Citect Runtime automatically shutdown or restart

[JoyChristian1994]

We have updated computer systems from Windows 7 to Windows10. And Citect SCADA from Vejio citect 7.2 sp5 to Citect SCADA 2018 V8.1. We are facing the problem of restarting or shutting down SCADA runtime randomly. When we checked the event log we found that this situation occurs after the application error of the AUDIODG.EXE file. we updated the windows and driver still this error is generated. We have used the .wav file to produce alarm sound in cicode. There are 2 redundant server and 3 clients in line.

Any remedy for this?

[olivier_vallee]

Hi @JoyChristian1994 ,

I think it is a good idea to install the latest patch available for Citect SCADA 2018, namely Update 37 (Dec 14 2021), which includes a fix for DspPlaySound() feature.

The Se.Citect.PlaySound.exe was originally created to overcome a memory leak in the Windows OS SndPlaySound(), which has subsequently been fixed. In the latest version of Plant SCADA 2020 R2 (formerly Citect SCADA) they have removed this middleware, and reverted to use actual OS API. But there is a need to introduce a mode, to differentiate between sound file and system sound. Here is update to help:

----------------------------
Plays a waveform (sound). Wave form sound files *.WAV are provided with Windows
and by third-party developers, or you can record them yourself to play long
(and complex) sound sequences.

When the “sSoundname” is a sound file path and “nMode” is “0”, this function
loads the .wav file from the specified path (Sound Files) and plays the
associated waveform. If the specified sound file is not available in the
mentioned path, a fail error will be returned and a hardware alarm will be
reported. Use of a system sound in this mode is not supported and will result
in return of a fail error and report of a hardware alarm.

When the “sSoundname” is a system sound name and “nMode” is “1”, this function
searches the system for the entry with the specified name, and plays the
associated waveform. If the name cannot be found, there is no error indicated
in either the return value or hardware alarm. For this reason, the use of mode
0 with waveform files is recommended over mode 1 with system sounds. Further,
use of a valid wave form sound file in this mode instead of mode "0" will
result in return of a fail error and report of a hardware alarm informing the
wrong mode is in use.

------------------------------

I will ask the GCS team to write a TN to cover this information.

In the mean time a work around has been tested and reported to work for customers who experience this issue by manually deleting the Se.Citect.PlaySound.exe file from the \Bin directory. Please note that installing patch/update will re-install this file. So make sure it doesn't come back by any chance.

Kind regards

Olivier

[Kien_Mac]

Thanks Oly.

Always good to keep on top of patches and updates and reach out to our Global Customer Support team if the system availability / stability is an issue.

Since you are playing external content, eg; Exec... it is good practice to run the function as a new Task or thread using the TaskNEW(...) function. This will ensure any compromised execution or general protection errors does NOT impact the main Citect.exe thread and inadvertently crashing the system.

---

TaskNew(sName, sArg, Mode [, sClusterName] )

sName:

The name of the function to create the task, as a string.

sArg:

The set of arguments to be passed to the function. Individual arguments need to be separated by commas (,). Enclose string arguments in quotes "" and use the string escape character (^) around strings enclosed within a string. If the string in quotes is not enclosed, then the string is only the first tag found. The entire set of arguments need to be enclosed in quotes ("").

Mode:

The mode of the task:

0 - Task runs forever.

1 - Task runs until the current page is changed.

2 - Task runs until the current window is freed.

4 - This mode is deprecated and not active. Currently, by default, task requests I/O device data before starting.

8 - If the task already exists, the function will exit without launching the new task.

16- Task doesn't wait for necessary I/O device data and starts immediately.

You can select any one of modes 0, 1 or 2 and may add mode 4 and/or mode 8 and/or mode 16. For example, set Mode to 6 to request I/O device data before starting the task, and to run the task until the current window is freed.

sClusterName:

The name of the cluster context to be applied to the new Cicode task. This is optional if you have one cluster or are resolving the task via the current cluster context. The argument is enclosed in quotation marks "". You may pass "-" as the ClusterName argument to run the requested Cicode task without a cluster context.

Return Value

The task handle, or -1 if the task cannot be successfully created. The task handle identifies the table where data on the associated task is stored.

[JoyChristian1994]

Thanks @olivier_vallee  for the reply. The latest patch was already installed. The problem was solved by updating DELL System's drivers.

[JoyChristian1994]

Thank @Kien_Mac  For the reply. The cause of the problem was the OS driver related, which was solved by Computer system's OEM by updating the sound card driver. The latest patch was already installed.