Hi,
I had successfuly run my Flex 6500 on Previous full release 1.9.13 for a few months often leaving it running for 24 hrs without any lockups.
I could not use the first recent Beta release due to numerous lockups with continuous audio tone requiring a long button press to reset.
I updated tp 1.10.16 on release and was lockup free until tonight when I experienced a lockup whilst listening to the radio. Same symptoms continuous audio tone and long button press required to reset.
Anybody else have lockup issues on 1.10.16 and does flex acknowledge that the problem still exists.
Not what I really want for the WPX contest.
Regards Andy M5ZAP
Posted 3 years ago
its settling down . .
after another 10 min. it seems to be running between 130 - 135 MB. and has not gone up any - with the radio sitting on 80 meters and not touched. Maybe its topped-off?
But when I start doing band changes, I can drive it up a lot higher. I am now at 305 MB - was making band changes every 2 sec. for about a min. Seems to go up 4 MB per band change. I also did a few memory selection band changes.
Lets see if it goes anyway else on its own . . untouched for 5 min. and its showing 291 MB.
Will let it run for 12 hours and see where it is. I will let Flex decide if there is an issue - since I do not scan and I have left my radio on for months, it can't be too bad. But maybe an indicator.
Cheers ! Will grab a few pints myself - its almost friday afternoon . . .
after another 10 min. it seems to be running between 130 - 135 MB. and has not gone up any - with the radio sitting on 80 meters and not touched. Maybe its topped-off?
But when I start doing band changes, I can drive it up a lot higher. I am now at 305 MB - was making band changes every 2 sec. for about a min. Seems to go up 4 MB per band change. I also did a few memory selection band changes.
Lets see if it goes anyway else on its own . . untouched for 5 min. and its showing 291 MB.
Will let it run for 12 hours and see where it is. I will let Flex decide if there is an issue - since I do not scan and I have left my radio on for months, it can't be too bad. But maybe an indicator.
Cheers ! Will grab a few pints myself - its almost friday afternoon . . .
do some more band changes and wait, and do it again. It will never settle back down to the orginal amount. The memory issue is due to band changes.
That's a very interesting observation. Just to be clear, I'm running SmartSDR v1.9.13.173 and as observed by others, it may be possible that there is a memory leak.
With my 6700 and 8 panadapters open, I was sitting at 460 Mb. After a bunch of band changes I'm now at 535 Mb and every time I make a band change it grabs more memory and doesn't seem to release it.
I've played with it a bit more and now up at 674Mb and it still isn't releasing any of the memory it has grabbed.
Now at 728 Mb.
I kept playing with changing bands and the size of the slices and it kept grabbing more memory and never releasing any of it.
Now I'm just sitting here observing and not making any changes. I am seeing the memory usage slowly climbing up. It climbed to 791.3Mb, paused for a while and is now slowly climbing up again. Wow, it just keeps climbing up and just paused again at 842Mb before starting to climb again. Shoot, if it keeps this up, it will eventually run out of memory and crash. I've never had SmartSDR crash before, but this isn't looking too good. I've done nothing but sit and watch the Task Manager and it just passed 900Mb.
I spent an hour on the phone, came back and its sitting at 1032.8 Mb and every time I change bands on any of the panadapters, the memory usage climbs.
If I close a panadapter, some memory does get released, but not much. If I continue to close all of the panadapters except for just one, the memory drops down to 480+- Mb.
Norm W7CK
With my 6700 and 8 panadapters open, I was sitting at 460 Mb. After a bunch of band changes I'm now at 535 Mb and every time I make a band change it grabs more memory and doesn't seem to release it.
I've played with it a bit more and now up at 674Mb and it still isn't releasing any of the memory it has grabbed.
Now at 728 Mb.
I kept playing with changing bands and the size of the slices and it kept grabbing more memory and never releasing any of it.
Now I'm just sitting here observing and not making any changes. I am seeing the memory usage slowly climbing up. It climbed to 791.3Mb, paused for a while and is now slowly climbing up again. Wow, it just keeps climbing up and just paused again at 842Mb before starting to climb again. Shoot, if it keeps this up, it will eventually run out of memory and crash. I've never had SmartSDR crash before, but this isn't looking too good. I've done nothing but sit and watch the Task Manager and it just passed 900Mb.
I spent an hour on the phone, came back and its sitting at 1032.8 Mb and every time I change bands on any of the panadapters, the memory usage climbs.
If I close a panadapter, some memory does get released, but not much. If I continue to close all of the panadapters except for just one, the memory drops down to 480+- Mb.
Norm W7CK
(Edited)
Well I just had my first crash with 1.10.16. I installed it on 3/28 and no problems until this morning. I use it everyday and its on from early morning until evening. I have lots of software installed on this computer. Running Win10 with latest updates. Rig is a 6700...no problems except this morning. SSDR hung and there was a loud tone coming through the speakers. Tried powering down the radio with the on/off switch but no luck there. Unplugged the 12V and plugged it back in and it came back ok.
