Author Topic: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related  (Read 4590 times)

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Offline Shaw55

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My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« on: May 08, 2015, 08:54:09 AM »
The only software that I ever found useful from SoftWx has been StartWatch. Works beautifully... it's reliable and keeps whatever weather software I'm using up and running 24/7. VirtualVP and VPLive have proved to be worthless. I have given VirtualVP many chances but each attempt has led me to unexplained crashes, disconnects and headaches. I recently gave VPLive a chance, running by itself, downloading data to Weatherlink every hour. I thought everything was moving along wonderfully until my MIFI started unexpectedly disconnecting at weird times during the day. I never imagined this would have anything to do with VPLive. I got memory leak errors, unexpected WU failures to upload, crashes... I finally gave up on the thing and went back to Weatherlink 6.0.3. So far my MIFI has been stable, 24/7.

My comments are not an attack on Steve. With the limited programming experience I have I know that what he has attempted to do with his software is not an easy thing. I applaud his efforts though at the same time I could not with good conscience, recommend VPLive or VirtualVP to anyone. Especially now since they are unsupported.
Richard
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Davis Vantage Vue, Weatherlink 6.0.3

Offline Beaudog

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2015, 08:56:41 AM »
I have had VVP and VP live running for over 5 years and it has never crashed one single time.

Offline jmcmurry

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2015, 09:02:00 AM »
Same here plus VPLive so ?????

- Jim

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Offline gwwilk

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2015, 09:24:00 AM »
I've had VPLive running for over 8 years on 1 computer, 5 years on another, and 2 years on a third.  These installs have been rock solid and utterly reliable except for an unsigned virtual serial port driver glitch within the past year courtesy of Microsoft.

Could we learn a little more about your installation.  Is it 32 or 64 bit, and what version of Windows?  What virtual serial port driver are you using?  Are you using virtual serial ports or IP addresses?  Have you assigned a static IP address to the computer where VVP lives?  All three of my VVP installs have static 192.168.x.x IP addresses.  I'm running all of my VVP's on Win7 64 bit with a free  signed com0com virtual serial port driver.  The latest Windows updates prevent the use of unsigned virtual serial port drivers.

Given the solid performance of VVP in others' hands, a careful review of your setup would seem warranted.
Regards, Jerry Wilkins
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Offline duke666

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2015, 09:24:18 AM »
Yep same here, recently stopped using VVP to take advantage of LOOP2 packets but all good until then.

Also I believe Steve has various personal problems and a general lack of time to invest in updating the various software.

Offline Shaw55

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2015, 09:27:49 AM »
Possibly the software is incompatible with my system though I can't believe I am the only one experiencing these problems. I'm not making this stuff up... VPLive and VirtualVP gave me nothing but headaches. The computer that runs my weather software is also my main computer for photography and uses a Pentium 4 extreme cpu with 3GB of ram running  32bit WinXP Pro 24/7. It's stable, only requiring a reboot monthly during updates.
Richard
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Offline Garth Bock

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #6 on: May 08, 2015, 09:28:17 AM »
No problem here with VVPro and I have moved it to 3 different computers and 2 O/S's over the years. I did have to switch from NV8 to Com0com when I went Win7 64bit. Solid as a rock.

Offline wvdkuil

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2015, 09:28:25 AM »
I have to test multiple weather programs so I have to run VVP, often with a new release coming on 2 computers at the same time.
The main VVP runs on a Mac Mini running vmWare Fusion with Win7 with at least 6 or 7 connected programs (3 serial 4 ip) 24/7.
Serial to win7 programs: WeatherLink - Cumulus - wswin
IP to same win7 programs  VWS and WeatherDisplay
IP to hosting mac  WeatherCat
IP to consoleWD on a Raspberry.

In the past 3 years ZERO problems with VVP.

When  there was a  hung with a weather-program it has been because I forgot that program xyz  can not run in the background and needs to be the front window, or program abc can not be minimized and so on.
So one could easily think that that is a a VVP problem, but running the weatherprogram on a standalone XP or Win7 machine reveals always that it is realy the xyz weatherprogram.

