Software & FW Update

[pete_c]

Updated PCA today to newest 3.8 software and most current 3.8 FW on the HAI OPII panel.

Every appears to be fine.

I still see an MS/PCA error though when updating PCA. (its been like that for a few revisions now).

Running the update by itself doesn't generate the error. It seems to only occur right after the download and before the update.

 

[HAI_fjh]

I a sorry to hear you are having problems with PC Access. Could you please provide some information about your system?

Things like CPU, RAM, OS, antivirus software, is UAC on or off, etc. anything that might help to narrow it down.

 

[pbeaulieu]

I also update my PC Access to 3.8 and then restarted PCaccess. I then proceeded to upgrade my HAI OPII to firmware version 3.8. PC Access seemed to have completed thefirmware update but the last window of the firmware update never disappearedand PC Access was frozen. I had to usetask manager to abort PC Access.

I then restarted PC Access and it appeared that thefirmware upgrade to 3.8 worked. The PCAccess recognized that the HAI OPII was at rev 3.8. The OPII seems to be working fine.

 

[pete_c]

Hello Fred,

I've tested it on a variety of computers in the House; IE: Laptop is a core duo with 2 Gb running XP Pro, Desktop is also a core duo with 4Gb running XP Pro. The one computer in the basement that I run PCA on is a W2003 server running on a Pentium D with 2 Gb of memory. I have not tried any updates with W7 (although I have them around). Its not a deal breaker; as it works. Just a common theme maybe in the last 1-2 years. I looked in the event logs and do not see anything. I looked for a PCA log and can't find one. I will make it a point to do a screen capture of the error. All of the servers utilize AVG for W2003 server and all of the PC's utilize Avast and Malabytes.

Note that the error does not prevent me from updating; as that part still works.

PaulB; that freezing during a FW update would worry me; and I would wonder what would happen should the FW upgrade be interupted; would the HAI panel get bricked?

I decided to try another laptop running XP Pro and saw the same error. I did a pictorial. Here is what the event log shows. Its a .NET Runtime 2.0 Error Reporting. Note that all PCs are up to date with most current Microsoft updates. I paid attention this time and yes an error does show up in the Microsoft event log.

EventType clr20r3, P1 pca3d_en.exe, P2 3.7.0.607, P3 2a, P4 system.windows.forms, P5 2.0.0.0, P6 4889dee7, P7 14d2, P8 23, P9 system.objectdisposedexception, P10 NIL.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

[pete_c]

And the fourth composite picture.

 

[HAI_fjh]

FYI: Before releasing new software I personally test it on multiple systems running a variety of operating systems (XP, Vista 32 & 64 bit, Windows 7 32/64 bit). On each system I update the User, Lumina and Dealer version of PC Access 3, and on each system I do at least on firmware update. On my main development system I update every model firmware (Limina, Lumina Pro, Omni IIe, OmniPro II) for every language. So between 4 different controller models, and various languages on XP, Vista and Windows 7, and PC Access Dealer, User and Lumina versions I have dozens of software and firmware updates, and I am not the only one testing. If any problems are found they are addressed before the software is released. So it does work.

This does not mean that you are not having a problem and even though I spend an entire day doing dozens of tests, there are still hundreds of variables.

One big variable is security software and settings. Since PC Access is not quite as prevalent as something like MS Word it is probably not in the "known" applications list so it probably get's a little extra scrutiny. So when your security program sees an "unknown" (PC Access) application download something (the updater) from the Internet and then run it, this may trigger a defensive response. Another issue is that some security apps keep checksums of installed applications. If the checksum changes they may assume that the program has been altered a.k.a. infected with some malware and again take some defensive actions.

One way to deal with these sort of problems is to add PC Access to the "trusted applications" or the "excluded applications" lists (whichever your application uses). Another was is to set you security software to as what to do rather than just take some default action. This is what I do on my Vista 64 test system. On this system every time I upgrade PC Access it pops up a dialog with a message to the effect of "This program has changed... do you want to allow it to run?" I select yes and all is well until the next update when it asks me again. If I say no, then it kills PC Access and I get an exception.

On my Windows 7 64 bit system I doesn't complain when I upgrade, but it does complain the first time I try to access the network after an upgrade. Again different operating systems, different security software and different settings...

Looking at your screen captures the most likely culprit is security software. My theory is that it saw PC Access download something from the Internet and run it. The security software then immediately tried to kill PC Access rather then letting it shutdown normally resulting the error.

Another important thing is to make sure you have the latest .NET updates. If you only get automatic updates or use "Express" manual updates you usually do not get .NET updates. Don't know why... So you need to do a MS update, choose "Custom" and look at the optional updates for any and all .NET updates. Then after you do this, do it again, and again until there are no more. Why? If you are at SP1 for example, but the current SP is SP4, when you check you will usually only see SP2. After you update to SP2 and check you will see SP3... So to get everything you may have to do several updates. (not my rules)

Finally for errors on startup check for a bad account file by temporarily copying ALL of the account files (*.pca) to another folder. PC Access scans all account files on startup and if one is corrupt this can cause problems.

We really try to make PC Access work for everybody including the guy in China running PC Access in Chinese (yes PC Access runs in Chinese). Unfortunately we are not always 100% successful but I would say we hit at least 99% of the time. If you can help me figure out what is causing the problem on your system I will do my best to fix it. So please try/check the things I have mentioned ant let me know what you find.

