Flex Lockup on 1.10.16

Steve Gw0gei

I have never used skimmer or dax-iq on my w10 pc since I bought it in April and did a fresh install of ssdr N1mm etc and didn't import my old profiles off the older w7 pc. My 6300 has been continuously running since my last crash in early may, and as usual am swapping between 80m ssb, 6m ssb/cw and 4m ssb/cw via kuhne tvtr. Pc has not been rebooted for the same period. 73 steve gw0gei / gw9j

James Skala

I also agree, since it is happening with Mastero and a variation of PC configurations. It leads me to conclusion it is in the FPGA programming.  It is also not related to USB cables since multiple configurations with and without are listed in the forum.

James Skala

Might need to contact the FPGA vendor and provide code and have them give it a once over.

dl9eri/oe9eri

First Lock-up of Flex with loud buzzing tone requiring long button press with 1.10.16. and simply listening to darc-radio in SAM Mode on a 6500 and i7 PC without any activity.

Frederic HB9CQK

Exclusively writing about lockups that can only be recovered from with a long power button press: If the problem is in the FPGA programming why did it not happen with version 1.9.13?

Rudy HB9MHB

And again my Flex 6700 crashed on May 7th at 19.00 UT and May 9th at 13.44 UT. I hope Flex can find the issue soon...
73 Rudy

Bill W2PKY

Had another crash today, was not in front of the radio when it happened. SSDR, DAX & CAT were still running fine. Long press on the power button and two button reboot plus reloading the profiles the system was back up. SSDR did not require a restart nor did the PC. 

UPDate; had another crash today after radio was on for about 24 hours. 

Frederic HB9CQK

I have not had a crash for several days, but last night I had another firmware crash that could only be recovered from by a long power button press. SSDR was still running. The conditions were the following:
Window 10 with all the latest updates (including the latest vulnerability fix). JTDX Version 17.8. with 7 instances running on 7 different bands in parallel. ANT1 and receive antenna in use. FlexRadio 6700, SSDR version 1.10.16. No USB cables connected to the 6700. Radio and computer connected to a network switch. In addition to JTDX I had DXKeeper running and Commander connected to slice A, DAX 1 and JTAlert (I only use slice A for tx, so the logging through JTAlert and Commander works well). I was using exclusively TCP ports to connect, the 6 other instances of JTDX were connected directly to SmartSDR CAT. No other software running on the PC. I had done a reset after my last firmware crash.
73 and hoping for a solution!
Frédéric, HB9CQK

Bill W2PKY

This morning checking the radio after it had been running nearly 24 hours noticed one slice out of 5 was updating in slow motion. Further investigation revealed the quality indicator showing 1 red bar to 2 yellow bars and packets dropping rapidly. Restarted SSDR with no improvement, rebooted the radio with no improvement, finally needed to reboot the PC to restore 5 green bars on the quality indicator. I am using a 5 port switch for connectivity between the radio and PC.

Win7 Pro on ASUS Z97A 4790K 4Ghz 16GIG memory. Performance monitor did not reveal anything unusual. 

James Skala

Lockup occurred with out USB Cables

Jim Runge

Switched from a 6500 to a 6700 today and in 1/2 hour I got the lock up and tone requiring a long hold power button restart.  Latest software and only thing running on the computer with windows 10.  I have a USB going to my SPE 2KA amp.  I was in SSB receive only mode when it happened.

Andy M5ZAP

I am getting the lock up again more  frequently now (3 times in last 5 days) after a period of no lockups.

Couple of other observations

1 - As before a short button press doesn't turn the radio off but if you wait after the non responsive short button press the radio does shut down approx. 45 seconds later. This is not a controlled shut down but a sudden shut down like you get from the long button press. Is this a feature put in for remote operation allowing shutdown of a non responsive radio.

2 - When you restart the radio it is in the state it was in from the last controlled shutdown Band, slices etc.

Extremely quite from Flex on this recently. I am hoping when they finish launching their new products they swiftly get back to the important business of fixing the current software for there current customers.

