Is there any way to prevent the Prime from formatting when something crashes it?

[medwatt]

I have been experiencing crashes almost once a week and thought there was something wrong with my G2. Even though it is still new, the problem could be bad memory blocks or something else. It's not the crashing that's frustrating, it's the fact that every time there's a crash, everything gets wiped and I have to start from scratch all over again. Luckily, backing up and restoring works well and doesn't take long (since I haven't installed a lot of things yet).

I was experimenting with the solver app by Han when the calculator crashed. Luckily, this time, I knew exactly what I was doing and tried it again; the calculator crashed. This tentatively proves that there's nothing wrong with the calculator from a hardware perspective, which makes me happy. However, this makes me extremely wary about using the calculator as the calculator could crash in an exam and everything gets wiped. Why does this happen? I have no issue with the calculator crashing. I just don't want everything to get wiped.

In case someone wants to try it, install the latest solver app by Han, choose motion, terminal velocity, and try to solve without changing anything.

[victorvbc]

I personally experience a lot of crashes with forum software using my G2 as well. Especially the BodePlot/Ctrlsys apps, they're unusable for me... I think maybe it's compatibility issues?

My calculator seems to return to the latest backup (from shift+mem) automatically though.

[medwatt]

(12-29-2019 07:35 PM)victorvbc Wrote:  I personally experience a lot of crashes with forum software using my G2 as well. Especially the BodePlot/Ctrlsys apps, they're unusable for me... I think maybe it's compatibility issues?

My calculator seems to return to the latest backup (from shift+mem) automatically though.

I just tried this. I created a backup and then proceeded to do the same thing that crashed the calculator. After reboot, the calculator did not automatically restore the old backup even though the backup was there. I restored the backup manually but it didn't restore any of the programs that were installed. The only things that was restored were things like cas settings, name of calculator, etc. Is it supposed to restore everything installed?

[medwatt]

UPDATE: There was actually something wrong with the calculator. I thought it was normal for the calculator to reboot when it gets restored with a backup, but after rereading victorvbc's comment, I realized this shouldn't be the case. I then noticed that the calculator was crashing during the restore process. Apparently, it's possible to format the C drive of the calculator. I entered into the diagnostics page and did just that. Luckily, the problem (cannot cannot restore after a crash) seems gone.

[medwatt]

UPDATE 2: There was actually nothing wrong with the calculator. The same problem reappeared. So, I started installing app by app, backup and restore. I think I've found the culprit.

For some reason, even though the Control Systems app by Hata installs fine, if you back up the calculator with the app installed and then try to restore, the calculator crashes. This doesn't happen on the emulator. I hope others can try it and confirm.

Link to app:
https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-12...ht=control

[Tim Wessman]

Is this on the latest "public" firmware, or the Beta one?

[medwatt]

(12-31-2019 03:19 AM)Tim Wessman Wrote:  Is this on the latest "public" firmware, or the Beta one?

I have tried it on both. With the public release, when you try to restore from a backup on the calculator, the calculator crashes and then reboots with everything wiped. With the beta firmware, the restore process just freezes and you need to manually press the little reset button on the back.

Please note that this only occurs when the backup is in the calculator. If you try to restore from a computer, it works fine. So, if you want to replicate the issue, make sure you do it on the calculator.

I hope you can check it out and confirm it. The link to the offending app is in my previous post.

[medwatt]

(12-31-2019 03:19 AM)Tim Wessman Wrote:  Is this on the latest "public" firmware, or the Beta one?

Did you manage to check the issue on your device ?

[cyrille de brébisson]

Hello,

I spent around 2 hours playing with this. But I did not get any crashes on my G2.

Can you confirm which version of the app you are using (the 2 that I tried to download had issues and I had to change the source code as they were syntax errors).

I tried using the app, I tried doing backups and restores, but had no issues (after using the app with the syntax error removed).

Can you explain in details what you are doing to get the crashes?

Thanks,
Cyrille

[medwatt]

(06-26-2020 06:29 AM)cyrille de brébisson Wrote:  Hello,

I spent around 2 hours playing with this. But I did not get any crashes on my G2.

Can you confirm which version of the app you are using (the 2 that I tried to download had issues and I had to change the source code as they were syntax errors).

I tried using the app, I tried doing backups and restores, but had no issues (after using the app with the syntax error removed).

