STX 16803 + MaxIM DL Crashing

Discussion in 'STX and STXL Series Cameras' started by James Pierce, May 18, 2020.

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  1. James Pierce

    James Pierce Cyanogen Customer

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    Back to the origonal issue, any ideas why MaxIM was erroring and then crashing out?
     
    James Pierce, May 22, 2020
    #21
  2. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    As for the error, we think a timeout is happening where camera/driver/MaxIm are not communicating briefly. We need more evidence to figure that out.
    Can you do another run, and tell me whether you're using AO or just regular guiding, and provide the log?

    When you say "crashing out" - that makes me think MaxIm crashed, in other words, it suddenly quit, with no error message, and was gone.
    If that's what happened, I can recommend turning on Windows CrashDumps so we could see what happened.
    If you mean something else, please explain.
     
    Colin Haig, May 23, 2020
    #22
  3. James Pierce

    James Pierce Cyanogen Customer

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    Will do - as soon as the weather clears up (hopefully a couple of days) it will run again.

    Guiding is always with the AO.

    Your read of 'crashed out' is spot on - My assumption is that MaxIm 'crashed' somehow because when I connect to the remote machine the application is closed without any error message on screen. Not even a standard windows application error message. All the other observatory apps are still running, and ACP gets into a weird state because it still expects MaxIM to be there and it's disappeared without disconnecting.

    I'm not familiar with CrashDumps if you have instructions I can turn them on for you also.
     
    James Pierce, May 23, 2020
    #23
  4. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    It's extremely unusual for MaxIm DL to simply dump out and disappear. Normally that would result in an error message on the screen, especially if that was caused by a driver error.

    The one thing that can cause it to close like that is memory corruption caused by a bad computer memory chip.
     
    Doug, May 24, 2020
    #24
  5. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    First step is to see what the fault is, and then the second step I will ask for CrashDumps if we don't already know the likely cause.

    Start with the MaxIm, View.. Log Window, right click, Time Stamps on. The last line in the log will tell you (in UTC time) when the crash may have occurred.

    Step 1: Event Viewer - Where's the fault?
    ============================
    You can start by launching Windows Event Viewer.
    Under the left side, expand Windows Logs, and select Application
    The in the centre upper window, look for an error (Red X in a cirle), with a SOURCE of Application Error.
    Then click that, and in the centre lower window, you will see the application.
    You'll want to look for Faulting application name: MaxIm_DL.exe
    Like this:
    event_viewer_app_error.png

    The relevant info in this example is:
    Faulting application name: MaxIm_DL.exe, version: 6.22.4.0, time stamp: 0x5e9a4574
    Faulting module name: MaxIm CCD.dll, version: 6.22.4.0, time stamp: 0x5e9a4534
    Exception code: 0xc0000005
    Fault offset: 0x00005a3d

    That's the stuff we would need to complete Step 1. You can copy/paste that into the forum message.
    Usually if the fault is in MaxIm, it will look something like that, and then you may see a .NET error or some other following it (above in the list).

    Step 2: Crash Dumps
    ===============
    If we determine more info is needed, then we'll ask for a crash dump.
    To turn on Crash Dumps, you need to install a setting in the registry.
    For convenience, its in this zipg file I've attached.
    Unzip the file.
    Then double click the crashdump.reg file.
    Say Yes to any prompts, and it will enable CrashDumps.
    Reboot the machine.

    Next time MaxIm crashes, you'll find a file or two in:
    %localappdata%\CrashDumps
    On my machine, that translates to :
    C:\Users\Colin\AppData\Local\CrashDumps
    A sample file might be called:
    MaxIm_DL.exe.6160.dmp
    If it doesnt start with MaxIm_Dl.exe, its some other thing that has crashed on your machine.

    These are really really big files (200MB to 2GB is not uncommon) that capture the complete state of MaxIm DL at the instant things failed.
    You would need to ZIP the crash dump file, and send to us via DropBox/Google Driver/WeTransfer.
     

