MicroCodeStudioPlus keeps crashing.

[c_moore]

Hello I have PBP3 and MicroCode Studio Plus and MicroCode Studio keeps crashing. Is anyone else seeing this?

[HenrikOlsson]

Sure, several people have reported issues over the years but Melabs doesn't write that piece of software so they just point you to Mecanique who in turn claims they've never had such an issue and what they can't repeat they won't bother looking into. The general oppinion among those who HAVEN'T had a problem is that it's something specific with all the computers that DOES have a problem rather than with MCSP. Basically it sucks, big time. And proper integration into MPLABX is a mess without official and current documentation.

See, this thread and this thread for starters. And please please report it to Melabs, you might even want to call it in on their support line since apparently no one has done that before.

/Henrik.

[c_moore]

Hello Henrik,

Thanks for the info. I would think also that Charles would get involved as it is the IDE for his compiler. I will contact David and see what he says. Thanks.

[picster]

I too, have this issue intermittently (and extremely annoyingly). Part of the problem is reliable reproduction of the crash. I'm thinking it may have something to do with having 2 video processors on the Dell XPS laptop I've been using (one being NVIDIA), so am about to try another laptop to see if it resolves it. I'll let you know if I see any difference.

If you find anything else out, please post it here.

Thanks

[HenrikOlsson]

Yeah, just spent an hour trying to help Bill in this thread and the bloody thing crashed 5 times during that period.
I'm farily sure it does not crash if just left sitting there, it always seems to be when I'm typing.

I'm starting to think it MIGHT have something to do with the serial terminal but I'm far from certain.

/Henrik.

[Normnet]

Anyone interested in FineLineIDE please PM me and I will provide a download link for the latest FineLineIDE BETA. FL is easy to trial as it can be simply cut copied, pasted or deleted as all FL files are contained within the directory of your choice. FL is also free as in free beer.

Norm

[picster]

Mine never crashes when "sitting idle", always when typing, most often when typing comments (?) maybe because I type a lot of them.

Is anyone else who is experiencing this issue using a dual-video card machine? Mine has both "NVIDIA GeForce GT 550M" and "Intel HD Graphics Family" listed under Display adapters (Device Manager), running Win7/64 - DELL XPS L702X

Any hardware similarities here that are shared by others with this cursed problem?

[c_moore]

I did contact David about it and he indicated he would look into it. I have not herd any thing about.

[picster]

Had my first crash on another system after having used it for about 3 weeks... same old same old - ALWAYS seems to happen when typing in 'comments. I am beginning to wonder if it's related to the formatting properties that are set for comments, changing the color to green and the font to italics. Any ideas on that one? I know it's obscure but... it ALWAYS seems to happen while typing comments. I have now set to standard text for comments (NOT italics) to see if it makes a difference.

[astanapane]

im always about to purchase the PBP3, but i see it is not worth it as many people having a problem. Why the MicroStudio Plus is seperated than the PBP3 silver or gold?

In case they fix the issue with all the crashes and i would like to give it a try, then i have to purchase both PBP3 Silver or Gold and the Microcode Studio plus?

[HenrikOlsson]

To be clear: The problem has nothing to do with PBP3, it works fine and is Worth every cent IMHO.
The problem is with MCSPX - which you don't HAVE to use (but it's damn handy when it doesn't crash). Why not start with using the free version of MicroCodeStudio and see if it works on your machine Before possibly upgrading to MCSPX?

/Henrik.

[picster]

It's far too early to be definitive, BUT since I changed the default font from italic to normal for 'comments, I have NOT witnessed a crash. Before that I noted that it seemed to always occur while I was typing comments/remarks, hence the font was being processed and changed on the fly accordingly. I'll advise if I see another crash.

[picster]

It's far too early to be definitive, BUT since I changed the default font from italic to normal for 'comments, I have NOT witnessed a crash. Before that I noted that it seemed to always occur while I was typing comments/remarks, hence the font was being processed and changed on the fly accordingly. I'll advise if I see another crash.

If others can try this too, to see if it works for them, it would help to determine if it's just one of those "lucky streaks" or not. Save often

[HenrikOlsson]

I'll certainly give this a try when I'm coding PBP next time. Thanks!

[astanapane]

first of all i would like to try the silver edition. But i would also like to try the microcode studio if it is fixed for crashing.

Then, i realized that when i push on the silver version icon in case i would like to buy it (£76.40) : i get the following error.

404 Error: File Not Found

The requested file may no longer exist,
or it may have been moved

Please visit our site: www.crownhill.co.uk
In this site i get a different price, including VAT goes up to: (£117.97 Inc. VAT) = 138.287099 EUR or 146.414091 USD. Not good, not good at all. This way makes plenty of people to look for an alternative method to have the PBP3 and Microcode Plus.

Can anyone explain please?

[HenrikOlsson]

I can tell you that MCSPX is not "fixed" as there's been no new version for several years. If you're among the lucky ones where it doesn't crash - great. If you're among the ones where it does crash I'm at this point fairly sure you either going to have to live with it or find another IDE.