73,
Harry
W0LS
73,
Harry
W0LS
Well, staying with 1.9.13
With that said, may wait before jumping into V2.0
73
Mike
Well, I had my first crash this morning. It appears that the conditions were slightly different than what others have reported. The Flex 6700 didn't crash, just SmartSDR.
As I reported yesterday, I have been playing around with the configuration of panadapters and slices throughout the day while watching the memory used by SmartSDR steadily increase. Late yesterday, I took a snapshot of Task Manager with only 4 panadapters open and 4 slices. Here's the snapshot.
Then sometime this morning while I was gone, the following.
Please note: I am running SmartSDR v1.9.13.173. I was able to restart SmartSDR without restarting the 6700. The 6700 itself did not lock up or emit any noise. Only SmartSDR failed.
I restarted SmartSDR, memory usage was initially at 124.8MB but continues to climb. The last time I looked, it was around 1543.8MB.
It looks like a memory leak to me!
I've been running this version for quite a while now without any issues. The only thing I can think of is that there have been a few Windows updates and it is possible something changed within the OS that is making it hard for SmartSDR to release memory.
Seems to be an issue though!
As I reported yesterday, I have been playing around with the configuration of panadapters and slices throughout the day while watching the memory used by SmartSDR steadily increase. Late yesterday, I took a snapshot of Task Manager with only 4 panadapters open and 4 slices. Here's the snapshot.
Then sometime this morning while I was gone, the following.
Please note: I am running SmartSDR v1.9.13.173. I was able to restart SmartSDR without restarting the 6700. The 6700 itself did not lock up or emit any noise. Only SmartSDR failed.
I restarted SmartSDR, memory usage was initially at 124.8MB but continues to climb. The last time I looked, it was around 1543.8MB.
It looks like a memory leak to me!
I've been running this version for quite a while now without any issues. The only thing I can think of is that there have been a few Windows updates and it is possible something changed within the OS that is making it hard for SmartSDR to release memory.
Seems to be an issue though!
two flex6700 crashes; One yesterday, one this am. Neither was a radio crash with the annoying tone; both required the long press of the power button to shutdown.
In both cases the 6700 had been on for about 4 hours; It was decoding 4 wsjtx slices;
win10, 1607; i7-6850; 32GB ram; machine was pretty idle.
This is almost as annoying as the dax corruption....
In both cases the 6700 had been on for about 4 hours; It was decoding 4 wsjtx slices;
win10, 1607; i7-6850; 32GB ram; machine was pretty idle.
This is almost as annoying as the dax corruption....
One other item I noted from both crashes, is that upon restart the number of slices open isnt what it was before the crash, nor on last power down; I run with all 8 panadapters, each with a slice.. On restart I had pans, 6 slices. They seemed a bit random as to which pan had which slice..
Flex staff,
What is considered the normal range of memory usage for SmartSDR connected to a 6700 running 8 slices?
Norm
What is considered the normal range of memory usage for SmartSDR connected to a 6700 running 8 slices?
Norm
(Edited)
Eric - KE5DTO, Official Rep
Once the waterfalls have had time to get to full storage, it is something like 110MB per Panadapter. Something around 1GB of memory is typical with 8 Pans running all at once after about 15 min.
We have indeed found and fixed a memory leak associated with changing bands as previously reported here. This fix will be included in the next release. That will also contribute to the memory in v1.10.16.
We have indeed found and fixed a memory leak associated with changing bands as previously reported here. This fix will be included in the next release. That will also contribute to the memory in v1.10.16.
Great job Eric.
Thanks for the update Eric. Hmmmm, now all I have to do is wait........... Geez, that's hard to do.....
Another 6700 lockup; Had to reboot the radio with a button press; It appeared to only need a short press; Rig had only been on about 10 minutes.. All the pans and slices came back this time.
Tim - W4TME, Customer Experience Manager
A normal button press that shuts down the radio indicates that the firmware was still running (the radio had not crashed).
Following on from my last crash (see above - no tone but required long button press in middle of 4m contest) i submitted another ticket. Closed down now as ack as software defect which is logged.
I have closed down the radio and pc for 24 hrs on tuesday this week whilst away on business. Its been on since wednesday evening and did 80m cw contest wednesday night and 80m rtty test on thursday night. This evening after leaving it on 6m ssb i came back into the shack to hear the tone and saw the disconnect box up on the screen. Had to long press the button to reboot the radio. I have now left it running on 6m wsjt-x monitoring fsk441 ms mode overnight to see how long it stays up this time.
I hope we are going to get a release to sort this issue soon - if thats not likely i think we need advice on which version to roll back to.
