CW 3.1 for HC(S)12 Dongle LED goes out!!

[Shortbus]

Hello.  I have a node locked license of CW 3.1 for HC(s)12. 

Lately, the LED on my dongle has been going out, and CW will revert to demo mode.  If I unplug and replug the dongle, everything will work OK for maybe one or two more compile/debug cycles, but then the problem occurs all over again! 

I tried every USB port on my Dell Dimension 4700, but no luck. 

I also restored my license.dat file from a backup I made after just after activation just in case that file had been corrupted somehow, but no luck.

Also, I've tried about a dozen other USB devices with this PC, and they all work flawlessly!

I'm desperate! Please help!  

Craig

[Shortbus]

Thanks mke_et and BlackNight!

I did check out my power management settings first thing, but I didn't have any luck.  These are the settings:

Turn off monitor after 1 hour.

Turn off hard disks after 3 hours.

System standby: Never

System hibernate: Never

Unless I'm overlooking something, I don't see how this could be the culprit.

Sadly, the problem has returned with a vengeance!! 

I can replug the dongle, compile my project, make a quick (10 second) code change, and try to compile again and it will say that I'm limited to 1023 bytes of code!

The LED doesn't always go out, either. Sometimes the IDE will report that it is in demo mode while the LED is still on.  So far, if I unplug and replug the dongle and immediately compile, it works.

I haven't yet been able to try your suggestion to test the system on another PC, but I guess I'll try that tonight.  

The way my luck seems to be going lately, I'll find out that this problem is isolated to just my PC. In that case, I guess the next step after that is to try reinstalling Windows XP, and if that doesn't work, maybe asking the boss for a new PC.  :smileysad:

Thanks for the suggestions though!

[sjmelnikoff]

The power management settings for USB are available as follows:

1. Open up Device Manager (For XP: Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager button)
2. Click View->Devices by Connection
3. Go through the hierarchy until you find the USB Root Hub into which your dongle is plugged (on my PC it's under: ACPI Multiprocessor PC -> Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System -> PCI Bus -> Intel USB Universal Host Controller -> USB Root Hub).
4. Right-click USB Root Hub and choose Properties, and go to the Power Management tab.
5. Uncheck the box next to "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power", and click OK.

Steve.

[Shortbus]

Aha. Thanks for the tip! 

I went into the device manager and found several (at least half a dozen) root hubs. 

I don't know if that's normal or not.  I don't have any external hubs connected, and I wonder why so many internal root hubs need to be there to support only six USB ports.

Anyway, I disabled the power management feature of each root hub. 

Sadly, it didn't solve the problem.  I think I'll remove all my USB drivers (root hubs, everything), reinstall, and see if so many root hubs appear after device detection.

Craig

[mke_et]

Before you try anything drastic, go into the power management on your machine and tell it that the most power management you want is just the screen saver. Then if that solves it, then start working backwards through the powermanagement.

[BlackNight]

Hello,
Typically, the dongle LED is off if there is a power/USB problem (which seems not to be your problem as other devices work), or a driver problem (for the USB dongle).
E.g. if no drivers are installed or if the driver is not working properly, then the LED will be off too.

I suggest that you uninstall the dongle driver and re-install it?

If this does not work, you may try it on another machine (to find out if there is anything special with your machine). Otherwise I suggest that you contact support and you get a replacement for the USB dongle as the dongle itself may be the problem.

Hope this helps,
BlackNight.

[Shortbus]

Thanks Blacknight.

Last night, I uninstalled the "Aladdin USB Key" from my device manager, in safe mode.

(Just to be safe :smileyhappy: ) 

I then unplugged the dongle and rebooted in normal mode,  downloaded the latest drivers I could find for Macrovision FlexID USB 2.0 x86, plugged in the dongle, and installed those drivers, and rebooted. 

I forgot to make note of the link. It was on Macrovision's site though.  Sorry.

After that, the device manager then contained "Aladdin USB Key" and "Aladdin HASP Key"..

I was able to compile and debug my project a few times before it stopped seeing the dongle again.

Today however, I've been working all day without incident!  So I'm not sure whether the problem will recur, but I think you might have bought me some time, at least. Thanks for that! 

Craig

[BlackNight]

Hi Craig,
I recommend that you consider the other post around the power management too. This triggered me remembering a problem similar like this where a notebook was shutting down USB ports because the machine was thinking it was not used. So disabling power saving features may be an excellent idea in case the problem comes up again.

BlackNight