How do you prevent shutdown hang (and killing your battery)

nobb · 11-15-2006, 09:18 PM

Hi.
I'm just wondering. What precautions have you guys done to prevent your carpc from hanging on shutdown and killing your battery? I dont know if everyone here has that risk, but for me personally, I have designed my system to turn off the inverter only once the computer has shut itself down automatically (when ACC power is removed). Therefore, if for some reason my system were to hang on shutdown, then my battery would be drained to death. So far, my automatic shutdowns have been flawless, but I am still weary. I have read a tweak on doing some registry modifications to automatically force exit an application if it hangs. Will this guarantee 100% automatic shutdown sucess?

Enforcer · 11-15-2006, 09:21 PM

might be worth having an extranl timer that cut power after a predetermined amount of time after the ACC has gone. Just in case.

popi79 · 11-25-2006, 01:04 PM

Your total solution is called M2-ATX, I've been using it now for a few months and it is wonderful!!!, I mean I have no ways of telling you how much I like this piece of hardware!!!, Its definitely what makes a carputer a carputer!!!,
go for it, because it will take care of all you power concern issues as it has preprogrammed shutdown schemes, for me is the best for the money, I paid like $80 on ebay, I guarantee you will love it...

Of course there is the competition that has programmable serial interface but it is more expensive I dont remember the name now...

Good Luck...

PS. always remember to have adequate cooling so you extend the life of it....

SUVputer · 11-28-2006, 01:02 PM

Indeed, the M2-ATX is great tool, but if windows hangs, it does really help since it will send a command to shut down, but windows won't respond.

I was facing the same problems as Noob, I changed some values in the registry a week ago, windows didn't hang once on shut down since. Here is how to do it briefly:

Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop'
Highlight the 'WaitToKillAppTimeout' value. Set it to '1000' (the default should be 20000). Now highlight the 'HungAppTimeout' value. Set it to '1000' also.

Open REGEDIT and navigate to 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop'
Highlight the value 'AutoEndTasks.'
Change the value to '1'
XP will now be able to close hung applications without user input during the shutdown process.

Now Search for all the "WaitToKillAppTimeout" , 'HungAppTimeout' and "AutoEndTasks" in your registry and change there values accordingly. It is supposed to work.

For more info: http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.c...d=1590&page=32

nobb · 11-28-2006, 04:11 PM

Hmm...even with all these settings applied, is there perhaps a slight remote chance that Windows might hang?

ron1 · 11-28-2006, 04:24 PM

I placed a "valet switch" in the +12v battery line to the M2-ATX. It has been very useful in recovering from hangs, etc.

Wiredwrx · 11-28-2006, 04:31 PM

All the noobiness in this thread is disturbing.

First, using an invertor to power your system is not the best solution. If you insist on using it, then the best solution is a timed relay that will turn off after a preset time, saving you from a flat/dead battery.

A DC-DC ATX PS for your carputer is the Best solution. ALL of them have the ability to TOTALLY cut all power to the carputer after a time interval that is set by the user. So, if the carputer hangs during shutdown with the M2 (or the others) once "X" minutes have elapsed, it will kill all power to the carputer. Problem solved.

Michael

SUVputer · 11-28-2006, 04:44 PM

Michael, you're right, M2 will cut power even if windows hangs depending on the jumpers.

Quote from M2-ATX's manual: "In the event where the shutdown process is longer than “OFFDELAY” (windows gets frozen, etc), power will be shut down hard,turning off all power rails."

Please can you try to use a less rude language next time, and respect others' "noobiness" as u call it, Mr Teacher ? Everyone would highly appreciate that.

As for the procedure discribed above, it will at least faster the shut down time...

Vineet Singh · 12-08-2006, 03:36 PM

You asked what we have done, and this may not apply to you, but maybe others can benefit. I use a laptop, it only has AC power when the car is on, otherwise, it runs off it's internal battery (and will hibernate in 1 min), so I never have this problem.

My older laptop would also just turn on when power was applied to the port, automatically. My newer P4, I haven't been able to replicate this

.

Nolat · 12-14-2006, 10:15 PM

OPUS. My opus 120w will send a soft shutdown signal when acc is removed. ~40 seconds later regardless, it turns off. hung or not, its off. I found it out when I accidently jarred the power button pair out from working on it..Least my batt was fine.

xBrady · 12-15-2006, 02:06 PM

Opus handles it all flawlessly.

strohj · 12-23-2006, 10:46 AM

DSATX handles it pretty well too