UWATEC/ScubaPro SmartCom/SmartPro and Windows XP?

Ok, I killed all non-essential processes on the system and put the IR window
of the laptop directly against the IR window of the smart com... and it
worked on the second try... then things got more interesting...

#1) Hint: Very critical item was to place the IR window of the TP40
directly against the SmartCom. The range appears to be under 1/4". I have
to lift up the IBM laptop and place SmartCom underneath the computer to get
communication established. Are others able to place the SmartCom further
from the IrDA device?

I then began restoring the configuration and quickly got the devices to stop
talking... so reduced the configuration again until they were able to talk
and added in various subsets of the running processes until it broke.

#2) Hint: It appears that McAfee has a process called McVSEscn.exe that
interferes with SmartTrak's ability to communicate with the SmartCom. I am
switching yet another computer to Bit Defender since that seems to work less
intrusively than the McAfee stuff.

The communication, once working, works with either the IBM driver or the
standard Microsoft driver. All the other software seems to run fine without
interfering with the communication. Hotsync is configured here to use USB
and did not change the behavior if running or not. Similarly for IBM
Bluetooth monitor, United Devices agent, and several other programs such as
a vpn client, the vnc server, zone alarm pro, logitech camera monitor,
synaptics touchpad software, microsoft rf mouse, cardscan scanner software,
ibm smbus software, pdanet monitor, essential net tools, manova camera
monitor, and some other stuff (including the other McAfee processes such as
mcagent.exe). Even fired up net meeting (conf.exe) to see if that killed
it, and it works fine with that running too;)

Basically I had 44 running processes when I started, killed most down to
about 12, got the communication going, and then added stuff back until about
29 processes and noticed that killing one of the McAfee processes
(McVSEscn.exe) after restarting the virus scanner caused the problem to
appear and then disappear... did a full reboot, killed just one process
(McVSEscn.exe) and it worked. At various points I swapped the IBM and MS
IrDA drivers, re-enabled the AC97 Modem (wave codec is part of this) that
had been interrupt-sharing with COM2 on IRQ3 (it re-installed on IRQ11, but
it does not appear to be the problem), and finally re-enabled COM1 in the
BIOS and restored IrDA to 2F8/IRQ3 - all of these did not change the
behavior of SmartTrak - just items #1 and #2 above seemed to impact it.

Installed BitDefender Std Edition, and now it runs fine - critical to place
the IrDA port directly over the SmartCom device - it will not work with the
T40 if you try to set it near the laptop - place the laptop on top of the
device (hold the laptop up and slide the SmartCom underneath).

And yes, I know why I wanted a debug mode... I've been doing this for 30
years and monitoring a communication protocol is nothing new. I'd be very
interested in what call failed that terminated SmartTrak's scan for SmartCom
when McVSEscn.exe is running - so would McAfee and ScubaPro;) Pehaps
ScubaPro can enhance SmartTrak so it is less bothered by McAfee's behavior,
or we can all switch to a better virus scanner and McAfee can stop bothering
us...

The suggestion to swap IrDA drivers arose from two other vendor sites for
Palm in which T40 driver issues with the IBM driver were noted as fixed by
using the MS driver - also Sony VIAO users have had to switch the Sony 1394
driver out for the TI OHCI driver to gain back "standard" functions that
Sony chose not to support and certain video editors (Premier) required.
It's nothing new for an OEM to break a driver while adding their own
functionality.

Thanks for the pointers, and Safe Diving,

CaptPat



"bullshark" <bullshark@scubadiving.com> wrote in message
news:05i590lgmjasflf5ofa6gf5dn5kpuokq4u@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:43:59 -0400, "Patrick"
<patrick@northshore.cnchost.com> wrote:
>
> >I've been unable to get Smart Track 1.013 (latest) to connect to a
SmartCom
> >DC under Windows XP.
>
>
> Works fine here.
>
> One tip: Open the cover and make sure that the smartcom is very
> close to the IR Xcvr.
>
> Uh. Turn off the freakin HotSync.
>
> >With either the National or Microsoft drivers the IrDA port seems to be
>
> You're screwing with all kinds of stuff you don't understand.
>
> >Systems AC'97 Modem that was configured on Com2/IRQ3 (shared IRQ).
>
> AC'97 modem? AC97 is an audio codec.
>
> Do yourself a favor. Stop screwing with it and reset everything to normal.
>
> Smarttrak works fine on WIN2K, XPHome and XPPro.
>
> safe diving,
>
> bullshark

Ok, I killed all non-essential processes on the system and put the IR window
of the laptop directly against the IR window of the smart com... and it
worked on the second try... then things got more interesting...

