Installing PrimoCache Server crashes rainmeter

[Active Colors]

Nothing looks suspicious to me in your specs.
The log does not contain any useful information because it has nothing related to the crash. Don't forget to turn off "Log to file" option cause you probably don't want (and might not need at all) to end up with a fat log file in your system.

The problem could be related to some peculiarities with Server version of Windows but I am not familiar with this edition. I just think that some kind of service is enabled (or disabled) that can interfere in the process apart from the PrimoCache software/service.

[Active Colors]

My first guess is that the crash could be due to the Wireless Adapter information (Wi-Fi).
You need to install the latest Gadgets again to check whether the following changes will cause the crash.

• Launch Network Meter (not the Pro) > click right mouse button on the skin > choose "Edit Skin"
• You will have Notepad opened with the skin
○ if you have an alternative to Notepad like Notepad++ it would be better if you open the skin file through it.
• You you need to locate all the sections related to WiFi. They are starting at line number 496 or you can find there a comment which goes like ;---------- Wireless Adapter ----------
• remove or comment out everything (by placing semi-column ; symbol in front) that is starting at this Wireless Adapter category and until you reach the ;--------- Connectivity -------- part. I have identified these sections which you need to comment out or remove:

• [MeasureWiFiSSID]
  [MeasureWiFiQuality]
  [MeasureWiFiAuthentication]
  [MeasureWiFiEncryption]
  [MeasureWiFiBands]
  [MeasureWiFiList]

○ note that you need to remove or comment out NOT ONLY the section names but whatever belongs to these sections.
• Save the file.
• Right mouse click on skin > Refresh
• Try to crash Rainmeter now
• Does it crash?

[Active Colors]

I just found this thread regardig PrimoCache and crashes. https://forum.romexsoftware.com/en-us/viewtopic.php?t=4601

[SilverAzide]

Version 7.2.0 also seems to have another issue in my particular setup as compared to 4.1.1 it doesn't display half my processor threads, but that's kind of off-topic here (although SilverAzide probably should be made aware of that, as well) so all in all that attempt was 2 steps back

Moonchild... sorry for the delay in responding. Before I look further into the Network Meter issue, I first want to address the CPU Meter issue since it is a simple one. The CPU Meter, I suspect, is actually working as intended with your machine according to the specs you posted. You have a dual socket setup, so you will need to display 2 skins, CPU Meter #0 and CPU Meter #1. These should properly show each socket. The old 4.1.1 version does not handle dual sockets quite right, especially if/when you run in NUMA mode and/or have large core-count processors (>64 threads).

Second, from looking at the log file, it appears that your old Server 2008 does not support the newer performance counters that were introduced after Window 7. From the CPU Meter, click the wrench icon to open the Settings, then check the option "Use Legacy Mode". It appears that the code I am using to detect your OS version is not working with Windows Server, so you will need to manually select this option.

[SilverAzide]

1. Still crashes. No surprise as I'm using this as an administrator. For the purpose of this post I'm continuing on the system's Administrator account to rule out as much as possible.

2. Log attached. It doesn't seem to contain much information about the actual crash but you might be able to extract more information.
(34 network adapters? really? -- also, lots of log spew from all cpu meter probably the cause of the bad display)

3.

Code: Select all

Rainmeter 4.5.10.3597 (64-bit)
Language: English (1033)
Build time: 2022-02-01  7:17:04
Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise 64-bit (build 7601) Service Pack 1 - English (1033)
Path: C:\Program Files\Rainmeter\
SkinPath: C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins\
SettingsPath: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter\
IniFile: C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\Rainmeter\Rainmeter.ini

4. I already posted some details in my original post but here is a more complete overview:
System: HP DL380 G6 server.
CPU: 2x Xeon L5640 (6c/12t each for a total of 24t - AllCPU meter 7.2.0 only sees 12; 4.1.1 sees all of them)
RAM: 60 GB DDR3 (triple channel)
Storage: 1 RAID array using hardware RAID. 1 backup drive in single drive mode.
System has 4 physical ethernet ports; I'm using only one, with a fixed LAN IP.
I normally run headless and use RDP to connect. I have one drive mapped through the RDP protocol to be able to easily exchange data.

