Procomm doesn't start on console

[madesjardins]

Hi,

This isn't really an Aspect question but here goes. I run Procomm on a Windows 2000 server in terminal server mode. Clients connecting to the server can, without issue, start Procomm and work happily with all the scripts and such.

When I try to launch Procomm on the console, however, the process starts for 10 seconds (seen in the task manager) then ends. I don't get the Procomm splash screen or anything at all displayed. This also causes scheduled tasks to behave the same way, as they run as if on the console.

The funny thing is that this has always worked. I've been doing this for over 3 years without much issue. We have scripts runnning (or rather we want to have them running!) every night that are business critical. I now find myself launching those manually late at night from Terminal Server.

I appreciate any input from anyone. I'm pretty much willing to try anything at this point.

 

[knob]

I'm not familiar with Win2K terminal server, but is it possible that the permissions have changed in some way such that "local" launches of Procomm are done at a different user level than those users connecting to the server?

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[madesjardins]

When I'm connected to the console, my user is used to start the application. I'm an administrator of this server and have effective rights everywhere.

When I run the scheduled tasks, I use a production service account, which is also an administrator of the server and thus also has sufficient rights.

And the users that connect through TS are power users, and not administrators. So should anyone have problems due to permissions, I suspect it would be them first.

We're also not running any policies on this server which would affect Procomm's execution. Any other program seems to work just fine as well.

 

[knob]

Can you launch Procomm over TS as the user(s) that launch Procomm from the console?

You can trying renaming the default Connection Directory (pw5.dir/pw4.dir) and parameter file (pw5.prm/pw4.prm) to see if they are corrupted, but I would expect the users coming in over TS would have problems as well.

Which version of Procomm are you using?

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[madesjardins]

Yes, I can launch Procomm from my user or the service account's user while over TS. I have tried renaming the prm and dir files also to no avail. And I'm using 4.8.

It seems to me that there's something in the console's environment that it doesn't like. The only thing that I can think of that makes any kind of sense is the video card/driver. I know that Procomm is sensitive to video drivers as I've seen multiple knowledge base articles on Symantec's website where certain video cards or drivers cause Procomm to mibehave. What I've done to aleviate this is running Windows 2000 with a /vga. This basically runs Windows with the basic Microsoft 256 colors, 640x480 crappy video driver.

Still doesn't work.

 

[knob]

Has anything changed recently that you can think of? I'm stumped on what else could cause a problem like that. Does Procomm just "go away" or do you get a crash or error message of some sort?

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[madesjardins]

The only way I can tell that it actually starts is that it shows up for roughly 10 seconds in the process mananger. It then vanishes and I don't see a single thing on the screen.

As far as things changing goes, I can't think of anything that's relevant. Of course, patches are applied as they come out so that could be something.

I just don't know anymore.

 

[knob]

Are you launching just Procomm or a script as well?

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[madesjardins]

Either. I can try to launch just pw5.exe or pw5.exe scriptname.was and the result is the same.

 

[knob]

Very odd. I've emailed this thread to a Procomm developer I know to see if he has any ideas. Have you tried posting this on a forum that discusses terminal services (not sure if Tek-Tips has one or not)? I would think this is a Windows problem, not Procomm, but don't know that for sure.

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[madesjardins]

Well, I thought so as well but any other process works just fine.

I'm going to code a little .net exe that looks for another instance of itself and shuts down if it finds one, like the Procomm .exe does, to see if the behaviour that I'm seeing is caused by some "inter-context-bleeding" so to speek where all scheduled tasks and the console share the same Windows context. They shouldn't, but at least I'll know for sure...