I got a blue screen on a Vista laptop while downloading code to my robot. Could the Vex software have caused it?
I’m occasionally crashing as well, but I don’t blue screen. The computer freezes up, the screen resolution goes strange, and the cursor is left on a black screen. After a few seconds, the whole system crashes and reboots.
Through trial and error, I’ve discovered that this only occurs when:
[LIST=1]
*]The orange usb-serial cable is plugged in (but not necessarily downloading)
*]There is music playing (WMP, VLC, etc. - no distinction)
*]I’m using Vista
[/LIST]
My team and I suspect there are compatibility issues with the usb-serial driver and my sound card, but we can’t know for sure. For now, keeping the music off seems to keep us out of trouble.
This sometimes happens to me when I am defraging my hard drive.
First blue screen on my Vista laptop. Downloading code: cable has to be connected. Vista laptop. My brother’s game may have had sound effects, but my computer’s speakers were muted.
I see the problem, youre using windows vista
/fail
I haven’t had any problems with my EasyC software - it’s worked very well on my Vista laptop. Although, I haven’t been playing music or anything else while I have been programming.
Some of the updates for Vista have kept EasyC from opening though so I have had to uninstall them.
That happened to me about a month ago, The only thing going on was a program that was downloading, I am using windows XP Pro, I think easy-c is a big memory hog, so is vista, so are music files, put it all together and it freezes up.
Memory violation… I guess so. 
The blue screen was a memory violation screen, so it makes sense.
Well, If we want someone can create a poll thread on if they’ve gotten a BSOD and how much ram they have.
I personally have 4 gb and haven’t BSODd yet with my vista machine.
I got another one when I was downloading improved code for my improved robot arm. Stupid… :mad::(:mad:
Whoops, didn’t include the RAM part in my poll.
Something of the sort happened to me. I was updating code when the cursor moved randomly and messed everything up and clicked everywhere. I got a blue screen. All because of faulty driver installation. Just reinstall it.
I have programmed plenty of bots on various machines (running XP or Vista) and believe it or not, never encountered a blue screen. Now I’m not implying that it’s not possible to do so. Just that in my own personal experience it has not happened to date.
If you continue having issues, I suggest you try shutting down any programs running in the background on your machine. As other users stated here, “BSODs” are often caused by a memory related conflict. Examine what programs are running in your system tray (down by the clock in the right hand corner) and shut them down if possible.
To get technical, you can also go to start -> run and type “msconfig” and then go to the “Start Up” tab. Listed there are your “non essential” programs that are loaded when Windows boots. Try turning these off selectively to see if that helps.
Good Luck.
After I reinstalled the driver, the computer just doesn’t recognize the cable anymore.
The latest Prolific Driver installers will, uninstall the driver, if it thinks it is installed… Try Installing the Driver again, and then plug in the Vex USB-to-Serial device and check the Control Panel’s Device Manager to see what Software version is installed.
My WinXP system is showing Prolific Driver “2.0.5.111”, dated “1/14/2009”. This is the latest version for WinXP.
“The name is already in use as either a server name or service display name.”
I got up to Com11 before I decided this just wasn’t worth it and just moved everything to my old XP laptop.
I thought it installed. I downloaded it from the drivers page. Does that link work for Vista?
Remember, I’m posting this from a Kindle.
Are you trying to change the Com Port Number?? Sometimes with Vista, you have to force the Com Port Number that is in in use, then Unplug the USB-to-Serial device and plug it in again. Sometimes a Reboot is nessessary as well.
Are you referring to This Post??
This is a Combined Driver. It is 2.2Mb because it has Drivers for ALL of these OS’s.
So yes, it does support Vista.
No, mines is only 1.46 MB. I downloaded the file. It seems to load, but I get an “Access Denied” error. Does thad driver need admin privileges?