Canon 6D conection fail

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

46 minutes ago, malc-c said:

How old is the PC in the shed that you are having all these issues with.  Any details of make and model of the main board, processor and RAM info would be helpful.  A crash opening a CR2 raw file shouldn't crash the PC, and you shouldn't be getting all these lockups when plugging or unmounting a USB device

I know, and I didn't, well bar the odd connection fail in BYE and this is what it was. Not quite sure what the age has to do with it, however specs are as follows

CPU Athlon II X3 455 so it is coming up on maybe 12 years old.

MOBO ASRock 960GC-GS FX https://www.asrock.com//MB/AMD/960GC-GS FX/index.asp#Specification

RAM 4GB of 1600Mhz Kingston HyperX  in one slot, there were 2 but one failed.

PNY 240GB SSD

Grpahics MSI 560Ti latest drivers.

I did notice an issue with Stellarium in a windowed mode, it Stellarium would crash, but that was with the onboard graphics, I didn't try it like that after I installed the graphics card

So whilst it isn't new by any stretch is more than up to the job, it will even take the FX8300 I have in this system, when it gets upgraded, though likely just to use the whole system, but I can't get new comp kit and astro kit.

I do have a spare MSI MOBO but it is only AM3, having just about recovered everything from the previous SSD I could install that and try that system, but it is only a dual core.

I know opening a CR2 shouldn't crash the system, but it did seem too, I didn't open another, and it didn't crash coincidence more likely than not.

PSU this could be the cause of the comp shut down/crash, but unlikely to be the APT issue, which I still think is a cable/connection issue.  I have a spare PSU to try if it continues. when the dummy battery for the 40D arrives I will try with that, the current battery is past its best and while it charges drops off very quickly after 80%.

Conversely, these issue might also be why the system failed, and it has taken me so long to fix, in 30 years of putting systems together I have never had one so difficult to fix, and the problem also seemed to occur on the MSI MOBO, just no video output either onboard or separate graphic, till I tried the MSI 560Ti, then I started getting somewhere, not even a POST screen, and yes tried umpteen vga dvi cables.

[malc-c]

4 hours ago, Nicola Hannah Butterfield said:

I know, and I didn't, well bar the odd connection fail in BYE and this is what it was. Not quite sure what the age has to do with it, however specs are as follows

CPU Athlon II X3 455 so it is coming up on maybe 12 years old.

MOBO ASRock 960GC-GS FX https://www.asrock.com//MB/AMD/960GC-GS FX/index.asp#Specification

RAM 4GB of 1600Mhz Kingston HyperX  in one slot, there were 2 but one failed.

 

Many thanks for posting the spec.  It states that the board has USB2.0 ports, so should be OK with the camera - Being an old machine I wanted to check that it wasn't an early version.  The fact the machine crashes when opening a CR2 file may be RAM related and I wanted to see what was installed and where.   The board has dual channel memory for both DDR2 and DDR3.  DDR3 being slots 2 and 4 working away from the processor.  If one is missing the machine will still work however it is designed to work in pairs rather than one DIMM.  Now I'm not a PC expert, but have been told that all memory should be installed in pairs, and ideally all of the same spec.

DDR3 memory is now very costly but if you have any you could take out form other machines it might be worth doing... Personally I would be looking at upgrading the machine, especially if you intend to process on it.

[powerlord]

just my 2c - but I wouldn't try to upgrade that - look on ebay for refurbished laptops - lenova are good. you can get a modern ssd based usb3 laptop for less than 200 quid. And as Malcolm says, once you start stacking or trying to run stuff like affinity photo you'll be glad of the power. i3 min, but ideally an i5 or i7.

I got a lenova yoga last year off a company on ebay - 179 quid - 256gb ssd, 8gb memory, reversable 1080p touchscreen, windows 10, usb3, etc.

Hardly anyone other than hardcore gamers buys desktop/tower/etc machines these days.

stu

[Elp]

The athlon was a venerable processor, and the FX line in particular are legendary. I still remember the night and day difference of upgrading from a 3000 to a newly release dual core X2 4200 when they first came out for socket 939. Nowadays the architecture changes so much with each gen that you can't simply judge by clock speed or number of cores anymore.

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

19 hours ago, malc-c said:

Many thanks for posting the spec.  It states that the board has USB2.0 ports, so should be OK with the camera - Being an old machine I wanted to check that it wasn't an early version.  The fact the machine crashes when opening a CR2 file may be RAM related and I wanted to see what was installed and where.   The board has dual channel memory for both DDR2 and DDR3.  DDR3 being slots 2 and 4 working away from the processor.  If one is missing the machine will still work however it is designed to work in pairs rather than one DIMM.  Now I'm not a PC expert, but have been told that all memory should be installed in pairs, and ideally all of the same spec.

DDR3 memory is now very costly but if you have any you could take out form other machines it might be worth doing... Personally I would be looking at upgrading the machine, especially if you intend to process on it.

Thanks for your input, got everything set up working last night to image Jupiter, but what with the weather showers I decided to check MS weather, I did this three times and each time the system stopped, by which I mean the system stopped blank screen but for some strange reason the CPU fan was still powered, this had been happening on shut down, until I did a restart from the start button, and now/did shut down properly well at least it shows the shutdown screen. I will try the PSU they are renowned for giving really odd faults when something is wrong, normally they either work or don't, but I have known the odd one give troublesome errors.

