System repeatedly crashing from scores of "FTPUPD's"

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1

Hi,

This is a continuation of an email discussion with Brian. For a couple years, even after much tinkering from discussions here, W-D was occasionally crashing my home PC which my wife uses for work. This began to cause marital discord. So W-D was offline a lot.

Earlier this year I got hold of a Fujitsu PINE-U2 Laptop with a x86 Family 6 Model 6 Stepping 2 AuthenticAMD ~1200 Mhz running Windows 2000 5.0.2195 Service Pack 4 Build 2195. I deleted most of what was in it and installed W-D and connected it as a dedicated W-D PC. The big issue (which remains essentially unchanged) is that after several hours of completely normal operation W-D apparently starts opening an endless series of instances of “FTPUPD.EXE”. Soon the PC is jammed up by all the FTPUPD.EXE’s. First W-D stops uploading to Wunderground and CWOS. If nothing is done eventually the machine (I think mainly the RAM) is filled with FTPUPD.EXE’s and it just stops. The only cure is to force a shutdown as I don’t care to do an “End Program?” on however many hundred FTPUPD.EXE’s are open then.

Brian has looked at many log files from W-D and the PC itself. He thought inadequate RAM (256) might have been the issue so I bought 512 more. It just takes a bit longer to jam.

One odd thing is as if I monitor the Task Manager I see no FTPUPD.EXE’s for a few hours. Then suddenly they start appearing for no apparent reason.

So after watching this for several days, trying various things, and making no progress, if any of you folks can figure this out I would be very grateful.

Below are some of the emails between me and Brian and I believe I’ve attached some log files.

Thanks,
Larry Shaw

=====================================================

From: Larry Shaw [email protected]
Date: Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 6:29 PM
To: Brian Hamilton [email protected]

Brian,

Here are the files. I added the “A” so I wouldn’t lose them during transferring to mail.

What do you think?
It stopped sending data out at about 12:30 PM.

Thanks,
Larry

From: Brian Hamilton [email protected]
Date: Sat, Jan 8, 2011 at 7:42 PM
To: Larry Shaw [email protected]

HI
I need to see the Ftplogfull.txt file after a FTP upload (or after the Ftp program does not close)
check that your firewall/antivirus program is not blocking the program too

Brian Hamilton
http://www.weather-display.com

From: Larry Shaw
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2011 12:29 PM
To: Brian Hamilton
Subject: Log Files

From: Larry Shaw [email protected]
Date: Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 1:49 AM
To: Brian Hamilton [email protected]

I’ve found your message obviously. It was in the G mail account I have to use to send attachments from the laptop.

“…after a FTP upload” I guess would only be if I was uploading pages to the web which I am not. So I will move to:

“(or after the Ftp program does not close)” I guess means after all the FTPUPD.EXE’s clog the machine and will not let W-D send data to CWOP and Wunderground.

I’ll let it run overnight and it should be jammed with FTPUPD.EXE’s by morning so I’ll have something to send.

This laptop doesn’t have any anti-virus or firewall as far as I can see.It used to have McAfee but the IT guys seem to have removed it. The Comcast Cable system might have a firewall at their plant.

Thanks,
Larry

From: Larry Shaw [email protected]
Date: Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 5:36 PM
To: Brian Hamilton [email protected]

Brian,

Here is the ftplogfull.txt file sent while the PC is jammed with
FTPUPD.EXE’s and I can’t do anything on the machine; can’t close it,
restart it, open anything. The only thing I can do to shut it down is
force off the power supply. This also deletes all the FTPUPD.EXE’s.

The only thing happening i the laptop is that W-D continues to accept
data from the station and display it on the laptop’s own screen.
Nothing is sent out.

Thanks,
Larry

From: Larry Shaw [email protected]
Sent: Sunday, January 09, 2011 12:29 PM
To: Brian Hamilton [email protected]
Subject: Log Files

From: Brian Hamilton [email protected]
Date: Sun, Jan 9, 2011 at 6:22 PM
To: Larry Shaw [email protected]

for some reason its the metar download that is the problem

try setting the metar download location to where you have WD installed
in the ftp/internet setup, metar download

or turn off the metar download if that is not needed? -----Original Message----- From: Larry Shaw
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2011 11:36 AM
To: Brian Hamilton
Subject: Re: Log Files

From: Larry Shaw [email protected]
Date: Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 2:21 AM
To: Brian Hamilton [email protected]

This is how the metar files are set up.