Can you explain in details what you are doing to get the crashes?

Thanks,
Cyrille

I've made a recording to demonstrate it better. Also, I'm using the latest version of the app and I get no syntax errors.

Here's the video: https://streamable.com/sycdnt

Edit: Since you mentioned you tried 2 apps, you're probably using something else. This is the app I'm talking about: https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-12...ht=control

[anyfoo]

Someone speculated here that attaching the calculator to the Connectivity Kit might be the thing that brings it into a state where it completely wipes itself after a reset (forcefully through a crash, or by using Shift-On).

Tired of losing my stuff, I refrained attaching it to the Connectivity Kit (I use the Mac version) after the last explicit format. It survives resets fine, now, but that of course does not actually confirm the hypothesis.

Still, it practically always wiped its memory on reset before, often shortly after the last time (which I always followed up with a manual format), but hasn't in a while now, so something must be different.

[victorvbc]

(06-28-2020 07:13 PM)anyfoo Wrote:  Someone speculated here that attaching the calculator to the Connectivity Kit might be the thing that brings it into a state where it completely wipes itself after a reset (forcefully through a crash, or by using Shift-On).

Tired of losing my stuff, I refrained attaching it to the Connectivity Kit (I use the Mac version) after the last explicit format. It survives resets fine, now, but that of course does not actually confirm the hypothesis.

Still, it practically always wiped its memory on reset before, often shortly after the last time (which I always followed up with a manual format), but hasn't in a while now, so something must be different.

I've had the calculator crash if I removed the usb cable before turning it or the CK off, but idk if that's related to the app backup/instability problem.

Another thing I noticed is that naming the calculator anything other than the default can cause some problems and make it crash as well (in my experience), so I don't mess with that setting anymore.

It's unfortunate that a lot of very useful apps triggger this instability in the G2. If there's a silver lining it's that it made me learn to create my own functions for what I needed and understand the CAS better...

[CyberAngel]

(12-31-2019 03:19 AM)Tim Wessman Wrote:  Is this on the latest "public" firmware, or the Beta one?

Is it time for a new Public Beta for the G1/G2 and PC Emu as well as Android Emu?
- -
VP
PS: I got the best grades from my High School Matriculation Examination of Advanced Math this Spring. "laudatur" (it's an upgrade, our math teacher was not very good at teaching).

[medwatt]

(06-26-2020 06:29 AM)cyrille de brébisson Wrote:  Hello,

I spent around 2 hours playing with this. But I did not get any crashes on my G2.

Can you confirm which version of the app you are using (the 2 that I tried to download had issues and I had to change the source code as they were syntax errors).

I tried using the app, I tried doing backups and restores, but had no issues (after using the app with the syntax error removed).

Can you explain in details what you are doing to get the crashes?

Thanks,
Cyrille

Did you see the video I uploaded ?

[FrankP]

Hi Medwatt,
did you consider in the end of Hata's control systems app thread:

"...moving the two small CAS routines (at the end of the Control Systems App code) to a separate program is sufficient to make the App behave correctly ... So, one of these days I'll release a new version, but in the meantime everyone should be able to make this small adaptation ... ".

This change prevented chrashes at backup + restore on the virtual HP Prime calculator. Maybe worth giving it a try?

Frank

[victorvbc]

(07-01-2020 08:25 PM)FrankP Wrote:  Hi Medwatt,
did you consider in the end of Hata's control systems app thread:

"...moving the two small CAS routines (at the end of the Control Systems App code) to a separate program is sufficient to make the App behave correctly ... So, one of these days I'll release a new version, but in the meantime everyone should be able to make this small adaptation ... ".

This change prevented chrashes at backup + restore on the virtual HP Prime calculator. Maybe worth giving it a try?

Frank

For me that works indeed, but there are still unexpected crashes with this app. For example: panning up and down on the Nichols-Black plot.

[medwatt]

(07-01-2020 08:25 PM)FrankP Wrote:  Hi Medwatt,
did you consider in the end of Hata's control systems app thread:

"...moving the two small CAS routines (at the end of the Control Systems App code) to a separate program is sufficient to make the App behave correctly ... So, one of these days I'll release a new version, but in the meantime everyone should be able to make this small adaptation ... ".

This change prevented chrashes at backup + restore on the virtual HP Prime calculator. Maybe worth giving it a try?

Frank

That seems to do the trick. Thanks.