Steve gw0gei / gw9j
I have closed down the radio and pc for 24 hrs on tuesday this week whilst away on business. Its been on since wednesday evening and did 80m cw contest wednesday night and 80m rtty test on thursday night. This evening after leaving it on 6m ssb i came back into the shack to hear the tone and saw the disconnect box up on the screen. Had to long press the button to reboot the radio. I have now left it running on 6m wsjt-x monitoring fsk441 ms mode overnight to see how long it stays up this time.
I hope we are going to get a release to sort this issue soon - if thats not likely i think we need advice on which version to roll back to.
Steve gw0gei / gw9j
(Edited)
On April 8 I installed 1.10.16, the radio ran solid on Win7 Pro until today after applying Windows update KB4015552. The radio crashed after 2 1/2 hours. A long press was required to bring the radio back online and all 8 slices returned to their original configuration.
Coincidence??
UPDATE: Rolled back Win7 Pro "April roll up" and had to do an "OKAY Power on Reset" to clear the crashing problem.
Coincidence??
UPDATE: Rolled back Win7 Pro "April roll up" and had to do an "OKAY Power on Reset" to clear the crashing problem.
(Edited)
I had my Maestro running today on 20M .... I left the room and came back about 15 minutes later and it was at the screen where you select the radio but there was no radio to select. I had to long press the start button to get a reboot then it was ok. This is version SmartSDR_v1.10.16 on a 6500. The radio has DC removed every night. First loss of connection since install. I had been using SmartSDR on my PC a little bit earlier running JT-65.
73
Bill
VA3QB
73
Bill
VA3QB
My 6500 also locked up today with the tone and needing the long power button push. Latest software and only other thing running on the computer was the wooden box S meter. This is the second time in two weeks that the lockup has occurred.
I've had 2 lockups running Maestro to 6700. Each required reboot of 6700 to restart. Rebooting Maestro did not help. At the time of each lockup, rig had been sitting idle for less than an hour -- nothing that I can associate with probable cause. Both Maestro and 6700 are connected directly to a 100mbs unmanaged ethernet switch (it has never ever lost a packet; always reads zero). I only run CW and SSB, no digital. Rig has been running ok for about 2 weeks since last lockup. I'm using version 1.10.16.
Watch the memory usage of SmartSDR. See if it is slowly climbing out of control.
If this is what is causing the failure, I believe I read that the folks at Flex are aware of the memory leak and have fixed it. The fix will be in the next software release.
If it is not related to the memory leak, then I guess it is an issue that still needs to be addressed.
If this is what is causing the failure, I believe I read that the folks at Flex are aware of the memory leak and have fixed it. The fix will be in the next software release.
If it is not related to the memory leak, then I guess it is an issue that still needs to be addressed.
Surely the memory leak would eventually cause the pc to crash not the radio itself and would require the pc to be rebooted and not the radio?
Either way, as an active contester on hf and vhf, a lack of reliabilty is a big issue. This is an issue that should be sorted in a maintenance release as soon as the solution is found, rather than being delayed for a new features or 2.0 release.
Either way, as an active contester on hf and vhf, a lack of reliabilty is a big issue. This is an issue that should be sorted in a maintenance release as soon as the solution is found, rather than being delayed for a new features or 2.0 release.
I agree with that one!
Just Had a lock up on 40 meters cw. In middle of a qso
Don...w2xb
Don...w2xb
The top fixes should be fixing the radio crash, dax corruption, ssdr memory leaks...
This is getting very old...
This is getting very old...
Thats for sure - very very old. Had to reset DAX again to make WSJTx transmit tones.
here's hoping . .
here's hoping . .
It happened again just flex and smartsdr. I had just cycled with power off and within a hour it occurred.
Tim - W4TME, Customer Experience Manager
I have a few questions.
1.) Are you running 1.10.16?
2.) Do you have any USB cables connected to the radio?
3.) To reboot the radio did it take a press and release of the power button or a press and hold (5-10 seconds) before the radio started powering down?
1.) Are you running 1.10.16?
2.) Do you have any USB cables connected to the radio?
3.) To reboot the radio did it take a press and release of the power button or a press and hold (5-10 seconds) before the radio started powering down?
1.) Are you running 1.10.16?
***yes
2.) Do you have any USB cables connected to the radio?
***yes SPE 1.3k
3.) To reboot the radio did it take a press and release of the power button or a press and hold (5-10 seconds) before the radio started powering down?
***Long Press
***yes
2.) Do you have any USB cables connected to the radio?
***yes SPE 1.3k
3.) To reboot the radio did it take a press and release of the power button or a press and hold (5-10 seconds) before the radio started powering down?
***Long Press
Tim - W4TME, Customer Experience Manager
If you do not mind doing a little troubleshooting since you seem to have the issue frequently, can you temporarily remove the USB cable from the radio and see if that makes a difference?
