PTE show "self escape"

[JRR]

Recently we ran a ver 5 PTE show prepared by an experienced PTE producer. About halfway through the show it quit and returned to the desktop, as though someone had hit ESC. (We know no one hit ESC as I was at the keyboard )

We ran the show again an hour or two later and it performed flawlessly.

We are trying to determine what the cause was. It might have been a gremlin, or.....

We were running it on a WinXP machine that has run 100's of PTE shows (ver 5 and 4) without error. The only difference was that we had just set up a new User Account on the computer.

Is there something in the user account set up that we might have missed that would cause this problem ? We had the screen saver set to none, but that would not have caused the ESCAPE anyway.

We are putting it down to a one time gremlin, unless anyone has any thoughts.

Thanks

Jim

[Igor]

Maybe keyboard generated false signal of pressing of Esc button?

Or it could be one time's computer or Windows fault.

[JRR]

Thx Igor

We'll hope it was a one time instance

[Ed Overstreet]

That was also my thought (I'm the producer of the show in question, and was as baffled by this as was anyone else; never have I had this happen on my system at home, with this or any other PTE show). I hope Igor's suggestion is what it was, but we'll keep an eye on that User Account, eh Jim

Thanks for the very fast reply, Igor.

Computers, you can't live with them, you can't live without them

[cjdnzl]

If you were running the laptop via a mains power supply, you might have been the victim of a power spike. Do you remember anything being turned on or off at the same time? A fridge maybe, or pump?

I usually use a mains filter unit in line with my laptop when in unknown environments.

Colin

[Ed Overstreet]

Interesting thought, Colin. Hadn't occured to me.

It was a desktop unit, not a laptop, thought I don't know that would matter. I'm not sure if it was running through a surge protector or a fused power bar, or just through a plain-vanilla extension cord. We were running in a large rec centre, they aren't known for power spikes that I'm aware of (though back in the days when I still used the club's wet darkroom, I lived in terror of a hockey team hitting the showers elsewhere in the building while I was developing film, until the club got a temperature-control gizmo for the water supply in the darkroom -- nothing like watching the temp gauge on the water tap drop 20 degrees C in 15 seconds when you're rinsing the film ). Happily I got rid of my last film camera four years ago ...

Jim, if you're still monitoring this thread, do recall what we had between the CPU's power cord and the electrical outlet on Tuesday night?

[JRR]

Ed/Colin:

It was plugged into a fuse protected extension cord.

I didn't notice anything unusual in terms of extra brightness etc in the lights in the adjacent room.

Jim

[Conflow]

Jim,

I have just been looking at your 'Query' and subsequent replies to your 'crash problem' and I think

I might have an explaination based on your comment below:-

Quoted..."We were running it on a WinXP machine that has run 100's of PTE shows (ver 5 and 4)

without error. The only difference was that we had just set up a new User Account on the computer"...

To me this appears to be a very hard working PC but you give very little detail about that PC,for instance:

* Its a Desktop PC but is it a Single or Dual Core Processor ?

* When the New-Account was created,did you immediately Restart the PC ?

* Did you set the 'attributes' for this Account or simply left it open ?

* When was the last time it was given a good 'scrub-down' ?

* How many user Accounts on the PC ?

The solution to your problem lies within the 5 questions above based on what you said (Quoted)......

In my experience of hard working PCs, its imperative that you 'Restart' the PC after creating a New-Account.

If you dont you will quickly run out of 'Page-File Memory' because the New-Account is factually a 'Wild-Card'

without set-attributes and in such situations the PC will default to 'All-Users' Mode which will burn up some

140mB of 'Page-File Memory' which is already in very short supply on that particular hard working PC.

When you exceed the allocated 'Page-File Memory' the PC will simply disconnect any running Process without

any warning at all....In other word it ran out of its ability to provide sufficient Virtual-Memory to run the Show

because of the unusual circumstances it encountered.

May I suggest that you download 'WinCare Personal2' from Iobit.Com ~ do NOTHING except open the Program

Select-->Tools-->Memory Manager-->Look for 'File Page Memory' see what you have available ?

Details in attachments.

See the two "Attachments" for a visual explaination.

Brian.Conflow.

[JRR]

Thx Brian

You've given us a few things to look at

Jim

[LumenLux]

Thank you Brian for the information, including the descriptions you added to the screen shots.

Which reminds me to ask, what program you use for adding the comments that show on your screen captures?

[Conflow]

Lumenlux

Below is a Screenshot of "Advanced WinCare Personal2" plus "Link" below.

Excellent program, very stable.We use it daily on our Workshop Computers

and over the past 2 years we never had a problem with it.

I might add that it takes a 'Registry-Snapshot' before it does anything and

there after it always makes a 'Backup' of any Fixes it performs. Not once

in 2 years have we had to perform a restore. They also offer a Pro-Version.

Best from Dublin,

Brian.Conflow.