I've just built myself a new computer, running Windows10, it's going to be interesting to see if it continues to act up.

I don't quite understand what you mean regarding the pricing. Are you saying that you think it's expensive in general or are you saying that the price is different than on some other site? Where does it say £76.40?
Buying directly from MeLabs is $119.95+VAT which puts in the same ballpark figuring 20-25% VAT.

If you want free you can always use the Student edition, 9 supported PICs 12F, 16F and 18F families. Or you can look at the free version of Proton which supports 19 different PICs.

/Henrik.

[Ioannis]

There is always the alternative of the FL IDE by Norm.

Ioannis

[Normnet]

There is always the alternative of the FL IDE by Norm.

Ioannis

See v3.3 at FineLineIDE Wiki
FineLineIDE is a one folder install (no registry entry's) so you can cut, copy or delete as you wish.
FL saves a recovery file every 30 seconds and prompt’s to restore on restart if improper shutdown or crash.

Also beta testers needed for 3.76
Added line step which allows stepping back and forth through previous lines with out utilizing undo or redo.
Now 10 programmer tabs in place of 5.
Added capability to program from a hex file from any programmer tab.
Added "My highlighter" for user specified highlighting of specific text for color, bold, italic and underline.
Unicode now supported (non English text).
FineLineIDE BETA v3.76 download
Change .xyz extension to .exe

Please discuss FL on the PicBasic FineLineIDE forum


Norm

[Demon]

Does it still crash if you run as administrator?

[picster]

Try turning off italics for comments... so far so good here.

[picster]

Crashes in admin mode or not... try turning off italics for remarks... that's my latest attempt in circumventing the problem.

[picster]

Just crashed - so much for the italics theory. HOWEVER, this was STILL a case of crashing while I was typing in a comment field, which ALWAYS seems to be the case. (cross-posted)

[Ioannis]

Hmm, Comments are necessary of course. What if you type the comments this way:

keep typing WITHOUT the ; or ' and after finishing typing get back to the first character and type the ; or ' symbol.

Not the best idea but maybe it will help until the problem is solved.

Ioannis

[picster]

This is still happening. It seems to come in fits and spurts, no issues for a couple of weeks, then bam, crash after crash of the program. Excessively annoying, particularly when there's no time-based autosave built-in. Yesterday I had about 8 program crashes before I walked away.

Has anyone experiencing this incessant problem tried any of the following and STILL had a MCSP crash:

1) running it as the ONLY program? I usually have a couple of other programs running (typically have a web browser open as well as a PDF for the PIC I'm using)

2) disconnecting from the internet and running only while disconnected? Keeps other programs from doing their own online thing?

3) concurrent with #2, disable Microsoft Security Essentials (or other)?

I'm thinking of doing all 3 at once to see if it possibly helps.

This is paid software, and it's utter *BS* that this should be an issue for a number of people who have paid to use it and are being plagued with this problem. I know it's *not* an MELabs product, but perhaps MELabs could step in and put some pressure on since it's a "cooperative" product that's advertised for use with PBPx (hence pointing there for sales).

[Archangel]

This is paid software, and it's utter *BS* that this should be an issue for a number of people who have paid to use it and are being plagued with this problem. I know it's *not* an MELabs product, but perhaps MELabs could step in and put some pressure on since it's a "cooperative" product that's advertised for use with PBPx (hence pointing there for sales).

You know how difficult it is to write a program for a pic and have it work, ALWAYS work for your specific PIC which has NO OTHER programs working the background. Any program you write for a PIC is a thousand times more simple than any program running on a PC
Now Imagine your program must run on every PIC without modification, while other programs demand the same resources.
There are application and programs that do not play well with others, especially anti virus software. You can do things to assist MCS, like give it higher permissions than some other programs, also change the mode it's running in WIN ,XP,98 etc. In this case BS might mean Better stratagy In ANY event getting mad or frustrated is anti useful.
sometimes Youtube crashes our computer Full on BSOD and no other ap does this.

[picster]

You know how difficult it is to write a program for a pic and have it work, ALWAYS work for your specific PIC which has NO OTHER programs working the background. Any program you write for a PIC is a thousand times more simple than any program running on a PC
Now Imagine your program must run on every PIC without modification, while other programs demand the same resources.
There are application and programs that do not play well with others, especially anti virus software. You can do things to assist MCS, like give it higher permissions than some other programs, also change the mode it's running in WIN ,XP,98 etc. In this case BS might mean Better stratagy In ANY event getting mad or frustrated is anti useful.
sometimes Youtube crashes our computer Full on BSOD and no other ap does this.

Perhaps without the benefit of context and reviewing the history of background postings, my prior post might seem disrespectful or overly judgmental.

A couple of things of note here for your consideration. First, I'm not attacking MELABS software. PBP itself is, and always has been, in my experience, reliable, responsive and supportive to users who report bugs or problems. My beef is not with MELABS' product. For me, this development system was an investment for small business. I've owned PBP for years, and faithfully upgraded to keep current a number of times.

