Eugene

Not a bad option, Sean. Avast does have a "Silent/Gaming" mode, that suppresses popup messages or the effect of alt-tabbing out of a game. Might be similar? But something like this was disguising Avast's termination of SBP for me (no UI running in the background), so not always the best idea? I'm just relieved SBP is baaaaack! Thanks again. Eugene

Solved! Email with details sent. Sean thought to try without Avast AV, despite the fact that it has been running along with SBP for the past year or two, and the fact that SBP runs on my old computer, also with Avast AV, and doesn't CTD. But that's what it was. I can't get Avast to launch its UI in the background at boot, although the service is running and doing its watchdog thing. Like Real Time scanning. But apparently, no warnings or termination reports are triggered without that UI and its little icon displaying in the lint tray on the desktop. When I disabled real time scanning, SBP ran. I made an exception for SBP, re-enabled the scanners, and SBP continues to run - and defaulted to the windowed mode as you said, and unlike the several installs I made over the past week. Then why didn't SBP get crunched for the last year by Avast, regardless of the issue with pop up warnings not displaying? SBP was very recently patched up from the major expansion of this cycle. And Avast auto updates its virus definitions each week. These two things collided - silently - this week. Why didn't my other install of SBP - on my wife's computer that also runs Avast - also CTD? It's an older version of SBP I stopped using quite a while ago when I gave that machine to her. That SBP executable and the current Avast definitions don't clash, so no pop up to let me know that was the cause. I apologize for taking up so much of your time on what turned out to be a pretty simple solution! Kind of a weird combination of events colliding to create a fog of war... But thanks for your patience and assistance. Eugene

Sure - That sounds really good - maybe point towards a solution. Thank you! You want me to wait and send an email on the day of the 30th? Let me know what to include, or just a reminder of this problem?

Status currently - Wibu has reviewed the Dust utility log, pronounced the dongle/licensing to be fine, no problems. Sean reviewed the Windows Application Event log, no relevant issues there either. Ditching the options and records files temporarily didn't fix the problem. The problem struck between this past Monday and the previous Monday. Windows monthly updates installed without incident that Wednesday, which caught my attention. But I did a restore point for Windows prior to that, with no joy. Alien invasion precursor? Zombie Apocalypse growing from within SBP and about to emerge??

Well, it was worth a try :-(

Thanks, Retro - will give that a try. Fingers crossed. (whatever THAT means!)

For the heck of it, here is an event log from the point of plugging in the dongle to launching SBP and it crashing. Anyone see anything that might indicate what is causing the ctd's? What jumped out to me is that at the last time stamp, it seems to report that the dongle has been unplugged (or plugged in?). But I haven't touched it, just watched SBP crash. However, I don't know if this would be what one normally sees in the log, after exiting the sim normally. 2012-05-15 22:23:01: Removable Device has been plugged IN! 2012-05-15 22:23:01: Detecting CmContainer with Serial Number 1-1047390 2012-05-15 22:23:03: CmDongle has been plugged in (currently found 1)! 2012-05-15 22:23:03: Removable Device state has been changed! 2012-05-15 22:23:03: Found new entries: 2 2012-05-15 22:23:27: Access from 192.168.10.104 to FC:PC=100146:11081 with StationShare Mode (Handle 130) 2012-05-15 22:23:49: Handle 130 automatically released (not longer valid) 2012-05-15 22:23:50: Removable Device has been plugged IN/OUT! 2012-05-15 22:23:50: Removable Device state has been changed! 2012-05-15 22:23:50: Removable Device state has been changed!

Thanks, Gibsonm - no one nearby who has this, but as you say, the remote use of the dongle seems to eliminate it as the cause. My USB ports are working for other devices, as usual - flight stick. Tried the dongle in different ports when this first happened. The Code meter control center recognizes the dongle, registers it as enabled. I don't get the message "No codemeter stick detected, please check your USB connection" or similar, that occurs when the stick is not plugged in. I get to the main menu usually, and then the program CTDs. No changes made to Windows by me, directly,since it worked last week. And no power management enabled. ONE OTHER ISSUE: although this didn't apparently prevent months and months of SBP MP sessions, hosting and as client, my stick's firmware is at 1.15, and the Control Center check for update will not connect. I have tried everything I can think of, in terms of ports, DMZ, but it fails to connect. Can't tell if there is a manual method for updating the firmware, or whether it matters. And I doubt the failure to connect to the update server could prevent my local sim session from starting up...but then, I don't really know that for sure. Any chance that cookies have to be enabled in one's browser, at a very low security level, in order for this to work? I tried with Firefox cookies enabled, and with Windows explorer enabled - no change in anything.