#1) Hint: Very critical item was to place the IR window of the TP40
directly against the SmartCom. The range appears to be under 1/4". I have
to lift up the IBM laptop and place SmartCom underneath the computer to get
communication established. Are others able to place the SmartCom further
from the IrDA device?

I then began restoring the configuration and quickly got the devices to stop
talking... so reduced the configuration again until they were able to talk
and added in various subsets of the running processes until it broke.

#2) Hint: It appears that McAfee has a process called McVSEscn.exe that
interferes with SmartTrak's ability to communicate with the SmartCom. I am
switching yet another computer to Bit Defender since that seems to work less
intrusively than the McAfee stuff.

The communication, once working, works with either the IBM driver or the
standard Microsoft driver. All the other software seems to run fine without
interfering with the communication. Hotsync is configured here to use USB
and did not change the behavior if running or not. Similarly for IBM
Bluetooth monitor, United Devices agent, and several other programs such as
a vpn client, the vnc server, zone alarm pro, logitech camera monitor,
synaptics touchpad software, microsoft rf mouse, cardscan scanner software,
ibm smbus software, pdanet monitor, essential net tools, manova camera
monitor, and some other stuff (including the other McAfee processes such as
mcagent.exe). Even fired up net meeting (conf.exe) to see if that killed
it, and it works fine with that running too;)

Basically I had 44 running processes when I started, killed most down to
about 12, got the communication going, and then added stuff back until about
29 processes and noticed that killing one of the McAfee processes
(McVSEscn.exe) after restarting the virus scanner caused the problem to
appear and then disappear... did a full reboot, killed just one process
(McVSEscn.exe) and it worked. At various points I swapped the IBM and MS
IrDA drivers, re-enabled the AC97 Modem (wave codec is part of this) that
had been interrupt-sharing with COM2 on IRQ3 (it re-installed on IRQ11, but
it does not appear to be the problem), and finally re-enabled COM1 in the
BIOS and restored IrDA to 2F8/IRQ3 - all of these did not change the
behavior of SmartTrak - just items #1 and #2 above seemed to impact it.

Installed BitDefender Std Edition, and now it runs fine - critical to place
the IrDA port directly over the SmartCom device - it will not work with the
T40 if you try to set it near the laptop - place the laptop on top of the
device (hold the laptop up and slide the SmartCom underneath).

And yes, I know why I wanted a debug mode... I've been doing this for 30
years and monitoring a communication protocol is nothing new. I'd be very
interested in what call failed that terminated SmartTrak's scan for SmartCom
when McVSEscn.exe is running - so would McAfee and ScubaPro;) Pehaps
ScubaPro can enhance SmartTrak so it is less bothered by McAfee's behavior,
or we can all switch to a better virus scanner and McAfee can stop bothering
us...

The suggestion to swap IrDA drivers arose from two other vendor sites for
Palm in which T40 driver issues with the IBM driver were noted as fixed by
using the MS driver - also Sony VIAO users have had to switch the Sony 1394
driver out for the TI OHCI driver to gain back "standard" functions that
Sony chose not to support and certain video editors (Premier) required.
It's nothing new for an OEM to break a driver while adding their own
functionality.

Thanks for the pointers, and Safe Diving,

CaptPat



"bullshark" <bullshark@scubadiving.com> wrote in message
news:05i590lgmjasflf5ofa6gf5dn5kpuokq4u@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:43:59 -0400, "Patrick"
<patrick@northshore.cnchost.com> wrote:
>
> >I've been unable to get Smart Track 1.013 (latest) to connect to a
SmartCom
> >DC under Windows XP.
>
>
> Works fine here.
>
> One tip: Open the cover and make sure that the smartcom is very
> close to the IR Xcvr.
>
> Uh. Turn off the freakin HotSync.
>
> >With either the National or Microsoft drivers the IrDA port seems to be
>
> You're screwing with all kinds of stuff you don't understand.
>
> >Systems AC'97 Modem that was configured on Com2/IRQ3 (shared IRQ).
>
> AC'97 modem? AC97 is an audio codec.
>
> Do yourself a favor. Stop screwing with it and reset everything to normal.
>
> Smarttrak works fine on WIN2K, XPHome and XPPro.
>
> safe diving,
>
> bullshark

Ok, I killed all non-essential processes on the system and put the IR window
of the laptop directly against the IR window of the smart com... and it
worked on the second try... then things got more interesting...

#1) Hint: Very critical item was to place the IR window of the TP40
directly against the SmartCom. The range appears to be under 1/4". I have
to lift up the IBM laptop and place SmartCom underneath the computer to get
communication established. Are others able to place the SmartCom further
from the IrDA device?

