[code]If Timer.Enabled Then: Windows.Crash[/code]

[samdv]

This question is directed to anyone that has had the same problem as me but found a solution:

When I go out of my room I often leave the internet running, with MSN Messenger on. I made a program in VB that automatically replies to anyone that IMs me when I'm out. However, this uses a timer that ticks every 10 seconds, and it isn't uncommon to find that the program has crashed. I've experienced this problem before with the VB timer control when I made a motion sensor program for my webcam. Is there a way I can put together a few API calls (GetTickCount, Sleep, etc.) to simulate a timer, though with less chance of crashing my apps.

Cheers in advance,

Sam

[HeSaidJoe]

Are you sure it's the timer?
I have timers running on 3 different machines and I have no crash problems with any of the timers.

[Jerry Grant]

There is a sample client server application which comes with VB called 'coffee'. Included with this is the source for an API based timer wrapped in a DLL called 'XTimers.vbp'.

If you don't have this on your PC email me and I will send it to you!

[samdv]

The only programs I have made that crash regularly run a timer that ticks at between once every 10 seconds and every quarter of a second. In one such case I kind of expected the computer to crash because I was passing huge amounts of information through it every fraction of a second, but the one that ticks every 10 seconds really shouldn't crash.

One way to check would be to recompile the program with a custom-built API timer, but I don't know how to make one. I'll have a think, but if anyone comes up with anything then please can they tell me,

Sam


[PS. Jerry, just spotted your last post, and don't have coffee. If you could send it to me at [email protected] then I would be eternally grateful - cheers!]

[HeSaidJoe]

OK, I have heard of crashes when your interval is minuitely small and large amts of data are trying to get through.
Perhaps a pause method might work for you.

Enought to get you started

'this will pause your app for 1 min and write out to debug
'to get out of the loop press F2
'when getting out of the loop it will always do one last loop
'as the condition was true when you pressed F2 to make it false

'
'as far as I know GetTicCount resets itself after 47 days or so
'of continued operation so if you don't reboot in that time, what
'will happen should be some sort of quirt in the count
'
'for a 10 min pause you would use 600000

Option Explicit

Public x As Boolean
Private Declare Function GetTickCount Lib "kernel32" () As Long

Private Sub Form_KeyDown(KeyCode As Integer, Shift As Integer)
    Select Case KeyCode
        Case vbKeyF2: x = True
    End Select
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Form1.KeyPreview = True
End Sub

Private Sub Pause(Interval As Long)
    Dim Start
    Start = GetTickCount
    Do While GetTickCount < Start + Interval
    DoEvents
    Loop
End Sub

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    x = False
    Do While x <> True
        Pause 60000 'Pause for 1 min    [1 sec =  1000]
        Debug.Print Format(Now, "HH:NN:SS AM:M") 'do your stuff
    Loop
End Sub

[Babbalouie]

Here's some code for a timer...

=====================================================
Public Type SMPTE
hour As Byte
min As Byte
sec As Byte
frame As Byte
fps As Byte
dummy As Byte
pad(2) As Byte
End Type
Public Type MMTime
wType As Long
Units As Long
smpteVal As Long
songPtrPos As Long
End Type
Declare Function timeGetSystemTime Lib "winmm.dll" (lpTime As MMTime, ByVal uSize As Long) As Long
Public Const TIME_MS = 1
Public bmStart As Long

'===================================================================================
'Routine: StartBenchmark
'===================================================================================
'Inputs:
'
'Outputs:
'Purpose: Starts the timer. This timer is always accurate to .001 seconds
'
'Sample Call: StartBenchmark
'
'Date: 6/15/99
'===================================================================================

Public Sub StartBenchmark()

Dim MMT As MMTime
Dim lRetVal As Long

MMT.wType = TIME_MS

lRetVal = timeGetSystemTime(MMT, Len(MMT))
bmStart = MMT.Units

End Sub

'===================================================================================
'Routine: BenchmarkResults
'===================================================================================
'Inputs:
'
'Outputs: Elapsed time, accurate to .001 seconds
'Purpose: Stops the timer and passes back elapsed time sine the timer started
'
'Sample Call: msgbox BenchmarkResults & " seconds"
'
'Date: 6/15/99
'===================================================================================

Public Function BenchmarkResults() As Single

Dim MMT As MMTime
Dim lRetVal As Long

MMT.wType = TIME_MS

lRetVal = timeGetSystemTime(MMT, Len(MMT))
BenchmarkResults = (MMT.Units - bmStart) / 1000

End Function