Update - dongle must be ok, since a friend is able to remotely connect using my dongle, and run his SBP without his codemeter stick connected. Now I am completely baffled. Must be something in Windows, or the config of SBP although I did reinstall it along with the current run time software. I also restored Windows to a point prior to the May Windows update, but that didn't solve the problem either. Arghhh!

Thanks Sean - message sent. Email addy updated also.

For no apparent reason I can think of, since my last MP session Monday a week ago, SBP won't run any longer. It sometimes gets to main menu but after several seconds, CTDs. Otherwise, the small rectangle window will popup but CTD before getting to the Main Window of SBPE. After trying various minor fix attempts (check other programs - all run fine; roll back Windows to an earlier point, prior to the May monthly Windows update...just to see; reinstall Codemeter software, etc) with no luck, I gave up and uninstalled everything: 1. Uninstall SBP 2. Uninstall Codemeter run time software 3. Reinstall latest Codemeter software (redownloaded 4.40b) 4. Reinstall 654 SBP from fresh download files (same version as I have been using) 5. Checked Codemeter to see whether dongle is showing up - yes, enabled. 6. Launch - same failure! I couldn't update the firmware - this is the only out of the ordinary event I can notice on the entire computer, SP or MP, apart from the SBP failure: checking for update: "Error WB5000 Connection to the update server failed. Please check the selected server name and your network connection". However, SBP ran just fine for many months - prior to and after the 654 update, and up until this Monday evening. Only think I can think of is that the dongle is damaged in some way. My machine and OS specs are below. Here is the CodeMeter Event log from after the fresh install: 2012-05-14 21:05:30: CodeMeter for Windows (B4.40.698.501.32.150) 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Running on Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (build 2600) 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Execution path: C:\Program Files\CodeMeter\Runtime\bin 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Found IPv4 address: 127.0.0.1 | 192.168.10.104 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Used Communication Mode: IPv4 SharedMemory 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Used IP address: default address 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Used IP port: 22350 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Multicast server search: not available 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Run as network server: no 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Run as system service: yes 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Box Access: use direct access mode 2012-05-14 21:05:30: A required service is not running. 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Removable Device state has been changed! 2012-05-14 21:05:30: Removable Device state has been changed! 2012-05-14 21:05:31: Access from 127.0.0.1 to SubSystem (Handle 16) 2012-05-14 21:05:31: Using security library version (US) 4.40.698.500 2012-05-14 21:05:31: Handle 16 released 2012-05-14 21:06:42: Removable Device has been plugged IN! 2012-05-14 21:06:43: Detecting CmContainer with Serial Number 1-1047390 2012-05-14 21:06:45: CmDongle has been plugged in (currently found 1)! 2012-05-14 21:06:45: Removable Device state has been changed! 2012-05-14 21:06:45: Found new entries: 2 2012-05-14 21:08:45: Access from 127.0.0.1 to FC:PC=100146:11081 with StationShare Mode (Handle 25) 2012-05-14 21:09:41: Handle 25 automatically released (not longer valid) 2012-05-14 21:10:28: Access from 127.0.0.1 to FC:PC=100146:11081 with StationShare Mode (Handle 27) 2012-05-14 21:10:44: Handle 27 automatically released (not longer valid) 2012-05-14 21:18:40: Access from 127.0.0.1 to IFI (Handle 32) 2012-05-14 21:18:40: Handle 32 released Can you suggest a fix? Should the dongle be replaced? I have not installed anything - software or hardware - on this machine since the last successful session with SBP online last week. Thanks! Eugene _________________________ Eugene CoreDuo E6850 MSI P6N 680i Diamond BFG N460 GTX Cyclone 1GD5 OC Forceware 285.58 X-Fi Xtreme Gamer WinXP Pro 2 gig RAM Saitek X52 PRO.

