SSDR fails to load, hangs up.

James Del Principe

Bill -VA3WTB

About the only thing that wood change anything is a change in the computer of some kind. If your on the same software version and you didn't upgrade. The PC is the only thing that changed. But to make sure everything in the radio is in sink, try a full factory reset and see how that goes. Save your profiles first.

James Del Principe

Thanks for the fast reply, Bill. Although there are Dell upgrades from time to time, they have not affected the Flex app, they do drive Logger 32 crazy. To my knowledge, there was no changes since last night.   In the past, rebooting everything will clear this on the first try....Flex, PC and switch....but not today.

Bill -VA3WTB

but it does not seem to be a problem with the Flex SSDR. the only thing that can change is on the PC, even though you think not. Can't help much more unless you do a factory reset. The first place to start.

James Del Principe

OK, Bill. That will be my next step.   I have backed up my profiles just in case and will do the factory reset. Thank you.

Ted VE3TRQ

James Del Principe

Good point, Ted.  I'm going with that explanation for now. I suppose one of these days I will need to upgrade to V 3 just because. I don't work remotely nor do I share my Flex but there are so many 'improvements' I have heard so time to join the 21st century.

Bill -VA3WTB

let us know how things are after your reset..

James Del Principe

OK, Bill. Will do.    

Bill -VA3WTB

But to Teds point,,over time flex has done a lot of work making SSDR run better. Incuding how SSDR starts. It is more dependable and faster. I know you don;t need all the features nor do I, I stayed on V2 because I don't have use for some of the features in V3. But it's all the performance upgrades that you gain when you upgrade.

JohnK2CIB

Windows gets updated most Tuesdays.  Frequently their updates interfere with the proper operation of user programs.  Try backing off their last updates.  If it works you can block that update.  If you do nothing, the update will be installed again in about a month.
John K2CIB

James Del Principe

John, the radio and computer decided to just work on their own. I tried again late this afternoon and it worked with no other intervention.....no fixes on my part. I'll keep in mind about the updates on Tuesdays.     Jim

Bill -VA3WTB

The problem is, he is on v1, and it is very problematic with Windows updates. The latest Versions have little to no problems with windows updates. I recommended to him to upgrade, even for all the performance updates.

James Del Principe

Ted VE3TRQ

James Del Principe

Ted, I'm very used to dealing with SW gremlins from my work....    fix one issue and create two more. Hi Hi.     but right now it is a huge improvement. We'll see if it boots up OK tomorrow morning.   I'll have to remember to also load V3 onto my laptop where I operate kitchen table portable.    Many Thanks, Jim

James Del Principe

KD0RC

James Del Principe

Len, I had considered that possibility. I did not try that yet as the computer downloaded SSDR V3 rapidly and it loaded well. Also, I have a reliable web connection using that switch.   It does raise a good point however, so first thing tomorrow I will try exactly that. Thank you for your input.     73, Jim

James Del Principe

Ted VE3TRQ

James Del Principe

Ted, thank you for that information, something I had not even considered. I have nothing new in my network and it used to work fine for several years but I will need to check for those conflicts. My network is a WiFi router upstairs connected to a switch in the shack via copper. The switch is only connected to the shack PC and the Flex. I do have other computers running on WiFi and a range extender in the shack for another PC that uses WiFi.   I have 6 cameras on blu tooth to a central unit on the network upstairs.....but as I said, this used to work for years in this configuration.
I think I should start by disconnecting the modem from the shack switch.
Thanks again for your ideas.    Best 73, Jim

Ted VE3TRQ

James Del Principe

Ted, you are light years ahead of me on network issues but I do understand basic troubleshooting from 47 years of field service in radio and medical x-ray which became all computers and networks before I retired.
OK, so what I found is if I disconnect the ethernet to the upstairs network and keep the PC and Flex on the switch downstairs, it boots reliably.  I did this several times to be sure.
Then I reconnected the cable to the upstairs network and sure enough, it failed.
That cable goes upstairs to a LinkSys 5 port switch with several devices connected and then to a Netgear Nighthawk WiFi hotspot. That unit connects via cell to AT&T, my ISP.   So I really have two switches, one upstairs feeding the one downstairs.
I wonder, who is performing the DHCP? Can they be in conflict with one another?

Tomorrow, when I can see in that dark corner, I will isolate each connection on that switch upstairs and see if it makes a difference.  Again, thank you for sharing your expertise.   73, Jim

Ted VE3TRQ

James Del Principe

Ted, last question of the night.  Does each device, modem or switch perform DHCP to any device 'downstream' of it?   For example, would the shack computer hand out to the Flex and PC and the upstairs switch hand out to the devices connected to it?

Ted VE3TRQ

James Del Principe

Thank you, Ted. That is an education in itself. Nice to know who hands out the IP addresses.   OK, this morning I disconnected all the connections to the upstairs switch, keeping the connection to the shack switch and the WiFi hotspot.   It worked!
Next, I reconnected the central unit for my security cameras....still worked. I booted from cold several times just to be sure.
The I reconnected the WD "My Cloud Home" external drive.   Bingo!  It failed. I verified this several times and then disconnected it again.   Right now I have rebooted from cold during the day and it is still working. Now there is one other possibility that you mentioned....total number of connections... I should disconnect the security cameras and reconnect the cloud drive just to be certain.....although I can live without that external drive but would like to keep the cameras...  It's fun to see the bears, deer, turkeys, fox and possum... Thanks again for all your help.   73, Jim

Ted VE3TRQ

If your problem is too few addresses, Jim, you can reconfigure your router to allocate some more. Good idea to check out number of devices / IP addresses. Disconnecting any one device should give you that answer.

James Del Principe

Thanks, Ted. In this case my 'router' would seem to be the Netgear Nighthawk Hot spot. I wonder if that is even possible to configure.
Strange that my setup had been working for several years with no faults until recently.
I'll try to disconnect the cameras and reconnect the 'cloud drive' and see what the results are.   Very Best, Jim

Ted VE3TRQ

If this is the Nighthawk LTE Hotspot Router, it definitely has the capability to handle 250 IP addresses. Of course a misbehaving device constantly asking for a new address, and not doing the right thing to release an old one could exhaust the available pool (but it would have to misbehave pretty badly).

You should be able to login to the hotspot with a browser using the base address - for example if you have addresses like 192.168.1.X, the router interface would be on 192.168.1.1. It will have an admin password.