System ported to W7 64bit

[Richard Naninck]

Just wanted to let you all know that HouseBot runs perfect on W7 64bit.
I know there is a thread somewhere that talks about different platforms to run HB on, but here is my short version.

Ported my Meedio / HouseBot setup with 30+ rs232 ports controlling all kinds of stuff and with many third party com objects to interface with different software from Windows XP Pro 32 bits to Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit. The new system was built using new hardware (AMD FX4100, nVidia 430GT, Asus M5A97Pro, 2x4GB, Vertex 3 - 90GB SD HD) so my XP system kept running while building the new system. After W7 was configured I moved my hardware from one casing to the other and installed the 4 rs232 PCI(ex1) cards one by one logging only 2 hours downtime. After two hourse the complete system was running all hardware again. After that I had lots and lots of tweaking work because of IE8 going to IE9 which messed up my scrapers, because of 32 bit wscript vs 64 bit wscript/cscript etc. Codecs behaved differently, audio device is a bit different and the nVidia API controlling my vCard is not supported anymore on W7. So all in all it took a week to port the system but my HouseBot (domotica) / Meedio (media) system is up and running which means a huge leap forward.
I can now host 2+TB HD's, use more than 4GB memory, gained lots of speed while not using more Watts! The step going from W7 to W8 will be a lot less than going from XP to W8.

The SWRemote with 82 panels loads about 30% quicker than before but behaves about the same. Hopefully at some point I can get DTS HD Master audio to work and the HDMI 3D handshake using nVidia 3DTV. All of this was not possible on XP.

So for those of you with questions about porting the system to 64bit W7.. Don't hesitate, it can be done. I did put HouseBot and Meedio in Program Files instead of Program Files (x86) so I could hold on to my xml files containing a path to Program Files. If you want to port your old setup, I guess using Program Files (64 bit) would be the only easy way to do this.

EDIT:

In the mean time I fell back to IE8 again because IE9 caused blue screens of death. HouseBot uses the IE com object for all kinds of stuff meaning IE9 was running in a 32 bit mode and that causes lots of problems for some reason. Falling back to IE8 resolved all of thoses issues.

Furthermore HouseBot ran uptimes of only 6 hours max before hanging. I wrote a watch dog script to terminate HouseBot when it hangs so it can restart again. I disabled the windows error requesters to not get the question if I want to wait for the program to finish anymore. Mean time I also fixed the main reason while HouseBot was hanging. I ran it once in XP SP 3 compat mode, but that didn't fix it. Running compat modes causes the system to use 25% more memory!
After searching the windows logs (housebot wasn't producing any dump files) I saw that HB always crashed on MSVBVM60.dll. This is the MS VBS dll which obviously my setup uses a lot due to all the scripts running. I changed this dll in the SYSWOW64 directory with the latest XP version I was running on my old system and now HB is rock steady again.

I also fixed HD Master audio through Meedio using a combination of LAV filters, AC3Filter2.5 and some script controlling the W7 system audio device. I can control which device is used and which codec is handling the audio. DTS HD Master, Dolby True HD etc are now finally working

The next thing will be to get an automatic 3D hdmi handshake so my projector can auto detect the 3D signal.

Still very happy I switched OS!

[Steve Horn]

Interesting. I really need to upgrade my HB server hardware. Was contemplating at some point building a DIY box (probably Tigerdirect stuff). But there was always that "don't fix it if it ain't broke" question.
Given that you're running a very exotic version of HB, for us with more pedestrian versions, it sounds like the only thing to take away from your experience is the use of the "old" VBS dll... And maybe some hardware specific driver upgrades. Correct?

[Richard Naninck]

All the issues that caused my new system to hang were related to a faulty 4GB memory stick. I got new memory in the system and it has been running error free ever since. IE9 is back in the setup because IE9 also hang on the bad memory whereas I figured it had something to do with the 32bit version.
So W7 64bit is rock steady but if you want to run HB, than change the MSVBV60M.dll I mentioned and you will be fine.

