Ethernet controller and Windows 8/8.1 64bit problems

[bcslaam]

BTW do you see a security risk in publicly posting these details here?...too late now

[CopperPhil]

Hi,

Ok. Since the answer to Q1 is Yes, I'm pretty sure that the installation of the new package failed. Wondering why. Did you try to install the package using the "run as administrator" option?

Q2 and Q3 are in opposition for me... If the list is empty, it means that the CPManager is unable to communicate with the VNM. And so you should see "No CopperLan" at the bottom right.

But! what you reported at the end of the message is very interesting: the VNM service is still "stopping". I'm wondering why it is "stopping" at this time. Did you install CopperLan just before? If so, I'm sure that the VNM has not been updated and this could explain Q1. It's impossible to know with certainty what happens at this time, but this is surely related to the issue. The portion of report I see in the third image shows me device discarded followed immediately by device declaration for the same device, occurring in the middle of the device enumeration. This wouldn't be there... it could be a symptom of system instability explaining Q2 and Q3.

To ensure that this is not related to the CopperLan package, I just sent you an email with a download link to the latest one built this Monday. Please stop the CPVNM service manually, ensure that its status is well "Stopped" (use the Task Manager's "refresh" button), then install this package using right-click and "run as administrator".

Let me know then if the VNM service is up and running, and try again to run the analysis tool.

BTW do you see a security risk in publicly posting these details here?

No at all

[bcslaam]

I have uninstalled 1206 (making sure CPVNM is no longer running) and installed your latest version 1.2.1209 on all 4 pcs. The ethernet card IS visible and all seems to be working (however, this is typical behaviour, usually one day Ill turn on and the card will be lost again...but lets hope not).

I am able to successfully stop and restart CPVNM in services now. Great one step forward!
(Does this mean that on the occasions where my card is dropped I can try restarting and hopefully not lose all my patching?)

BUT wait...snapshot is not working. So I still cant rely on it to save my setup.

I backed up the original snapshot previously into a custom folder and replaced it in the user folder location and now upon load it just comes up with missing setup data for all pcs this time. So I now have lost ALL patching data since the update

I will now embark on the long process of re-patching everything and saving a snapshot (once again) in this seemingly functional state. ie All pc copperlan managers have a card selected and say "Ethernet" in the bottom right. This, I maintain, has always been the state I have saved a snapshot in.

I have attached a snip of the dialog, as you can see it is only at the top of a long list of [missing] entries.

I hope now that CPVNM is stoppable future updates wont need a complete uninstall and patching is maintained. But it still doesnt solve the problem of snapshot being able to recover from a disaster. Please fix snapshot.

Regards

[CopperPhil]

Well... it seems that you're facing an issue related to the CopperLan unique identification probably lost during CopperLan un-installation.

The snapshot feature embedded in the CopperLan Manager is quite basic and does not allow target re-allocation on restore. A more powerful snapshot dedicated software with backup functionality would be useful in your case but it's only described on paper at the moment...

I'll send you an email in a few minutes. I found a way to restore the computers identities, then you would be able to restore your former snapshot files. It will be possible to do that automatically later, but the tool does not exists yet.

[bcslaam]

Thanks Phil

The workaround to restore my setup is still better than having to redo everything when a client is there. Thanks

[bcslaam]

Just out of interest, what is the file that gets removed during uninstall that contains those IDs?

Maybe I could back that up as well as the snapshot and restore it to original location. Is it the "Copperlan Manager.settings" file in user folder?

[CopperPhil]

It is not a file, it is a registry key. You'll find it in the email I just sent to you:

The registry path is HKLM\SOFTWARE\CopperLan\CPVNM and the unique ID is stored in the key MachineID

[bcslaam]

Well the same thing happened again. Went to boot up first time today, ethernet card is dropped, nothing in the list, CL says Local, CPVNM service wont stop so restarting it is impossible. Yet here I am online using the same NIC to browse check email, home network is running.

This time I am certain when I installed yesterday it was clean installs unless there is a dll cache that I dont know about thats putting the old CPVNM.dll back in place of the new one. Other machines all see their NICs

This is killing me! What next

[bcslaam]

Ive set a delay on start for CPVNM and a pc reboot bought the card back in to CL. Patching maintained. So lets see how it boots up next time.

[CopperPhil]

What???

This problem is a nightmare...

Can you check file size/creation date in C:\Program Files\CopperLan\CPVNM?

CPVNM.exe should be 12/9/2013 9:47 with a size of 1239Kb
CPoEthAPI.dll should be 12/6/2013 10:11 with a size of 57Kb

1) If you have something else, some software installed on your computer is restoring previous configuration during the start-up.
2) If you have the same info, something is going wrong during the start-up and breaks the VNM...

I'm really curious about this test. We never had any similar issue for years! Your case is unique and I would still like to understand what is happening

I don't understand why a start-up delay on VNM could make it more reliable, except if your NIC blinks like a christmas tree before being up-and-running. Don't know how the VNM would manage the situation if its current NIC come and go during initialization, this is impossible to simulate...

But anyway, the first thing to check is that you still have always the last version of the VNM running on your computer.