Hi,

I'm a computer tech for several classes using RobotC for Mindstorms and I've become stumped on an issue. I've run into an issue where when you go to compile and download a program to your robot, that it causes the whole computer to restart. It doesn't happen every time and it doesn't seem to happen when you use a sample program, only when it's a program the students have written.

I have tried reinstalling the software and re-imaging the systems but the problem still seems to pop up at random intervals. The version of RobotC is 3.08 and the operating systems are Windows XP SP3. This has happened on both laptops and desktops. At first I thought maybe it was related to deep freeze somehow but the laptops do not have deep freeze installed.

I've searched the internet and I haven't been able to find anyone else with the same problems. So far we've had this pop up in two out of 6 schools. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as I've got several students who are starting to get disheartened by the setbacks. Thanks so much.

Did this restart happen only on "compile and download" or it happened on "compile only" as well? Normally, a user mode program, no matter how bad it faulted, will not cause the machine to reboot. So it must be a kernel mode component. The only kernel mode component in RobotC that I can think of is the USB NXT driver or the Bluetooth driver. These drivers are only used to communicate with the robot through USB or Bluetooth connections. So if the reboot only happens under these conditions (communicating with the robot using USB or Bluetooth), then I would suspect the NXT driver or the Bluetooth driver. Since WinXP is really old, I wouldn't be surprise if the latest driver does not work with WinXP properly anymore.

Just wanted to check to see if this issue is resolved (we haven't had any other users experiencing this issue and assume it's a unique case), and if not, could you post what the blue screens are displaying (if they stay up long enough to view)? Also, you may want to use a program that views your crash dump logs, such as NirSoft's BlueScreenView, and send those to us as well. This will help us find out what exactly is causing the blue screen crashes.