HouseBot

Dear All,



I installed HouseBot yesterday and it was working fine. I had to reboot my machine today and now Housbot doesn't get past the splash initialisation screen.



I'm running Win2000 Advanced Server, latest version of Housebot (downloaded yesterday). This happens every time I start up HouseBot. I have since tried rebooting too, but the problem still happens.



Please find attached the dump file below.



Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.



Cheers,



Dave





====== Begin Dump - Sunday, September 21, 2003 10:22:31 ======

Server Version = 1.50



==================================

======== House Server Thread =======

==================================

Thread Type = Main UI Thread

Thread ID = 204

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION

Fault address: 7802A9C5 01:000299C5 C:\WINNT\system32\MSVCRT.DLL



Registers:

EAX:FFFFF737

EBX:0726BA48

ECX:00000009

EDX:0000000B

ESI:00000000

EDI:0012FCDC

CS:EIP:001B:7802A9C5

SS:ESP0012FCB8 EBP:0012FCC0

DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:003B GS:0000

Flags:00010246



Call stack:

Address Frame

7802A9C5 0012FCC0 wcsftime+117

7802A817 0012FD00 mktime+1D1

004CA2DA 00000001 0001:000C92DA C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe





====== End Dump ======

It all seems fine now

Hi Scott,



I posted a message a couple of days ago after I couldn't get Housebot to run after a reboot. This seemed to be resolved by installing Service Pack 4 onto my Win2000 Advanced Server.



I got home today and found that Housebot wasn't running. I realise that its a problem with my pc and and/or software that's installed but was wondering if you can shed any light on whats happening from the dump file below.



Cheers,



Dave





====== Begin Dump - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 00:00:00 ======

Server Version = 1.50



==================================

======== House Server Thread =======

==================================

Thread Type = Device Thread [System Time]

Thread ID = 510

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION

Fault address: 004C60FF 01:000C50FF C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe



Registers:

EAX:00000000

EBX:0792E98C

ECX:0792E998

EDX:00A03DF8

ESI:0792E998

EDI:0792E998

CS:EIP:001B:004C60FF

SS:ESP07D0FE30 EBP:0792E980

DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:0038 GS:0000

Flags:00010246



Call stack:

Address Frame

004C60FF 0792E980 0001:000C50FF C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe

0727B7A0 0053169C 0000:00000000

004CA4C0 004C9CE0 0001:000C94C0 C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe

FFFFFF58 E8F18B56 0000:00000000





====== End Dump ======

It is happening at 12:00 midnight ....I just set my clock forward to 11.59 and watched it generate a new Dump file.



I hope this sheds some light on why it might be doing something particularly at midnight?



Cheers,



Dave

And now it just crashes 4 seconds after starting up everytime....I promise I've not changed anything !!



Does it access files or the registry when starting up ?



Thanks in advance once again,



Dave



====== Begin Dump - Wednesday, September 24, 2003 09:52:16 ======

Server Version = 1.50



==================================

======== House Server Thread =======

==================================

Thread Type = Device Thread [System Time]

Thread ID = 7A8

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION

Fault address: 004C60FF 01:000C50FF C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe



Registers:

EAX:00000000

EBX:072C565C

ECX:072C5668

EDX:00A03DF8

ESI:072C5668

EDI:072C5668

CS:EIP:001B:004C60FF

SS:ESP0788FE30 EBP:072C5650

DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:0038 GS:0000

Flags:00010246



Call stack:

Address Frame

004C60FF 072C5650 0001:000C50FF C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe

07260AC8 0053169C 0000:00000000

004CA4C0 004C9CE0 0001:000C94C0 C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe

FFFFFF58 E8F18B56 0000:00000000





====== End Dump ======

Dave,



In looking quickly at the dump files, it does seem to be a problem related to the system time. I some new functionality in version 1.50 to allow the user to choose their own time format.



Have you changed the time and date format at all?



If possible, could you send me the the registry settings in the "\HKLM\Software\CEBotics\HouseBot\Date Formats" section? I can step you through getting these if your unfamiliar with the REGEDIT application.



Thanks,

Scott

Ok here's the settings



Default : REG_SZ : (value not set)

Date : REG_SZ : %#m/%#d/%Y

DateAndTime : REG_SZ : %#m/%#d/%Y %#I:%M:%S ^f

Time : REG_SZ : %#I:%M:%S ^f

TimeNoSec : REG_SZ : %#I:%M ^f



Thanks in advance Scott



Cheers,



Dave

Dave,



Unfortunately the registry settings didn't reveal anything out of the ordinary as I had hoped.



I looked at the program dump and found where it is crashing. I can't say that I understand why it is, or why it wouldn't do it on every machine. However, I was able to make a minor tweak that may fix the problem for you.



Please download this file. Unzip it and copy it into your existing \HouseBot directory. It will overwrite the existing HouseBotServer.exe file (you may want to backup the old one before overwriting it).



Let me know how it works for you.



Scott

Hi Scott,



Sorry but it didn't fix the problem. It appears to have shutdown at 12am again.



Now when I start it up it closes down automatically 5 seconds after starting.



I have reinstalled Win2000 Pro and am running as Administrator.



