likewise, I've now lost most of the last three clear imaging nights, of which I've had 3 in 6 months.
Cheers,
Andrew.

[jjjnettie]

I capture on my Win7 machine and guide using my Dell with Vista.
I swapped them over the other night and thought I'd cracked the problem, but after an hour the error came up again.
I used to guide and capture on the Win7, but one of the USB ports died on it. :(
I also replaced all the USB leads hoping that might fix the problem, but no. :(

[acropolite]

I often wonder whether the lack of weather sealing on the RJ connectors isn't at least part of the problem. RJ connectors have to be one of the worst ever designed, they're also prone to bad connection if the connectors are crimped too deeply. I've proven this many times, seemingly perfect cables cause problems, the small gold pins vary in their position in the connector depending on how much force was applied when the crimp was done. The sockets also vary, the reach of the small fingers is variable, a few degrees temperature change or minute cable movement can cause the connection to go open circuit.

Allan Gould will back me up on this, many years ago he had intermittent problems at Astrofest, the cables tested perfectly, I crimped up replacement cables, making sure the RJ connectors weren't crimped too deeply, the problems disappeared.

I'd like to see decent moisture proof connectors on astro equipment and a move away from dinky telephone connectors, if manufacturers did that, I suspect that a lot of the intermittent problems we see would be gone.

[allan gould]

+1 on what Phil said.
I was just about to lay into my demon possessed Losmandy mount experiencing DEC run-aways at full speed when Phil emerged from the dark with a replacement cable that fixed the problem. As the temp dropped one of the pins lost contact and caused the run-aways.
Again Phil, I'm indebted to your generosity.
Allan

[Greg Bock]

Hi all,
as promised, here's the update to my QHY5 problems, and a shameless endorsement of Theo's customer service.
Theo had the camera only for a day or 2, and sent it back to me all fixed for $50, can't complain about that. He reloaded the firmware, and did a mod to the board so it doesn't lose its marbles again

2 thumbs up Theo, really well done, and speedy too!

[multiweb]

Told you. Good to hear. :thumbsup:

[Greg Bock]

yup, excellent tip Marc, no brainer actually.