W-D > FTP & Connections… > FTP/Internet Setup > Select Directory >
C:\wdisplay\metar

W-D files are in: C:\wdisplay.

Does that seem correct?

For now I’ve killed Metar download to see if the FTPUSB.EXE’s stop duplicating.

Larry

From: Larry Shaw [email protected]
Date: Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 10:49 AM
To: Brian Hamilton [email protected]

Brian,

So I left W-D running at about 0253 local with main internet switch on, Metar switch off. By 0520 or so it had jammed full of FTPUPD’s so nothing was being uploaded to Wunderground or CWOP. It seems W-D is still recording the station data; it just can’t communicate externally even with the Metar switch off.

I hope the log files help. Sometimes like this time the PC is so jammed I can’t do anything, even save a file, I can only force the power off.

Thanks,
Larry

For now I’ve killed Metar download to see if the FTPUPD.EXE’s stop duplicating.

Larry

From: Larry Shaw [email protected]
Date: Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 8:49 AM
To: Brian Hamilton [email protected]

Here is what I found in the ftplogfull file this morning. I named it aloga.

From: Brian Hamilton [email protected]
Date: Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 7:39 PM
To: Larry Shaw [email protected]

Finshed email agenda, and more Internet agenda items to do (FTP)…
Time/date:6:20:20 PM 1/11/2011
Logging onto FTP server…
No FTP server specified
Doing abort procedure/program close…

it looks like you have WD set to do FTP uploads
but you have no FTP server set

.zip and email me your settings files
(see the FAQ on the WD forum for how to do that)

From: Larry Shaw
Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 2:49 AM

From: Larry Shaw [email protected]
Date: Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 12:27 PM
To: Brian Hamilton [email protected]

Attached are the files you requested as well as this morning’s “EurekaLog” that was part of the failure message.

Thanks
Larry

From: Larry Shaw [email protected]
Date: Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 1:30 PM
To: Brian Hamilton [email protected]

Now with them zipped.

From: Brian Hamilton [email protected]
Date: Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 5:11 PM
To: Larry Shaw [email protected]

HI
this looks like the problem
5.1 Name : FUJITSU-BRIAN
5.2 Total Memory : 247 Mb
5.3 Free Memory : 8 Mb

you do not have enough free memory on the PC
and the running of the FTP program is using the last of the free memory up

You need to try and add more memory to the PC

From: Larry Shaw
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 6:27 AM

From: Brian Hamilton [email protected]
Date: Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 5:15 PM
To: Larry Shaw [email protected]

one thing you can do to help
is remove the times to upload in the ftp/internet setup, upload times
since you do have any FTP settings set

From: Larry Shaw
Sent: Friday, January 14, 2011 7:30 AM
To: Brian Hamilton
Subject: Fwd: Log Files

From: Larry Shaw [email protected]
Date: Sun, Jan 16, 2011 at 2:01 PM
To: Brian Hamilton [email protected]

Hi Brian,

While waiting for the additional memory to arrive I’ve noticed this.
Doesn’t this look like the reason for not enough RAM is its all being used by FTPUPD’s?

When W-D has started hundreds of FTPUPD’s (1300 LT):

Total Physical Memory 253,424 KBAvailable Physical Memory 10,584 KBTotal Virtual Memory 1,057,512 KBAvailable Virtual Memory 396,264 KB

Just after I restart to kill all the FTPUPD’s (1304 LT):Total Physical Memory 253,424 KBAvailable Physical Memory 122,764 KB

Total Virtual Memory 1,057,512 KBAvailable Virtual Memory 668,348 KB
But you’re the programmer…what does it look like to you?

Thanks,
Larry

w-d logs 1-24-11.zip (33.5 KB)

2

Did you turn off the metar download?

Have you tried uploading to a different server?

3

Hi niko,

I did have the METAR download off for a few days but it didn’t seem to change anything, but I’ll try it again.

I have not tried uploading to a different server, in fact I didn’t know I could for Wunderground and CWOP, the only two things I upload. I will work on figuring out how to change servers and try that.

Thanks for your suggestions.

4

I find that when there are numerous FTPUPD’s running, The cause is that I’m having internet connection issues.
Happened just a few days ago when my ISP was having DNS issues.
It would be nice if FTPUPD’s could handle these type of situations gracefully. As it always brings the computer to it’s knees in short order if it’s not caught.

5

Hi niko,

I’ve switched the METAR download off again but it didn’t seem to change anything.