I've a feeling this only happened after I was trying to get it to run in the task bar, and was experiencing the same as others (the setting would not keep their values).



Cheers,



Dave



====== Begin Dump - Sunday, September 28, 2003 00:00:00 ======

Server Version = 1.51a



==================================

======== House Server Thread =======

==================================

Thread Type = Device Thread [System Time]

Thread ID = 464

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION

Fault address: 004C61CF 01:000C51CF C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe



Registers:

EAX:00000000

EBX:072CCDA4

ECX:072CCDB0

EDX:00A03D40

ESI:072CCDB0

EDI:072CCDB0

CS:EIP:001B:004C61CF

SS:ESP07A8FE30 EBP:072CCD98

DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:0038 GS:0000

Flags:00010246



Call stack:

Address Frame

004C61CF 072CCD98 0001:000C51CF C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe

07263D40 0053169C 0000:00000000

004CA590 004C9DB0 0001:000C9590 C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe

FFFFFF58 E8F18B56 0000:00000000





====== End Dump ======

Dave,



To give me a clue, could you remove the "^f" from the time and date strings in the time and date format settings (in the program options dialog) and see if it still crashes?



Thanks,

Scott

Hi Scott,



I made the changes you suggested but it did the same thing at midnight last night. I also left it running maximised, rather than minimizing to the the task bar.



It looks like Redbeard has the same problem too now.



How difficult would it be to compile a version for us to test which has debug code in to write out to the log ?



Cheers,



Dave

Dave,



Redbeard's problems are similar, but not exactly like yours. However, since they both seem to have appeared around the same time and there is some evidence in his traces of similarities to your problem, they could both have the same root cause.



It's tough to track down because I can't duplicate the problem and the dumps aren't revealing enough. The area that your dump seems to point to is a new pice of code (therefore very suspicious), but I can not see anything wrong with it. This particular piece of code executes every second, so it's not really a good candidate for tracing.



We'll get to the source, I just need to keep chipping away at it.



Could you send me your HBData.mdb file? Maybe there's something in your configuration that is causing this problem. Although I won't be able to actually run your system, the config file may shed some light for me.



Also, any additional dump files that you may have would be helpful. Send everything to [email protected].



Please download this zip file. It contains a new HouseBot server and SystemTime plugin. Copy them over their existing modules (in different directories) and let me know the results.



The new SystemTime plugin has some additional tracing. To activate the tracing, click on the "Log" node in the "System Time" Device. Then select the "Settings" tab and click on the "File" checkbox and add a trace file name. This will only trace out data at 12 midnight (when you are seeing one of the problems). It's difficult to determine where to add tracing, since the problem seems to be related to the "System Time" Device, which is VERY active. I can't really trace data every second, so I'm hoping that since you can reproduce the problem at midnight we may be able to catch it with some tracing there.



Also in the new HouseBotServer.exe, I have removed a piece of new code that looks suspicious in the dump files. It is a piece of code that precesses the "^f" code in the time strings and converts it to "am/pm". Therefore, this version will show "^f" in the time output.



Let me know how it goes,

Scott

Hi Scott,



Thanks once again for the prompt response....I've applied those changes and I simulated midnight and the problem was fixed. I reset the clock and waited for midnight to approach in its own due course and the problem has been fixed.



It's been running for over 12 hours now with no issues.



Will you be releasing a general version or should I stick with this one ?



Cheers,



Dave

Dave,



I'm glad it's fixed for you, but I'm at a bit of a loss to explain why. I can see nothing wrong with the code I removed... very strange.



Anyway, I rewrote the 3 lines of code (big deal) to parse the ^f characters in the time strings to am/pm. I also made one other small change that may have had something to do with it (but I really doubt it).



Can you test this updated HouseBotServer.exe file and let me know if it now works AND parses the ^f's into am/pm in the time strings.



You may want to keep a backup copy of the one that is working for you now in case the new replacement doesn't work.



Let me know the outcome.



Thanks,

Scott

Hi Scott.....guess what...when I got home today from work....Housebot wasn't running



It appeared to shut down at 10am exactly



Here's the Dumo file. Do you know what MSVCRT.DLL is used for ?



P.S I've just got myself a wireless card for my IPAQ and have been having great fun remotely controlling my lights !!! This software ROCKS !!





Cheers,



Dave



====== Begin Dump - Tuesday, September 30, 2003 10:00:00 ======

Server Version = 1.51a



==================================

======== House Server Thread =======

==================================

Thread Type = Device Thread [System Time]

Thread ID = 3B4

Exception code: C0000005 ACCESS_VIOLATION

Fault address: 78029033 01:00028033 C:\WINNT\system32\MSVCRT.DLL



Registers:

EAX:FFFFF1F0

EBX:071D9100

ECX:00000009

EDX:0000000B

ESI:00000000

EDI:07A8FDC0

CS:EIP:001B:78029033

SS:ESP07A8FD9C EBP:07A8FDA4

DS:0023 ES:0023 FS:0038 GS:0000

Flags:00010246



Call stack:

Address Frame

78029033 07A8FDA4 mktime+19E

78028EA0 07A8FDE4 mktime+B

004CA35A 00000001 0001:000C935A C:\Program Files\HouseBot\HouseBotServer.exe





====== End Dump ======