ZWO ASI120MM usb2.0 unreliable goes to black with ALL apps..

pablotwa

Hi!

Has anybody have a solution for the ZWO ASI120MM usb2.0 unreliability issue which makes it go to black with ALL apps after a while. The ONLY way to recover is to physically unplug and then plug the USB camera back in.

Rebooting doesn't help, re installing the driver doesn't work, going to the device driver and making sure the USB AND the driver USB power management "Allow computer to turn off the device to save power" unchecking will not work. Same problem with windows 7 pro, 8 and 10...

Basically the camera will work famously for half a day (I'm using it as an all sky camera) and then it will go to black..it will still show that it's capturing but no video, nothing.

I've turned off the USB turbo to minimum ,maximum, in between,,nothing..I have to physically remove power to it by unplugging it and then plugging it back in and presto.

I've lowered the usb setting to 40 increased it to 100, added a powered usb hub in between and then I added an active, high quality usb cable to no avail, same issue...the only thing that will fix it for a while is to physically unplug the camera and then plug it back in. rebooting the computer won't do it, power has to be removed from the camera completely...

Very inconvenient since It's for my remote Observatory.

Thoughts?

best!

Pablo Lewin

Sam@ZWO

no hub and no extender

short usb2.0 cable

these are the most important parts

pablotwa

Sam wrote:
no hub and no extender

short usb2.0 cable

these are the most important parts

Thank you for the response. The reason I added the extender and the hub it's because when I had a short USB 2 cable connected to ANY USB outlet directly to the computer, it would work even less time than with the hub and the extender.

The camera works for about an hour and then it goes dark. Once I physically unplug the camera and plug it back in then it start working again for a short time. Once again a short usb 2 with no extender and or usb hub will NOT make it work better.

Any other thoughts? are you guys going to come out with a new driver?

Best!

Sam@ZWO

pablotwa wrote:
Sam wrote:no hub and no extender

short usb2.0 cable

these are the most important parts

Thank you for the response. The reason I added the extender and the hub it's because when I had a short USB 2 cable connected to ANY USB outlet directly to the computer, it would work even less time than with the hub and the extender.

The camera works for about an hour and then it goes dark. Once I physically unplug the camera and plug it back in then it start working again for a short time. Once again a short usb 2 with no extender and or usb hub will NOT make it work better.

Any other thoughts? are you guys going to come out with a new driver?

Best!

that's weird, there is no driver update for a long time

we used to use 120 camera with PI and 7*24 hours works

I suspect just PC related issue

can you try with another PC?

pablotwa

Sam wrote:
pablotwa wrote:
Sam wrote:no hub and no extender

short usb2.0 cable

these are the most important parts

Thank you for the response. The reason I added the extender and the hub it's because when I had a short USB 2 cable connected to ANY USB outlet directly to the computer, it would work even less time than with the hub and the extender.

The camera works for about an hour and then it goes dark. Once I physically unplug the camera and plug it back in then it start working again for a short time. Once again a short usb 2 with no extender and or usb hub will NOT make it work better.

Any other thoughts? are you guys going to come out with a new driver?

Best!

that's weird, there is no driver update for a long time

we used to use 120 camera with PI and 7*24 hours works

I suspect just PC related issue

can you try with another PC?

Sam in my original post I wrote that I've tried it in windows 7 pro, 8 and 10 so the answers is yes I have. also I started a thread about this camera on cloudynights and this problem is not new and it's widespread...so I'm sure this is not the first time responding to the same problem. By not supporting this camera properly even though it's still being sold ZWO is HURTING your brand..You guys should do the right thing and support it properly by updating the driver...It's important..

Sam@ZWO

OK, We will test it one night today and tell you the result

pablotwa

Sam wrote:
OK, We will test it one night today and tell you the result

I now have it connected directly to the computer with the best 2 foot usb cable I can buy and it works a little better but it hangs (gets stuck) after about 10 minutes. I've used EVERY capture program availabe including Sharpcap and it's the same. Totally unreliable..I've tried all kinds of computers and if you go to the different web boards you will see (I suspect you already knew..right?) that this problem persists. If you cannot support a camera that's still being sold how can I trust that you won't do the same thing with your other cameras?

Good Luck.

Sam@ZWO

we just tested it for one day last night and seems no problem

so the case is computer specific

we may need to login your PC to check this problem

you can send one email to us

pablotwa

Sam wrote:
we just tested it for one day last night and seems no problem

so the case is computer specific

we may need to login your PC to check this problem

you can send one email to us

Thank you for trying. I'm done. I bought an Atik camera

Best!