System Pauses for 10 seconds intermittently

[digitaltrader]

I have been running 2.2.2 for many weeks without problem until recently where I am experiencing a system pause/lag. I will be changing channels on the TV and then the system (HC-800) director will stop responding to my SR250 remote commands for 10 seconds and then execute all delayed commands in a sudden burst. This occurs almost every 2 minutes or so. I recently upgraded the EV Mymovies driver to the 7.0 version as well have added Alan's text to speech and pop3 drivers. Any suggestions on a way to isolate/diagnose the problem?

[Cyknight]

If you have any lighting plus 2-,3-,or 6-buttons see if they still work while remote is frozen

If you have touchscreens or myhome devices, see if they still work.

My guess top answer is no, bottom is yes, indicating zigbee issue.

If both are yes, the remote itself is the issue (or the location's own zigbee mesh strength)

If top is yes, bottom is no, there is something wrong with the 800 or with networking.

Most likely this is a ZigBee only related issue.

Basic steps include restarting all controllers involved in mesh (starting with zigbee server, then zap coordinator then zaps if seperate devices)

Checking if there aren't accidental multiple ZServers (with blan zap coordinators) is always wise. This sometimes happens in updates and can occasioanlly cause issues.

Re-commision mesh from scratch would be the next step.

Checking for (new) wifi interference.

[dgbrown]

Check your DNS settings - I have seen intermittent problems with Internet connectivity cause hangs in DNS lookups which essentially hang director. There was some work done on this in 2.2 I believe but it did not entirely fix the issue.

[digitaltrader]

If you have any lighting plus 2-,3-,or 6-buttons see if they still work while remote is frozen

If you have touchscreens or myhome devices, see if they still work.

My guess top answer is no, bottom is yes, indicating zigbee issue.

If both are yes, the remote itself is the issue (or the location's own zigbee mesh strength)

If top is yes, bottom is no, there is something wrong with the 800 or with networking.

Most likely this is a ZigBee only related issue.

Basic steps include restarting all controllers involved in mesh (starting with zigbee server, then zap coordinator then zaps if seperate devices)

Checking if there aren't accidental multiple ZServers (with blan zap coordinators) is always wise. This sometimes happens in updates and can occasioanlly cause issues.

Re-commision mesh from scratch would be the next step.

Checking for (new) wifi interference.

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried both and the system fails to respond to keypad, touchscreen, and all commands during that pause. It occurs almost exactly every 2 minutes for around 8 seconds and always immediately executes all the delayed commands after the pause. I suspect that this may be a driver that is scanning the system like the EV mymovies or Alan's pop3 driver as both were recently added about the time I started seeing this behavior. Any suggestions on how to properly diagnose it as a driver issue?

[digitaltrader]

Check your DNS settings - I have seen intermittent problems with Internet connectivity cause hangs in DNS lookups which essentially hang director. There was some work done on this in 2.2 I believe but it did not entirely fix the issue.

I'll take a look at my DNS settings tonight. Thanks

[thecodeman]

Check your DNS settings - I have seen intermittent problems with Internet connectivity cause hangs in DNS lookups which essentially hang director. There was some work done on this in 2.2 I believe but it did not entirely fix the issue.

I'll take a look at my DNS settings tonight. Thanks

Try 8.8.8.8, it's Google's.

[MikeW]

I am having the same problem for the past month or so since I updated to 2.2.2. It will happen with my SR-250 as you stated, but also at the same time if the remote is not working, the iPad will also not work and have the same delay. It will also happen with my 3 & 6 button keypads sometimes to where if i push a button that lets say executes a All Off scene, will have that type of delay. It also happens with my card access motion sensors, if i enter a room where the motion is suppose to trigger a light it has a delay. My dealer and tech support had us update to 2.2.4 but I am still having the same problem.

[digitaltrader]

I am having the same problem for the past month or so since I updated to 2.2.2. It will happen with my SR-250 as you stated, but also at the same time if the remote is not working, the iPad will also not work and have the same delay. It will also happen with my 3 & 6 button keypads sometimes to where if i push a button that lets say executes a All Off scene, will have that type of delay. It also happens with my card access motion sensors, if i enter a room where the motion is suppose to trigger a light it has a delay. My dealer and tech support had us update to 2.2.4 but I am still having the same problem.

Maybe we can help each other find a solution. What type of controller are you running?

[MikeW]

HC300C, have not added any new drivers or made any changes to the project since this problem started occuring.

[digitaltrader]

I think I found the problem, when logging the controller I get a 12 second pause after the ExtraVegetables Driver Collection Management - Autoupdate (1436) attempts to gather data. Thus 12 second pause is exactly the length of my system pause.

[thecodeman]

I think I found the problem, when logging the controller I get a 12 second pause after the ExtraVegetables Driver Collection Management - Autoupdate (1436) attempts to gather data. Thus 12 second pause is exactly the length of my system pause.

Interesting. Have your dealer post the info to a ticket on EV's website.

[MikeW]

I do not have that driver but do have the iTunes/Airplay driver. Not sure if this would also cause this problem.