James, you are not alone. My 6700 will lock up just like yours and I have to hard press the radio to shut off and then turn it back on. I'm hoping 2.0 will solve this.
USB Cable is removed from Flex 6300, Fresh start at 7:10pm 5/4/2017
Lockup occurred with out USB Cables
Just slightly off topic and I did not want to start a new thread for this question but...
It is my understanding that SmartSDR will be announced at Hamvention 2017 but will it also be available for purchase during Hamvention or is just going to be the announcement?It has been hinted, but they are not confirming anything at this point. Best to monitor the board here on that Friday of Hamvention.
but will it fix the DAX corruption and radio crashes?....
Who is having lockups not using USB cables connected to their Flex
I just have the DV Dongle plugged into my USB. Maybe I should try taking it out.
No usb cables here; have lockups and DAX corruption...
Are OPs performing the two button count down reboot after a crash? Don't forget to have a copy of your profiles handy to restore.
My radio started crashing after a MS roll-up on Win7 Pro. Rolling back the OS update did not stop the crashing until I performed the two button reset. I am not using any USB devices.
My radio started crashing after a MS roll-up on Win7 Pro. Rolling back the OS update did not stop the crashing until I performed the two button reset. I am not using any USB devices.
I was having lock-ups with no USB cables but haven't had one for a few weeks now.
No USB cables in use here either. I have my 6300 up for sale and if it goes I will then decide whether to buy the 6700 as planned or to pick up something else as main contesting radio, depending on what has been resolved by then.
For the first time, today had a crash with the tone. The radio is running 1.10.16.91 PC is on Win7 Pro. No USB connections. The radio had been running for days. Needed a long press on the power button to stop the radio. SSDR was still running.
(Edited)
Bill W2PKY,
What is a two button reset?
Dave KB1WOD
What is a two button reset?
Dave KB1WOD
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.
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.
OK I am running a 6300. Thanks
check with FRS on how to reset 6300
Without going back and reading through all of the posts, I was wondering how many folks have performed a factory reset on their 6000 and still have had lock-ups?
I exported my profiles, performed a factory reset on my 6700, imported my profiles and haven't run into any more issues. It might just be a coincidence though.
Norm
I exported my profiles, performed a factory reset on my 6700, imported my profiles and haven't run into any more issues. It might just be a coincidence though.
Norm
After months of solid, no crash, performance on 1.10.16:
I did the April roll up Win7 Pro update and started having crashes on 1.10.16 ...
Rolled back the April OS updates and continued to experience crashes. Only after performing the factory reset [ two button reset] on my 6700 did the crashing stop until a week later when the radio experienced a crash with the tone. This is the first time ever experiencing the crash with the tone.
So at first I thought the factory reset had resolved the crashing situation, but was disappointed to see the follow-on crash.
I think it is advisable to perform the factory reset anytime the radio crashes.
Other than using a different Profile when it crashed with tone, nothing else was different on my 4790K PC.
I did the April roll up Win7 Pro update and started having crashes on 1.10.16 ...
Rolled back the April OS updates and continued to experience crashes. Only after performing the factory reset [ two button reset] on my 6700 did the crashing stop until a week later when the radio experienced a crash with the tone. This is the first time ever experiencing the crash with the tone.
So at first I thought the factory reset had resolved the crashing situation, but was disappointed to see the follow-on crash.
I think it is advisable to perform the factory reset anytime the radio crashes.
Other than using a different Profile when it crashed with tone, nothing else was different on my 4790K PC.
I've done 3 factory resets but the freeze still occurs.
Eric - KE5DTO, Official Rep
How many folks that have experienced this kind of long press lock up are running CW Skimmer (or DAX IQ)?
I almost always have a daxiq channel on a cw skimmer; Typically 1 skimmer.
I have never run a skimmer or DAXIQ on my 6700.
Eric: I am curious to know if SSDR can send any kind of command that might crash the radio? All my crashes revealed SSDR still viable but the radio required the long button reset. In fact to stop the frequent crashes after a Win7 Pro April roll-up I needed to do the two button count down reset to stop the frequent crashes.
The one crash with tone was shortly after changing to a profile that had not been used for a long time.
Radio has been running for days now with out issue.
Eric: I am curious to know if SSDR can send any kind of command that might crash the radio? All my crashes revealed SSDR still viable but the radio required the long button reset. In fact to stop the frequent crashes after a Win7 Pro April roll-up I needed to do the two button count down reset to stop the frequent crashes.
The one crash with tone was shortly after changing to a profile that had not been used for a long time.
Radio has been running for days now with out issue.
Eric - KE5DTO, Official Rep
I don't know of any commands that would crash the radio.
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.
Might need to contact the FPGA vendor and provide code and have them give it a once over.
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.
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?
Harry Williams
Harry
W0LS