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renard
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| Posted: December 07 2013 at 23:22 | IP Logged
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When PH starts when the PC reboots, an "enter ODBC information box" appears. If I cancel PH and restart it, PH starts without issues. This occurs with the former XP OS and also now with Win 7.
Thoughts are welcome.
Terry
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dhoward
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| Posted: December 08 2013 at 13:09 | IP Logged
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Terry,
I have not encountered this but will take a look. What version of PH are you running?
Thanks,
Dave.
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renard
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| Posted: December 08 2013 at 14:56 | IP Logged
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2.14 with I2CS overlay. Built up from 2.1b retail to 2.12 and 2.14. Full name of window is "ODBC Configuration for Adaptive Server Anywhere". If canceled, PH fails with no database error. If restarted immediately after, starts and operates perfectly. Happens every time after a reboot. I am having Win-Patrol delay the launch 30 seconds to allow any start-up issues to settle down.
Terry
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renard
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| Posted: December 09 2013 at 00:12 | IP Logged
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Dave,
I think you can turn the bit off in your brain on this one. It appears to have a hardware cause. I looked at the SMART disk diagnostics and the cold start spin-up time for the drive is very slow. I cloned the drive and the replacement works perfectly.
Thanks,
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renard
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| Posted: December 09 2013 at 07:52 | IP Logged
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Dave,
I spoke too soon. Win 7 just did one of its update reboots and PH did not restart because the ODBC problem. When I started it manually, it started perfectly. It is like it can not connect with the database file, now on a different partition on the same drive as the program code when started immediately after Win 7 starts. As before, I have Win Patrol delaying the start 30 seconds so all the drivers and other stuff should be well bedded down. I am concerned because PH is controlling the house and I have no control over it when I am away if PH is down.
Thanks for your thoughts.
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BeachBum
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| Posted: December 09 2013 at 19:29 | IP Logged
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Have you launched PH with admin privileges as a default? Did you install with the defaults for paths? I've cloned many so I doubt that would cause a problem. I have tried delay starts and that did not benefit me either. I have also had to build a start.bat with start PH embedded to get it to start on Win7 and 8.
Edited by BeachBum - December 09 2013 at 19:30
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renard
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| Posted: December 10 2013 at 23:00 | IP Logged
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Dave,
Another thought. I will try BeachBum's idea of a start.bat (right now Win Patrol is starting PH on a delayed start basis using my Admin rights account) but what if I set up a persistent System ODBC Data Source using Administrative Tools. Adaptive Server Anywhere 7.0 is available under System DSNs. I'd need the Data Source Name PH is expecting and I can supply the database name. The crazy thing is PH will always work perfectly immediately after it fails after I cancel the ODBC window and the PH database error 100 window.
Wierd
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dhoward
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| Posted: December 14 2013 at 17:22 | IP Logged
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Terry,
Just wondering if you've had any success with the startup.bat? Ive been playing on this end and so far have been unable to reproduce.
One other thing...since you're still running XP, have you tried running PowerHome as a service? This would cause PH to launch automatically when the PC is started without having to have it in the Startup folder or anything. Im wondering if doing this will cause the same startup problem with the ODBC.
Let me know,
Dave.
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renard
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| Posted: December 20 2013 at 17:02 | IP Logged
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Dave,
I tried the startup.bat option and that made no difference. Just to remind you the problem started when the PC was converted to Windows 7. I have both XP and Windows 7 Images and have been going back and forth but the objective is to end up with a Win 7 machine. I started with a 2.01b retail version and going to 2.12, 2.14, and I2CS overlay. I can reload the software again but the only other software on this PC is a MySQL Server. Can I use the Service model for PH with Win 7?
Terry
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gg102
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| Posted: December 20 2013 at 20:06 | IP Logged
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Dave...
Service???
PH runs as a service? I didn't know this.
Do we still have access to a UI/front end? I have a lot of questions....
Where can I learn more about this?
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dhoward
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| Posted: December 20 2013 at 20:18 | IP Logged
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Terry,
Gotcha. I was thinking you were on XP. The service won't be of any use to you on Win 7.
Can you setup your machine so that PowerHome is not loaded in any way upon restart (no batch, startup, runonce, etc)? Reboot your machine, wait for it to settle, and then manually launch PowerHome. Does it still have a problem the first time?
I want to try to pinpoint the problem to being either something with being started automatically vs its a problem with first launch after a reboot.
Let me know,
Dave.
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dhoward
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| Posted: December 20 2013 at 20:22 | IP Logged
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gg,
If you're on Windows XP, then you can run PH as a service. Check out this forum post for more details: http://www.power-home.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1329&KW= phservice+%2Di
Unfortunately, starting with Vista, the PowerHome service is not really useful. PH will launch and run as service with all processes happening in the background but you will have no GUI to access it. I will be eventually updating it and removing the GUI from the core engine so we can running as a service back as an option.