P.S. If you run PC Access on a supported foreign language PC it will auto detect the system language and launch in that language. If you want to see PC Access in traditional Chinese you can force it by doing this:

1. Make a copy of the PC Access icon on your desktop.
2. Edit the properties of the copy and edit the "Target" string.
3. At the very end of the string, outside of the quotes, add a space then /lang:zh-TW
4. Click OK to save it and double click on the icon to launch it.

 

[sjht]

Is the issue only when upgrading the firmware and not just PC Access?

 

[pete_c]

Thank-you Fred for the reply.

The MS Windows 2003 servers on the rack are pretty much only utilized for simple functions. While I have at least two W7 boxes on line; these are never utilized for PCA access. The three primary PCs utilized are using XPPro (up to date with all SP's and MS updates) and one W2003 server (all OS SP's and MS patches up to date). The W2003 box is pretty stripped down and only utilized for Internet access, PCA ssh and telnet access (for linux boxes).

As one of many W2003 (like 10-15) Windows standard server boxes that I keep on line; I am kind of picky about keeping the boxes up to date with most current MS products for the OS (including dot net stuff).

The one in question is basically only used to go on to the internet; nothing else other than a console to the other W2003 servers and Linux boxes.

I am particular about having the base OS up to date. Aside from this the linux based firewall acts as a proxy for any internet, email, etc both with QOS traffic shaping and AV protection, etc. I do not do automatic MS updates on any of the W2003 boxes but rather probably once a month; first testing on one; then doing the update to the rest of the W2003 servers.

I have multiple PCA configs for multiple HAI OPII boxes. I am particular about these configs and they are stored the NAS and duplicated to a hard copy backup. The default configs directory has some old stuff and that can be all deleted. I keep both local network and WAN network configs together; so its like two configs for every panel.

Steps I just took.

1 - enabled the server in question W2003 firewall to allow the use of PCA (pics included)
2 - deleted all old and left over configs in the default configs directory.

I will make a note to granularly detail the next update in case something acts up. I can say I've seen the same issue crop up with every revision of the PCA software in the last year or so (maybe more) but I can't say that I have seen it or noticed it with the firmware updates in that its not something that I do every day.

I do probably run PCA at least 1-2 times a week (tweaking this or that) and see the upgrade tickle if it presents itself. I will alway do the upgrade of PCA when I see it whichever PC I am running it on.

As stated before; the issue doesn't inhibit the update; it's just a an error noted with MS as it proceeds to update; so while its a concern; it doesn't prevent me from updating.

BTW the one HAI OPII that I play with (my own little private sandbox) the most I keep adding "stuff to"; currently I am using it with X10, UPB and Z-Wave; plus the Russound box. I added a daughter board to it and waiting on installing some HAI wireless stuff. Mostly what happens is that I purchase what I want to add to the panel and typically it sits in a box for a year or two before I decided to play with it. So far so good; I've not had any issues with the HAI OPII board that I can see; great product!

 

[JonW]

I decided to try another laptop running XP Pro and saw the same error. I did a pictorial. Here is what the event log shows. Its a .NET Runtime 2.0 Error Reporting. Note that all PCs are up to date with most current Microsoft updates. I paid attention this time and yes an error does show up in the Microsoft event log.

FYI - I just updated on my Windows 2003 server to see if I could replicate this and I was successful in doing so. (it did not happen on my W7 64 bit laptop though).

The error was at the beginning of the install dialog as shown in the screenshot above and was the same .NET CLR error.

Everything does appear to function as normal.

Description:
Stopped working

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: CLR20r3
Problem Signature 01: pca3d_en.exe
Problem Signature 02: 3.7.0.607
Problem Signature 03: 2a
Problem Signature 04: System.Windows.Forms
Problem Signature 05: 2.0.0.0
Problem Signature 06: 4d8c1f92
Problem Signature 07: 14d2
Problem Signature 08: 23
Problem Signature 09: System.ObjectDisposedException
OS Version: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.305.9
Locale ID: 1033

 

[HAI_fjh]

This is interesting. Once you click "Finish" PC Access 3 launches the installer to install the update then it closes. We see the installer running so that went OK. PC Access then terminates with an exit code of 0 (no error) but for some reason your system seem to think this is a problem. The description of the problem is "Stopped Working" and if you look down further I see "System.ObjectDisposedException" so it sounds like something is happening while it is cleaning.

Were you online with a controller when you started the update process? Perhaps something to do with shutting down while connected to a controller.

 

[pete_c]

Fred,

My typical routine is to load PCA, open a configuration file and connect to the controller. I am not sure about the timing of the HAI update tickle.

I know typically I am connected to the controller at the same time the HAI tickle comes up.

 

[HAI_fjh]

This should not be a problem, I just wanted to know because typically I am not connected to any controller when I update. I now have a place to look. Perhaps I need to allow more time in the shutdown to for a more graceful disconnect. If I find something I will add it to the next version.

Thanks.

 

[pete_c]

Thank-you Fred.

 

[JonW]

Were you online with a controller when you started the update process? Perhaps something to do with shutting down while connected to a controller.

I was not connected to a controller and did not have a config file open when I got the error.

 

[chrisdias]

I ran into the same problem installing the latest firmware... hung at the end and had to kill the pcaccess process. once i restarted, everything seems to be ok.

i'm running windows 7.

chris