The last night that I imaged I experienced a Blue Screen of Death after the autofocus run for my last hour luminance, and well before taking flats. At the time I was running Sequence Generator and PHD2. The initial failure was a lack of guide pulses being sent to the mount. After shutting down PHD2 then reopening and restarting guiding the same problem existed. I finally decided to give up and just warm up my camera. I was unable to do that, and finally got the BSOD. On a side note a BSOD behind a red filter looks more like a brown screen of death, It took me a while to recognize what I was looking at. When I restarted the computer SGP would not open. The windows progress wheel would spin around for a while then stop, but SGP would simply not open.
I was fortunate enough to have a friend who is a highly respected IT manager camping and imaging very close. The day after the BSOD he took a look at my PC and told me that SGP was somehow corrupted. He had some ideas about what might have happened, but wisely didn’t explain them because he knows my level of knowledge when it comes to computers. I would have just stood there looking at him like a dog listening to his master while the master explained gravity. His suspicion is that the problem lies with my computer, specifically my HDD, and not SGP.
So my solution is to replace the PC. My current PC is an older Pentium chip machine with Windows 7. I’ve been resistant to replace it because of the stability of Windows 7, but it seems the time has come. The new machine will have a SSD which will also save some battery power, something precious when off the grid.
My plan is to reinstall SGP on my current laptop while I decide what I need for a new machine and purchase it so I’ll possibly be able to do some imaging in the meantime. Then there will be downloading and installing all of the drivers and applications to get the new machine up and running, then some indoor astronomy to commission the whole system. This could take some time.
I’ve also learned that I should have all of the installers and serial numbers/activation codes for all of my software on a flash drive in case this sort of thing happens in the future. My IT expert friend does this. So enough background, on to the questions;
I currently have SGP installed on my Windows 7 machine and my desktop computer. I have it on my desktop machine so I can write sequences at home without getting out my field laptop. I copy the sequence onto a flashdrive and load it onto the field machine when I get to the field. Does my SGP license allow me to have SGP installed on 3 machines?
If I have the SGP installer stored on a flash drive and use it to reinstall away from internet access will SGP be able to install?
Is there a way to transfer all of my User Profiles from the Windows 7 machine to the new machine? I finally have things pretty well dialed in and I’d hate to go through all of that again. Same question for Alnitak Emulator and the catalogues for ANSVR. I know the Alnitak emulator is a bit off topic as it’s not a Main Sequence application, but I’m hoping someone knows.
Thanks in advance for your assistance.