Why Microsoft is Unreliable
05-01-2013, 03:39 PM
#11
Senior Member
That wasn't a system update, and SYNC doesn't randomly update by itself.
What you saw was the system message that pops up whenever SYNC is rebooted, for whatever reason. The major problem with SYNC (and it's been noted here a hundred times over) is that the processor that runs the whole OS is not fast enough to keep up with the demands of the different apps. When the system "hangs" there is background code that tells SYNC to reboot, and that is when you see the message that you did.
Just like any other computer, it's a good idea to reboot every so often just to clear cache and reset all your memory. THIS TOOL is what I keep on a USB thumb drive in my truck every day of the week, and any time I think about it, I'll plug in the stick until the message you saw pops up, then get out of my truck and go about my business. Once i've finished whatever it is I drove in my truck to go do, the system has rebooted and is running fresh again.
Here's the FORUM where I found the tool. Post #27 is where the good info starts.
What you saw was the system message that pops up whenever SYNC is rebooted, for whatever reason. The major problem with SYNC (and it's been noted here a hundred times over) is that the processor that runs the whole OS is not fast enough to keep up with the demands of the different apps. When the system "hangs" there is background code that tells SYNC to reboot, and that is when you see the message that you did.
Just like any other computer, it's a good idea to reboot every so often just to clear cache and reset all your memory. THIS TOOL is what I keep on a USB thumb drive in my truck every day of the week, and any time I think about it, I'll plug in the stick until the message you saw pops up, then get out of my truck and go about my business. Once i've finished whatever it is I drove in my truck to go do, the system has rebooted and is running fresh again.
Here's the FORUM where I found the tool. Post #27 is where the good info starts.
I don't want to derail this thread too much but I have to take issue with one part though. People say that periodically rebooting a system is a good idea. It is not, with a qualifier: If you are experiencing a problem, yes, reboot for starters (non Unix platform) but otherwise rebooting is a bad idea. Just kill the offending process that's causing the performance bottleneck.
You're stressing the hardware by shutting down and re-initializing disk controllers, etc... If you're running a Windows system, of course rebooting makes sense on occasion as programs that are written poorly may consume too much RAM and/or not free the memory allocated to them upon exit. It's the universal cure-all for most MS related issues. But a blanket statement that rebooting periodically is a good idea needs to die already.
Most likely the reboots are caused by a fatal hardware error, like a double word offset memory or non-correctable memory error, bad RAM, etc... or even a known bug. The O/S has to panic and crash to maintain data integrity. Unfortunately you might need to take it to someone that can see if it logged any errors when it crashed.
Last edited by OddBall; 05-01-2013 at 03:54 PM.
05-01-2013, 04:14 PM
#12
I don't want to derail this thread too much but I have to take issue with one part though. People say that periodically rebooting a system is a good idea. It is not, with a qualifier: If you are experiencing a problem, yes, reboot for starters (non Unix platform) but otherwise rebooting is a bad idea. Just kill the offending process that's causing the performance bottleneck.
You're stressing the hardware by shutting down and re-initializing disk controllers, etc... If you're running a Windows system, of course rebooting makes sense on occasion as programs that are written poorly may consume too much RAM and/or not free the memory allocated to them upon exit. It's the universal cure-all for most MS related issues. But a blanket statement that rebooting periodically is a good idea needs to die already.
Most likely the reboots are caused by a fatal hardware error, like a double word offset memory or non-correctable memory error, bad RAM, etc... or even a known bug. The O/S has to panic and crash to maintain data integrity. Unfortunately you might need to take it to someone that can see if it logged any errors when it crashed.
You're stressing the hardware by shutting down and re-initializing disk controllers, etc... If you're running a Windows system, of course rebooting makes sense on occasion as programs that are written poorly may consume too much RAM and/or not free the memory allocated to them upon exit. It's the universal cure-all for most MS related issues. But a blanket statement that rebooting periodically is a good idea needs to die already.
Most likely the reboots are caused by a fatal hardware error, like a double word offset memory or non-correctable memory error, bad RAM, etc... or even a known bug. The O/S has to panic and crash to maintain data integrity. Unfortunately you might need to take it to someone that can see if it logged any errors when it crashed.
There is no way to kill the offending process in MFT/SYNC, so your qualifier needs amending. I'm convinced that any errors a dealer might pull won't be able to solved by a software update of any sort. In this particular instance, the processor cannot keep up with the demands of the software and therefore "panics" in order to not have a total meltdown.
I don't restart my Mac just because, and there is a reason: it runs on Unix. MS products don't, and therefore the registry gets all jumbled around when opening and closing programs and other processes. MFT has the same base code for the OS, and therefore the "blanket" statement I applied is valid.
