mainserv.exe has encountered a problem - PowerChute personal 2.01

[Anonymous user]

Trying to install and Power Chute 2.0 for Windows XP professional and get this popup window "mainserv.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience" looks like it crashed msvcrt.dll. Haas anyone else gotten this? The program then becomes unresponsive. I have to uninstall it. Version 1.5 crashes too. Everything else on my PC works fine.

[Anonymous user]

Great, do you need email address to send or will it be posted here?

[Techie_apc]

The Power Chute Personal Edition software does not support the Back UPS pro models which were manufactured before year 2000. The reason the PCPE is having issues with your unit is because it was manufactured in 1999. You may configure the USB native support to manage the UPS.

I hope that this helps.

[Anonymous user]

I am facing the exact same problem as well - with Back UPS Pro BP500U and Win XP Pro SP3.

[Anonymous user]

Can somebody from APC please look into this? Clearly I'm not the only one with this issue, and I do need to be able to manage my devices.

[Anonymous user]

OK, I have loaded 2.0.0 for XP and it does the same thing.

Model #: Back UPS-Pro 500, (BP500U)
Serial #: NB9921261502
Operating System: Windows XP, Version 2002
Service Pack: Service Pack 3
Computer: Lenovo X60, Intel Dual Core Duo CPU L2400 @ 1.66Ghz, 1GB RAM.

Here are some screen shots:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/procolharum/Error1.jpg

Above is the error you get as soon as you load the software and it tries to start up.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/procolharum/Error2.jpg

Above is when I try to start the application again. Notice that when I open the APC application it completely locks the screen repaint for that application and presents an error as well. Note also the text on the highlighted tray icon... the device is not being monitored.

I checked in Hardware Devices, and it does show the APC unit there.

Message was edited by: puff4

Message was edited by: puff4

[Anonymous user]

There is no UPS tab on the power management UI and the native XP UPS service wouldn't start. Is there any other configuration dialog/ registry setting that will let XP recognize this unit?

[Techie_apc]

Please make sure that you uninstalled the Power Chute software in order to enable the USB native support. Follow the below K-base instructions to configure the native support.
http://nam-en.apc.com/cgi-bin/nam_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=2497

I hope that this helps.

[Anonymous user]

I notice here that you are questioning in particular the "Pro" model... is this an unsupported model?

[Anonymous user]

I just tested it again. When I boot without the UPS plugged in, I get no errors and PowerChute comes up in the tray with the predictable yellow "!" indicator. The PowerChute interface can be brought up and it seems to work. However, when I plug in the USB cable to the APC Back-UPS 500, and I click on 'options' the Powefchute window goes all white and I get the mainserv.exe error.... application is hung.

[Anonymous user]

I, too, have had the exact same problem. I just loaded PowerChute Personal Edition and it failed with the following error (from the Windows XP Application Log):

bq. "Faulting application mainserv.exe, version 2.0.0.0, faulting module msvcrt.dll, version 7.0.2600.5512, fault address 0x00037ad5."
When I go to start up PowerChute, I then get the following error:

bq. "Hanging application PowerChute.exe, version 2.0.0.0, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000."
Details of the hardware involved:

PC:
bq. IBM Thinkpad x60 Tablet PC \\ 1.66Ghz \\ 1GB ram \\ Windows XP Tablet Edition, SP3 (all recent fixes applied) \\ Norton Semantic Antivirus, Corporate Edition Version 8.1.1.319
USB cable connected to:
bq. APC Back-UPS Pro 500
I have two of these APC products and I really do want to manage them. Please post an update to this forum as to this issue.

[Anonymous user]

Thanks, yeah, I do have .NET 2.0 installed and there was no problem installing PC2.2... the problem was when I plugged in the USB from the APC Back-UPS Pro 500... then the mainserv.exe crashed, just as it did with every other version I tried.

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

Any type of Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, Spyware filter being run on this machine? There's a possibility of that, as well as another application which is not playing well with PCPE.

[Anonymous user]

Is there another way to get this to work? What about a web interface or is this mainserv.exe the whole heart of the powerchute system no matter what you use? No log files available to check. Should I contact APC tech support?

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

First,

Of all the moderators on this board, 95% of us are APC Support. Therefore you're frontline defense would be coming through us. There is no web interface for the software. Have you downgraded to 1.5 to see if the problem sill exists. The possibility of another application or another USB device having a conflict of interest with 2.0 is up there, and it doesn't seem that it's been ruled out.

[Anonymous user]

Sorry, did not know this. I disabled my anti-virus software, disconnected all other USB devices and still get the error. 1.5 version presents a msgbox stating mainserv.exe "memory cannot be "read" error. Is this a VB or Visual C program where a runtime distributable is needed? Is there anything in Windows power management that needs to be adjusted/removed/added? I have the latest .Net 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 version runtimes installed and all of the latest MS monthly patches/hotfixes. Is there a way to debug this program? Nothing in Event viewer of note either. Do you need any logs (if there are any) or any memory dumps to diagnose? Thanks for your help in advance.

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

If you want, I can provide you with the registry values, you can manually wipe PowerChute off of your machine, reboot, and try again. That should clear your memory and possibly eliminate the problem.

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

Email will be sent from my internal email address. Can't publically post those registry keys here.

[BillP]

What model UPS do you have? Is it a Back-UPs Pro?

[Anonymous user]

I have exactly these same problems, and it happens on two different Windows XP Pro machines. It's frustrating that no solution has been posted. I simply want to turn off the alert beeps when the UPS has no power source, yet there is no way without the PowerChute application, which has a known issue and cannot run.

Please help!!!

[Techie_apc]

David,

I recommend you to uninstall the Older Power Chute software version completely. And then download the PCPE version 2.0 for Windows XP from the below link.
http://www.apc.com/tools/download/software_comp.cfm?sw_sku=SFPCPE20&id=129&swfam=129

I hope that it helps. If it does not work, please let me know the following details:

Exact model number of your unit. You can find it on a white bar code sticker at the rear of the unit.
Service pack
Screen shot of the error, if possible

Please let me know the outcome. Have a nice weekend!

[Anonymous user]

I have the exact same problem. Given that this software was last updated in 2005, I am surprised that there aren't more posts about this problem and there isn't a better fix for this yet. In any case, I cannot use this software on my machine, the same error occurs.

I have four APC UPSs and am having very strange issues with them. First, I bought them on sale from local stores like CompUSA and Staples but apparently they had been in stock for awhile as all of the batteries failed quickly. In addition, they occasionally start clicking and sometimes cycle the power to the battery-backup outlets repeatedly without warning, which can easily damage the system they are supposed to be protecting. Why is this occurring and can these be fixed? I

[BillP · Accepted solution]

powerchute personal edition 2.2 can be used on Windows XP as long as you have .NET 2.0 installed.