I then began restoring the configuration and quickly got the devices to stop
talking... so reduced the configuration again until they were able to talk
and added in various subsets of the running processes until it broke.

#2) Hint: It appears that McAfee has a process called McVSEscn.exe that
interferes with SmartTrak's ability to communicate with the SmartCom. I am
switching yet another computer to Bit Defender since that seems to work less
intrusively than the McAfee stuff.

The communication, once working, works with either the IBM driver or the
standard Microsoft driver. All the other software seems to run fine without
interfering with the communication. Hotsync is configured here to use USB
and did not change the behavior if running or not. Similarly for IBM
Bluetooth monitor, United Devices agent, and several other programs such as
a vpn client, the vnc server, zone alarm pro, logitech camera monitor,
synaptics touchpad software, microsoft rf mouse, cardscan scanner software,
ibm smbus software, pdanet monitor, essential net tools, manova camera
monitor, and some other stuff (including the other McAfee processes such as
mcagent.exe). Even fired up net meeting (conf.exe) to see if that killed
it, and it works fine with that running too;)

Basically I had 44 running processes when I started, killed most down to
about 12, got the communication going, and then added stuff back until about
29 processes and noticed that killing one of the McAfee processes
(McVSEscn.exe) after restarting the virus scanner caused the problem to
appear and then disappear... did a full reboot, killed just one process
(McVSEscn.exe) and it worked. At various points I swapped the IBM and MS
IrDA drivers, re-enabled the AC97 Modem (wave codec is part of this) that
had been interrupt-sharing with COM2 on IRQ3 (it re-installed on IRQ11, but
it does not appear to be the problem), and finally re-enabled COM1 in the
BIOS and restored IrDA to 2F8/IRQ3 - all of these did not change the
behavior of SmartTrak - just items #1 and #2 above seemed to impact it.

Installed BitDefender Std Edition, and now it runs fine - critical to place
the IrDA port directly over the SmartCom device - it will not work with the
T40 if you try to set it near the laptop - place the laptop on top of the
device (hold the laptop up and slide the SmartCom underneath).

And yes, I know why I wanted a debug mode... I've been doing this for 30
years and monitoring a communication protocol is nothing new. I'd be very
interested in what call failed that terminated SmartTrak's scan for SmartCom
when McVSEscn.exe is running - so would McAfee and ScubaPro;) Pehaps
ScubaPro can enhance SmartTrak so it is less bothered by McAfee's behavior,
or we can all switch to a better virus scanner and McAfee can stop bothering
us...

The suggestion to swap IrDA drivers arose from two other vendor sites for
Palm in which T40 driver issues with the IBM driver were noted as fixed by
using the MS driver - also Sony VIAO users have had to switch the Sony 1394
driver out for the TI OHCI driver to gain back "standard" functions that
Sony chose not to support and certain video editors (Premier) required.
It's nothing new for an OEM to break a driver while adding their own
functionality.

Thanks for the pointers, and Safe Diving,

CaptPat



"bullshark" <bullshark@scubadiving.com> wrote in message
news:05i590lgmjasflf5ofa6gf5dn5kpuokq4u@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:43:59 -0400, "Patrick"
<patrick@northshore.cnchost.com> wrote:
>
> >I've been unable to get Smart Track 1.013 (latest) to connect to a
SmartCom
> >DC under Windows XP.
>
>
> Works fine here.
>
> One tip: Open the cover and make sure that the smartcom is very
> close to the IR Xcvr.
>
> Uh. Turn off the freakin HotSync.
>
> >With either the National or Microsoft drivers the IrDA port seems to be
>
> You're screwing with all kinds of stuff you don't understand.
>
> >Systems AC'97 Modem that was configured on Com2/IRQ3 (shared IRQ).
>
> AC'97 modem? AC97 is an audio codec.
>
> Do yourself a favor. Stop screwing with it and reset everything to normal.
>
> Smarttrak works fine on WIN2K, XPHome and XPPro.
>
> safe diving,
>
> bullshark

Ok, I killed all non-essential processes on the system and put the IR window
of the laptop directly against the IR window of the smart com... and it
worked on the second try... then things got more interesting...

#1) Hint: Very critical item was to place the IR window of the TP40
directly against the SmartCom. The range appears to be under 1/4". I have
to lift up the IBM laptop and place SmartCom underneath the computer to get
communication established. Are others able to place the SmartCom further
from the IrDA device?

I then began restoring the configuration and quickly got the devices to stop
talking... so reduced the configuration again until they were able to talk
and added in various subsets of the running processes until it broke.

#2) Hint: It appears that McAfee has a process called McVSEscn.exe that
interferes with SmartTrak's ability to communicate with the SmartCom. I am
switching yet another computer to Bit Defender since that seems to work less
intrusively than the McAfee stuff.