Dave.
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renard
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| Posted: December 21 2013 at 08:04 | IP Logged
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Well Dave,
This just gets stranger. When all forms of automatic starts- startup folder, registry, WinPatrol, etc are removed and Win 7 starts without any PH activity whatsoever, PH will start perfectly every time if the icon is manually double-clicked, That can be done immediately after the boot is completed or anytime after but if any PH is started automatically during the boot process the ODBC connection to the database fails. The only change to the standard .ini file is the location of the database is to place it on a drive that is frequently backed up:
[Database]
DBF=D:\powerhome\Database\pwrhome.db
Interesting the OBDC box is completely blank having no prepopulated information such as the ODBC dataset the program is looking to connect to. I can send you a screen shot of the ODBC box if that will help. I tried to attach it to this post but it failed to attach for some reason. At present, if my House Control computer reboots, PH will not automatically restart. I realize I seem to have a unique situation and I appreciate your help.
Thanks Dave,
Terry
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dhoward
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| Posted: December 21 2013 at 19:21 | IP Logged
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Terry,
Im thinking it has something to do with the Win 7 virtualization technologies. Im not sure it programs launched on startup on being launched with a different account (like the system account for services) or what but it definitely sounds like its Win 7 related.
The next thing I would try is to disable UAC in Win 7. Lets see if that makes a difference and it should help to pinpoint if it is Win 7 virtualization related.
Dave.
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gg102
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| Posted: December 21 2013 at 21:08 | IP Logged
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Terry,
I was just thinking of something...
you said your database is on drive D.
[Database]
DBF=D:\powerhome\Database\pwrhome.db
Maybe you should check to see if you have a mapped drive or USB drive stomping on your "real" drive D. Or, see if you have some unpartitioned drive coming in over your drive D. From your description, it seems that PH can't "find" the database or maybe the entire drive.
Another idea might be to make sure your permissions or sharing are set properly for D and the child folders. Permissions/UAC on Win-7 can cause strange problems.
Another idea might be to try turning off any firewall (for testing). I seem to remember something about ODBC using an internal network communications. If networking is screwed up, ODBC won't work. I could be wrong on this, (it's been a few years) but something to look at.
My last thought would be to ask if you installed PH using a different user account than the one that you're trying to run PH from. That could create all kinds of permissions issue.
If you can't find anything, maybe try to move your database and programs back to drive C, (virgin installation) and see if it works from there. If it works from there, your issue may be related to your drive D or PH's ability to use a drive D.
I'd never override Dave, but it's just something additional to quickly check/try/think about. This is just an attempt to narrow where the failure is.
I could be completely off base, but, just my 4 cents....
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renard
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| Posted: December 24 2013 at 21:54 | IP Logged
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I have deleted the entire PH installation with Revo, cleaned the Registry with Glarysoft, and did a clean install onto c:\powerhome with the .ini file on the c: drive. Start fails with the blank odbc box in exactly the same manner when started during the boot process including having Win-Patrol start PH with Administrator privileges but will start perfectly every time if started after the boot process and any process started by the boot process (Win-Patrol itself is started by boot process) completes. Can it possibly be something in the .ini file itself although the fact PH outside of the boot seems to argue against that. Does Win 7 run the boot process in some exotic state that it exits when it is in administrative user state?
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gg102
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| Posted: December 25 2013 at 12:08 | IP Logged
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OK,
We know something now....
How are you "starting" PH on boot? Do you have it in the "start" menu, in the startup group? C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs
or are you starting it with some other process like a start/run app?
On my system, I have a startph.bat in my \program files\startup and that has:
PING 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 90000 >NUL
c:\
cd\powerhome
start pwrhome.exe
exit
You can change the 90000 to a lower number if you want.
This works for me....
What this .BAT does is wait for the system to complete everything, then launch PH.
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dhoward
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| Posted: December 29 2013 at 19:07 | IP Logged
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Terry,
Did you try disabling UAC? Wasnt sure since I didnt see any mention.
Let me know,
Dave.
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renard
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| Posted: December 30 2013 at 23:43 | IP Logged
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UAC is disabled. No joy. I am going to try gg's suggestion over the holiday.
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smarty
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| Posted: December 31 2013 at 07:46 | IP Logged
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I too wait for my system (win 7) to fully start, and THEN launch PH via a bat file.
I do this because I need to fire up certain other systems (power meter system, etc) BEFORE PH is launched (or my plugins will not start correctly).
Good luck.
Steve
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Topic: PH Startup Problem (ODBC Box)