So no problems with vvp

Wim
« Last Edit: May 08, 2015, 09:50:55 AM by wvdkuil »

Offline Garth Bock

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #8 on: May 08, 2015, 09:34:40 AM »
Possibly the software is incompatible with my system though I can't believe I am the only one experiencing these problems. I'm not making this stuff up... VPLive and VirtualVP gave me nothing but headaches. The computer that runs my weather software is also my main computer for photography and uses a Pentium 4 extreme cpu with 3GB of ram running  32bit WinXP Pro 24/7. It's stable, only requiring a reboot monthly during updates.

3gb ? I had a friend that had problems with her computer and all I could figure out was the oddball memory config. I swapped out her 1 and 2 for 2 x 2gb for a total of 4gb and it was like night and day. Only weird thing was the 1gb was a single sided sim and the 2 was a double sided sim. In some Dells you have to have matching memory types or they can be squirrelly.  Her computer ran for nearly a year with no crashes. Have you looked into your hardware ? Lot of us have stable running VVPro installations. Could be something in the computer is knocking it off kilter. 

Offline Shaw55

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #9 on: May 08, 2015, 10:01:24 AM »
Thanks Garth for the suggestion. 4gb of ram gave me troubles as 4 gb of ram can't be fully utilized in a 32 bit system. 3gb gave me the best stability on my ASUS P4C800-E motherboard. 

Also, my standards for reliability may be high. If I have one problem a month due to a failed upload because of software issues, I consider that unacceptable. With Weatherlink and StartWatch I never have a failed upload unless my MIFI disconnects unexpectedly. It never did until I started using VPLive.
Richard
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CoCoRaHS MA-BE-4
Davis Vantage Vue, Weatherlink 6.0.3

Offline Garth Bock

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #10 on: May 08, 2015, 10:57:28 AM »
I am running VPLive as well...with all of the program I am running (Cumulus, WL, WD, VWS, Aprs and VPLive) off of VVpro on just a dual core Dell Optiplex 960 (Win 7 64bit 4gb ) I should see more problems if there is an instability somewhere. You say when your MiFi disconnects is when everything goes wrong (??)...then I assume the computer connects via WiFi to the MiFi. What happens when you shut off the MiFi..can you force a failure ? Is there some kind of software running that manages the MiFi ? (could be the culprit). Also that 3gb is still odd ball. Yeah on a 32 bit system you don't get the full 4 but having paired identical memory simms has always been kind of the unwritten rule. Are both your simms the same manufacturer ? Both single or double sided ? I have seen mixed manufacturer and mixed types (single and double) where there is a memory addressing conflict that caused weird instabilities. Also....how fresh is your WinXP? Just because running for a long time on an install with no problems doesn't guarantee that a bad update or corruption hasn't occurred. I would look at your hardware/OS first. Also...WinXP ? Dude....let it go....let it go into the light.... :lol: .... you might want to go Win 7 because you get free Win 10 when it comes out. Also on my weather computer when I went Win 7 from XP, I got better performance from the Optiplex 960.

Offline gwwilk

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #11 on: May 08, 2015, 11:17:26 AM »
Thanks Garth for the suggestion. 4gb of ram gave me troubles as 4 gb of ram can't be fully utilized in a 32 bit system. 3gb gave me the best stability on my ASUS P4C800-E motherboard. 
There's a clue here.  I misspoke in my earlier post about my longest-running Win7 VVP installation.  For 5 years it has been running 32-bit Win7 with 4 GB of installed RAM, runs VWS, WeatheLink, Weather Display, VPLive, ImageSalsa, MovieSalsa, feeds Weather Display via VVP on both ends on the computer that is the primary feed for my current web site, and hosts my old VWS-driven web site.  This is a repurposed Lenovo dual core Pentium2 2.5 GHz that came with a 64-bit Win7 OS that I swapped out for 32-bit Win7 before the 64-bit Virtual Serial Port drivers were available.  There are issues with slow responses via TeamViewer when I remotely configure it, but it's otherwise rock solid 24/7 even though there are MB's of ram that can't be used.

