ICDU40 & ICD.exe locks up computer

[newguy]

- New HP desktop running Win XP media center
- CCS ICDU40, with firmware upgraded to latest version
- Not sure of ICD.exe version, because it keeps locking up the computer. I'm using PCWH v. 3.236.

A couple of days ago I used the ICDU40 on this same computer to program a board with a 18F2680 on it. Worked fine at the time. When I was done, I closed ICD.exe by clicking on the big X in the top right of the window. I left the ICDU40 plugged in to the computer.

Some time later, I tried starting ICD.exe again, and my computer locked up tighter than a drum. No response from it at all. Ctrl-Alt-Del didn't work - nothing. Had to manually cycle its power.

I've since tried to start ICD.exe several times with exactly the same result - a locked computer.

Any idea what could be wrong?

[steve]

Hi, I got the same problem. Please help.

[newguy]

The issue was with a corrupt/non-functional 3rd party PCI serial card. Once I figured that out, everything worked fine.

The ICD software will first try to communicate with the ICD unit via RS232, if your computer has a serial port(s). Once it tries them, it then switches to the USB port. My problem was that since the RS232 port wasn't completely working, the initial call to it would hang the computer. I later found that other programs such as the CCS serial port monitor would also hang the computer. CCS helped me to realize the ultimate problem by providing a modified ICD.exe file that did not try to access the serial port, but instead went straight to the USB port.

Hope this helps you sort out your issue.