05-01-2013, 06:55 PM
#13
Senior Member
There is no way to kill the offending process in MFT/SYNC, so your qualifier needs amending. I'm convinced that any errors a dealer might pull won't be able to solved by a software update of any sort. In this particular instance, the processor cannot keep up with the demands of the software and therefore "panics" in order to not have a total meltdown.
I don't restart my Mac just because, and there is a reason: it runs on Unix. MS products don't, and therefore the registry gets all jumbled around when opening and closing programs and other processes. MFT has the same base code for the OS, and therefore the "blanket" statement I applied is valid.
I don't restart my Mac just because, and there is a reason: it runs on Unix. MS products don't, and therefore the registry gets all jumbled around when opening and closing programs and other processes. MFT has the same base code for the OS, and therefore the "blanket" statement I applied is valid.
You stated the following: "Just like any other computer, it's a good idea to reboot every so often just to clear cache and reset all your memory." This is factually and technically inaccurate. I have production MS boxes (more than 50) that have uptimes over 3 years and they run fine. They run CPU intensive applications 24x7x365. The only time they get rebooted is for patching or a hardware component has failed and that hasn't happened in 3 + years. For the record i've been responsible for tens of thousands of proprietary and open source *nix servers on all major commercial platforms.
So you're convinced the dealer won't be able to find anything? Good, maybe you should go work for Ford and tell them how to rebuild Sync. You're also stating the CPU can't keep up with the demands of the software. Validate that please, with actual evidence because I really would like to see that data. I also
The O/S these systems uses is stripped down and originally based upon Windows' old CE code with improvements but there would absolutely have to be a method to run it in debug mode or it writes to a system log file as they have to be able to diagnose problems properly.
Your experiences with MS notwithstanding are anecdotal at best. You haven't bothered to validate why -you- think a regular reboot is needed over the unsubstantiated claim the registry gets jumbled. I think thats a fair question to ask.
The latest Sync system uses a Freescale i.MX51 SOC ARM Cortex A8 CPU running at 600 mhz with 512 mb RAM and 2GB of NAND flash memory. If he's starving the CPU there IS another issue, a bug, a hardware failure and wholly unrelated to simply having CPU starvation. Why hasn't everyone else had issues doing very mundane tasks like using GPS and/or playing music?
I'm not trying to give you a hard time but I completely discount your analysis as you have no evidence to prove otherwise. This is what I do for a living and have done for more than 19 years now so I am speaking from experience.
Last edited by OddBall; 05-01-2013 at 06:57 PM.
05-01-2013, 11:04 PM
#14
You stated the following: "Just like any other computer, it's a good idea to reboot every so often just to clear cache and reset all your memory." This is factually and technically inaccurate. I have production MS boxes (more than 50) that have uptimes over 3 years and they run fine. They run CPU intensive applications 24x7x365. The only time they get rebooted is for patching or a hardware component has failed and that hasn't happened in 3 + years. For the record i've been responsible for tens of thousands of proprietary and open source *nix servers on all major commercial platforms.
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The rest of your post may be accurate, but your first paragraph had me shaking my head.
05-01-2013, 11:15 PM
#15
Senior Member
Never heard of a paper map huh? Lol
05-01-2013, 11:16 PM
#16
Senior Member
I have no idea what you guys are talking about, but I've only had one problem. Like another poster said, my radio won't come on and I have to use the voice command to get it to work. Other than that, no problems and I actually like it.
05-01-2013, 11:34 PM
#17
Senior Member
In my 26 years of owning a system integration Var we can say the only OS that could run for years was Netware. 3 yrs uptime on a ms box yea right, considering most updates require a restart to apply.
The rest of your post may be accurate, but your first paragraph had me shaking my head.
The rest of your post may be accurate, but your first paragraph had me shaking my head.
when something works, why mess with it? I ran MS Windows 2k Pro for years without updating it because I was happy with how I had it set up. unfortunately most MS crap doesn't work out of the box, so they constantly mess with it... which means rebooting.
anyway, back on topic... the more I read about these problems the more I am glad I stuck with the basic radio.
05-02-2013, 07:27 AM
#18
05-02-2013, 08:17 AM
#19
Most likely the reboots are caused by a fatal hardware error, like a double word offset memory or non-correctable memory error, bad RAM, etc... or even a known bug. The O/S has to panic and crash to maintain data integrity. Unfortunately you might need to take it to someone that can see if it logged any errors when it crashed.
05-02-2013, 09:07 AM
#20
Senior Member
I was driving home yesterday and the entertainment part of Sync wouldn't turn on. Nav, Phone, and Climate worked but the Entertainment wouldn't power on via the screen power button or the volume **** power button. Got home and cycled the key and it worked again... 