Also, my standards for reliability may be high. If I have one problem a month due to a failed upload because of software issues, I consider that unacceptable. With Weatherlink and StartWatch I never have a failed upload unless my MIFI disconnects unexpectedly. It never did until I started using VPLive.
I'm still using VWS to upload to WU, and it doesn't miss a beat if my DSL modem crashes.  After rebooting the modem, VWS obligingly uploads the missing data to WU.  I can't speak for other WU uploaders, because I've had no need to try them.

MIFI?  Oh my, a cell-based modem.  Any chance of acquiring an ISP that uses a land line?  My MiFi 2200 I acquired years ago for remote access when away from home now sits unused because of the ready availability of WiFi at most destinations.
Regards, Jerry Wilkins
gwwilk@gmail.com

Offline Shaw55

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #12 on: May 08, 2015, 11:56:07 AM »
Guys and gals, it just doesn't work for me. It seems I'm the only one.

My ram consists of two matched pairs of Corsair... 2 one GB modules and 2 512MB modules.  Latest BIOS on the motherboard.

The whole system is ancient though since I can't "upgrade" to Win7 from WinXP, I would need to do a complete install. It isn't going to happen. Not until the thing starts on fire or one of my two hard drives fails with a copy of my images. :) Photoshop CS5 runs fine working on MB size images and that is one Adobe-bloated cpu-ram intensive program.

"Also...WinXP ? Dude....let it go....let it go into the light" ... I have to admit, that joke made my day. :)
« Last Edit: May 08, 2015, 01:01:57 PM by Shaw55 »
Richard
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Davis Vantage Vue, Weatherlink 6.0.3

Offline Garth Bock

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #13 on: May 08, 2015, 01:08:36 PM »
Well I guess there is not much more that we can do here to help. No magic wand exists. I think you have some hardware/software interaction going on. Have you tried removing and re-installing VVPro/VPLive ? Have you rotated your memory ? (you can have a marginal simm and by swapping them around can make a difference). Have your rolled back XP to when this started ? Have you tried a fresh load of XP ? You say your MiFi only runs with WL....could it's software be interacting with VVPro/VPLive ? There are alot of things to try.

Since you are unwilling to make any changes to chase this problem down you will just have to live with it. As you can see from other posts no one is having the problems that you have at any level. To state that...
Quote
VirtualVP and VPLive have proved to be worthless...
is unfair now inlight of your current system status.

Offline Shaw55

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #14 on: May 08, 2015, 03:23:41 PM »
To state that...
Quote

    VirtualVP and VPLive have proved to be worthless...

is unfair now inlight of your current system status.

*********************************************************************************

I strongly disagree.  Those two programs have been worthless "to me". That's my opinion and it seems for now, mine alone. Other more demanding software has worked and is still working flawlessly on my system. No need to rearrange any memory modules and run diagnostics on my MIFI. Everything works fine without VirtualVP or VPLive running on my system. I've worked with computers long enough to feel confident to determine when it's hardware or software related. I'm tired of being a beta tester. :)

You won't hear any more from me on this subject.
Richard
CWOP DW4847
CoCoRaHS MA-BE-4
Davis Vantage Vue, Weatherlink 6.0.3

Offline Bunty

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Re: My thoughts on anything SoftWx related
« Reply #15 on: May 14, 2015, 03:32:30 AM »
When I moved everything to a more powerful laptop from it having an i7 processor, everything, including Virtual VP, finally functioned continuously with no trouble.  However, I'm still disappointed that Virtual VP won't work with Weatherlink with a version higher than 5.93, if I recall correctly. So if the creator of Virtual VP is able to update it, I wish he would.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2015, 03:37:47 AM by Bunty »

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