[Steve Horn]

Richard, I'm moving HB to a new Win7 pro 64 box. Got it installed (still need a key from Scott), and ironed out some issue with a a HB log file not being able to open (file or folder perms). But HB still won't launch. It goes thru the driver (dll) scroll, but then Win7 says HB has stopped working. (This is with my HBDATAfile copied over. I may need to go back to the generic one to see what happens.) I installed (or it installed itself) in Program Files (x86). Not sure if that's the issue or whether there's a problem with my HBDATA file. (Ironically, after the new box was delivered the old XP box started working again. Hurt feelings I guess.)
I tried running HB using the WIN7 compatibilty modes (XP SP2 and SP3) but neither worked. Ideas to check?
edit:
Reinstalled HB from scratch and launched with the generic HBDATA. Launched ok. Copied my entire config folder from old box to the new box and launched. Got a msg "Database Error. Record is deleted" dialogue box followed by a "Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library" Runtime Error!" dialogue box.

[Richard Naninck]

First question: Did you put it in Program Files or Program FIles (x86)?

[Steve Horn]

X86.

Not a cause for the problem, but I got a key from Scott. Just wanted to set the record straight.

[Richard Naninck]

So is it working now?
X86 causus problems when using old config files because of the wrong path

[Steve Horn]

No, but my next plan was to reinstall it in program files. Ran out of time and enthusiasm last night. Thx, I'll report back.

[Richard Naninck]

Atleast it's nice to know it should work since that's a proven fact

[Steve Horn]

Better.. sort of. I reinstalled HB in Program Files and the generic version launched without a problem. I copied over my config directory, replacing the generic one and now am getting a message that it (Win7/HB?) cannot open a trace file called "X10.weekly.Sep 09 2012.csv" in the Logs folder. Looking at the X10 file with Notepad, it exists and is an error log file not specific to X10. I had previously (I thought) disabled all logging on the old PC, as I was getting this message yesterday. Still getting it. Looking in HBDATA.MDB, in the TraceSection table, there are 5 records with non blank TraceFileNames. The Name field for the X10 row is Error Log (logically). But looking at tracing options in HB on the old PC, I cannot see anywhere where these non-blank records appear. Its like they're orphaned in the table. I am tempted to change the TraceFile value in the table from 1 to 0 (to agree with all the other records). But I don't know why these records are in the table when there is no trace (pun intended) of them in the HB UI under Settings/Tracing. Anyway, after HB says it cannot open that file Win7 launches a dialogue box saying Automation server has stopped. And it does.

[Richard Naninck]

Change it into a zero and find out...

[Steve Horn]

LOL

[Steve Horn]

Well I'm back in service, running in Win7-64. What a pain that was. Only one ONE! remaining issue. The Velleman K8055 HB device driver apparently only runs using .Net v3.5 (from what I can reading earlier threads on it). It crashes HB when using .net v4. And that has nothing to do with Win7; it was and is a problem for earlier Wins. The workaround was, based on my reading, to install .net 3.5 instead of 4. Problem is... (wait for it...) 3.5 won't work on Win7. Won't even install. I have no idea how any of that works (and prefer to keep it that way), but it seems that the HBDotnetbridge.DLL and/or HBdotnet.dll would need to be modified for Win7 and .net 4. In the meantime, my K8055 I/O interface cannot be controlled by HB... But works just fine using its own demo utility.

One other discovery of mine. The Insteon DLL only likes COM port 1. Put it anywhere else and HB can't connect to it. Go figure...

[Richard Naninck]

Does HB crash or does Velleman just not work?
.Net should be part of W7 so no need to install .Net (could be wrong though)
If Velleman is FTD2xx based, you could always use the generic serial device to create a vbscript driver.
COM1 on Insteon should not be a problem as long as the rest can use other ports

[Steve Horn]

When hbdotnetbridge.dll is located in the Housebot's/.../devices directory, when Housebot's is coming up it crashes right after the "initializing devices" message. No dump file is created. Remove or rename that file and HB boots normally, aside from a few K8055 device not found related messages.
I tried installing .net 3.5 and it would not even install, so I installed .net 4, downloaded from the MS site. No messages to indicate that it was already installed.
The velleman K8055 works outside of HB, using just the demo program that comes with it. I have no idea what it's based on but want to look at all the doc. that came with it to see if there is a way to control it from within HB without the need for .net.
All other serial devices work when assigned COMs other than COM1. The Inseteon requirement is probably documented somewhere and I seem to recall that as a peculiarity on the old box as well. Just thought I'd point it out in case anyone else reads this stuff.