I have not yet figured how to upload to a different server for Wunderground and CWOP, the only two things I upload.

Hi looney2ns,

We use the same Cable Modem for my wife’s PC and kid’s PC plus other things like iPhone wifi, plus the cable itself is used for the TV. So I think any big disruptions would be noticed and reported to me immediately by my dilligent family members.
I don’t know how small a glitch in the signal could be to screw up the FTPUPD. I also don’t understand the process failing here: is there supposed to be a “turn off” command that isn’t getting through to the FTPUPD program? Or is FTPUPD supposed to delete when there’s no more data, but it thinks the data is flowing endlessly…or maybe the data is flowing endlessly. Can FTPUPD be set to self delete after, say, 10 minutes?

Thanks, Larry

6

O.K. then I’m really confused. No, you cannot change servers for WU and CWOP, but in your logs you appear to be uploading a website too:

Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\WestonSouth.html
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\WestonSouthdial.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\cloudheight.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\WestonSouth.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\dailyhighlowbaroetc.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\summary.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\metar.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\forecasticon.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\forecasticonmetar.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\localweather.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\weatherbanner.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\sunmoonimage.jpg
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\moonicon.gif
Remote files: WestonSouth.html
Remote files: WestonSouthdial.gif
Remote files: cloudheight.gif
Remote files: WestonSouth.gif
Remote files: dailyhighlowbaroetc.gif
Remote files: summary.gif
Remote files: metar.gif
Remote files: forecasticon.gif
Remote files: forecasticonmetar.gif
Remote files: localweather.gif
Remote files: weatherbanner.gif
Remote files: sunmoonimage.jpg
Remote files: moonicon.gif

:?

Also are you still getting that “no server” error?

7

I tried to get Larry to stop FTP uploads to a web site
as he had not set up a FTP server
and I tried to get him to remove upload times

via email

once he does that, then the problem should correct itself

it might even be best to start over with the internet settings:
in WD, go, action, delete windows registry entry

then restart WD and reset up then needed only uploads (CWOP and wunderground)

8

There ya go, great minds think alike :lol: I was also about to suggest he does the 2wd.txt thing and start fresh.

9

Brian,

Out of interest, does this preserve the old data? I ask, because I was wanting to have a general spring clean of what I am uploading.

Chris

10

Hi niko and Brian,

I am confused too. Honestly I do not have any website or remote display. I never have. Plus the reliability of W-D on my PC’s has been so sporadic over the years I didn’t want to invest lots of design time fearing it might just disapear some day (not intended as any criticism, just explanation). I use W-D to record stuff on the graphs and review it, and upload to Wunderground and CWOP. A while back I tried WeatherBug but gave up for some reason.

I cleared all the times from the FTP upload page when Brian suggested that but I will check it again. Same with the FTP switch; I know I selected it to red/off but I’ll check. Maybe I didn’t execute the change fully and it didn’t stay cleared.

I’m not arguing that what you say is happening; I just don’t know why it is happening.

I’ll be home soon and will check these things.

Thanks again,
Larry

11

I would do the registry reset Larry

Carseman:
no data loss, the registry settings are intenet settings, not data

12

I’m almost afraid to write this in case it will jinx things. I did the “delete windows registry entry”
then restarted W-D and set up only CWOP and Wunderground uploads. It’s been sending out data to those two sites for almost 18 hours now; far longer than this W-D/laptop has ever done!

I don’t notice any differences in how its set up now, but who cares, its working.

I’ll let you know if it continues working…

CWOP: CW2293
Wunderground: KMAWESTO3

Thanks,
Larry

13

Well, I guess I did jinx it :frowning:

When I last wrote W-D had worked fine for 18 hours. That ended at about 25.5 hours when the uploads stopped like before. I checked Task Manager/Processes and sure enough it was full of FTPUPD’s. I forced a shutdown and rebooted; as usual all was OK again. However the period of correct operation was now just a few hours as it had been before the “delete windows registry entry”. So I rebooted again and upon full power up I selected “delete windows registry entry” in the Action menu. I reset the FTP settings as before: CWOS and Wunderground “on” and uploading every 5 min; METAR “on” downloading KBED every hour and using it to give sky condition data; Main Internet Switch “on”. The Metar and the two uploads worked fine.

However unlike the last “delete windows registry entry” this time the uploads jammed within a few hours with Task Manager/Processes full of FTPUPD’s. I rebooted and had the same 4 or so hour operation again.

