SharpCap stopped responding to keyboard & mouse

[Peterm]

Updated to release 4-1-12452 64bit. Issue never occurred prior to update.
ZWO432MM & Lunt 80mm Solar scope.
Windows 11 home - up to date
No log attached as was sent when I reported the issue.
While Capture Sequence is running SharpCap has suddenly reported "It looks like SharpCap has stopped responding to the keyboard and mouse"
This has happened 3 times and the first two I just waited and things came good. The 3rd time (just now) I reported the problem and it has been sent to you.
This screen shot is added as a back up report.

[Peterm]

Sorry version with the issue is 4-1-12452. Just saw that 4-1-12455 is the update released yesterday which I will now install.

[admin]

Hi,

thanks for the report and for following up here.

It looks like it is stuck asking windows whether the file that was just captured exists or not. As far as I can see the request to determine if the file exists is just not completing.

I can see that you are capturing to an E:\ drive - is that a removable drive that might sometimes be not responding as quickly as it should? Is it a USB drive that might be having to share USB bandwidth with the capturing camera?

Asking whether the file exists or not at that point in the code isn't critical - it just affects the caption text at the top of the window, but it's been that way for several years, so not a new thing in SharpCap. I'm also thinking that if I take that check out, there will just be some other disk related operation somewhere else in the code that is critical that will likely freeze up, since taking out the check doesn't really deal with the underlying issue.

I'd have a try capturing to C:\ drive if possible and see if the problem goes away.

Another possibility to consider in this case is anti-virus software - it may have decided to scan the recently written capture file and be blocking access to it until the scan is complete.

cheers,

Robin

[Peterm]

Thanks Robin,

Yes I am writing to an external SSD. The camera is using a separate USB direct to the laptop. hmmm I may have found the issue..the other day I put the usb3 dongle for the mouse into the external hub that has the external ssd plugged in. Moving the dongle back directly to the laptop seems to have solved the issue. Will advise.

RESOLVED - did the above and no error reported by SharpCap after 1 hour.

Thanks again for your help.
Peter

[admin]

Hi Peter,

glad to hear that the info helped point you in the right direction. It sounds like one of those things that 'should' work - having the mouse dongle and the hard drive plugged into a hub, but 'should' work doesn't always mean 'will' work. I suppose it's just possible that a different make/model of USB hub might cope better.

cheers,

Robin

[turfpit]

Peter

Is the hub powered or unpowered?

Dave

[Peterm]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the question. It's an ALOGIC USB12in1 minidock - MV2 and it appears is powered from my Del laptop highspeed USB C. There is no other power plugged into it.

Peter

[turfpit]

Peter

Is it this device you have? https://alogic.co.uk/products/mv2-usb-c ... ng-station
https://3727898.app.netsuite.com/core/m ... N&_xt=.pdf

It looks like it has no way to connect external power but is capable of Pass-thru charging. If it has no external power then all power required must come via the USB connection to the PC/laptop. It might be possible to have a situation where the total power the devices require exceeds that available on the bus.

It looks like you fixed your problem by removing the mouse. Remember: make a change, get a problem, first resolution is undo the change.

I worked in commercial computing (server management) for over 20 years. USB was always a can of worms - compatibility was always over hyped. Older scanners were notorious for giving problems on shared hubs - lack of power. My own rules for survival revolve around don't mix and match. That means for my capture laptop which has 1xUSB2 port and 2xUSB3 ports I only ever connect USB2 devices to the USB2 port and USB3 devices to the USB3 ports. I have one scenario where 3 USB2 devices are used (capture camera, guide camera and mount) and for this I use a mains powered USB2 multiport hub. This 'guideline' gives me trouble free running.

The diagram below is from USBTreeView, found at https://www.uwe-sieber.de/usbtreeview_e.html and is a useful tool for investigating what is happening with USB peripherals. The external Samsung M3 portable drive is demanding 8mA. This way one can analyse the power requirements of all devices. The 2 red rectangles show the designations L, H, S for the speed of the connected devices: L = Low speed USB1, H = High speed USB2 and S = Superspeed USB3.

You may or may not want to investigate what happens when your mouse is connected to the hub.

Dave

USBTreeView-diagram.png (71.17 KiB) Viewed 1921 times

[Peterm]

Hi Dave and so sorry for late reply as I don't check this forum often. Thank you so very much for offering your knowledge and taking the time to go into the detail with the diagram, this is really useful.
It is indeed the hub in your link, and you are right there is no external power source. 'By moving then mouse back to the USB A on the Dell laptop and also connecting the ZWO camera directly to the other USB'A at the laptop has seen no repeat of the issue.
I used to use a powered HP hub with my last HP laptop. I have now moved to a current Dell with higher specs and I think I was "talked into" said hub as being able to meet my needs. I am going to explore a powered USBC hub.

Here is a link to my Astrobin Gallery with many of my Solar animations... some of which have ran over 4 hours so yes, I need a hub that can meet my needs.
https://www.astrobin.com/users/PeterM/

Again, thank you it is really appreciated.

Best,
Peter

[turfpit]

Thanks Peter. The powered USB hub is the safe option for trouble free running.

Dave