ACP Crashing after ~5-10min (after the windows update this AM?)

[James Pierce]

Hi Bob and others...

My ACP instance is crashing every time it opens after 5-10min today after the windows update last night.

I upgraded to 8.2.2a ACP and 8.2.2 Scheduler to see if that made a difference but same result. I was running the previous version of both before anwway.

I've done all the other obvious things like a full reboot etc.

What should I check? Is there a log etc which might give something useful. Windows just gives it's generic application error, offers to debug and then offers nothing useful... It's moments like this that make me hate windows ever more... 30 years of Unix / Linux and OSX for a reason... my astro computer is the only windows machine in my life for a good reason!

Anyway ... rant over... where to start?

[Eric Dose]

If you haven't seen the log, then it's not clear that ACP is the program that's failing. But the ACP log might tell which program did fail.

On Win 10 the ACP log is usually found at: C:/Documents/ACP Astronomy/Logs/20191003 for the night of Oct 3 2019, for example. Please attach the whole log file to a forum post. Thanks.

[James Pierce]

That directory was one of the first places I checked. There are are only old autofocus logs etc... There isn't a standard log as you describe there... I wonder if it can live anywhere else ?

The only log which shows anything recent is the scheduler when I've loaded that as well, it craps out when ACP goes away. ACP crashes with or with the scheduler running however.

Is there a way to turn on more logging somehow?

[William Bristow]

If running Windows 10 make sure to run Windows Update again manually.

In particular, look to see if Windows Update KB4524147 has been installed, it may be showing as an optional update however it should be installed on systems used for observatory control as it fixes issues with the recent Windows 10 feature build 1903 that had known problems with 'Features-On-Demand' such as .NET framework and RPC calls.

We had to run Windows Update on our one remaining Windows 10 system three times and reboot between each manual run of Windows Update before all the applicable updates were installed successfully.

----If not running Windows 10 please ignore the above----

[James Pierce]

Windows 10 Enterprise ... Never really been sure if that's an advantage or disadvantage. Suspect the installed base is much smaller.

I'm going to try backing out the latest windows update from last night. To be honest I'd disable the windows updates almost completely if possible and just do a few careful updates per year... the machine only runs a hand full of software and never gets used to access the web etc so ought to be fairly safe...

[James Pierce]

So backing out the update appears to have worked for now. But these windows 10 updates are really problematic... I wonder how to try and stop them - I've followed a number of online guides, but it's like trying to kill a roach.

[William Bristow]

But these windows 10 updates are really problematic... I wonder how to try and stop them - I've followed a number of online guides, but it's like trying to kill a roach.

Which version of Win 10 Enterprise are you running James?

We ran several versions on our single remaining Windows 10 remote mount and found that upgrading/downgrading (depending on your point of view) to Windows 10 Enterprise LTSB (also called confusing by MS Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC) gave us the end of the bi-annual feature updates, which cause the most trouble, and the option to defer the monthly quality and security updates (though not indefinitely).

Changing Windows 10 Enterprise to the LTSB version was a simple command line instruction via the Windows 10 built-in DISM service and did not require a full reload of the OS and apps.

We had some success with that, though that mount was not running ACP - MaxIm - FocusMax so I can't say that ACP would run successfully on the LTSB version but its a moot point now as the operators of our remote site have decided to move all eight mounts over to a Linux OS and I'm only running ACP at my home observatory which is still Windows 7.

I read an -all staff - email earlier this week from the campus IT guys saying the latest Win 10 bi-annual 'Feature' update was pulled again after four days because of issues with deleted user files and directories etc so maybe you were unlucky and caught that release before it was pulled.

I'd hate to be in Bobs shoes right now, trying to fight Windows 10 seems to be a never ending battle.

[James Pierce]

Thanks I'm going to do some more reading... My setup runs perfectly for a month or two, and then invariably windows forces and update, and I chase all sort of gremlins each time. I went with enterprise to try and get away from the handholding approach but no such luck.