Crash of W10 with SharpCap and SkyWatcher mount

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Jean-Francois
Posts: 360
Joined: Sun Oct 13, 2019 10:52 am
Location: Germany

Crash of W10 with SharpCap and SkyWatcher mount

#1

Post by Jean-Francois »

Hello,

Does somebody have the same problem with W10-64, SharpCap (4 latest version) and SkyWatcher mount ?

I use my laptop and SharpCap with different camera (Atik 460, Atik Horizon and QHY-...) first without connection to a mount.
And in the past time I use a QHY-178 mono camera with a EQ8 mount connection for solar imaging.

And in this combination (SharpCap + QHY-178 + SkyWatcher driver for EQ8 mount) I have each time a blue screen crash of Windows 10.
The crash is some time after 5 minutes or after 50 minutes, but it is only 1 time per observation session.

I note that when I use SharpCap without the mount control, it never crash.
The blue screen mentions very short the application causing the crash ... it is each time a different application.

Regards,
Jean-Francois
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Re: Crash of W10 with SharpCap and SkyWatcher mount

#2

Post by admin »

Hi,

blue screen crashes are usually driver bugs, so the first thing I would suggest is checking that your QHY drivers and the drivers for your USB-serial device are up to date, since those are the drivers that SharpCap will be talking to (directly or indirectly) when using the camera and the mount.

You should be able to look in the Windows event viewer to find the details of the previous blue screen errors, which might help work out what is going on - see https://superuser.com/questions/1097234 ... windows-10

cheers,

Robin
Jean-Francois
Posts: 360
Joined: Sun Oct 13, 2019 10:52 am
Location: Germany

Re: Crash of W10 with SharpCap and SkyWatcher mount

#3

Post by Jean-Francois »

Hello Robin,

I have a look in the event-viewer, but no direct information of the cause of the crash.

"The error code was: 0x00000139 (0x000000000000000003 (maybe some "0" more), 0xfffff80153c0e390, ......)
A full file is in c:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP. ...."

OK for the QHY drivers ... they are up to date.
But, for the serial-device ... that is maybe the problem.
I use a Prolific driver from 2007 ... while that is the only driver working after each W10 update.
I buy it (for very long time ago) from an electronic shop (at that time Amazon & co was not existent) ... so, it is no copy chip ... but Windows change the driver periodically to a new driver and the USB-serial is no more working ... until I change the driver manually back to the 2007 version.

It could be the problem. I will see, I will test first the USB-serial alone some hours.
Later with a camera connected.

Regards,
Jean-Francois
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Re: Crash of W10 with SharpCap and SkyWatcher mount

#4

Post by admin »

Hi,

I think it was prolific that made it so their new drivers would fail to work with their own old devices to try to deal with cloned chips. I felt that was a pretty shitty thing to do to your customers and have avoided buying anything with a prolific chipset ever since. I now try to find FTDI USB-Serial devices.

Here's what Microsoft have to say about bug code 0x00000139 - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... ck-failure - looks like some kernel memory has been corrupted, which would tie in with a driver bug.

cheers,

Robin
Jean-Francois
Posts: 360
Joined: Sun Oct 13, 2019 10:52 am
Location: Germany

Re: Crash of W10 with SharpCap and SkyWatcher mount

#5

Post by Jean-Francois »

Hello Robin,

Yes, that is the "way" of the Prolific company ... a periodic updated is done by Windows.
I do some observation of the sun this morning ... and my laptop crashed 3 times !

OK, I have an USB-serial "EQMOD" from Pierro-Astro, I will test it this evening.
But, I think that I can not use the SynScan software with the Pierro-Astro interface ... I will see.


Regards,
Jean-Francois
Jean-Francois
Posts: 360
Joined: Sun Oct 13, 2019 10:52 am
Location: Germany

Re: Crash of W10 with SharpCap and SkyWatcher mount

#6

Post by Jean-Francois »

Hello Robin,

I test and use the USB-EQMOD adapter from Pierro-Astro.
It works without crash of Windows.

Up to now, I use the other USB adapter, while it is connected to the hand controller ... so it was possible to use the hand controller with the computer connected to the mount.
With the Pierro-Astro adapter ... it fits only on the mount in place of the hand controller cable ... so, no more manual movement/center with the hand controller.

Best regards,
Jean-Francois
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Re: Crash of W10 with SharpCap and SkyWatcher mount

#7

Post by admin »

Hi,

glad to hear that things are working reliably with the other adaptor. It's a shame about the loss of the handset - maybe you could find an alternative that works with the handset but has a different USB/serial adapter (or even one that just goes to a serial cable, so you could supply your own usb/serial adapter). I must admit I don't even know where my NEQ6 handset is! I always use it entirely from the computer :)

cheers,

Robin
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