The communication, once working, works with either the IBM driver or the
standard Microsoft driver. All the other software seems to run fine without
interfering with the communication. Hotsync is configured here to use USB
and did not change the behavior if running or not. Similarly for IBM
Bluetooth monitor, United Devices agent, and several other programs such as
a vpn client, the vnc server, zone alarm pro, logitech camera monitor,
synaptics touchpad software, microsoft rf mouse, cardscan scanner software,
ibm smbus software, pdanet monitor, essential net tools, manova camera
monitor, and some other stuff (including the other McAfee processes such as
mcagent.exe). Even fired up net meeting (conf.exe) to see if that killed
it, and it works fine with that running too;)

Basically I had 44 running processes when I started, killed most down to
about 12, got the communication going, and then added stuff back until about
29 processes and noticed that killing one of the McAfee processes
(McVSEscn.exe) after restarting the virus scanner caused the problem to
appear and then disappear... did a full reboot, killed just one process
(McVSEscn.exe) and it worked. At various points I swapped the IBM and MS
IrDA drivers, re-enabled the AC97 Modem (wave codec is part of this) that
had been interrupt-sharing with COM2 on IRQ3 (it re-installed on IRQ11, but
it does not appear to be the problem), and finally re-enabled COM1 in the
BIOS and restored IrDA to 2F8/IRQ3 - all of these did not change the
behavior of SmartTrak - just items #1 and #2 above seemed to impact it.

Installed BitDefender Std Edition, and now it runs fine - critical to place
the IrDA port directly over the SmartCom device - it will not work with the
T40 if you try to set it near the laptop - place the laptop on top of the
device (hold the laptop up and slide the SmartCom underneath).

And yes, I know why I wanted a debug mode... I've been doing this for 30
years and monitoring a communication protocol is nothing new. I'd be very
interested in what call failed that terminated SmartTrak's scan for SmartCom
when McVSEscn.exe is running - so would McAfee and ScubaPro;) Pehaps
ScubaPro can enhance SmartTrak so it is less bothered by McAfee's behavior,
or we can all switch to a better virus scanner and McAfee can stop bothering
us...

The suggestion to swap IrDA drivers arose from two other vendor sites for
Palm in which T40 driver issues with the IBM driver were noted as fixed by
using the MS driver - also Sony VIAO users have had to switch the Sony 1394
driver out for the TI OHCI driver to gain back "standard" functions that
Sony chose not to support and certain video editors (Premier) required.
It's nothing new for an OEM to break a driver while adding their own
functionality.

Thanks for the pointers, and Safe Diving,

CaptPat



"bullshark" <bullshark@scubadiving.com> wrote in message
news:05i590lgmjasflf5ofa6gf5dn5kpuokq4u@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:43:59 -0400, "Patrick"
<patrick@northshore.cnchost.com> wrote:
>
> >I've been unable to get Smart Track 1.013 (latest) to connect to a
SmartCom
> >DC under Windows XP.
>
>
> Works fine here.
>
> One tip: Open the cover and make sure that the smartcom is very
> close to the IR Xcvr.
>
> Uh. Turn off the freakin HotSync.
>
> >With either the National or Microsoft drivers the IrDA port seems to be
>
> You're screwing with all kinds of stuff you don't understand.
>
> >Systems AC'97 Modem that was configured on Com2/IRQ3 (shared IRQ).
>
> AC'97 modem? AC97 is an audio codec.
>
> Do yourself a favor. Stop screwing with it and reset everything to normal.
>
> Smarttrak works fine on WIN2K, XPHome and XPPro.
>
> safe diving,
>
> bullshark

Ok, I killed all non-essential processes on the system and put the IR window
of the laptop directly against the IR window of the smart com... and it
worked on the second try... then things got more interesting...

#1) Hint: Very critical item was to place the IR window of the TP40
directly against the SmartCom. The range appears to be under 1/4". I have
to lift up the IBM laptop and place SmartCom underneath the computer to get
communication established. Are others able to place the SmartCom further
from the IrDA device?

I then began restoring the configuration and quickly got the devices to stop
talking... so reduced the configuration again until they were able to talk
and added in various subsets of the running processes until it broke.

#2) Hint: It appears that McAfee has a process called McVSEscn.exe that
interferes with SmartTrak's ability to communicate with the SmartCom. I am
switching yet another computer to Bit Defender since that seems to work less
intrusively than the McAfee stuff.