That is a well-traveled path in various industries with more or less complex means to adjust for that number. In my industry, the inflate number is about 10 times the actual negatives on a per incident basis. Yours is without doubt higher than what is reported unless your industry (software) is unique and it isn't. Your modifier might be 5x, or it might be 17x. You never know without market research - surveys of establised customer base as a starting point.

OK, thanks for that offer. I will assume that you guys know that there really are just a tiny percentage of your upgrade sales set of customers, nothing like 5% - and cases are diverse (not sure how that would be known w/o the data, but will take your word for it). My frustration has been that those of us I know that have had problems as well as some of those posting here had no trouble at all until the combination of upgrade and dongle patching. With no change in our computer configurations. Perhaps you know from experience what the "all other potential sources of trouble" consists of; the most common ones might be useful FAQ type info. But knowing that at least in several of the cases all was well previously and nothing in the user computer config has changed beyond the eSim items, does that narrow the potential trouble? Thanks again for the offer. I am hoping it won't be necessary.

Ssnake, I appreciate your reply. I do want to have a happily running SBP again and apparently will have to try what others say has not worked so far - getting your supplier to attempt to fix whatever in the combination of the new firm or software for the dongle has caused all of my built in USBs to no longer reliably recognize the dongle. I apologize for ventilating in public rather than in a pm but that is the rule set here. My frustration is that eSim does not appear to have any interest in taking leadership in investigating the issue with its supplier. I don't know how many upgrade sales have been made, and without a survey of that smaller set of SBP owners, we don't know how many have had the same problem. But unless the several that have reported troubles here are something like 4 or 5 out of 5,000 which I doubt, I'd prefer doing business with a company that took leadership in investigating the problem both for customer service reasons and for concern about implications for future upgrades. I get the feeling that eSim has not been in touch with its supplier/Wibu at all about this. Rather than a scattershot approach of "keep me posted", I would prefer eSim talking first with its supplier for the purpose of reporting the fact of the problems and obtaining a list of questions/information to obtain from any and all customers. Then post that here, casting a broader net and act as your customers' agent taking that collected uniformly organized data to your supplier for action. I don't mean this at all sarcastically - but if I buy a car and the next day I have starter/ignition trouble with it, the dealer doesn't tell me to go to the company's starter supplier in order to figure out how to get the car started, and to let him know how that goes. For the record, my components include: CoreDuo E6850 MSI P6N 680i Diamond BFG GTX260 216 cores - OC Maxcore 55 Forceware 191.07 X-Fi Xtreme Gamer WinXP Pro 2 gig RAM Saitek X52 PRO. The machine is a commercial Cyberpower custom built machine about two years old, with USB 2.0

Well, this is simply no good. I have supported by purchases and by successfully recommending to others SBP. I buy the next upgrade - no complaints that niche products may require additional fees over time for upgrades. All of a sudden, the REQUIRED hardware to run this not inexpensive product is broken. As a result of following directions including upgrading the hardware in all available respects (software and firmware). I am not alone. but when I ask for help, the response is polite but clearly - take it up with this product's supplier of hardware. This isn't add on hardware, or my flight stick or some third party unusual or unrelated hardware. It is the essential copy protection hardware eSim sells to its customers. I didn't buy copy protection from a third party, but from eSim. But when the system from eSim fails, I have to go to eSim's supplier? They are not solving this problem, and I can see why. Not their product. I have great respect for staff here, Ssnake especially because of his constant presence, service and normally helpful replies. I empathize with the facts of life of a smaller company. I was essentially a customer for life. But the response, "What am I supposed to do?" (about my product's system failing) leaves me cold. Given the design decision that lead to new versions being incompatible online with even immediately prior ones, and the requirement to purchase new versions which no longer can be counted on to work, this looks like an expensive niche product that might be headed towards extinction, if enough customers now and in the future are online oriented. That would be terrible and I don't want to see that happen. But this company is leaving me behind with a broken purchase, and unlikely to make any more impassioned recommendations to others. That's just a shame. But maybe the customer base is large enough that losing customers like me and for the same reason is not a very large attrition and so we can simply be writen off with no harm done except to the now former customer.