EuCon vs Bonjour on Windows 8.1

[bonestonne]

I'm having a battle royale with my desktop machine since making an update, and I'm wondering if anyone knows a workaround, or if this issue is specific to me, and I need to figure something else out.

Machine is a custom built, the specs are not really important with this specific case because I believe it's a software issue, but if you need specs, I'll post them later in the thread.

Here's my problem:

Windows 8 worked totally fine. I'm running Pro Tools 11.0.2 with a ProFire 2626. Air Collection is installed and running, but outside of that, no third party plugins installed. EuCon was at v3.0 x64 and my two Artist Mix control surfaces were working great.

Then I updated to 8.1. Stupidly, without a recent backup.

So after updating to 8.1, Pro Tools, the 2626, and the surfaces were still working wonderfully. Sort of. When I shut down/log off/restart the machine, I would instantly get a blue screen. After a lot of troubleshooting, I narrowed down the issue to being the Bonjour Service. So I removed it, and the blue screens stopped.

Is there a specific version of Bonjour I should look for, or a specific version of the EuCon software that works, or am I the only one having this problem? My machine is no slouch, and was built new in January, it's a Dual Xeon machine, so I have no reason to suspect hardware being a factor in this. All drivers are up to date, windows is all up to date, etc. Latest installer for iTunes brought back the blue screens.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

[DanielEUCON]

We install Bonjour with our Windows installers. Run that and you will get a known working version of Bonjour.

[bonestonne]

Thanks for the reply. It appears that recent Windows Updates have solved my problem, and now I no longer have a BSOD caused by the Bonjour software.

On a side tangent, because I'm curious, why implement the EuCon software to have the Bonjour service as a dependency on a Windows machine? Is it related to network discovery? To make the software easier in regards to cross platform troubleshooting? If it works, I'm done complaining and ready to start using it again, just trying to get a better understanding of the what and why.

[DanielEUCON]

It was an architectural decision when Artist Series was first made. Initially on Mac. And yes it makes network surface discovery easier, at least that's the purpose. But as with anything network related there can be hiccups.

Bonjour was always a little behind on windows so to speak. But rather than reinvent a new separate system just for Windows bonjour was already available.

Lately it seems that surface connection is more stable and consistent on Windows. It was always the other way around.

[bonestonne]

Understandable, and that's totally okay, just wanted to make sure I understood it.

So, to be a little more specific, here's a closer breakdown of when things were resolved:

Update for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB2901549) - Improves reliability of IE11 on Windows 8.1 Systems
Update for Windows 8.1 for x64-based Systems (KB2902892) - Resolves Skype crashes with Intel 3000 graphics (not related to my problem)

Those updates were installed, and once those updates were done, I used the Windows Installer Clean-Up Utility to completely remove what was left of Bonjour from the previous install that caused problems. After re-running the installer for EuCon 3.0.1, everything fell into place and started to work correctly again. Simply having the Bonjour service installed and running was causing a BSOD on shutdown/restart/log off.

I suspect that the IE11 update may have also updated some networking components (though I have not looked more in-depth into this) as that's the only change to the system between it working and it not working.

I know my system is more or less completely unsupported, but it looks like the surfaces work very well in Windows 8.1 Pro x64 as my machine is covered. For reference, here are my specs:

2x Intel Xeon E5-2620
Asus Z9PA-D8
2x Xigmatek SD1283 Dark Knight
NZXT Source 210 Elite
Antec HCG-750
Kingston 32gb ECC Registered DDR3
LG WH14NS40 BluRay Burner
Startech PEXUSB3S2E2I USB3.0 PCI-e x1
SIIG NN-E38012-S3 Firewire 400/800 PCI-e x1
Western Digital Velociraptor 250GB HHTZ model
Thermalright HR-55-IFX
Gigabyte GTX660Ti 2gb
1200RPM PWM Scythe Slip Stream (Rear exhaust)
2x Noiseblocker NB-eLoop B12-PS (CPU fans)
Phanteks 140mm White (Top exhaust)
Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center

PT11 also works very well (11.0.2). The ProFire 2626 works flawlessly, though I haven't used all features yet with this machine. The surfaces work no problem whatsoever in both Pro Tools and Adobe Audition, with limited testing within Reaper.

Thanks for the answers, hopefully this info helps you out if ever needed.

[DanielEUCON]

Excellent. Thanks for the great details.

I love the 2626. It's a great piece of gear packed full for a single Rack unit IO box.


Regarding Eucon it sure helps having Bonjour vs OS issues dialed.

[bonestonne]

Because the motherboard has two network ports, I have one dedicated for internet connectivity for my home network. The second port is connected to a small 5 port network switch that allows me to have both Mixes connected without affecting the rest of my network.

That in itself makes a big difference for the units, because the "wait" time for connecting to the computer is just a couple seconds longer than the boot-up time for the devices.

Thanks again!