The communication, once working, works with either the IBM driver or the
standard Microsoft driver. All the other software seems to run fine without
interfering with the communication. Hotsync is configured here to use USB
and did not change the behavior if running or not. Similarly for IBM
Bluetooth monitor, United Devices agent, and several other programs such as
a vpn client, the vnc server, zone alarm pro, logitech camera monitor,
synaptics touchpad software, microsoft rf mouse, cardscan scanner software,
ibm smbus software, pdanet monitor, essential net tools, manova camera
monitor, and some other stuff (including the other McAfee processes such as
mcagent.exe). Even fired up net meeting (conf.exe) to see if that killed
it, and it works fine with that running too;)

Basically I had 44 running processes when I started, killed most down to
about 12, got the communication going, and then added stuff back until about
29 processes and noticed that killing one of the McAfee processes
(McVSEscn.exe) after restarting the virus scanner caused the problem to
appear and then disappear... did a full reboot, killed just one process
(McVSEscn.exe) and it worked. At various points I swapped the IBM and MS
IrDA drivers, re-enabled the AC97 Modem (wave codec is part of this) that
had been interrupt-sharing with COM2 on IRQ3 (it re-installed on IRQ11, but
it does not appear to be the problem), and finally re-enabled COM1 in the
BIOS and restored IrDA to 2F8/IRQ3 - all of these did not change the
behavior of SmartTrak - just items #1 and #2 above seemed to impact it.

Installed BitDefender Std Edition, and now it runs fine - critical to place
the IrDA port directly over the SmartCom device - it will not work with the
T40 if you try to set it near the laptop - place the laptop on top of the
device (hold the laptop up and slide the SmartCom underneath).

And yes, I know why I wanted a debug mode... I've been doing this for 30
years and monitoring a communication protocol is nothing new. I'd be very
interested in what call failed that terminated SmartTrak's scan for SmartCom
when McVSEscn.exe is running - so would McAfee and ScubaPro;) Pehaps
ScubaPro can enhance SmartTrak so it is less bothered by McAfee's behavior,
or we can all switch to a better virus scanner and McAfee can stop bothering
us...

The suggestion to swap IrDA drivers arose from two other vendor sites for
Palm in which T40 driver issues with the IBM driver were noted as fixed by
using the MS driver - also Sony VIAO users have had to switch the Sony 1394
driver out for the TI OHCI driver to gain back "standard" functions that
Sony chose not to support and certain video editors (Premier) required.
It's nothing new for an OEM to break a driver while adding their own
functionality.

Thanks for the pointers, and Safe Diving,

CaptPat



"bullshark" <bullshark@scubadiving.com> wrote in message
news:05i590lgmjasflf5ofa6gf5dn5kpuokq4u@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:43:59 -0400, "Patrick"
<patrick@northshore.cnchost.com> wrote:
>
> >I've been unable to get Smart Track 1.013 (latest) to connect to a
SmartCom
> >DC under Windows XP.
>
>
> Works fine here.
>
> One tip: Open the cover and make sure that the smartcom is very
> close to the IR Xcvr.
>
> Uh. Turn off the freakin HotSync.
>
> >With either the National or Microsoft drivers the IrDA port seems to be
>
> You're screwing with all kinds of stuff you don't understand.
>
> >Systems AC'97 Modem that was configured on Com2/IRQ3 (shared IRQ).
>
> AC'97 modem? AC97 is an audio codec.
>
> Do yourself a favor. Stop screwing with it and reset everything to normal.
>
> Smarttrak works fine on WIN2K, XPHome and XPPro.
>
> safe diving,
>
> bullshark

Ok, I killed all non-essential processes on the system and put the IR window
of the laptop directly against the IR window of the smart com... and it
worked on the second try... then things got more interesting...

#1) Hint: Very critical item was to place the IR window of the TP40
directly against the SmartCom. The range appears to be under 1/4". I have
to lift up the IBM laptop and place SmartCom underneath the computer to get
communication established. Are others able to place the SmartCom further
from the IrDA device?

I then began restoring the configuration and quickly got the devices to stop
talking... so reduced the configuration again until they were able to talk
and added in various subsets of the running processes until it broke.

#2) Hint: It appears that McAfee has a process called McVSEscn.exe that
interferes with SmartTrak's ability to communicate with the SmartCom. I am
switching yet another computer to Bit Defender since that seems to work less
intrusively than the McAfee stuff.