[Ramorous]

I had something similar happening. I decided to finally check into it. Periodically it would freeze for about a minute. This is happening for a friend as well. After running the logs, I found out my Yale Real Living driver is causing the slow up whenever it tries to go to it and save it's config (or something similar) locally. This happens as well when I try to backup the project too, stalls on that same driver. Time to figure out what's making it so slow....

[AceOfSpades]

I am having the same problem for the past month or so since I updated to 2.2.2. It will happen with my SR-250 as you stated' date=' but also at the same time if the remote is not working, the iPad will also not work and have the same delay. It will also happen with my 3 & 6 button keypads sometimes to where if i push a button that lets say executes a All Off scene, will have that type of delay. It also happens with my card access motion sensors, if i enter a room where the motion is suppose to trigger a light it has a delay. My dealer and tech support had us update to 2.2.4 but I am still having the same problem.[/quote']

Maybe we can help each other find a solution. What type of controller are you running?

I had a similar issue and I found that the ZAP Coordinator had issues maintaining communications with Director. I change the ZAP Coordinator (HC-300) to hardwire instead of Wifi. Once I changed the ZP Coordinator to LAN, reboot the Director, ZP Coordinator, and all ZAPs, this remediate all my delay issues.

So I would run

-- Diagnostics to see if you are having CPU issues

-- Change the Media Scanning schedule to non-peak usage

-- I would validate the health of the ZP Coordinator

[Cyknight]

If at all possible no controller should EVER be run WiFi

[MikeW]

There is only 1 controller in my project and serves as director, zigbee server and ZAP and it is plugged directly into my router. Like i said I dont think its a zigbee issue because when the system is not responding my ipad and iphone will also not work. Tried the obvious stuff like unplugging the controller to reset and checked cpu ussage while firing off commands and it dosent seem to jump above 50%.

[enzeder]

Mike W / digital trader.

I was having very similar symptoms to you, system would lock up for anywhere between 3 and 5 minutes and then all backlogged commands would execute. Affected remotes, keypads, Ipads, relay switches etc. After much toing and froing between myself and the dealer, trying to get logs at the time of a freeze - never happens when you want it to, finally caught one as it happened and it appeared to be related to the extravegetables collection management driver - logs went crazy.

Dealer sent the log off to EV who came back a day or so later and said there was one title which was very large and filled with gibberish. Removed that title from mymovies and the system has been back to normal ever since, been just over a week now whereas I was getting lock-ups most days before, and sometimes more than once per day.

[digitaltrader]

Mike W / digital trader.

I was having very similar symptoms to you, system would lock up for anywhere between 3 and 5 minutes and then all backlogged commands would execute. Affected remotes, keypads, Ipads, relay switches etc. After much toing and froing between myself and the dealer, trying to get logs at the time of a freeze - never happens when you want it to, finally caught one as it happened and it appeared to be related to the extravegetables collection management driver - logs went crazy.

Dealer sent the log off to EV who came back a day or so later and said there was one title which was very large and filled with gibberish. Removed that title from mymovies and the system has been back to normal ever since, been just over a week now whereas I was getting lock-ups most days before, and sometimes more than once per day.

Wow, I have had EV emailed several times refusing that it was their driver. I even deleted their driver and the problem went away. How did they determine the title that was causing this?

[msgreenf]

Mike W / digital trader.

I was having very similar symptoms to you' date=' system would lock up for anywhere between 3 and 5 minutes and then all backlogged commands would execute. Affected remotes, keypads, Ipads, relay switches etc. After much toing and froing between myself and the dealer, trying to get logs at the time of a freeze - never happens when you want it to, finally caught one as it happened and it appeared to be related to the extravegetables collection management driver - logs went crazy.

Dealer sent the log off to EV who came back a day or so later and said there was one title which was very large and filled with gibberish. Removed that title from mymovies and the system has been back to normal ever since, been just over a week now whereas I was getting lock-ups most days before, and sometimes more than once per day.[/quote']

Wow, I have had EV emailed several times refusing that it was their driver. I even deleted their driver and the problem went away. How did they determine the title that was causing this?

turn logging mode on on the driver and look at the logs.during an import

[enzeder]

The logging that we used was logging under system diagnostics in composer. Selected drivers as one of the things to log, along with i/o and errors.

When we actually got it to catch a lock-up you could see in the logs because there was literally no activity (every activity is time stamped) being reported for three or four minutes, prior to that there was lots. The log provided absolute proof that something was going on. To try and narrow it down to collection management I had turned logging on and then changed a title in mymovies so it triggered CM activity. When the log froze I tested the light and sure enough they were not working. When everything returned to normal, another flurry of activity, stopped the log and sent it to the dealer who sent it to EV.

They came back and said that one of the movies "has an XML file associated with it that's 512kb big but it mostly full of useless information." Removed it from mymovies and good as gold. I guess you could try looking for any large XML files in themovies directories as a first step?

As an aside in my case the title in question was the bonus disk in the star wars dvd collection of episodes VI, V and VI