    Attached Files:

    Colin Haig, May 24, 2020
    #25
  6. James Pierce

    James Pierce Cyanogen Customer

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    Thanks - I'll dig back through at the right timestamps and see if I can find evidence for the past two instances, otherwise wait and see if it re-occurs and try again.
     
    James Pierce, May 24, 2020
    #26
  7. James Pierce

    James Pierce Cyanogen Customer

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    ***Note these timestamps will be local to the machine - so AEST or 10 hours ahead of what you are seeing UTC in the logs

    1:24am on 18/5/2020

    Faulting application name: MaxIm_DL.exe, version: 6.20.0.0, time stamp: 0x5c537c65
    Faulting module name: mfc100.dll, version: 10.0.40219.325, time stamp: 0x4df2e0e4
    Exception code: 0xc0000005
    Fault offset: 0x0024f3e7
    Faulting process id: 0x27d8
    Faulting application start time: 0x01d62c5d7342bd3a
    Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Diffraction Limited\MaxIm DL 6\MaxIm_DL.exe
    Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\mfc100.dll
    Report Id: 0abfb2d3-e837-434b-87f3-38bdc5ebd925
    Faulting package full name:
    Faulting package-relative application ID:

    then

    Application: MaxIm_DL.exe
    Framework Version: v4.0.30319
    Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
    Exception Info: exception code c0000005, exception address 58D6F3E7
    Stack:

    then

    The program MaxIm_DL.exe version 6.20.0.0 stopped interacting with Windows and was closed. To see if more information about the problem is available, check the problem history in the Security and Maintenance control panel.
    Process ID: 290
    Start Time: 01d62c177685cc05
    Termination Time: 83
    Application Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Diffraction Limited\MaxIm DL 6\MaxIm_DL.exe
    Report Id: 0d2e956e-6e69-4cc3-9821-c8d3a20e63df
    Faulting package full name:
    Faulting package-relative application ID:
    Hang type: Cross-thread





    11:56pm on 18/5/2020

    Faulting application name: MaxIm_DL.exe, version: 6.20.0.0, time stamp: 0x5c537c65
    Faulting module name: SBIGUDRV.dll, version: 4.9.9.7, time stamp: 0x5c61c30f
    Exception code: 0xc0000005
    Fault offset: 0x000190ea
    Faulting process id: 0x1108
    Faulting application start time: 0x01d62c947debacc3
    Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Diffraction Limited\MaxIm DL 6\MaxIm_DL.exe
    Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system\SBIGUDRV.dll
    Report Id: c40ae167-867e-4580-9ce9-697b6ddd65f3
    Faulting package full name:
    Faulting package-relative application ID:

    right after that...

    Application: MaxIm_DL.exe
    Framework Version: v4.0.30319
    Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
    Exception Info: exception code c0000005, exception address 5A2690EA
     
    James Pierce, May 24, 2020
    #27
  8. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Please use the [Upload a File] button to the lower right to attach the logs.

    The error you selected in Event Viewer is a .NET framework error. Check one or two entries prior in the event viewer for a MaxIm application error.
    What happens is MaxIm crashes, Windows then may have a couple of cascading errors that follows.

    In this example screen shot, the relevant line (highlighted with the green arrow) has a Source of Application Error, and it gives the MaxIm error.
    The red arrow points to the .NET framework error that happened as a result of the MaxIm problem.

    event_applicationerr.png

    So, if you could go back into the event viewer, and look for the Application Error, which is probably one or two entries before the one you posted, and get us that.
    Thanks!
     
    Colin Haig, May 25, 2020
    #28
  9. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    PS in the right hand column of the Windows Event Viewer, there is a Find... function, and you can put in "Application Error" in the find box, and it will jump right to it.
     
    Colin Haig, May 25, 2020
    #29
  10. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Oh never mind, I see I missed something - scrolled right on past the SBIGUDRV.DLL error.
    Would you mind checking for other MaxIm crashes?
     
    Colin Haig, May 25, 2020
    #30
  11. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Lastly, for us to solve the issue with the SBIGUDRV.DLL crashing, we'll need a MaxIm log and a CrashDump file.
    There won't be one until the next time a fault occurs, since you've just enabled crashdumps.
    So this will mean running some more tests, or just operating normally until there is a problem, and then doing the forensics from that point in time.
     
