SharpCap Forums

Since I upgraded from V3.2 to V4.2, I am getting frequent errors when loading Capture Profiles.
The CMOS camera driver is the latest version. Please help.

When switching between MONO16 and MONO8 in Capture Profiles, an error occurs and the device freezes.
Even if you switch Start Capture and load Capture Profiles for AVI files and FITS files, it freezes.

* Version of SharpCap ： SharpCap v4.1.13295.0 (X64, 64 bit)
* Camera and other hardware being user : ZWO ASI6200MM pro , ZWO FEM
* Operating system version　: Windows 11 Pro 24H2
* Contents of the SharpCap log after the problem has occurred. : Log_2025-05-21T16_15_45-8688.log
Log_2025-05-22T12_30_01-5912.log

Y.I.

Hi,

it looks like there are a few different things going on here...

Firstly, older versions of SharpCap didn't report an error when part of a capture profile failed to load correctly, which was a problem. Current versions of SharpCap do list the settings that could not be applied if there is a problem. This seems to be the first thing happening in both logs - the capture profiles seem to contain a resolution of 9568x6384, but the full resolution of the camera (according to spec sheets) is 9576x6388. This means that the capture area listed in the profile cannot load. To fix this you could edit the capture profile files manually to put in the correct resolution, or load them then re-save them in SharpCap 4.1 - since the 9568x6384 resolution fails to load, the re-save should have the corrected full resolution of 9576x6388.

Alternatively, you could use the 'Custom' resolution option at the bottom of the resolution list to set a custom value of 9568x6384 available for the camera, after which that value should load I think.

The second problem is more worrying - when you try to load the '3s' profile, SharpCap needs to stop and then restart the camera to change from MONO8 to MONO16. As part of that, SharpCap tells the camera to stop any exposure currently in progress, and that seems to get stuck. Eventually, SharpCap gives up waiting and you get an error message box telling you that the camera failed to close down on request. Once you get to that point, recovery will require close/reopen of SharpCap and probably an unplug/replug of the camera too. We can ignore anything in the log past this point, as things are already badly broken by the time we get here.

The key is going to be trying to avoid the camera getting stuck when stopping the exposure. Some things to try include

* Installing the latest version of the ZWO Windows system driver ('Camera Driver', on this page : https://www.zwoastro.com/software/) to see if that helps

* Turn the 'Turbo USB' setting off of 'auto' and turn the value down to see if that improves stability.

* Remove any USB hub or extension cables to test to see if the problem goes away without those in use.

cheers,

Robin

Robin, thank you for your prompt reply. I was aware of this problem.
Even if you set 9576x6388 in Capture Area - Custom, the display will be 9568x6384.
The ini file I attached last time was registered in V4.1.

The latest CMOS driver is installed.
I replaced it with a 2m USB3 cable, set Turbo USB=50, and removed automatic.
I did the same thing as last time, but the result was the same - it froze and was terminated in Task Manager.
It doesn't seem to be a problem with the driver, USB cable, or USB speed.

Please let me know if there's anything I can do to solve this problem.

Thank you.

Y.I.

Hi,

OK, I think that we need to try to bring this down to the simplest possible way to break things (capture profiles can change lots of things, so it is hard to pin down why stuff is breaking exactly). Can you freely change things like

* Capture area/resolution
* Binning
* Exposure
* Colour space / bit depth

in the latest version of SharpCap without any crashes, or does changing one or more of those things lead to a crash? If we can pin it down to one particular thing then that would be helpful.

Also, if you have access to another PC, I would suggest trying using SharpCap on that with the camera (ideally a clean install of SharpCap with no previous settings/data on the PC). I know people do use the ASI6200 fine, so part of this is trying to pin down what is unusual about your setup that is causing the problems to show up.

cheers,

Robin

Robin, thanks for your reply.

I installed SharpCap on another PC and tried it. It's USB2.
The CMOS driver is up to date.
I did the same thing as last time, but the same symptoms occurred, the device froze.
The ini file is 9576x6388, but when I read it, it becomes 9568x6384.
Even when I changed the binning, capture area, high speed mode, and hardware binning,
it froze.

* Version of SharpCap ： SharpCap v4.1.13332.0 (X64, 64 bit)
* Camera and other hardware being user : ZWO ASI6200MM pro
* Operating system version　: Windows 7 Pro sp1
* Contents of the SharpCap log after the problem has occurred.
　　Bin 4x4 : Log_2025-05-24T12_26_35-2660.log
Bin 1x1 : Log_2025-05-24T13_05_13-2196.log
Capture Area:6368x6384 Fast mode：Off Hardware Binning：Off : Log_2025-05-24T14_02_23-2676.log

Image acquisition was working fine with V3.2.
But then I needed the focus function, so I upgraded to v4.1Pro,
but I couldn't find a solution and I was in trouble.
I'll try a few more things.

Y.I.

It seems that an attachment was missing due to an operational error.
Y.I.

It seems that errors do not occur if you make changes using only the Camera Control Panel, without using the INI file.
The double-byte characters in the INI file may be causing the problem.

Y.I.

Hi,

thanks for testing that out and confirming that it is only the load of the profile ini files that is causing an issue. That gives me something to focus on and to do some more checks around. If I don't spot anything then I may need to come back and ask you to turn on some of the additional logging options and then re-test.

cheers,

Robin

Hi,

OK, I've had a good look at this now and I think I can start to see at least part of what is going on. I think that the 'Hardware Binning' option has a big role to play in what is going on - when that is switched on, there are extra constraints on the resolution of the camera that you can use. That's where the 9568x6384 resolution comes from - at bin 4, hardware binning on, the full resolution of 9576x6388 is not valid, the biggest valid resolution is 9568x6384, which is 2392x1596 when the binning is applied.

I think at least part of the problem is that some of your profiles have hardware binning on, and some have it switched off. In the current version of SharpCap, the order for loading the 'hardware binning' control is wrong - it loads from the profile after the resolution when it should be before. That means that when switching from a profile that uses hardware binning to one without, SharpCap wrongly applies the rules for hardware binning mode. When going the other way around, the rules for non-hardware binning are applied.

Back in the older version of SharpCap, the separate rules for resolution for hardware binning weren't dealt with - or rather the more strict rules for hardware binning were also applied for software binning, so the problems are not going to show. With SharpCap 4.1 the correct rules are applied, but along with the load order bug that is - I think - leading to the issues that you are seeing.

I have a fix for the next update to correct the load order, but I think that you will be able to improve matters now by setting Hardware Binning to 'Off' in all of your profiles (or 'On', but I think 'Off' has more chance of working).

cheers,

Robin

I'm glad you were able to solve the problem.
Please contact me if you need to do any testing.
I'm looking forward to the next version update.

Thank you.

Y.I.