Uplink PC Work In Progress

[Scott Greczkowski]

For years the SatelliteGuys Uplink Report has been generated using an old 17 inch HP Laptop and it has ran great for all of those years.

However over the past few weeks the laptop has started to signs that the end is near for it. The 17 inch screen is starting to die, showing large lines from the top to the bottom of the screen. And while its easy for the laptop to function without a screen it has started doing something that has been causing concern. The laptop now just powers off randomly with no warning. It could be running then *POOF* its off. This is not reliable for 24/7 monitoring of the uplink.

So tonight I am working on moving the uplink hardware and software onto a new PC so that we can restore our non stop 24/7 monitoring of the DISH Network uplink.

The work will take a few hours so hopefully during this time there is no changes that need to be reported.

Moving our uplink software and hardware to a new computer is another sign of our dedication to making SatelliteGuys better for YOU.

Thanks for your understanding and support!

 

[HIFI]

cool!

 

[Bobby]

Thank you Scott, you're doing a great job and we appreciate it...

 

[topcats69]

Great thank you you run a great site and your a nice guy too

 

[Supertv]

:up:up Thank you Scott !!!!!!!!!!! :up:up

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Almost done...

Moved from the laptop which was running WindowsXP onto the PC which is running Windows Vista. Everything is running, just the Task Scheduler is WAY different between the two. The Vista Task Scheduler while it runs does not show the process running on screen so I can't look and see if there are any issues with the uplink software while its running.

So found out for the process to be displayed the computer must be logged in as a user so now working to have Vista automatically log in so the process running is shown on screen. Once I have that running well then I am done. (And boy is my bedroom a WHOLE LOT quieter without that old laptop running!)

It has been running the uplink reports for the last hour every 10 minutes, but now I just have to have it display on the screen when its running.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Work is complete and the uplink is now running completely off the new PC.

As it is a new setup I will need to keep an eye on it for the next few days for any unexpected issues that may pop up.

Thanks for allowing us to serve you better!

 

[TheKrell]

Congrats on your almost transparent migration. If you hadn't told us what you were doing, we never would have known.

 

[mike123abc]

Almost done...

Moved from the laptop which was running WindowsXP onto the PC which is running Windows Vista. Everything is running, just the Task Scheduler is WAY different between the two. The Vista Task Scheduler while it runs does not show the process running on screen so I can't look and see if there are any issues with the uplink software while its running.

So found out for the process to be displayed the computer must be logged in as a user so now working to have Vista automatically log in so the process running is shown on screen. Once I have that running well then I am done. (And boy is my bedroom a WHOLE LOT quieter without that old laptop running!)

It has been running the uplink reports for the last hour every 10 minutes, but now I just have to have it display on the screen when its running.

Now we will find out that the uplink reports are delayed until you can get home and ok the vista security prompt

Nice to hear the upgrade went smoothly

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

May have to move back to the laptop, woke up this morning with it stuck trying to send the notification email out to the server.

I will have to keep a close eye on it today. And if need be will need to find a XP machine to move it to.

 

[jetskier]

Scott,

My 17" HP laptop just did the same thing in the last couple weeks. It's not the screen, but the video chipset failing on the motherboard (integrated).

There is a class action suit against HP and Nvidia regarding these failures.

The NVIDIA GPU Litigation - Affected Models

My laptop isn't in the included models even though it started with a dying video and it won't even power up. I bought a refurbished board that worked about 5 minutes and started to overheat.

 

[wlwgampa]

Scott,

My 17" HP laptop just did the same thing in the last couple weeks. It's not the screen, but the video chipset failing on the motherboard (integrated).

There is a class action suit against HP and Nvidia regarding these failures.

The NVIDIA GPU Litigation - Affected Models

My laptop isn't in the included models even though it started with a dying video and it won't even power up. I bought a refurbished board that worked about 5 minutes and started to overheat.

Should have used Windows 7; it's more stable than Vista

 

[dfergie]

Scott,

My 17" HP laptop just did the same thing in the last couple weeks. It's not the screen, but the video chipset failing on the motherboard (integrated).

There is a class action suit against HP and Nvidia regarding these failures.

The NVIDIA GPU Litigation - Affected Models

My laptop isn't in the included models even though it started with a dying video and it won't even power up. I bought a refurbished board that worked about 5 minutes and started to overheat.

I have one of those models that died... thanks for the link!

 

[navychop]

I have a laptop that died due to screen problems. Can't wait to get home to see if it's on the list. Thank you. Even though I know it means some lawyers get richer and buyers get a semi-worthless coupon.

 

[larrykenney]

I appreciate your dedication and hard work, Scott. The uplink center is one of the first things I check when I come to the site.

Larry

 

[digiblur]

Hmmm..getting stuck sending an email. Thats weird. I know sometimes the activity box doesnt hide for some reason on the app. If it gets stuck see if you can alt tab back to the main app window.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I fixed it.

Was getting the following error...

WININET ERROR #126 - UNKNOWN ERROR EXECUTE HTTPLINK AFTER SMTP

To fix it I turned off the option to kick the server into processing the file from within the program and instead created a cron job on the server to run the option to check and process updates every 5 minutes.

I even got it to kill the process when it get stuck on a break (such as break at 5029) the client runs every 10 minutes and will automatically kill it (and restart) if it has been running for more then 15 minutes.

Since then it has been running SMOOTH.

 

[digiblur]

I knew there was a reason why I put in the log window and made all those options configurable.

Must be an issue with the http call on vista and above...probably a security one. I will check it out and test it on win7 and see if it is broken on that OS version too. If I can I will correct the issue just incase we need to use it again.