The version of Rainmeter you are running appears to be good. There was a bug in an earlier version caused by errors with the WiFi measure. The thread is here: Rainmeter 4.5.6 breaks on Windows Server. To verify this is not the cause of your error, run the Server Manager, navigate to the "Select Features" tab, and enable the "Wireless LAN Service" (you may need to reboot after installing). This is not enabled by default on servers. Rainmeter 4.5.7 (I think) fixes this, but perhaps something is still causing issues.

[SilverAzide]

I just found this thread regardig PrimoCache and crashes. https://forum.romexsoftware.com/en-us/viewtopic.php?t=4601

Thanks for all your help AC!

[Moonchild]

Thank you both for helping out with this problem!

To verify this is not the cause of your error, run the Server Manager, navigate to the "Select Features" tab, and enable the "Wireless LAN Service" (you may need to reboot after installing). This is not enabled by default on servers. Rainmeter 4.5.7 (I think) fixes this, but perhaps something is still causing issues.

OK, having installed the wireless LAN service has stopped the crashes!
So that turned out to be the problem for the crashes. Network meter properly displays internal and external IP and traffic.
So, there's apparently still a problem with it not working properly when the Wireless LAN service isn't running. I do find it weird that installing PrimoCache triggered this issue, but here we are :P

Unfortunately as you noted the CPU meter isn't working -- I get 0% usage on all cores with 7.2.0; I do get CPU #0 and #1; they were just put in the exact same position on the screen and therefore overlapping.
To try and solve the CPU problem, I looked into the configuration, but "use legacy mode" is greyed out and can't be enabled at all (it likely detects as Windows 7, being 6.1.7601, disabling the checkbox, but at the same time doesn't use the correct system probes?). Of course this is the other essential metric I'm looking for with AllCPU meter. Is there a way I can force legacy mode or does it require an update to the skin?

P.S.: Having CPU information and RAM statistics and the graph duplicated in 2 windows is not very useful; not like an SMP system can mix and match different processors :P

[Moonchild]

I just found this thread regardig PrimoCache and crashes. https://forum.romexsoftware.com/en-us/viewtopic.php?t=4601

Thanks for the suggestion; I had already looked over their forum. That particular thread is N/A as I'm not doing any edgy stuff like overclocking (which turned out to be the problem for them); the hardware is used completely per-spec and is rock solid stable.

[SilverAzide]

Unfortunately as you noted the CPU meter isn't working -- I get 0% usage on all cores with 7.2.0; I do get CPU #0 and #1; they were just put in the exact same position on the screen and therefore overlapping.
To try and solve the CPU problem, I looked into the configuration, but "use legacy mode" is greyed out and can't be enabled at all (it likely detects as Windows 7, being 6.1.7601, disabling the checkbox, but at the same time doesn't use the correct system probes?). Of course this is the other essential metric I'm looking for with AllCPU meter. Is there a way I can force legacy mode or does it require an update to the skin?

OK, this is good...the skin code does appear to be correctly detecting your Windows version (thus the greyed out "Use Legacy Mode"). After looking at the Rainmeter.log you posted, something is going wrong with your Performance Counters database. This is where the skin (and Rainmeter) are getting the CPU performance values.

Try the instructions here: HOW TO Fix your Performance Counters database. Hopefully this will get things working for you.

If you are still getting errors in the log, please post them here and I'll take another look.

[Moonchild]

I followed the instructions and unfortunately it didn't help entirely.
I still get no processor usage recorded. RAM usage is displayed in the bar graph and line graph, which I think might not have worked before these commands...? Not sure. Either way, it seems it warrants another look.

Log attached.