Cumulus and Vista

[beeman]

I've recently had my laptop upgraded to Vista Business Service Pack 2. I'm running Cumulus v1.8.7 build 819. After I'd reinstalled Cumulus into \Program Files, I read the readme.txt which said that Cumulus should be installed in its own directory eg C:\Cumulus - why is this?

The problem I'm having is that Cumulus stops working and hangs the laptop between 01:00 and 02:00. This is about 2.5 hours after I've stopped working on the laptop. I've been through all the power saving features and switched them off so the laptop never goes into "sleep" mode. I've also disabled the screen saver. I didn't have any problems with XP ....

Anywhere else I should be looking??

Many thanks

[steve]

I've recently had my laptop upgraded to Vista Business Service Pack 2. I'm running Cumulus v1.8.7 build 819. After I'd reinstalled Cumulus into \Program Files, I read the readme.txt which said that Cumulus should be installed in its own directory eg C:\Cumulus - why is this?

It's not essential, it just makes finding your data files easier. Vista and Windows 7 don't allow programs to write to the Program Files hierarchy, unless they are running 'elevated' (with admin privilege). Cumulus is a bit naughty, in that it saves its files in the installation folder. So, if you've installed to Program Files, Vista redirects any writes to the 'virtual store' folder, which, perversely is a hidden folder - so C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Cumulus is where you'll find your data files.

The problem I'm having is that Cumulus stops working and hangs the laptop between 01:00 and 02:00. This is about 2.5 hours after I've stopped working on the laptop. I've been through all the power saving features and switched them off so the laptop never goes into "sleep" mode. I've also disabled the screen saver. I didn't have any problems with XP

It does sound like a power saving issue. Perhaps Vista is powering off the serial port? Or the NIC, perhaps, if you're uploading to the a web site?

[beeman]

Thanks Steve.
Do you think that as I firstly installed in \Program Files there may be bits Cumulus pointing to the wrong place? Does your uninstall remove everything from the registry etc.?

I'm FTPing to PWS and Weather Underground. The data stops going to both at the same time that Cumulus stops.

The NIC runs whilst on mains. Don't know how to check the serial port. I've looked all through the Event Log but can't see anything.

[steve]

Do you think that as I firstly installed in \Program Files there may be bits Cumulus pointing to the wrong place? Does your uninstall remove everything from the registry etc.?

Cumulus doesn't use the registry at all. Each installation just uses the folder it was installed into.

You could try turning on the debug log and see if there's anything useful towards the end of the file (or in the diags files). The problem is that if Cumulus is hanging, the last few entries won't get flushed to disc anyway.

[aadal]

Cumulus doesn't use the registry at all. Each installation just uses the folder it was installed into.

This is fine, i used an hole evening to struggle with the register on an plc software, anoying stuff.
I use the Wise Registry Cleaner to clean the shit, anybody have an better soft?

[beeman]

The laptop has stayed up for the last 2 nights I went back over all the power features again and re-set them all and made sure I saved each change. Did a re-boot to make sure the settings took effect.

I'll keep you posted if the gremlin returns.

Many thanks.

[beeman]

Gremlins came back and once again the laptop crashed in the early hours of the morning. I've spent a long time playing with various settings and the one that seems to be working is to turn off the WiFi connection overnight. I'm guessing that something is trying to do an update and failing.
Can you disable User Account Control for specific programs? I have PC Tools Spyware Doctor running & I reckon that might be the cause.

Many thanks,
Dave