Mindstorms NXT buggy behavior

[KarenS]

Hello - Please pardon the intrusion, as I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place to seek help for this question. I have been Googling for hours, trying to find an online support group for discussion/assistance with Lego Mindstorms NXT issues, but all I seem to be able to find (besides FAQs on the Lego website) are high-end discussion communities populated mostly by developers discussion their latest nifty inventions. Impressive indeed, but I'm just looking for some very low-end technical support. If anyone here knows of such a group and can point me in the right direction, I would be ever so grateful!

My grandson recently requested and received a Mindstorms NXT kit for his 11th birthday. He put together a TriBot immediately upon receiving it and patiently waited until I was able to get out there for a visit to help him get the computer component set up. Everything went smoothly and he's been happily immersed in the programming functions, with great success, except for one VERY annoying bug. It seems about 90 percent of the time, after creating a program and downloading it the first time, on subsequent downloads, he will invariably get a "Device busy" error, with a suggesting that we try again or close the app and restart it. We have tried all manner of variations prior to downloading, including deleting the previous version from the NXT, turning it off and on each time, etc., etc., with no success. About 50 percent of the time, closing out and restarting the app will do the trick, but the other half, it seems to be hung with an "initializing V.I." (guessing that message from memory) in the upper right corner of the desktop and the program won't start. We are then forced to go into the Task Manager and kill the process (which still seems to be there even if the program is closed out) before we can restart the program. That will always correct the problem, but you can imagine that it's not a very pleasant "fix," especially since we've had to teach my grandson how to go into and fiddle with the task manager, and that conflicts with the parental controls and user settings on the family computer (the kids each have their own (very limited access) logins.

The computer is just a few months old (HP, 1MB RAM, 320GB hard drive, Windows Vista, 32-bit). I am back home so I'm going from memory, but I can get more specifics from my daughter if need be. Meanwhile, as I said, I don't necessarily expect a troubleshooting response in this forum, as it doesn't seem intended for that, but my Googling unearthed some NXT-related messages posted in here, so I'm hoping that, if it's not the right place, some of the NXT users could point me in the right direction to get support.

Thanks so much, and sorry for the lengthy message!

Karen S

St. Louis, MO

[RobertoBozzolo]

Hi Karen,
Lego Mindstorms is based on LabVIEW technology, so you will find more help looking into the LV forums on this site. Specifically, there is a LabVIEW Fans of LEGO board where you are most likely to find some specific help.

BTW, it seems to me that your grandson is very lucky in having such a dynamic and up-to-date grandmother

[KarenS]

Good morning, Roberto -

>>Lego Mindstorms is based on LabVIEW technology, so you will find more help looking into the LV forums on this site. Specifically, there is a LabVIEW Fans of LEGO board where you are most likely to find some specific help.

Actually, the LabView Fans of LEGO board is what came up originally in my Google search, but somehow, after registering so I could post a message, I was unable to get to the actual forum, so I ended up picking the most logical place to post a message, which is how I landed here. 🙂  I'm glad to know that I have indeed discovered the right place (even though I got lost in the forest when trying to post [g]), and thanks so much for posting the link so I can find my way there without any problem!

>>BTW, it seems to me that your grandson is very lucky in having such a dynamic and up-to-date grandmother

Having young kids in one's life is the best way to keep that "dynamic and up-to-date" attitude - otherwise, what excuse would we have for having an opportunity to play with ... I mean, "learn" about all those nifty new toys that folks like you keep coming up with. 🙂   I must confess that his "request" for the NXT kit was heavily influenced about midway into the LEGO Mindstorms session at the Science Center. We had heard of the NXT but weren't really familiar with how it all worked. Now that we were, I inquired about the price. His birthday was just a few days away and I had already gone over budget with gifts, but without hesitation, the words just seemed to fall -- no, race -- out of my mouth, "Brandon, you know, you COULD get one of these if you wanted. You could use the $100 Papa always sends you, plus I could add $100 and you could use $50 of your money ... if you're sure you REALLY want it, that is." By the end of the session, the deal was done, and we were BOTH happy. 🙂

Thanks again for the link, Roberto, and most of all for the ultra quick response! I'll copy/paste my message over there and cross my fingers that we can find a resolution for this buggy behavior!

Have a great day!

Karen 🙂