PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

I'm having a problem with Scope locking up when opening a project, it doesn't happen everytime, but it happens often enough to get on my nerves. Any help would be appreciated.

Nvidea gforce fx5200
Asus A7N8X-E mobo
AMD Athlon 3000+ chip

It seems random, it could lock on any project. Never on start up though, but anytime after that it could happen.

try to disable all devices you don't need in the bios like onboard soundcard, ethernet etc, then also disable all usb-devices and usb2-hub in the device manager if you don't need...

Or try excluding dsp devices... Your PC may have problems with STS sampler or 3rd party devices...

Thanks for the replies, I'm still trying to work it out. It's a funny thing.

Had you changed anything at all on your computer (software/hardware/drivers etc.) in-between not having this problem and the problem occurring?

Also, could the computer have been infected in any way in this time? (e.g. spyware)

Hi, we've got a similar system here (similar graphics card, mobo etc), which had these type of symptoms last week. It's been rock solid, but since thursday night It would just freeze randomly & frequently. I actually then discovered that although it would freeze, I could still change parameters in Scope even although the graphics weren't updating!! So, my conclusion was that the Nvidea graphics card must've been dying or on it's last legs. Luckily, we had a spare system sitting unused which had an agp Radeon card in it, so I put that in the Scope system & now it's fine again

If you find it's not the graphics card, I'd try swapping the PSU next

PSU could be a possibility, the card will eat up your 5v line during a project load.

as always, go to start/programs/accessories/system tools/system information/system tools/hardware resources/conflicts-sharing and, if your scope card is listed there, what is it sharing with?

if you're using midi, in scope, put a midi monitor in the routing window. connect it to the midi source. is it showing "active sensing or midi clock messages when everything is idle? if so, you will need to disable those things on the controller or use a midi filter.

be sure that you have the latest bios and video drivers. what power supply are you using?

be sure that "plug and play os" is disabled in the bios. if you don't have that setting you can try disabling APIC support.

thanks for all the info
I have not changed or added anything and this computer does not go on the internet, it's been working good for over a year and this just started happening. It will often load up the program fine and then lock up at the last load, loading the .pro file, all the devices seem to load then it locks up, either that or it will lock up just before it starts to load. I will check the sharing.

I have had lockups & crashes with scope from a bad PSU in the past...the symptom is that it occurs on loading projects or doing major changes. It's very easy to check this. Get a utility to monitor your power levels, fan speeds & thermal monitors as well. Run this utility while doing the things that are causing problems & see if there's a voltage dip or heat spike. Even if not, it's always a good thing to check periodically even if you're not having problems.

Yep. I've even had a system blue-screening on windows startup because of a faulty psu & could've sworn it was faulty ram because of that symptom (until I checked the psu that is)

Likewise, I could've sworn last week that our psu or harddisk was about to die, as our system just starting freezing all of a sudden, but luckily I realised it was probably the graphics card before spending any time or money on it.

I have checked and there are no confilcts.
Where can I get a utility to monitor my power supply?

did you look where i pointed(irq)?
the device manager can say"no conflicts" and you could still be sharing and having lockups from it.

yes garyb, I checked exactly where you pointed and it shows no conflicts or sharing with the scope cards. I had this problem before, in the beginning, and changed slots until it got straightened out. thanks

Ah, so that explains my 5v dips, or more like sine wave dips.. Mine happens most of the time tho, not only when i open a project etc.

PSU about to get worn out perhaps?

valis wrote:PSU could be a possibility, the card will eat up your 5v line during a project load.

I'm still having this problem. I also frequently get communication problems with my scope board. Is it possible that there is a communication problem at the point of loading the file and it locks up at that time? What can stop these communication problems?

You could try cleaning the contacts of your Scope cards, but I'd probably try swapping the psu first... It's unbelievable the symptoms that a bad psu can cause (as already mentioned)

The other thing I'd do if you're not going on the net with that machine & aren't networking it locally, is go into the bios & disable both Network adaptors along with other things you know you don't need, like coms, game port, xtra unused usb etc.

from what ive learnd so far( i have kind of the same proablem)
pulsar cards dont work well with pci graphic cards.

did you changed the psu? did it work?

yes, pci graphics are bad.....