Task Manager

[weathergirl]

I've tried to use task manager in Windows XP to end VWS when it freezes, but it doesn't work.  The icon stays in the taskbar, and VWS just sits there in the process window. It won't close. So I am forced to restart the computer. Does anybody know of any tricks to shut down the VWS process other than using the task manager?

[ncpilot]

If I recall correctly, there was a post in the VirtualVP section that discussed the problems with the number of processes that were spawned by VWS.

Could be that you have to kill multiple processes to completely stop VWS, and... I'll bet they have weird names that don't look obvious...

Just a thought, since I don't have or run VWS...

[capeweather]

Sometimes it won't work for me either and have to reboot myself. And if I do get it to close out then I will get a com port failure after I restart. So in most cases to clear the problem a reboot is required. It's very strange but once everything is back up after the reboot then all seems well. Kind of a pain but I guess that's the only work around for now.

[weathergirl]

Thanks Marc, Chris, guess I'll have to live with it for now

[saratogaWX]

I'd replaced my MS task manager with Process Explorer by SysInternals (They've been bought out by M$, but the software is still available).

I have it substitute for Task Manager and leave it running in the system tray .. will pop up even with 100%cpu and you can easily find and kill processes.  Provides a nice running graph in the system tray for CPU and I/O activity too.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/ProcessesAndThreads/ProcessExplorer.mspx

Best regards,
Ken

[weathergirl]

Thank-you, Ken, I'll check it out

[DundeeWeather]

You can also try a neat little tool called "Kill.exe"  

http://www.mattkruse.com/utilities/

Download kill.exe + tlist.exe and put them either in system32 or a dir of your choice.  If you choose a dir that isn't in your path you'll want to add the new dir to your path.

Once you get things downloaded and "installed" (there's no installing) you simply open a command prompt and type Kill -F PID or "process name".  For example you would type something like this to kill VWS:

C:>kill -F vws.exe

You can use tlist.exe to get a list of the process names and their ID's (PID)

Hope that made sense
Greg

[weathergirl]

Greg, that sounds great as well, I'll try it too, thanks everybody!

[W3DRM]

Hmmm, I use VirtualVP along with StartWatch (from the same developer) to monitor VWS. If VWS freezes, crashes, uses too much memory or CPU usage, StartWatch will automatically stop all of the associated VWS processes and then restart it without you having to do anything. Haven't had a VWS problem since I started using StartWatch several months ago.

Go to www.softwx.com to see the offerings available. I highly recommend all of Steve's software! It's well worth the small investment.

[weathergirl]

Good idea, Don. I'm already using Virtual VP and VPLive, so I may just go ahead and use StartWatch!

[weathergirl]

I have a problem:  I have started using StartWatch, and VWS hangs or crashes, and has to be restarted several times a day.  I have VWS, Weather Display, and my datalogger set to archive data at five minute intervals. Under my Weather Underground settings I have the setting,"Upload Archive Data", checked.So when VWS has to be restarted, it uploads the archive data to Wundergound again. This is happening several times a day. Sometimes VWS will hang or crash while it is uploading the data.  When I uncheck the upload archive data setting, VWS settles down and runs without hanging. What can I do to prevent this problem?

[Mark / Ohio]

Today for the first time in a long time Windows detected a VWS cvirte.dll error at the 2:00pm downloads and uploads (metar and Weather Underground), then put up the error box VWS needs to close.  Until I closed that error box Windows would not let StartWatch restart it.  Last time I had repeat cvirte errors I had to do a fresh install from scratch of VWS.  I really do not want to do that again unless I absolutely have to.  

The only possibility for an outside cause I've came up with so far is Windows Defender might have been trying to download a definition update at the same time.  But it's worked fine in the past doing that.  I show it updated at the same time two days ago with no problems.

Sorry Ann-Marie, no answer here but I can identify with your frustration.      

[weathergirl]

Thanks Mark.  I've sent my StartWatch log.txt and alert.txt to Steve for him to examine.  I don't know if they'll show anything. It's ridiculous, VWS has been restarted, from what I can see, 14 times today so far.  Meanwhile, all my other weather programs chug along quietly with no problems  

[weathergirl]

So Steve said to adjust the program hang sensitivity slider to low, and that seems to have done the trick. Now onto another concern.  My server was having problems this morning, so VWS was hanging and StartWatch proceeded to close it down. That was half an hour ago, and I'm still waiting!  I know it's not StartWatch, and I've tried the the other programs mentioned here, but nothing helps VWS to close down any quicker, it's very stubborn