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Flex Lockup on 1.10.16
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Comments
@Jim NM1W - Was curious on the count, so I did a quick one. I may have missed or double counted a person or two.
Eliminating duplicate posts by the same calls I make it 39 distinct reporters (I would venture there are more who never reported a lock up).
Of the 39 there are 9 saying some sort of lock-up happened only once, leaving 30 stations that have periodic issues.
Of the 30 there are 5 saying they have the issue resolved (usually after help ticket) and 2 said the issue was other factors, leaving 23
Of the remaining 23 a couple sound like they may have other issues - the report is different than what others reported or sound like more typical network issues.
But lets leave those is place and guess that for every one who reported via thread there is another who hasn't reported the problem. Let's double up to 46
Presently there is almost 3600 community members, of which for simple analysis let's say 75% have a Flex-6000 and that they represent half of the Flex-6000 owners (maybe less because some folks have more than one).
Enough of that... you know where I am going and it proves nothing to say less than 1% of users...... even if it was only a single person the problem needs fixing.
---
What is important in the analysis is to use those reporting more than one freeze the 30 distinct reports of Flex-6000 freezing in a similar way.
And some are finding ways to fix the problem.
Almost a quarter of those folk have found something to either fix, roll-back from Windows Updates, another problem, or something to adjust (or just luck) and now report the issue gone.
There does seem to be some issues with SmartSDR for Windows Client having a memory leak in certain instances, and some reports are idle network loss reports which may be a different issue.
The handful that are mid-QSO are the most important of course.
If I were in that group I would open a Help Ticket of course, that way the great folk at FRS could walk me through the fixes they found have worked for others.
If I were only have an odd one every couple weeks, I might just sit it out for the impending SmartSDR updates.
YMMV but I'd sure take FRS up on their help.
73
Steve K9ZW
The radio is essentially a server and what happens between it and the client (PC and Maestro) should not cause it to fail; yet, FRS has never taken responsibility and said, "You're right, it should never lock up." Imagine the outrage an e-commerce software vendor providing shopping cart services for online vendors would face if their cart kept crashing and they told their vendor-customers, "It's a small incidence rate and is a problem in the shopper's PC."
The attitude I'm getting from FRS bothers me as much as the problem itself.
Any take that small numbers affected was my being dismissive of the problem is "cognitive dissonance " - go back and reread what I wrote. Maybe even read it out loud. The statement "...even it it was only a single person the problem needs fixing," is pretty clear.
The very small experience rate and the hold-back of information by not doing Help Tickets does make it harder on FRS to fix the problem. Simple facts of life are some folks have gotten interim resolution from FRS though the Help Ticket system and the process that follows from it. Sounds like FRS even has provided some trial special builds as part of the process to fix the issue. Seems like a pretty good deal all around. 73 Steve K9ZW
My report is recent because I have only had a 6700 since mid-January. I also only operated it briefly while I waited for some accessories to arrive. I was also without the radio for awhile while they replaced the FPGA fans which failed early. Once I got the radio back and the other accessories had arrived and I finished assembling my station (also updating it to 1.10.16) and configuring the various panadapters and began operating everything 24/7, the problem soon presented itself.
Before this, I had only one HF slice receiver on one panadapter and didn't use digital modes. The new configuration had two panadapters, one for HF and one for 2m, with the former having one slice receiver and the latter having four. I frequently operated digitally. The longest I've run before the radio finally crashed has been 3.5 days - ONCE. More typically it can't do 24 hours before crashing. I've had days when it's crashed two or three times during the day.
My ticket with FRS on this is still open.
I'm now running 1.10.15, as one fellow 6700 owner claims that rolling back to that version has rendered his radio stable once again. As of 45 minutes ago, my radio has reached the 24 hour mark running that version. If it makes it a week, I'll be somewhat happy.
I have never been offered a "trial build"; in fact, I keep getting the push back that it must be something about my PC and/or network. I've never been able to get them to accept the fact that, even if I had problems in those areas, which I do not, my problems on the client side SHOULD NEVER TAKE DOWN THE RADIO. When/if it does, such events are highlighting a problem in the radio somewhere, as it should be extremely fault-tolerant but clearly is not.
I suspect that those who thought they had resolved their problem with FRS' help either actually had a different problem or simply don't operate enough at one sitting and/or use modes which may help to bring out the problem.
My gut instinct, based on decades of developing high-reliability networking systems and without knowing much about the radio's architecture (NOTE to FRS: publishing that information would be a nice gesture.), is that this could well be a timing-related problem due to the addition of new features in 1.10.X. Those tend to be very random in nature and certain uses of the device tend to predispose it to experiencing the failure. They can also be some of the toughest problems to track down and correct; however, essentially ignoring them or instructing users to waste their own time chasing ghosts on the client side is NOT the way to deal with them.
Rick, W7YP
Thanks and 73, Frédéric, HB9CQK
I also think your comments are spot on and reflect my thoughts entirely.
had been on about 4 hours. long button push. no tone.
Rick, W7YP
I'll be backpacking my 6500 and Maestro out for Field Day to some local mountain top. Since FD isn't a 'contest' per se IF it locks up not a big deal. If I were really worried about it, I'd drop back to the working version.
Tim - k3tim/6
I found 1.9.13 reliable. It was only 1.10.16 and the earlier Public Beta releases that were an issue.
In fact the public Beta's were terrible especially the first release. I had to roll back to 1.9.13 for all contests. In my case there was a lower freq of lockups in 1.10.16 than in the beta releases but the problem was obviously still there.
What did flex attempt to fix between the Beta releases and 1.10.16 and does that not point them to the potential issue which is still a residual problem in some instances.
As alluded to in previous posts Flex have helped people fix the issue can they please post the fixes they have implemented. Or at least state there is no fix so that discussion can be more informed.
The silence is deafening !?
maybe I am wrong, but somehow I remember that the same lock-up issue was present in a release (no beta) way back and it was fixed in a subsequent release. It reminds me of issues people have in software development with configuration management, re-introducing errors that were already fixed by linking the wrong software module or component for a new release.
Yes, the silence from FRS is overwhelming!
73, Frédéric
I want to assure you that FlexRadio takes customer issues with our products very seriously. We acknowledge that there is a problem in SmartSDR v.1.10.16 and we are committed to fixing it.
However, this issue is a low incidence problem when compared to all FLEX-6000s in operation which directly affects the rate at which we can issue a fix. Because of the low incident rate, it makes the problem much harder to duplicate, isolate and resolve. We have attempted to capture data on several units experiencing these issues without success. Whether the logging process actually affects the issue or whether the incidence rate is just too low is inconclusive.
We continue to troubleshoot this problem and as soon as we can drive it to resolution we will issue a v1.x release that provides a fix. But with incomplete forensics on the problem, it is hard to predict when this might occur.
At this time the only recommendation we can suggest is to have you revert to a release that provides a stable operating environment until a fix can be delivered.
We hear you and we are on it. Thank you.
Thanks,