Active H&M window turns grey

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Rob Davis
Posts: 146
Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:45 am

Active H&M window turns grey

Unread post by Rob Davis »

Hi
Every now and then, when going to a different H&M screen (such as invoking a different Toolbar option like 'Publish') - the whole window turns blank (grey). It recovers (with a bit of a delay) if I click on the pinned H&M button on my task tray. I'm not sure, but this may have started around the time I downloaded the last update - I am currently using Professional Edition 7.5.0 4692.
Full disclosure: The application is on my workstation, but all project files are on a shared network drive. This has not been a problem previously over the 7+ years I have been using this configuration, and is not a problem for the other two writers here who use the same setup. They are not accessing the same Projects as I am working on.
Any suggestions?
Thanks
Rob
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Tim Green
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Re: Active H&M window turns grey

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Rob,

I'm going to discuss this with our developers but it sounds like a simple start delay caused by something not being quite ready yet. I'll see what they say about it... :?
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Tim Green
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Re: Active H&M window turns grey

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Rob,

Update: We're all a bit perplexed at this as it's not something we've ever heard of. Would it be possible to post a screenshot of what it looks like?
The application is on my workstation,
So you are running Help+Manual on the computer you are working on?

One possibility: Please try shutting down the entire computer and waiting for at least 30 seconds before starting again. I know it still sounds far-fetched, but now that chip structures are getting smaller and smaller, physical bit flips in memory (0 changing spontaneously to 1 and vice-versa) caused by the high-energy particles from space that regularly make their way through our atmosphere are now a real and regular phenomenon. Only server-class computers with Xeon processors and error-correcting ECC memory have a little protection against this, but even they can be affected. On all other machines, individual bits in memory will be regularly flipped by such events and this can cause strange and inexplicable errors.

See this great new Radiolab podcast on the subject for some background:

https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/bit-flip
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Rob Davis
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Joined: Tue Sep 06, 2011 9:45 am

Re: Active H&M window turns grey

Unread post by Rob Davis »

Thanks, Tim
If I read that on a conspiracy theory site, I would have said 'yeah, right!'
So we are reaching the physical limits of microcircuitry? Moore's Law is in danger?
N-a-a-a . . - they'll think of something. They always do.
We're still waiting for optical computing.
Meantime, thanks as always for your responses.
Rob
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Tim Green
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Re: Active H&M window turns grey

Unread post by Tim Green »

Rob Davis wrote:Thanks, Tim
If I read that on a conspiracy theory site, I would have said 'yeah, right!
Same here, but unfortunately bit flips are a very real phenomenon that the computer industry really doesn't like to talk about. The effect increases with altitude. On aircraft all computers use ECC error-correcting memory (also used in servers and professional workstations) that can correct for one bit flip per byte (but only one) and there at least three units of every computer present. The correctness of data is then decided effectively by vote: If there is a discrepancy the version that the majority of the computers agree on wins.

PS: Paradoxically, you are more likely to be affected by this the more modern and advanced your computer is. If you have the very latest processors and memory chips they will also have the smallest structures and memory cells, that are most susceptible to the effects of hard solar and other radiation. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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