"Link" http://www.iobit.com/

[Ed Overstreet]

Thanks very much for this link and tip on the utility, Brian. I've downloaded it and have run it on my own system. My favourite part of this program is the "Startup Manage" module, which for the very first time ever has given me some understanding of what all those different utilities in my Startup menu are all about and some good advice on which I really need and which I really don't. Not being a techhie but being reasonably intelligent, I've always been a little worried about disabling stuff in Windows Startup but I had a go at it after reading through the utility's analysis and comments about all the flotsam in my Startup menu, and my system now seems to be running a lot cleaner. This is the first system resource I've found that can explain to me the functions of all those Startup items that I've accumulated over the years in language that doesn't require a degree in software engineering to comprehend. Very nice, I think I'll keep it on my system.

thanks again very much for the trip

[Conflow]

Ed,

Yes its a very good Program, we have used it for over 2 years now and never had a problem with it.

We use it daily on our Workshop Computers, reason being, we need these PCs in tip-top condition

and when we have problems its one of the best 'diagnostic tool' around. I might also add that the

Security Module protects you against some 4000 Malware Sites and Malicious Scripts.

Also, and as you have seen, when in the 'StartUp Module', one simply has to Right.Click any item and

it goes off to its 'Web Data-Base' and finds out exactly what it is thats going on....even the 'Nasties'.

In the Memory Cleaner Module, simply switch on 'Auto-Clean' and it does the rest. Be careful of the

'Deep-Clean' utility because it really scrubs out all the dross and you will need to open one or two

Folders afterwards before it settles back down to a viable Memory quantum.

Should you accidentally 'Delete' anything ~ the Restore Module really works in real-time, no problems

at all with that ~ and it even keeps a copy of 'what was restored' should you wish to have that analised.

We always recommend that our Clients put a copy of the 'Program Icon' on their Desktop and then

you can delete the Program off the 'Start Menu List' ~ don't worry the 'Uninstaller' resides within the

Iobit Program Folder and by doing this you have 'manual-control' over the Program and this does not

use any resources. An updated new verion of the Program is usually released every 6/7 months and

this can be installed in the existing 'Iobit Folder' after you have uninstalled the old Program.

May I suggest that you recommend it to your 'Camera Club Members' as its an ideal Program for such

usage as it puts you all on an equal reference footing as it easily detect anything going 'amiss'.

With such a small footprint of 11.Mb its very economical with valuable PC resources.

Brian.Conflow.

[LumenLux]

Brian, thanks again for your generous answers. Like Ed, I have already benefited from your recommendation.

What I was originally asking though, was how do you mark up and diagram the screen captures that you have posted as expandable thumbnails in your posts in this topic?

[Conflow]

Brian, thanks again for your generous answers. Like Ed, I have already benefited from your recommendation.

What I was originally asking though, was how do you mark up and diagram the screen captures that you have posted as expandable thumbnails in your posts in this topic?

Your Question above

I had msunderstood what you wanted...Its quite simple to do. I use a 'Screen-Capture Tool' called

"ScreenPrint-32" from www.snapfiles.com ...I open the 'Target-Image' then I hit F12 to activate

Screen-Print, I take an 'Scan' of what I want and this is pre-programmed to auto-save the Image

to my Documents as a 'Gif.File'. I open that Image in FotoFiltre or SnapIt then use the 'Text Tool'

and simply paste the text onto the Image. All Image ratios are 1:1 in realtime.

When Posting to the Forum there is a 'Box' under the 'Reply-Text Window' called 'Browse' - click that

and find the wanted Image in My Documents. Beside that 'Browse-Box' there is another button called

'Upload' ~ hit that and the Image is appended to your Post. In the process of Posting that image

is re-processed by the 'Invision-Board Utility' where its stored but shown in your Post as a Thumbnail.

Like any Web-Site when you select the Thumbnail it auto-expands that into the full-size Image.

Hope this answers your query...

Brian.Conflow.

[LumenLux]

Hope this answers your query...

Brian.Conflow.

Yes, specifically regarding the "text tool" you use to describe and paste. Thank you.

[Ed Overstreet]

Ed,

Yes its a very good Program,

Just to reinforce how good this is -- when I ran AWC on my own laptop, the Junk Files Clean module freed up an entire gigabyte of space on my C drive that three years of weekly running of Norton Clean Sweep had completely missed. As my C drive is getting a wee bit cramped (no thanks to Adobe updates ...) I really appreciate that extra GB.

[JRR]

Just a final (we hope) follow up on this topic.

We ran two ver 15 minute shows, and an 8 minute Ver 5 show on the New User account this morning and all shows went to their conclusion, as did two test shows from Lin Evans. So we are assuming we were hit by a gremlin the other night.

But to be safe we ran Advanced WindowsCare Personal Edition as suggested by CONFLOW (see above) and did some repairs etc.

Thanks for assistance, always helpful as usual !

Jim Robertson

[Conflow]

Jim,

Glad to hear that good News ~ It's been my experience that when one creates a 'New User Account'

one must always Close down and Restart the PC to avoid 'Page-File Memory' faults. Funny enough this

never happens with brand New PCs' ~ it just starts to occur with heavily loaded older Machines.

I would love to know how much rubbish 'WinCare-Personal2' removed ?

All the best of Luck,

Brian.Conflow.

[JRR]

I would love to know how much rubbish 'WinCare-Personal2' removed ?

Brian.Conflow.

Brian:

WinCare-Personal2 did not find much rubbish. We weren't expecting it to find much (that is we were hoping it wouldn't ).

The computer is rarely hooked up to the internet, and the usuage of the computer is "controlled".

The WinCare is running on the computer to alert us to any issues

Thx again