I should add that as always the data ingestion and display / graphing part of W-D soldiers on flawlessly whenever the PC is running. All this ruckus doesn’t seem to bother the basic operations at all.

So gentlemen what say you? I hope you guys have some ideas as I am totally lost.

Thanks once again,
Larry

14

I am not sure why you get these stuck Ftpupd.exe version
I do not have that problem here
even if I do have internet problems

try turning off say the metar downloads, as a test

15

I will be going home soon and I’ll turn the METAR downloads off first thing.

You had me turn off the METAR downloads on Jan 11 (I’m sure you’re losing track of what’s been done as I am) with this result “So I left W-D running at about 0253 local with main internet switch on, Metar switch off. By 0520 or so it had jammed full of FTPUPD’s so nothing was being uploaded to Wunderground or CWOP.”

I’ll alert you as to the result tomorrow.

Thanks Brian

16

it could be your firewall or antivirus program that is causing a problem
what are you using for those?

also try deleting the ftplogfull.txt file
and or set to or set not to log the ftp in the connections setup

also how much free hard drive space?

I suspect the problem will be something on your pc

17

Hi Brian,

This PC has no firewall or antivirus on it.

Here are the contents of ftplogfull.txt

list of files uploaded*

actual messages from upload session*
Start Time/date:12:43:07 AM 1/29/2011
Permanent connection selected
Permanent connection, will do ftp now
Checking for what else to do…
there are 1 more things to do
Aprs data sending now…
Running croncwop.exe now
Finshed email agenda
Finished email agenda, no FTP items to do…
Doing abort procedure/program close…

And ftplog.txt:

FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:10:03 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
dowunderground
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:10:13 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.02 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:11:11 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
doextreme
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:11:17 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.02 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:13:03 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
do aprs data send
doextreme
Files to upload*
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\weekrep.htm
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\weekgra.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\percentdir.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\raindetail.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\dirplotmonth.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\January2011.htm
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\yesterdaygraph.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\48hourgraph.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\72hourgraph.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\monthtodate.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\webfiles\yesterdaygraph3.gif
Local files: C:\wdisplay\logfiles\dailydatalog.txt
Remote files: weekrep.htm
Remote files: weekgra.gif
Remote files: percentdir.gif
Remote files: raindetail.gif
Remote files: dirplotmonth.gif
Remote files: January2011.htm
Remote files: yesterdaygraph.gif
Remote files: 48hourgraph.gif
Remote files: 72hourgraph.gif
Remote files: monthtodate.gif
Remote files: 20110128.gif
Remote files: dailydatalog.txt
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:13:09 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.02 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:15:03 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
dowunderground
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:15:09 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.03 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:20:07 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
dowunderground
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:20:13 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.02 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:23:02 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
do aprs data send
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:23:08 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.02 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:25:02 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
dowunderground
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:25:08 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.03 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:30:03 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
dowunderground
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:30:09 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.03 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:33:12 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
do aprs data send
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:33:17 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.02 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:35:02 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
dowunderground
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:35:08 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.03 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:40:03 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
dowunderground
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:40:08 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.02 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:43:02 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
do aprs data send
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:43:08 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.02 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb
FTPUPD.EXE started at 12:45:02 AM 01/29/11
agenda items to do…
dowunderground
list of files uploaded*

FTPUPD.EXE finished at 12:45:08 AM 1/29/2011
Time taken = 0.02 minutes
Total bytes uploaded = 0 K
Total bytes uploaded for the day = 0.00 Mb
Total bytes uploaded for the month = 0.00 Mb

I don’t understand the activity at 12:13:03 AM 01/29/11

“Produce a log file” was ticked; I un-ticked it.

Thanks,
Larry

Sys Info 1-29-11.txt (1.7 KB)

Drive Info 1-29-11.txt (3.34 KB)

18

untick to upload the av/ext in the upload times in the ftp/internet setup ,connections setup, to stop those uploads

19

Hi Brian,

I just went to “FTP/Internet Setup” then “Web Files Upload Times and Av/Ext” and un-ticked “Do daily uploads of averages/extremes”. Is that correct? I couldn’t find anything like “upload the av/ext” in “connections”.

Thanks,
Larry

20
Is that correct? I couldn't find anything like "upload the av/ext" in "connections".
Please note that I often do not use the very exact wording , but you should still be able to find the setting I have pointed to using the wording I have made, OK