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[jeth]

 

Recently, when ActiveHome Pro stopped working I reinstlled it after receiving links to the latest copies of it and my three plugins.

However, after installation, Internet Explorer failed with an error popup about an error writing to memory.  This occurred both from within X10 functions and also when I tried to use IE with ActiveHome disconnected.

I tried reinstalling IE, but this didn't help. 

So I uninstalled ActiveHome and reverted to my most recent restore point.  IE then worked OK.

Just to verify that the problem was with X10, I went to a different machine and took a new restore point immediately before installing ActiveHome Pro there.  IE was working fine then, but immediately after installing ActiveHome and the plugins, IE stopped working on that machine too, but there it just hung with no error popup.

So I uninstalled ActiveHome, found that IE still didn't work, but when I went to that restore point I had made just before the ActiveHome installation, IE worked fine again.

So the problem definitely is related to X10, but I don't know if it is the base program or one of the plugins that causes the problem.   I have Smart Macros, iWatch Out, and MyHouse Online.  I should have OnAlert also, but I was given the link to restore that again.

[Dan Lawrence]

I suspect your PC is running very low on memory.  I have both Firefox and IE and AHP does not affect it, nor does IE refuse to work.

[jeth]

I would have thought of that except for the fact that I do have 4G of RAM, and also that even when I uninstalled ActiveHome, IE still failed until I went back to a prior restore point.

When I have some more time, I'll try installing just ActiveHome w/o any plugins, and see if that causes the failure by itself.  If it doesn't, then I'll add the plugins one at a time.

It's not a quick process though when I have to go to a prior restore to get things going periodically.

[Knightrider]

Picture, if you will, a world in which the corrupt download of a single piece of software were able to corrupt other programs on your machine.  A world in which a coveted home automation program becomes twisted and warped and unusable.  A program that can change registry entries that other programs rely on making them, too, unusable.  There's the signpost up ahead. Your computer is about to enter:
"The Twilight Zone"

 


I'd try  a fresh download.

[jeth]

Thanks.....I may not have made it clear that I was working with a fresh download of the four bootstrap files (124 to 128KB each).  The actual installation files weren't downloaded until I started the bootstrap files and obviously they are much larger.   

I half agree with their reasoning for not distributing the software with the hardware so that you will always get the most recent version.  But the other hald says it would be better for many people of you could download the actual installation files and keep them available for other machines.  This would in no way affect their ability to control them because you still need the registration codes to complete the installation. 

Even MS, as annoying as they often get, gives you the option of downloading the full service pack files for XP so you don't have to repeat a long download if you have multiple machines. 

And I cited my memory incorrectly; I only have 3G, which of course is all a 32M XP machine can handle anyway.

[jeth]

Picture, if you will, a world in which the corrupt download of a single piece of software were able to corrupt other programs on your machine.  A world in which a coveted home automation program becomes twisted and warped and unusable.  A program that can change registry entries that other programs rely on making them, too, unusable.  There's the signpost up ahead. Your computer is about to enter:
"The Twilight Zone"

ABSOLUTELY!   That's why I loved my original OS.........OS/2!    Although it had a registry like feature, it was used primarily for system information.     Application-specific information was kept with the applications itself, usually in some sort of INI file. 

And application crashes almost always affected nothing else except themselves.  OS/2 kept right on running.

Unfortunately the IBM manager responsible for the initial PC effort died in a plane crash, and no one else had his foresight or thought that the PC would ever go as far as it has.

[jeth]

 

I went off topic there in my last post, sorry....   

Back to the original problem.  I have no replicated it four times; three on one desktop and once on another.  I am not going to endanger my laptop because I may need to keep IE around on at least one machine.

On all but the last test, I was able to restore my system to a point where IE would start working again by going to a Windows restore point prior to the first installation of Active Home Pro.

On this desktop, the IE failure is not showing up now as an unexpected error when IE starts, and the first details available show the following:
   AppName:  iexplore.exe     AppVer:  7.0.6000.16827       ModName:  msvcrt.dll
   ModVer:  7.0.2600.5512    Offset:  00036fa3

I'm not sure how the version references to 7 relate to my IE which is IE8.   

Now after I uninstall AHP, and try to go back to the same restore point which used to get IE working again, I get a message that the restore point fails.  Likewise if I try to go back to three or four earlier ones.  I may be doing something out of order with respect to the restore points thing; I'm not sure.

The major reason this becomes a serious problem is that without IE, there's no way to get at the MS updates, and even though they will be restricted to only very serious security items for XP, there are still some showing up often for Office.

I forgot to check....is AHP even checked out with IE8? 

[Brian H]

I would doubt X10 has had a chance to test AHP with IE8 and if you have XP's Automatic Update turned on. Microsoft calls it a "Critical Update" and you get it automatically.
So ladies and gentlemen. We maybe seeing more of this. 

[HA Dave]

I would doubt X10 has had a chance to test AHP with IE8 and if you have XP's Automatic Update turned on. Microsoft calls it a "Critical Update" and you get it automatically.
So ladies and gentlemen. We maybe seeing more of this. 

I had avoided the IE8 myself... only because I wondered if it would require me to add more RAM (SDRAM). I think... if memory serves me correctly... previous editions of windows products were often made obsolete by the browsers they could use.

IE8 may not be the last nail in the XP coffin.... but it is a reminder of just how long XP has been around.

[x10dude]

I've had AHP for a while and last week moved to IE8 w/out a single problem. It's quite possible that there may be another factor in the equation, or possibly the order in which these apps were installed? BTW, I've even reinstalled AHP after having IE8 since AHP slows down to a crawl every 24 hours. I still haven't figured out what's going on with AHP, but I do know it's not IE8 since this issue was going on before the IE update.

Today, i noticed that stopping the AHP services and restarting them brings the machine to its normal state.. hmm...

[jeth]

Thanks, X10dude,

The parts about stopping and restarting the X10 services and the slowdown sound interesting.  They make it sound like AHP may have a memory leak problem. 

But since I am still having the problem with IE8 crashing "after" having uninstalled AHP that shouldn't be the case here.  Unless of course the uninstall left some remnants that I didn't notice.   Not uncommon as many applications don't clean up everything as they should in their uninstall process.

[x10dude]

jeth,

which version of AHP are you running? If it's the latest, that may be the problem. I had lots of "weird" stuff after I first installed AHP 3.236. After I moved to 3.228, my system ran w/out any problems for almost 3 months until the recent issues, which have me puzzled at the moment.

Also, I believe 3.236 now installs a new set of drivers, which you'd find in the installed apps as "x10drivers". Note that those DO NOT get removed by AHP, and for whatever reason, whether you have AHP running or not, they are always loaded.

Double check that you don't have those drivers installed and make sure the AHP services are removed/turned off after you uninstall it.