Steve K9ZW

True the absolute date of Hamvention is upon FRS but I'd not presume this issue is forgotten. Will 1.10.16 see an upgrade soon? Hmmmm kind of likely. Happens most Hamventions. Hopefully this issue is fixed then! 73 Steve K9ZW

Bill W2PKY

UPDATE: Found the i218-V Intel Ethernet adapter needed a driver update.

NM1W

Another crash on the 6700, this one with the raspy tone, while mid qso on wsjtx...

The status of this topic says "IN PROGRESS", can we get an update on the status of the radio crashing, and of the dax corruption?

Seems a number of us current customers are hitting these issues, with not much response from Flex..
I certainly cannot recommend flex at this point due to the sw instability of the Flex-6000 line.

My F5K may have to come out of retirement.. In spite of the hassles of vac and firewire, it didnt crash mid qso...

Steve K9ZW

Heads up, as there are SO many indications of a new version of SmartSDR being readied. We will all know in a couple days. 73 Steve K9ZW

Craig Williams

So, I am paying $4000.00 for a radio and it locks up all the time. Not looking forward to that. I thought the industry was beyond these problems? Reminds me of the 80's and the 8088 where they had to add watchdog timers to keep the thing from going to sleep.

NM1W

Steve a new version of smartsdr which fails to address the dax corruption and rig crashes, is really not of interest.. I dont want NEW features, I want FIXED WORKING items...

We all know 2.0 is slated for June, presumably june 30, so 1.5 months away..

Steve K9ZW

FRS side stepped answering whether another v1.x release would happen first.

So maybe?

Curious how you know the v2.x release won't fix the problem though?

Regardless I expect they are all traveling or setting up at Hamvention and it will be until they have dealt with showing their products to a predicted heavy crowd before they say much specific to your needs.

73

Steve
K9ZW

NM1W

Steve - I didnt say 2.0 woud not fix it; However, if you look at the number of comments by flex folks, I sure wouldnt be betting on it...

And its not just my needs, I think we've shown this is a much larger problem and just a few of us..

Terry K7NY

My 6500 locked up with the tone for the second time this morning. No auto updates windows 8.1, radio has been on for 11/2 hrs. No other programs running, Dax and Cat loaded. I have been holding posting this until it happened again.
73
Terry

Bill W2PKY

Terry-
If you haven't tried the two button reset: Export your profiles:

from page 178 of the SSDR user guide:

For the FLEX-6700/FLEX-6500/FLEX-6700R, while pressing and holding the OK button on the front of the radio momentarily press and release the radio’s power button.  You will see a radio console message that says “Reverting to factory settings” and a countdown timer starting at 5.  Keep pressing the OK button until the display counts down to 0 and the Calibrating message is displayed and the LED changes color.  For the FLEX-6300, simply hold the Power button while powering on for 5 seconds until the LED changes color. 

Profiles must be imported after this reset so be sure to export your profiles to a known directory so you can find them afterwards.

Steve G1XOW

It may be useful and informative if those who do use Dimension 4 and are having the lock-ups to use/trial another time sync app instead. I recommend NetTime http://www.timesynctool.com/

Temporarily swapping D4 out for something else that is functionally similar (but different code) will certainly give FRS guys a good steer.

I've used nettime for 2 years without a hiccup in that respect.

Andy M5ZAP

I beleive people who don't use Dimension 4 also have the lockup.

Terry K7NY

I don't use Dimension 4 or any other time sync program that I know of.
Like I said it has only happened twice but I only run the radio three or four hrs a day.
Terry

Frederic HB9CQK

I had all my lockups while using NetTime
73, Frédéric

Jim Runge

My 6700 locked up again yesterday. The only thing running besides the flex software was the wooden box S meter and a usb cable to my SPE 2k amp.

Terry K7NY

Thank u, I am doing this now.
73
Terry

Steve Jones gw0gei

Any news from tonights presentations regarding a fix?

Bill W2PKY

My 6700 crashed today after running for 4 days 24X7. Required long power button push to power down the radio. SSDR was fine when restarting the radio. 

Win7 Pro no USB or skimmers running.