Wot tha?????.....CRASH!!!

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Hi Paul,

With respect to the cooling problem, I had the same sort of heat issue with my laptop when using it to watch DVD's in bed and the fan intake was on the doona.

I bought a Dick Smith cooling pad for about $30 bucks, similar to this one.

It plugs into the USB port to run the fans in it and keeps the base of the laptop cool and therefore the rest of it cool also. It has a USB hub in it also and 3 fan speeds.

I no longer require this one so if you are interested, let me know via PM and I am sure I can let you have it for a reasonable price. I have included a picture below.

Cheers

Chris

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Thanks for the offer Chris, I'll see how I go. On the night that I've not used the GPUSB I haven't had any problems, plus I've been putting the laptop on a small "table" to keep it off the towels. Its also been only 3 deg outside at night as well so heating up aint been a problem

[Tandum (Robin)]

Sounds like ram to me. Download a copy of memtest 86 from memtest86.com. It's a bootable ISO download so burn the disk and boot from it. Let it run all night and see if it detects any ram errors.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

It could be ram. The laptop has been an absolute pain the last few weeks. About as fast as molasses in winter.

[leinad (Dan)]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

It could be ram. The laptop has been an absolute pain the last few weeks. About as fast as molasses in winter.

Did you ever solve this problem Paul?
I experienced this 3 times last night, and Im not sure what caused it, though I suspect its very likely powered USB problem and GPUSB.

I had the DMK, GPUSB, DSUSB all plugged into the Powered USB Hub which was connected to the laptop via USB M-F cable.

Free USB ports on Laptop were for Canon350D, and Usb-To Serial adaptor.( I only have 3 usb ports on lappie).
I had the long end for USB extension cable from Laptop to Hub.

Often PHD Guiding would crash, and Id need to disconnect the Cam usb cable and reconnect. On occasion when taking subs with the Canon and PHD guiding, The laptop would BSOD with an 'kb.sys' error and reboot??

I have a feeling that the powered hub is not so good for the GPUSB and DMK/GPUSB. I can only think that there is a conflict occuring through the USB cable that the GPUSB and DMK share that is causing the BSOD crash?

[leinad (Dan)]

From above, I found this mention of USB controllers sharing devices and crashing under high stress.

Windows XP will BSOD with a STOP 0x0000001E in Usbhub.sys when the USB bandwidth consumption exceeds 100 percent? 17-Sep-02

If you connect a USB device to the same USB host controller that you are using to stream video or audio, the USB devices are re-enumerated on the bus, causing bandwidth consumption to exceed 100 percent. This high stress causes the driver to fail.

To workaround this behavior, use any one of the following methods:
- Connect the new USB device to a different USB host controller than the one you are using for streaming video or audio.
- Stop the stream , connect the device, and start the stream.
- Connect the new USB device before you start streaming USB video or audio.

Link:
http://www.jsifaq.com/SF/Tips/Tip.aspx?id=5733



Then also noticed that PHD FAQ says this...

Q) Last nite my entire system crashed with the dreaded Blue Screen appearing. I rebooted and every thing was fine, however i did turn off the enable server, just in case that was causing some kind of conflict.
A) BSODs BTW, can only really be caused by something operating at a low-level, like a system / kernel level driver. PHD itself operates in the user space and so can’t directly cause a BSOD. PHD can call a camera driver that can cause a BSOD, however.



Seems this may be the cause of the BSOD,... Im going to try using both cameras connected individually to the laptop.


Which then leaves me to 1 last Usb port connected to usb hub (GPUSB, DSUSB, usb-to-serial adaptor? )

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

No I didn't resolve the issue. I decided to only run the GPUSB directly from a USB2 port on the laptop. Since doing that I haven't had any problems. You should be able to run the 350D from the hub with np so that would free up one of your ports. You may also be able to run your USB - Serial from the hub as well. Well... mine does.

[wasyoungonce (Brendan)]

Most problems like this are driver and software issues.

Sometimes when you get a problem windows shuts down and re-boots and you do not see a BSOD.

If you want you can stop the auto shutdown/re-boot computer action so it shows you a proper BSOD screen. From this you can track the error on the internet by googling the error. Follow this MS article to turn of auto re-start on fail. *Note the link for MS I gave below harps on about other problems but the auto re-start procedure is still valid:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/u...l_02may13.mspx



You can also try these little test applications to test your Lappy.

Memtest, for testing ram. Download the ISO image and burn to CD. Boot from that CD to auto run the memtest application. This should find RAM errors...although I once had a stick that passsed but it definately had issues, that's an exception:

http://www.memtest86.com/


Super PI 1.5, for heat testing CPU, Mboard and etc. Super Pi 1.5 is actually a computer overclocking test program that stresses the CPU making it run hot. Run it along with the core temp program to monitor your CPU temps. Obviously if you get rediclous temps (70degrees C+) or the system BSOD's thats you problem area:

http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/366/
http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/

[leinad (Dan)]

Yeah Ill try that out Paul. I think possibly the new powered USB hub is useless. I'll need to try the other one I have.

Do all usb hubs provide the same power output?

When I plugged in the Canon to the Hub it wasnt recognised. So I had to connect it directy to laptop via another 5m usb cable I had.

I am running a 5m USB cable from laptop to the hub, so possible distance/voltage is a problem.
NB: Im also using the supplied mini-usb to usb cable supplied with Canon camera.

So all in all, I had the DMK, DSUSB, GPUSB connected to the hub via 5m usn cable to laptop. I think these devices were all competing through the hub down the same USB cable.. and in aa compete for resources, clashed and crashed the laptop.

From memory, after I'd done 10 seq. 2min exposures, and then went to hit capture button for 5min exp 'bang'.. bsod and crash.

So I'm now wondering whether I need to; plug the hub to laptop first, then buy more 5m usb cables for each device(hub to device so that).

Any alternatives to this? The above should work I think?