    Colin Haig, May 25, 2020
    #31
  12. James Pierce

    James Pierce Cyanogen Customer

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    Ok. I'll make sure the Crash Dumps are setup and then we'll wait for this to happen again and go from there. The observatory will try and run every clear night.

    I'll dig back through the event viewer and see what historic clues are there.

    When you say you want the logs, do you want the MaxIM logs for the most recent couple of crashes (which the snippets at the start of the thread came from) or are you after logs from the event viewer?
     
    James Pierce, May 25, 2020
    #32
  13. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    We need the MaxIm Logs - the full logs. Your annotated snippets are helpful to tell us what you understand; the full log often gives us clues as to what was going on, beyond what you hightlight.
    We also need the Event Viewer entry, and the crashdump file.
     
    Colin Haig, May 25, 2020
    #33
  14. James Pierce

    James Pierce Cyanogen Customer

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    Well this is slightly frustrating. I just happened to be sitting watching the observatory run just now (rare as it's 3:42am local time) and saw it actually happen.

    MaxIM does indeed simply crash and disappear without so much as an onscreen message or warning. Then it tries to reopen. It closes again immediately. This happens a number of times. I assume this is ACP trying to re-connect to because it keeps happening until I stop the scheduler dispatching as it's still trying to start the next observation at this point. The pattern in the MaxIM log and in the event viewer is identical to before also, so at least it's a consistent fault/error. And, I can't manually re-connect to the camera "Error opening camera in dual chip mode Could not initialise CCD camera (1)"

    Frustrating is that I was just logging into turn on the crash dump stuff!

    I'll have to power the camera off and back off again before I can resume things - I'll setup the crash dump first and also attach the current MaxIM DL log here so you can see the most recent file. You should have all the previous logs in the settings.zip I uploaded earlier also.

    This is the entry in the event viewer this time. Log is attached and I'll turn on the crash dumps right now!

    Faulting application name: MaxIm_DL.exe, version: 6.20.0.0, time stamp: 0x5c537c65
    Faulting module name: SBIGUDRV.dll, version: 4.9.9.7, time stamp: 0x5c61c30f
    Exception code: 0xc0000005
    Fault offset: 0x000190ea
    cess id: 0xbd8
    Faulting application start time: 0x01d63271093597dd
    Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Diffraction Limited\MaxIm DL 6\MaxIm_DL.exe
    Faulting module path: C:\Windows\system\SBIGUDRV.dll
    Report Id: 51a6afd4-f86d-4fdc-bebd-5f67eb2b4d4e
    Faulting package full name:
    Faulting package-relative application ID:
     

    Attached Files:

    James Pierce, May 25, 2020
    #34
  15. Doug

    Doug Staff Member

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    Doug, May 25, 2020
    #35
  16. James Pierce

    James Pierce Cyanogen Customer

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    Have run the memory diagnostic 3 x this AM... No errors each time.
     
    James Pierce, May 25, 2020
    #36
  17. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    Ok, good, that eliminates that possibility. So let's "hope" for a CrashDump.
     
    Colin Haig, May 26, 2020
    #37
  18. Russell Croman

    Russell Croman Cyanogen Customer

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    How does one download the 6.20 installer? I'm running into an incompatibility between CCDAP5 and MaxIm DL 6.21 that is causing a crash when it tries to start the guider.

    -Russ
     
    Russell Croman, Jun 8, 2020
    #38
  19. Colin Haig

    Colin Haig Staff Member

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    PM Sent.
    I'd like to track down that crash you mention.
    Is there an error message?
    What is crashing? CCDAP or MaxIm ?
     
    Colin Haig, Jun 8, 2020
    #39
  20. Russell Croman

    Russell Croman Cyanogen Customer

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    First MaxIm crashes, then CCDAP loses its mind and does the same. Logs attached.

    -Russ
     

    Attached Files:

    Russell Croman, Jun 8, 2020
    #40
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