Lookout 5.1 & 6.1 locking up

[Scadapro]

During last two weeks, lookout Ver 5.1 which has been running without problems for a couple of years started locking up with out warning usually around midnight or shortly after.

Attempted all recommended fixes that I could find from the website and forum and even moved it to a new computer but problem is still occuring.  

Upgraded to 6.1 and problems still exists. After approx 5 mins of
runtime, lookout.exe drives CPU to 50% (dual core processor), the menu bar on the
screen disappears and the system locks.

Have to reboot computer to get back system.

Running brand new computer with Win XP Pro SP3.

Need some help quickly!!!

Runing AVG FREE antivirus - nothing found with any scan.

[Scadapro]

Additional Info - just resarted system again.  It is lkserv.exe that is consuming CPU time.

This system is handling all the alarms for a WWTP that is unattended 16 hrs a day.

I need this fixed/resolved ASAP. 

Thanks!!

[Mike@DTSI]

Is this an AMD dual core system?

There was an issue with them before, should have been fixed already.

Mike

[Scadapro]

Thanks for the question - I have additional info as well that I hope will help.

The system is an Intel dual core duo - 3.0 GHz with 3 Gig RAM.  Running Win XP Pro SP3.  The computer was installed yesterday.  The only applications installed are Lookout (and all the other NI "stuff"), MS Office Pro 2007 and  AVG8 Free antivirus.  As I mentioned, this problem started a couple weeks ago when we were still running on the old computer with Win 2K pro and Lokout Ver 5.1.  We were schedued to upgrade the computer anyway so we did it a litile sooner in hopes that it would help solve the issue.

I found the proceedure for coverting the database as required from Citidel 4.5 to 5.0 was rather "obscure" but we got it done.  However it did not convert any of the setpoints (pot values).  This created a few anxious moments until we realized what was going on.

Further observation of the system showed that the system was running fine for 5-10 minutes and then went nuts with any of the lookout servces (seemingly random as to which one at any given lock up) running one of the processor cores to 100% and locking the system.  I was able to shutdown Lookout via Task Mgr but the system was unstable and would not restart Lookout or run IE very well until it was rebooted.

Hope this info helps - from the forum listings it seems that this issue has cropped up within the last few weeks butr as of yet NI does not have any suggestions for a fix.  My client is starting to make noise about looking for another HMI software vendor that has better support and a stable product.  I've been an avid proponent of Lookout for 10 + years but I'm starting to have my doubts now.

A prompt resolution or at least an acknowledgement of the problem from NI would be welcome!!  

[jbesselm]

If this worked fine for a couple of years previously it sounds like a possible hardware problem at least with the old system. I encounterd this once before, replacing the computer solved the problem.
Have you tried recompiling the .lks file. I have seen a corrupted process file cause the compute to crash but that was quite a few years ago. Have you looked at the Windows event viewer checking for any supicious entries when things start to get messed up? Rember that Lookout 6.1 uses MS SQL server, when the computer or Lookout is first started this can use a lot of CPU cycles. Was there any changes made to the Lookout processes? how many lookout processes are running? See my post about trends starting and stopping at random. It took a while but we finally solved the problem, it turned out to be hardware and Windows related. I'll be posting that solution or work around soon.

I have quite a few Lookout installations running versions 3.1 through 6.1 and have found it to be just as stable, if not more so than many of the competing programs and generally far more capable. In my opinion it is much more than an HMI (if you take advantage of the capabilities).

Jim

[Ryan.S]

As you said, the system was running well for couple of years before, I don't think it's the Lookout's problem. Anything changed before the problem first happened? Try to remove the antivirus software and test Lookout. It can be the either hardware compatibility problem, or the software compatibility problem.

You can do a simple test, that make a new simple process with several objects, do the logging, and run it on the problem computer. See if the problem will still happen after 10 minutes. If it doesn't have the problem with another process, it's not the compatibility problem between Lookout and hardware or other software, then we can focus on your process.

The other crash/hang problem on the Forum may not be the same as yours.

[Scadapro]

Additional follow up - eventually found that the existing NI 485 Serial card was going bad and causing the lock up. Replaced the card with a new one and at first it appeared OK.  However after running approx 6-8 hours some of the hypertrends stopped showing data and others contiued to work for 3-4 hours more before stopping completely.  Ther was a section of about 45 mins 2 hours later where some of the points resumed showing data and then it stopped completely.  It was necessary to reboot the computer to restart the process again in the morning.   There are still many Gremlins in this software and insufficient support to resolve them.  This 24 hour turnaround on replies to emails is totally unacceptable.   My client is asking me to look for other software options at this point.

[Ryan.S]

First, you need to check if Lookout reads the good value from PLC. If the communication stops or the data has bad quality, Lookout won't log and no data on Hypertrend. So, make sure the communication to PLC is good and data is good during the period when hypertrend shows nothing. For example, if PLC1.data1 stops updating on Hypertrend, check if PLC1.data1 stops updating or red X on it. Also notice if there are any alarms during that time.

Then, go to MAX to see if the data is logged into Citadel. In MAX, create View to display the trend. Check if the data is there or not. If the data is logged, the problem is in Hypertrend. But if there are no trend either in MAX during the gap, it means the logging has problem.

After you create the View, you can "Export to Text". Refer to the attached pic. In the txt file, there are the raw data from Citadel. If there is no data logged during a certain period, you will see the blank in data column.

For example,

183 9:58:26.316 AM 123

184 9:59:37.490 AM 
185 9:59:37.490 AM 123

This means from 9:58:26.316 to  9:59:37.490, there is no data logged.

So, we need to check if the data from PLC is good and if the data is logged.