The communication, once working, works with either the IBM driver or the
standard Microsoft driver. All the other software seems to run fine without
interfering with the communication. Hotsync is configured here to use USB
and did not change the behavior if running or not. Similarly for IBM
Bluetooth monitor, United Devices agent, and several other programs such as
a vpn client, the vnc server, zone alarm pro, logitech camera monitor,
synaptics touchpad software, microsoft rf mouse, cardscan scanner software,
ibm smbus software, pdanet monitor, essential net tools, manova camera
monitor, and some other stuff (including the other McAfee processes such as
mcagent.exe). Even fired up net meeting (conf.exe) to see if that killed
it, and it works fine with that running too;)

Basically I had 44 running processes when I started, killed most down to
about 12, got the communication going, and then added stuff back until about
29 processes and noticed that killing one of the McAfee processes
(McVSEscn.exe) after restarting the virus scanner caused the problem to
appear and then disappear... did a full reboot, killed just one process
(McVSEscn.exe) and it worked. At various points I swapped the IBM and MS
IrDA drivers, re-enabled the AC97 Modem (wave codec is part of this) that
had been interrupt-sharing with COM2 on IRQ3 (it re-installed on IRQ11, but
it does not appear to be the problem), and finally re-enabled COM1 in the
BIOS and restored IrDA to 2F8/IRQ3 - all of these did not change the
behavior of SmartTrak - just items #1 and #2 above seemed to impact it.

Installed BitDefender Std Edition, and now it runs fine - critical to place
the IrDA port directly over the SmartCom device - it will not work with the
T40 if you try to set it near the laptop - place the laptop on top of the
device (hold the laptop up and slide the SmartCom underneath).

And yes, I know why I wanted a debug mode... I've been doing this for 30
years and monitoring a communication protocol is nothing new. I'd be very
interested in what call failed that terminated SmartTrak's scan for SmartCom
when McVSEscn.exe is running - so would McAfee and ScubaPro;) Pehaps
ScubaPro can enhance SmartTrak so it is less bothered by McAfee's behavior,
or we can all switch to a better virus scanner and McAfee can stop bothering
us...

The suggestion to swap IrDA drivers arose from two other vendor sites for
Palm in which T40 driver issues with the IBM driver were noted as fixed by
using the MS driver - also Sony VIAO users have had to switch the Sony 1394
driver out for the TI OHCI driver to gain back "standard" functions that
Sony chose not to support and certain video editors (Premier) required.
It's nothing new for an OEM to break a driver while adding their own
functionality.

Thanks for the pointers, and Safe Diving,

CaptPat



"bullshark" <bullshark@scubadiving.com> wrote in message
news:05i590lgmjasflf5ofa6gf5dn5kpuokq4u@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:43:59 -0400, "Patrick"
<patrick@northshore.cnchost.com> wrote:
>
> >I've been unable to get Smart Track 1.013 (latest) to connect to a
SmartCom
> >DC under Windows XP.
>
>
> Works fine here.
>
> One tip: Open the cover and make sure that the smartcom is very
> close to the IR Xcvr.
>
> Uh. Turn off the freakin HotSync.
>
> >With either the National or Microsoft drivers the IrDA port seems to be
>
> You're screwing with all kinds of stuff you don't understand.
>
> >Systems AC'97 Modem that was configured on Com2/IRQ3 (shared IRQ).
>
> AC'97 modem? AC97 is an audio codec.
>
> Do yourself a favor. Stop screwing with it and reset everything to normal.
>
> Smarttrak works fine on WIN2K, XPHome and XPPro.
>
> safe diving,
>
> bullshark

Ok, I killed all non-essential processes on the system and put the IR window
of the laptop directly against the IR window of the smart com... and it
worked on the second try... then things got more interesting...

#1) Hint: Very critical item was to place the IR window of the TP40
directly against the SmartCom. The range appears to be under 1/4". I have
to lift up the IBM laptop and place SmartCom underneath the computer to get
communication established. Are others able to place the SmartCom further
from the IrDA device?

I then began restoring the configuration and quickly got the devices to stop
talking... so reduced the configuration again until they were able to talk
and added in various subsets of the running processes until it broke.

#2) Hint: It appears that McAfee has a process called McVSEscn.exe that
interferes with SmartTrak's ability to communicate with the SmartCom. I am
switching yet another computer to Bit Defender since that seems to work less
intrusively than the McAfee stuff.

The communication, once working, works with either the IBM driver or the
standard Microsoft driver. All the other software seems to run fine without
interfering with the communication. Hotsync is configured here to use USB
and did not change the behavior if running or not. Similarly for IBM
Bluetooth monitor, United Devices agent, and several other programs such as
a vpn client, the vnc server, zone alarm pro, logitech camera monitor,
synaptics touchpad software, microsoft rf mouse, cardscan scanner software,
ibm smbus software, pdanet monitor, essential net tools, manova camera
monitor, and some other stuff (including the other McAfee processes such as
mcagent.exe). Even fired up net meeting (conf.exe) to see if that killed
it, and it works fine with that running too;)

Basically I had 44 running processes when I started, killed most down to
about 12, got the communication going, and then added stuff back until about
29 processes and noticed that killing one of the McAfee processes
(McVSEscn.exe) after restarting the virus scanner caused the problem to
appear and then disappear... did a full reboot, killed just one process
(McVSEscn.exe) and it worked. At various points I swapped the IBM and MS
IrDA drivers, re-enabled the AC97 Modem (wave codec is part of this) that
had been interrupt-sharing with COM2 on IRQ3 (it re-installed on IRQ11, but
it does not appear to be the problem), and finally re-enabled COM1 in the
BIOS and restored IrDA to 2F8/IRQ3 - all of these did not change the
behavior of SmartTrak - just items #1 and #2 above seemed to impact it.

