PowerSDR 2.8.0 keeps crashing

[WE3M]

Hi Darrin... Thanks for all you do for our Flex community, it's much appreciated. I love what you've done with the software but have a unique problem and I'm not sure if it's your end or mine. I've used your KE9NS versions with my Flex 5000A before and never had an issue. A tree took out my antenna a couple years ago and I've just recently got back on the air with my homemade 40/20/10/6m "I hate HOA's" Attic special dipole.

I was tired of the issues with Windows so I switched to Linux but that won't work with my radio so I decided to reformat my Windows M.2 SSD to use only for my Flex so everything started with a fresh install.

I initially had a lot of issues getting the legacy 1394 drivers to run and they're working fine now. Maybe. I hope.

Recently while operating, receiving, I notice the audio cutting in and out and with the start button flashing on and off around 4 times a second. Adds to the excitement of decoding FT-8! It stops after a second or two and acts like nothing happened, but we both know it did. lol.

Every time I stop the radio and take a break, when I come back and start the radio back up I get an Unhandled Exception Error as seen in the attached pic. After clicking continue, I'll get pointer errors and the only way out is to close the program.

PowerSDR Crash.jpg (1.57 MiB) Viewed 8920 times

Then when I try to restart PowerSDR I get another strange error saying a firmware update is required as seen in the second screen shot. The only solution is to reboot the whole thing and it works after that. For a while. Sometimes an hour.. sometimes a couple. But it always seems to fail when I just called some DXCC that I need...

PowerSDR Crash 2.jpg (1.36 MiB) Viewed 8920 times

I copied the details of the exception error but lost them when I did the screenshots. I can capture it again as it's sure to happen once or twice more tonight.

My PC is a homebuilt water cooled behemoth I built to handle all the graphics and processing I would ever need... an Asus Maximus IX Extreme MB running a Intel i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz, (overclocked 9%), 64gb of GSkill Trident DDR3600 memory, two sticks of Samsung 960 PRO 1TB PCIe NVMe - M.2 Internal SSD (dual boot, one for Ubuntu Linux and the other for Win10 Pro) and an ASUS STRIX GeForce 1080TI-OC. As you can see it's a beast and I use a StarTech 1394 Firewire card as well as your recommended Voicemeeter Banana drivers.

Windows is fully updated as are all my drivers. The only other programs running are Norton 360 and GeForce Experience to keep the graphics drivers up to date. The only other software I'm running with PowerSDR is;

HRD 6.7.0.323
WSJT-X
JTAlert 2.16.17

If I try to run the FlexRadio app before a reboot I get the error that the device is not accessible. Is it a 1394 issue? NOt sure why there would be one with new drivers and while the radio is off. I've reinstalled those legacy drivers a dozen times now.

Thoughts?

73 and thanks for your help in advance...
Bob - WE3M

[ke9ns]

If it asks for a firmware update (when you already have the latest), that is a sign that the 1394 Firewire is having troubles.

But first, if you have any anti-virus programs running (other than the built in defender), I would uninstall it. I have had a couple of people have very strange things happen to their PowerSDR and it cleared up after a complete uninstall of the anti-virus (turning off the anti-virus does not work). But this maybe a long shot for your issue.

I would prefer to run my 1394 with the native driver (running the legacy drivers is a last ditch effort).
If your FireWire card does not have a 1394B port, you might try finding a newer card that has both 1394A and B. (I have the chipset# of the one I am currently using with my Ryzen ).

1394 cards that worked fine under Win7 and ever after upgrading to Win10 will sometimes fail after a major Win10 version upgrade.

Darrin
ke9ns

[WE3M]

Thanks Darrin, I'll give that a try with the AV. I reloaded the VB drivers and that seemed to help but I stopped the radio for an hour and returned and found another crash and that was even after updating to the native 1394 drivers. My card is a StarTech PEX1394B3 and has both types of ports on the card. (https://www.startech.com/en-us/cards-adapters/pex1394b3)

I'll try removing the AV and see what happens. Here's the details below from the exception crash, if that helps any.

Bob
WE3M


See the end of this message for details on invoking
just-in-time (JIT) debugging instead of this dialog box.

************** Exception Text **************
System.Runtime.InteropServices.SEHException (0x80004005): External component has thrown an exception.
at PowerSDR.Pal.WriteOp(Opcode opcode, UInt32 data1, UInt32 data2)
at PowerSDR.Console.chkPower_CheckedChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.EventHandler.Invoke(Object sender, EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox.OnCheckedChanged(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox.set_CheckState(CheckState value)
at System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox.OnClick(EventArgs e)
at System.Windows.Forms.CheckBox.OnMouseUp(MouseEventArgs mevent)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WmMouseUp(Message& m, MouseButtons button, Int32 clicks)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)


************** Loaded Assemblies **************
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----------------------------------------
PowerSDR
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----------------------------------------
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System
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----------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------
wdapi_dotnet1040
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----------------------------------------
msvcm90
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----------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------
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----------------------------------------
atu
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AutoItX3.Assembly
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----------------------------------------

************** JIT Debugging **************
To enable just-in-time (JIT) debugging, the .config file for this
application or computer (machine.config) must have the
jitDebugging value set in the system.windows.forms section.
The application must also be compiled with debugging
enabled.

For example:

<configuration>
<system.windows.forms jitDebugging="true" />
</configuration>

When JIT debugging is enabled, any unhandled exception
will be sent to the JIT debugger registered on the computer
rather than be handled by this dialog box.

[ke9ns]

The exception (fault) occurred on a PAL Write operation (i.e PowerSDR was trying to talk to the radio via FireWire and it faulted).
After trying the anti-virus removal test (after the full uninstall of the anti-virus do a full install of PowerSDR), I might try a different FireWire card if it still crashes?

Darrin
ke9ns

[WE3M]

Thanks Darrin. I've uninstalled the AV and even removed and reseated the 1394 card, no joy. Yesterday morning I had a lot of sound card freezes, of course during a needed FT-8 contact. A full reinstall of PSDR helped quite a bit.

I noticed something that I blew off and discounted but many of the crashes were while I was using by browser window with 10-12 tabs open. I have the memory and CPU to handle that all day long, but checking my System Info I noticed that my 1394 card, graphics card, and the built in MB sound drivers all share IRQ 16. IRQ crashes are typically rare, but happen. I disabled the onboard sound on the MB and now only the 1394 card and graphics card share that IRQ, but I'd still like to split those two up.

All yesterday afternoon, evening and this morning seems fine. I still occasionally get the START/STOP button stuttering off and on rapidly for a second but it never crashes. I think that's still a 1394 deal.

[ke9ns]

running a windows "System Information" ->Hardware resources->IRQs
I see a hundred or so IRQ's (mostly Microsoft ACPI)
but no conflicts at all.

I would definitely make changes so none are on the same IRQ
You may need to go into the BIOS of your motherboard and check there.

Darrin
ke9ns