 

18 hours ago, powerlord said:

Hardly anyone other than hardcore gamers buys desktop/tower/etc machines these days.

stu

Guess I fall in that category then, The shed computer when working has 4 USB (*EDIT) 3 ports 6 USB 2 ports, dual screens, SSD for the OS and 1TB HD for storage, my bedroom system has 17TB over 7 drives, both systems it is much easier to upgrade CPU RAM graphics. I may have also mentioned else where I have been building systems some 30 years, which is why this is perplexing me so much. I will exhaust all possibilities with kit I have before I invest in a new system, as for costs, the system in the shed can easily take an AMD FX8300 core cost about £50 on ebay. However when I upgrade it will be my bedroom one To either a Ryzen 5 or 7 depends whats on offer, decent MOBO 32 GB of RAM and a fast M2 drive, that might even do me till my grave.

18 hours ago, Elp said:

The athlon was a venerable processor, and the FX line in particular are legendary. I still remember the night and day difference of upgrading from a 3000 to a newly release dual core X2 4200 when they first came out for socket 939. Nowadays the architecture changes so much with each gen that you can't simply judge by clock speed or number of cores anymore.

This FX in the bedroom is still doing sterling service, the build is about 7 years old. It really only shows if doing any sort of video editing, bigger than a typical planetary sequence, especially in photoshop, a little sluggish if editing 300MB images, but really only if several windows open.

The system in the shed was working well, previously the graphics over the dual screens was laggy, but it didn't affect what the system was recording, and the only issues I had were the occasional connection drop, which was usually a matter of just checking the usb connections, damp air and all that, but this really has me perplexed.

I will try the PSU first then the other MOBO CPU combination, failing that ask for 500 back from Octopus and build a new system.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Nicola Hannah Butterfield

[Elp]

I would also suspect the PSU if you've eliminated the typical components, I had all sorts of instability with my athlon ready made pc until I upgraded from the run of the mill 450W to an 80+ 600W Corsair PSU (depends on components).

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

1 hour ago, Elp said:

I would also suspect the PSU if you've eliminated the typical components, I had all sorts of instability with my athlon ready made pc until I upgraded from the run of the mill 450W to an 80+ 600W Corsair PSU (depends on components).

It has a pretty decent PSU, however the MSI 560 Ti does draw a lot of power when running at max, but it isn't the case as it stands, I just wanted something to run dual monitors. Current PSU is 800w Bronze 80.

I am going to try the other system, if the chipset is close enough, it might just boot, if not nothing lost, one is 760 chipset the other a 960, if it doesn't work, just reinstall again.

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

Update, the other system seems to have bad ram, hoever it wouldn't post even with good ram, so I changed the
PSU, the only problem is no graphics power so back to onboard.

MS weather launched ok. So guess time to connect the scope and see.

Edit right so far it does seem it was the PSU as one of the other issues I didn't attribute to the problem was Sharpcap kept loosing the camera, and of course this is powered from the USB port, apart from one loss in connection (making me wonder) it has run ok, still some testing to do.

Edited October 16, 2022 by Nicola Hannah Butterfield

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

Right think I am sorted, does seem the PSU is iffy, the camera connection seems to have been one of the cables, I cobbled several extensions together, and they worked, on both the 6 a 40, but issues talking with the 40, and for some reason APT wasn't taking images, though I can focus the EF lens on the 40D in APT or was it NINA, heads a shed at the mo.

Edited October 17, 2022 by Nicola Hannah Butterfield

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

Finally imaging something, a very wobbly Saturn. I got a powered USB 3 to help with cables, a remote focuser with ascom but need to set that up again, but the remote works for tonight.

 

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

Not the best, it is a tad windy and the first ones I have done in a while, just a quick stack.

 

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Nicola Hannah Butterfield

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

I have got APT imaging well a few test shots of a cloudy Sky, had it set to record images to camera with no card in it.

Guide/Planatary camera working.

Things to do focuser, and dual monitor oddly isnt working, second monitor is reported in display settings, it just isn't display, yes tried two monitors, well one monitor and one tv with multi imputs, both are being shown, tried various display ratios. Set up plate solving and other stuff, but I think I am on my way to having it all working.

All this bother because a PSU wasn't quite right for example, not enough power to drive the ZWO 120MC camera in Sharcap it kept losing connection, and whilst the Canon is powered, it must be drawing some power from the mobo, and i suspect this is what was happening when opening raw files, it was just pushing the power requirements over the edge, touch wood, since the change of PSU it hasn't crashed once.

[Nicola Hannah Butterfield]

This is just from 6x20's ISO1600 images, I have made a cardboard rear cover for the scope, covered in black gaffer tape, like wise a light shield that is about 12" long, this has cut-outs for the spider nuts and focuser, only thing I for got to do was cover the camera, I did the lights with the new £20 LED light panel, which seems to have worked a treat, this is a crop as I still have a coma corrector to get.

This is the full frame shot on a Canon 6D SW 200P with just a ABE extraction

which was this

This was shot overlooking Barnsley to my S.W. at about 9.30 24/10/22

So I am not sure if that excessive light is the camera being uncovered, I do have a lot of local household LP at this time of night, or from Barnsley.

But apart from that the light panel seems to be working, and for £20 I think it's a bargain.

Just need to sort out a few other niggles, like plate solving.