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This solid green
screen is likely caused by "PCI
bus contention." Apparently some video cards do
not readily give up the bus at startup and the web camera
(D-Link
DSC-350) is not allowed to get a large enough slice of
time to function. Adjusting the hardware acceleration for
the graphics card seems to be without effect. The green screen
appears to be a not
uncommon encounter. Manually exiting from the web cam
software and restarting acquisition results in acquiring
a normal USB video stream and normal webcam function. The
green screen can be obviated by this simple work around.
So, once fixed, the PondCam functions normally until the
next reboot.
Unfortunately,
until recently, the Willow Pond server was an Athlon 500
system using a FIC
SD-11 motherboard. FIC enjoys
a deserved reputation for
poor quality products and a support policy that is nonexistent. Spontaneous
reboots are frequent with FIC SD-11 motherboards. The
WP server experienced unanticipated reboots several times
a week. While daily reboots can be regarded as a feature
since a fresh Windows 2000 start often solves all sorts of
problems, unfortunately, it also resulted in a green screen
webcam with each random reboot. Manual intevention was required
and all was well until the next unanticipated reboot.
In January
2003, the Willow Pond server was upgraded to an Athlon 1.1
GHz system (the rating predates the current AMD giggaHertz convention)
using an Abit
KT7 motherboard. Although the solid green screen still
occurs upon initiating the webcam software from the startup
menu, this is an exceptionally stable system and all reboots
are intended ones, so the GSOD is now largely a thing of
the past.
[Go to the PondCampage]
[Go
to the PondCam help page]
[Go to the Willow Pond PC tips page]
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us know.]
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