Installed BitDefender Std Edition, and now it runs fine - critical to place
the IrDA port directly over the SmartCom device - it will not work with the
T40 if you try to set it near the laptop - place the laptop on top of the
device (hold the laptop up and slide the SmartCom underneath).

And yes, I know why I wanted a debug mode... I've been doing this for 30
years and monitoring a communication protocol is nothing new. I'd be very
interested in what call failed that terminated SmartTrak's scan for SmartCom
when McVSEscn.exe is running - so would McAfee and ScubaPro;) Pehaps
ScubaPro can enhance SmartTrak so it is less bothered by McAfee's behavior,
or we can all switch to a better virus scanner and McAfee can stop bothering
us...

The suggestion to swap IrDA drivers arose from two other vendor sites for
Palm in which T40 driver issues with the IBM driver were noted as fixed by
using the MS driver - also Sony VIAO users have had to switch the Sony 1394
driver out for the TI OHCI driver to gain back "standard" functions that
Sony chose not to support and certain video editors (Premier) required.
It's nothing new for an OEM to break a driver while adding their own
functionality.

Thanks for the pointers, and Safe Diving,

CaptPat



"bullshark" <bullshark@scubadiving.com> wrote in message
news:05i590lgmjasflf5ofa6gf5dn5kpuokq4u@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:43:59 -0400, "Patrick"
<patrick@northshore.cnchost.com> wrote:
>
> >I've been unable to get Smart Track 1.013 (latest) to connect to a
SmartCom
> >DC under Windows XP.
>
>
> Works fine here.
>
> One tip: Open the cover and make sure that the smartcom is very
> close to the IR Xcvr.
>
> Uh. Turn off the freakin HotSync.
>
> >With either the National or Microsoft drivers the IrDA port seems to be
>
> You're screwing with all kinds of stuff you don't understand.
>
> >Systems AC'97 Modem that was configured on Com2/IRQ3 (shared IRQ).
>
> AC'97 modem? AC97 is an audio codec.
>
> Do yourself a favor. Stop screwing with it and reset everything to normal.
>
> Smarttrak works fine on WIN2K, XPHome and XPPro.
>
> safe diving,
>
> bullshark

Ok, I killed all non-essential processes on the system and put the IR window
of the laptop directly against the IR window of the smart com... and it
worked on the second try... then things got more interesting...

#1) Hint: Very critical item was to place the IR window of the TP40
directly against the SmartCom. The range appears to be under 1/4". I have
to lift up the IBM laptop and place SmartCom underneath the computer to get
communication established. Are others able to place the SmartCom further
from the IrDA device?

I then began restoring the configuration and quickly got the devices to stop
talking... so reduced the configuration again until they were able to talk
and added in various subsets of the running processes until it broke.

#2) Hint: It appears that McAfee has a process called McVSEscn.exe that
interferes with SmartTrak's ability to communicate with the SmartCom. I am
switching yet another computer to Bit Defender since that seems to work less
intrusively than the McAfee stuff.

The communication, once working, works with either the IBM driver or the
standard Microsoft driver. All the other software seems to run fine without
interfering with the communication. Hotsync is configured here to use USB
and did not change the behavior if running or not. Similarly for IBM
Bluetooth monitor, United Devices agent, and several other programs such as
a vpn client, the vnc server, zone alarm pro, logitech camera monitor,
synaptics touchpad software, microsoft rf mouse, cardscan scanner software,
ibm smbus software, pdanet monitor, essential net tools, manova camera
monitor, and some other stuff (including the other McAfee processes such as
mcagent.exe). Even fired up net meeting (conf.exe) to see if that killed
it, and it works fine with that running too;)

Basically I had 44 running processes when I started, killed most down to
about 12, got the communication going, and then added stuff back until about
29 processes and noticed that killing one of the McAfee processes
(McVSEscn.exe) after restarting the virus scanner caused the problem to
appear and then disappear... did a full reboot, killed just one process
(McVSEscn.exe) and it worked. At various points I swapped the IBM and MS
IrDA drivers, re-enabled the AC97 Modem (wave codec is part of this) that
had been interrupt-sharing with COM2 on IRQ3 (it re-installed on IRQ11, but
it does not appear to be the problem), and finally re-enabled COM1 in the
BIOS and restored IrDA to 2F8/IRQ3 - all of these did not change the
behavior of SmartTrak - just items #1 and #2 above seemed to impact it.

