[Skimmertalk] skimmer server crash?

N4ZR n4zr at comcast.net
Fri Jun 28 16:01:19 EDT 2019


My drive was set to power down after 20 minutes  I doubt that was the 
issue, because all of my failures have been in the first few minutes, 
but just in case, I reset it to Never.

73, Pete N4ZR
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On 6/28/2019 3:38 PM, Bob Wilson, N6TV wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 28, 2019 at 8:57 AM N4ZR <n4zr at comcast.net 
> <mailto:n4zr at comcast.net>> wrote:
>
>     Skimsrv has a few chronic issues.  In addition to what Dave is
>     reporting, my Skimsrv occasionally crashes right after startup,
>     with an
>     error message about trying to write to "address 0000014". After that,
>     when re-started right away it runs for days with no issues. Once or
>     twice I've seen run-time errors involving writing to other,
>     apparently
>     spurious addresses.
>
>
> A solution for this has been reported here about a year ago.  See below.
>
> I don't know if this is the same issue being reported by K1TTT now, 
> but it is worth checking.
>
> 73,
> Bob, N6TV
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: *Bob Wilson, N6TV* <n6tv at arrl.net <mailto:n6tv at arrl.net>>
> Date: Mon, Aug 20, 2018 at 8:45 AM
> Subject: Solution found for SkimSrv Error Access Violation (tried to 
> write to 0x00000014)
> To: SkimmerTalk Reflector <skimmertalk at contesting.com 
> <mailto:skimmertalk at contesting.com>>
>
>
> I /think/ I finally found a cure for this issue, as my Skimmers 
> finally stayed up all night, for the first time in a week.  They had 
> been crashing every few hours, ever since Windows 10 was "upgraded" to 
> KB4343909 (OS Build 17134.228) 
> <https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4343909/windows-10-update-kb4343909>.  
> I also tried a Lenovo BIOS update, and many other things, but nothing 
> cured it until ...
>
> Solution:
>
> Settings -> System -> Power & Sleep
> Click *Additional Power Settings*
> (or use Control Panel -> Hardware and Sound -> Power Options)
>
> *Balanced (recommended)* is selected by default
>
> Select *High Performance* then click *Change plan setting*
> *
> *
> Click *Change advanced power settings*
>
> Under *Hard disk*, change *Turn off Hard Disk after -> Setting 
> (minutes): *to *0* (or "Never").  The default is 15 minutes.  No other 
> changes required.
>
> Click *Apply* and *Save Changes*.
>
> That's it.  No more crashes.
>
> Background:
>
> My Windows 10 desktop has two disk drives.  Drive C:, where the OS and 
> Skimmer is installed, is a 512 MB solid-state drive (SSD).  Drive D:, 
> which mostly contains data and installation programs (but no log 
> files), is a 1 TB spinning hard disk.  Only drive C: directories are 
> in the Windows PATH.
>
> Before, after 15 minutes of inactivity, drive D: would spin down (I 
> could hear it).  I could also hear it spin up whenever I moved the 
> mouse to wake up the system, and noticed that SkimServ would 
> immediately crash every time drive D: spun up.  I assume anti-virus 
> scans by Windows Defender or MalwareBytes or other system activities 
> would periodically do similar things to spin up drive D: in the middle 
> of the night, which would also cause SkimServ to crash.
>
> By keeping it spinning, whatever I/O interrupt delays caused SkimSrv 
> to fail seem to be avoided.  Maybe someone at Microsoft or Lenovo will 
> eventually figure out what they broke, and I'll be able to go back to 
> default Power settings, but for now, SkimServ is stable again.
>
> Please let us know if you see similar crashes in SkimServ after a 
> Windows Update, and if this work-around also works for you.
>
> 73,
> Bob, N6TV
>
> On Thu, Aug 16, 2018 at 1:40 AM, Bob Wilson, N6TV <n6tv at arrl.net 
> <mailto:n6tv at arrl.net>> wrote:
>
>     After working very reliably for months, my CW Skimmer Servers are
>     now crashing every few hours, starting about 2 days ago, after a
>     Windows 10 service upgrade.  I'm running two Skimmers, from
>     independent directories, using independent Red Pitayas (but the
>     same disk and same gigabit switch to connect to them both to the
>     same PC).
>
>     The Windows Event Viewer, under Windows Logs, Application, shows a
>     similar error each time:
>
>     Faulting application name: SkimSrv2.exe, version: 1.6.0.145, time
>     stamp: 0x2a425e19
>     Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.17134.228, time
>     stamp: 0x2c71c7b8
>     Exception code: 0xc0000005
>     Fault offset: 0x00022e19
>     Faulting process id: 0x890
>     Faulting application start time: 0x01d4352a4ed8c491
>     Faulting application path: C:\Program Files
>     (x86)\Afreet\SkimSrv2\SkimSrv2.exe
>     Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
>     Report Id: 9b63df89-caba-4a8a-8163-c078fdeb2423
>     Faulting package full name:
>     Faulting package-relative application ID:
>
>     The failure symptom is a pop-up window "Error writing to ...." ,
>     close that and one skimmer server goes away, but the other shows
>     zero decoders and has to be restarted too.  Both seem to die at
>     the same time.  Both are using CWSL_Tee.
>
>     I think I received some private email from someone (N4ZR?) saying
>     they were seeing the same thing, a month or so ago.
>
>     Wonder if anyone else is seeing this now.  I have no idea how to
>     fix this.  I tried running a Windows Update again and it found
>     some things, but now it reports I am on the latest and there's
>     nothing to upgrade.  SFC also found no errors.   I can't find any
>     pattern to the failures, they just happen every few hours.
>
>     In the Windows logs, before every failure, I see a many
>     informational messages that all look like this:
>
>     svchost (6780,G,98) The beta feature EseDiskFlushConsistency is
>     enabled in ESENT due to the beta site mode settings 0x800000.
>
>     But I don't know if that would have anything to do with this.  My
>     C: drive is an SSD.
>
>     The Red Pitayas are fine, they're not crashing.  I just have to
>     keep restarting the Windows apps.  Of course I already tried
>     rebooting everything but it didn't seem to help.
>
>     73,
>     Bob, N6TV
>
>


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