PWB Application Error

[Pheeal]

Hi,

I'm wondering if someone could please assist us with our Library "OPAC" machines? We've received reports that our machines have been stuck at a black screen and upon further investigation we've discovered that the PWB.exe application is crashing and causing the PCs to revert to a blank/black background with a mouse cursor (E.g. no Windows shell).

These PC's have been configured so that they auto login with a generic user account (roaming network account) and then launch the PWB.exe application, with a defined list of accepted URLs in the URL.txt file.

• The PCs are all running Windows 10 v.20H2

• The PCs are all running PWB version 3.05.8, except for one which is updated to 3.05.9 for testing

• There are no power saving settings set on these machines.

• The PWB.exe has an idle timeout of 10 minutes after which the screen refreshes and I've witnessed this in person when I was investigating the call from our user.

I was wondering if anyone would be able to help us identify the cause as we've tried everything we can think of?

Included is a link to a screenshot of the error we receive on the PCs.



Regards,
Phil W

[Scott]

At what point in time does the error occur? For example When logging onto the computer, over time when PWB is being used, or on a specific URL?

--Scott

[Pheeal]

Hi Scott,

Thanks for the reply. That's our problem as it seems the application crashes at indeterminate times and each one (OPAC machine) is different. It's never at the same time every day for example. It always happens when not in use and there are no errors/warnings or other notable events preceding it in the event logs (Application, Security and System logs).

From memory these machines worked fine when on the previous non-Chromium version of PWB, however we had to switch to this version as Internet Explorer didn't render the required pages properly.

If there is any further information you require that might help identify the issue please let me know and I'll see if I can provide it.

Regards,
Phil W

[Scott]

Are you allowing PWB to close, clear the cache, and restart between patrons?

--Scott

[Pheeal]

Hi Scott. We don't have the computer restart between patrons, we use the timeout setting in the PWB settings as the machines don't get regular/heavy use. The PCs restart every 24 hours as per our company policy.
Do you have any insight on how we could get PWB to close and/or clear the cache between patrons? Is it something that can be specified in the PWB.ini?

[Scott]

You can have PWB close, clear the cache, and restart with the following settings.

Allow PWB to close.

[Browser]
DisableExit=False

Have PWB clear the cache and restart after closing.

[Security]
ClearCacheOnClose=True
RestartOnClose=True

Have PWB exit after inactivity.

[Inactivity]
InactivityTimer=True
InactivitySeconds=300
InactivityAction=Exit

--Scott

[Pheeal]

Hi Scott, many thanks for the assistance.
I've just checked PWB on one of our machines (we copy the same one to all machines but alter the RegistrationNumber accordingly) and all of those settings are already as you stated. The only slight exception is that InactivitySeconds=30 so am I right in assuming that our version already closes, clears the cache and restarts?

[Scott]

That sounds correct.

You should also upgrade to newest version of PWB, 3.05.10.

--Scott

[Pheeal]

Hi Scott,

As indicated in an earlier post, this issue happens on machines regardless of the version of PWB (v3.0.5.10 and 3.0.5.8 ). We put v3.0.5.10 on as a test to see if that would fix the issue.

I noticed in the ReadMe.txt for version x.10 that there were some options added that were undocumented until version 3.06.0, in particular this one [Security]RestartWaitforIdle. I will add this to our machine running x.10 and see if that makes a difference. I'm hoping that the PWB.exe is simply not restarting correctly.

Regards,
Phil W

[Scott]

Sorry I did not see the "3.05.10" in the screen shot only the body of the message:

"The PCs are all running PWB version 3.05.8, except for one which is updated to 3.05.9 for testing"


Are you using the 32 or 64 bit version of PWB?


Try setting the following in the INI file.

[Browser]
ExitPage=about:blank

And ensure you have +about:blank in your URL filter file.

--Scott

[Scott]

PWB version 3.05.11 is now available on the Beta downloads page. We added some error suppression that may correct the issue you are seeing.

https://www.teamsoftwaresolutions.com/beta.php

--Scott

[Pheeal]

Hi Scott,

Yes apologies for the mix up, I'm not sure why I put v3.05.9 in the initial details. It was definitely v3.05.10 and the x64 version.

Thanks for the update about the beta release, I've downloaded that and amended our PWB.ini with the additional setting you suggested

[Browser]
ExitPage=about:blank

I've also added +about:blank to the URL.txt file.

This morning I put the beta version on the two machines we have been having issues with and included the amended PWB.ini and URL.txt files replacing the base versions included in the beta release.


It will just be another waiting/monitoring situation now. I'll give it 7 days to assess if the PWB.exe crashing still continues. I will report back either way but thank you so far for all your help

[Scott]

If you do not experience the crashes, it would be helpful to change [Browser]ExitPage= so we can determine if it was the update or the ExitPage that prevented the crashing.

--Scott

[Pheeal]

Hi Scott,

So after a week of the new version being in place, I've checked the event logs of our three OPAC machines. Unfortunately it is the same as before, it still crashes leaving the machines at a blank desktop which subsequently requires a restart to make the machines useable again.

In the past week each machine has had PWB.exe crash twice.


Device 1: 62994 - 03/09/21 @ 10:13, 28/08/21 @ 12:44
Device 2: 63545 - 03/09/21 @ 09:46, 28/08/21 @ 12:36
Device 3: 63720 - 02/09/21 @ 16:13, 29/08/21 @ 13:44

I've checked with a colleague in our Platform and Infrastructure team and he has assured me there are no policies running on these assets other than power management (Restart at 03:00 to check for updates and do AV scan I think, then restart again). I was initially suspicious as the days and times were very similar so thought there might have been policies running at this time but he has confirmed that's not the case.

I'm out of ideas as to what to try. I've checked with two devices on another campus as a member of staff in the Library reported these don't suffer the same issue but these also have PWB.exe crashing so unfortunately that is not the case here.

Regards,
Phil W

[Scott]

How is PWB being started on the computers?

How much memory is in the computers?

--Scott