Communications seems to keep stopping - Matrix Orbital GX

GX and Typhoon hardware, this includes, displays, cables and accessory cards.

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p5ymon
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Communications seems to keep stopping - Matrix Orbital GX

Post by p5ymon »

I installed my GX Typhoon yesterday and got it all set up. Seemed to run fine all day.
Switched my PC on today and the screen seemed to be going though some kind of demo routine (displaying a logo, then switching to cpu load graph, then switching to displaying the time whilst adjusting the contrast). It took a while of messing around stopping and starting LCD Studio before my playlist came back into effect. Now however the screen only seems to run for a fairly short random amount of time before switching to "Display Idle" mode. Restarting LCD studio brings back my playlist again.
Anyone know what could be causing this?

BTW - X posted over at LCDStudio forums

Ray
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Post by Ray »

Seems like LcdStudio is losing connection to the Service that actually drives the LCD somehow, and that indeed requires a restart of the driver to get going again, I'll build in detection to pick up on disconnects automatically and recover gracefully from them (or better yet figure out why it is dropping connections , but i never saw it do that before so it kinda hard to track down at this moment)

The demo mode is LcdInfo thats in your startup folder, if you don't want it you can just remove there.

p5ymon
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Post by p5ymon »

Thanks for the prompt reply Ray. Is there any further info I can provide which may assist?

p5ymon
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Post by p5ymon »

Just to keep you updated, I've removed the LCDinfo from the startup, rebooted and it seems fine now. Not sure if the two are related however, but a reboot sorted it out anyway.

p5ymon
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Post by p5ymon »

Another update :) Following the PC being off over night, back on this morning and this comms issue has come back again :(

Ray
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Post by Ray »

Did the LcdInfo application also start again by any chance? could you check your task manager and see if its running?

p5ymon
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Post by p5ymon »

Hi there.
Sorry was away for the weekend :)
Nope LCDInfo hasn't started again. Still getting the problem - most annoying I must admit.
Anything else you can think I can check on?

cipher_nemo
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Post by cipher_nemo »

p5ymon wrote:Hi there.
Sorry was away for the weekend :)
Nope LCDInfo hasn't started again. Still getting the problem - most annoying I must admit.
Anything else you can think I can check on?
Other than software, we can verify the hardware. How do you have the LCD connected, via an internal USB header on the motherboard, or via an external cable? If external, is the LCD attached through a USB hub or directly into the back of the PC?

Also, how many other USB devices do you have connected to your PC? If the devices connected require more power than the motherboard can supply (or USB hub if it has its own power source), the LCD may be disconnecting when the overall voltage drops. I don't think the GX even takes a single watt of power to run when idle, but too much on the same bus connection drops the overall voltage.

p5ymon
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Post by p5ymon »

Hi there,
Thanks for replying.
It's connected via usb and I've tried a few different combinations (external via a powered hub, front mounted case USB from mobo header, rear usb direct mobo connections), each time un-installing the device, reconnecting and re-installing the drivers. Each time with the same result.
I've got it connected back into the externally powered hub as that's how I installed it when it arrived and it worked all day without a hitch.
There are a few USB devices connected: Keyboard, Mouse - external drives which weren't and still haven't been powered up x 3, plus a bluetooth 'dongle'.
I have tried re-installing a few hours ago but still the problem re-occurs. One interesting think I noticed was when unplugging it from the USB and plugging it back in again Windows (XP pro) found a new device and subsequently re-installed the drivers. Alas the problem is still there :(

p5ymon
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Joined: Thu Sep 27, 2007 8:41 am

Post by p5ymon »

Ok just to keep you updated I think I've found the source of the problem: It seems to be my Alesis Multimix firewire mixer. When this is switched off all is ok. I have also been getting some problems with the sound cutting out on this mixing desk as well. A re-install of all the required drivers hasn't cured it either. i'm going to try a different firewire card when it arrives.

cipher_nemo
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Post by cipher_nemo »

I'm glad you found the problem! May be Matrix Orbital staff can install the software on a test system and confirm the issue? If so, we could add it as a known 3rd party issue.

p5ymon
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Post by p5ymon »

Ok it seems to be a problem related to the firewire (drivers possibly) for the Creative Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS external box. Although I'm unable to exactly pinpoint the cause unfortunately. Things still aren't perfect however, the display still seems to lose comms but it's not nearly as often as it used to be (maybe once every few hours now). I'm going to try a different USB hub when that arrives. Will keep you posted.
I would try a different firewire card in this PC, however I cannot afford to be without the mixing desk so I'm having to relocate all that stuff into another PC.

slavearm
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Post by slavearm »

Try this. Rename lcdinfo.exe to something like lcdinfo.exe.bak. Reboot. I bet you don't have anymore problems. This resolved my issue, my screen has been running faithfully for 2 days straight now with no issue.

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