Installed BitDefender Std Edition, and now it runs fine - critical to place
the IrDA port directly over the SmartCom device - it will not work with the
T40 if you try to set it near the laptop - place the laptop on top of the
device (hold the laptop up and slide the SmartCom underneath).

And yes, I know why I wanted a debug mode... I've been doing this for 30
years and monitoring a communication protocol is nothing new. I'd be very
interested in what call failed that terminated SmartTrak's scan for SmartCom
when McVSEscn.exe is running - so would McAfee and ScubaPro;) Pehaps
ScubaPro can enhance SmartTrak so it is less bothered by McAfee's behavior,
or we can all switch to a better virus scanner and McAfee can stop bothering
us...

The suggestion to swap IrDA drivers arose from two other vendor sites for
Palm in which T40 driver issues with the IBM driver were noted as fixed by
using the MS driver - also Sony VIAO users have had to switch the Sony 1394
driver out for the TI OHCI driver to gain back "standard" functions that
Sony chose not to support and certain video editors (Premier) required.
It's nothing new for an OEM to break a driver while adding their own
functionality.

Thanks for the pointers, and Safe Diving,

CaptPat



"bullshark" <bullshark@scubadiving.com> wrote in message
news:05i590lgmjasflf5ofa6gf5dn5kpuokq4u@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 29 Apr 2004 14:43:59 -0400, "Patrick"
<patrick@northshore.cnchost.com> wrote:
>
> >I've been unable to get Smart Track 1.013 (latest) to connect to a
SmartCom
> >DC under Windows XP.
>
>
> Works fine here.
>
> One tip: Open the cover and make sure that the smartcom is very
> close to the IR Xcvr.
>
> Uh. Turn off the freakin HotSync.
>
> >With either the National or Microsoft drivers the IrDA port seems to be
>
> You're screwing with all kinds of stuff you don't understand.
>
> >Systems AC'97 Modem that was configured on Com2/IRQ3 (shared IRQ).
>
> AC'97 modem? AC97 is an audio codec.
>
> Do yourself a favor. Stop screwing with it and reset everything to normal.
>
> Smarttrak works fine on WIN2K, XPHome and XPPro.
>
> safe diving,
>
> bullshark

On Sat, 1 May 2004 03:41:05 -0400, "Patrick" <patrick@northshore.cnchost.com> wrote:

>#1) Hint: Very critical item was to place the IR window of the TP40
>directly against the SmartCom. The range appears to be under 1/4". I have
>to lift up the IBM laptop and place SmartCom underneath the computer to get
>communication established. Are others able to place the SmartCom further
>from the IrDA device?

Although IrDA is supposed to be good for a meter, we are power limited on
the dive computer side. I've never gotten more than about three inches.

>#2) Hint: It appears that McAfee has a process called McVSEscn.exe that

It certainly does break it. I had to go and upgrade to 8.0 on your behalf to
get it, but what the heck, I was on 6.1.

mcVSEscan seems to be a problem for lots of applications.
There's a patch:
http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/displayDoc....Ho tTopic=YES

Don't bother, it doesn't help. There is also an 8.1 release in the works.
It's a mcafee problem. It's interfering with the IrDA stack in some way.

Not much to do except complain and wait for them to fix it.

safe diving,

bullshark

On Sat, 1 May 2004 03:41:05 -0400, "Patrick" <patrick@northshore.cnchost.com> wrote:

>#1) Hint: Very critical item was to place the IR window of the TP40
>directly against the SmartCom. The range appears to be under 1/4". I have
>to lift up the IBM laptop and place SmartCom underneath the computer to get
>communication established. Are others able to place the SmartCom further
>from the IrDA device?

Although IrDA is supposed to be good for a meter, we are power limited on
the dive computer side. I've never gotten more than about three inches.

>#2) Hint: It appears that McAfee has a process called McVSEscn.exe that

It certainly does break it. I had to go and upgrade to 8.0 on your behalf to
get it, but what the heck, I was on 6.1.

mcVSEscan seems to be a problem for lots of applications.
There's a patch:
http://ts.mcafeehelp.com/displayDoc....Ho tTopic=YES

Don't bother, it doesn't help. There is also an 8.1 release in the works.
It's a mcafee problem. It's interfering with the IrDA stack in some way.

Not much to do except complain and wait for them to fix it.

safe diving,

bullshark