The second item I would like to point out is that many of us who use PBP also have experience with computer programming for Windows, and the compatibility speech is therefore somewhat unnecessary. There are simple rules of thumb to follow for maximizing compatibility with users' systems during development, and I'm sure I don't need to expand on that because it would be an exercise in redundant information to any experienced programmer. I have personally had this issue on three different computers each with a different CPU and differing video hardware, and I've fiddled and messed with settings ad nauseam so it's not like I haven't tried to do what I can to make things better on my end.

Thirdly, my "calling BS on Mecanique" and hoping for some intervention from MELABS is a last resort after literally YEARS with this known problem being experienced by numerous programmers here, some of whom are quite prolific, well respected in the PBP community, and senior in rank. I have personally posted about this several times, in more than one forum topic on the subject, to no avail, in hopes of getting some help (as have others). The official Mecanique line seems to be "I can't replicate the problem". It is my hope that someone with some leverage steps up to the plate here. The comparison to YouTube implies that I should expect the same level of reliability in a paid product that I use for small business as I get from a free product that I use for entertainment. One might consider such a comparison, to be "anti-useful, and in the same boat as the systematic lack of validation regarding a repeatedly documented problem that continues to be lurking for people who are merely trying to develop products using a MELABS product in concert with a MELABS promoted development tool by others. Again, it's not like I haven't tried here, as have others. If you can sense frustration, then it's for a good reason. But it's taken a long journey to get to this point, which I believe may have either been overlooked, or perhaps it's merely information that you've not been privy to.

I trust this helps to clarify that I recognize the challenges and lines of delineation here. My point is, Mecanique doesn't seem to be actively pursuing any resolve, and in my estimation it doesn't reflect well on MELABS who continue to flog a sister product that they don't support (and that seems poorly supported by the developer, in that this issue has gone unresolved for years with no sign of change, to the point of some people altogether abandoning their paid software for other alternatives). It was my hope that MELABS could step up and try to move things forward, considering the history and the continued lack of viable solution. After all, it would only serve to support and help MELABS customers who are loyal to their product base.

[Dave]

I'm Sorry but I believe there is something else that is loaded on your machines that is creating the problems. I have used MCS since back when PBP2.6 was around (even before this thread was started) and have used MCPX since PBP3.0 shipped. I now use MCSPX with PBP 3.1 and have NEVER had MCSPX or and previously available version crash. I currently have licenses for and loaded on 1 XP machine 2 Windows 7 machines and 1 Windows 10 machine. Maybe you all should start looking somewhere else for the problem. IMHO...

[Ioannis]

Does this problem happen also in Windows safe mode?

Ioannis

[Dave]

I never run Windows in safe mode. No need....

[Ioannis]

Dave, I was asking picster if had tried to run Windows in Safe Mode and see if the MCS still crashes.

Ioannis

[Dave]

Sorry for my interruption Ioannis, I thought you were talking to me....

[Ioannis]

No problem. I should have directed to picster.

Running in Safe Mode is a good way to check if other programs do interfere in the MCS operation.

Ioannis

[mpgmike]

How do you get Windows 10 to run in Safe Mode? I don't have issues with MCS, but Visual Studio hangs on me. If I run Debug, stop Debug, make changes and try to build & Debug again, 2 files cannot overwrite. I have to shut VS down and start it again to get Debug to work. Maybe Safe Mode would help this.

[Ioannis]

On Win-10 the procedure to enter Safe Mode is different now. Look here for a few ways:

https://www.digitalcitizen.life/4-wa...ode-windows-10

Ioannis

[picster]

Trying now, running it after a "clean boot" process (via msconfig dialog/tabs/checkboxes)... will report back.

[picster]

Trying now, running it after a "clean boot" process (via msconfig dialog/tabs/checkboxes)... will report back.

Nope, still crashes. Same old same old. Trying it in Safe Mode is somewhat pointless seeing as the visual interface will be horrendous, it's not anywhere near usable that way.

Maybe I'll try sandboxing it.

[Charlie]

Nope, still crashes. Same old same old. Trying it in Safe Mode is somewhat pointless seeing as the visual interface will be horrendous, it's not anywhere near usable that way.

Maybe I'll try sandboxing it.

It's not pointless if it helps find the problem. Nobody was suggesting that as a permanent solution. These problems are usually incompatibility with a driver somewhere.

[Ioannis]

OK, safe mode did not help. What Antivirus you have installed? While offline can you disable it?

Ioannis

[picster]

It's not pointless if it helps find the problem. Nobody was suggesting that as a permanent solution. These problems are usually incompatibility with a driver somewhere.

Yes but it's unusable in safe mode. Sometimes it will go a few days or so without crashing. Other times it will crash 3 times in 10 minutes. With the level of tech support provided, if it works in safe mode, the conclusion will only be "use it in safe mode" and I'm not at all willing to do that. Have you SEEN your screen in safe mode lately?

[picster]

OK, safe mode did not help. What Antivirus you have installed? While offline can you disable it?

Ioannis

Microsoft Security Essentials. Already tried disabling it and unfortunately, MCS crashes regardless.