To clarify the issue of Lotem GUI freeze problem, due to incorrect information
coming from the field to R&D, which are not relevant to the problem R&D
is investigating.
The Lotem GUI freeze problem: The symptom of this problem is very straightforward: The user can not
access any window related to the Lotem application, and these Windows only.
The mouse cursor is free to move, but while the user can access windows of
other applications (such as SPlot, Windows Start button, etc...), she can
not communicate with any window of the Lotem application.
Furthermore, if you switch between applications using the Alt + Tab keys and
then return to the Lotem GUI, you will see that all the open windows of the
application are colored white, meaning disabled and inaccessible.
The freezing problem is not accompanied by any error messages of any
kind.
Solution:
Quantum - Currently R&D is debugging this problem, hoping
to solve it for the next
version (3.51) due out in mid February 2002.
Lotem 800 - Will be included in the next version (3.8).
"This program has performed an illegal operation" problem: The symptom is the following error message: "This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut
down.
If the problem persists, contact the program vendor".
An important question is which program has performed this illegal operation?
The error message is a general one for all Windows program, therefore the
name displayed in the (blue) caption bar of the error message is very relevant;
If the caption says Lotem 800Gui then the program which is responsible
for the problem is the Lotem application.
This error message and the problem that arouses it are not related
to the Lotem GUI freeze problem, outlined above.
We (Lotem software group) believe that most cases of this problem stem from
a bug in the Lotem log system. This problem was fixed, and the fix will be
included in version 3.51 of the Lotem 800 Quantum due out in mid February
2002.
SPlot Application:
This can be seen by the name on the caption of the error message. We are aware
that the SPlot application crashes in a rather high frequency, but this crash
is not related in any manner to the GUI freeze problem, to the functionality
of the Lotem, and/or to the same error message which appears for the Lotem
application.
Furthermore, there is no need for the SPlot application to be running for
all normal modes of user operation of the Lotem 800 Quantum machine! The SPlot
application in the field is intended only for service engineer activities.
In the near future SPlot will be replaced by a different and more reliable
software (Service Shell), thus ending its crashes.
There are initiatives from the DU's to solve the freeze problem by changing
Windows parameters, which apparently causing the freezing problem to disappear
(at least for the moment).
We believe that this can serve as a temporary cure but certainly not as a
complete remedy for the freezing problem, because sooner or later the problem
will reappear, and it needs to be weeded out from the root, and this is what
we are currently working on.
Please note that we are not endorsing this procedure in any way - the chances
for getting Windows parameters wrong and jamming the whole operating system
are larger then the benefit it can bring. I think we should treat this as
"do-it-on-your-own-risk-only" procedure.
