Possible conflict

[Padriag]

Okay, I've been having an unusual problem.  I've written Don about this but we couldn't figure it out so I thought I'd stop pestering him and throw it out to the forum.

I'm running the free version of Hal which I just installed.  I'm also using CyberBuddy, and am often running them at the same time.  My OS is Windows 2000 Pro with all current service packs and relevant updates.

The first problem I noticed is that often when I exist Hal it closes the program but the HalAsst.exe continues to run and can be seen in the Task Manager Processes listing.  This meant I would have to close it manually in task manager before I could run the program again.  Don suggested I try running Repair, which I did, but it didn't help.

I think I may have discovered the potential problem.  I tried running Hal without CyberBuddy being active... it closes fine and the HalAsst.exe doesn't remain resident.  So I have concluded that perhaps on my NT based platform somehow CyberBuddy is keeping Hal active, but I don't know why it would do that... maybe a conflict from using the same character?

Second, and I don't know if this is related... Hal sometimes losses its mind... literally.  It stops responding to me and when I check under General Options / Brain... none are listed.  Its like its forgotten where they are.  Now while a bot losing its mine might be great comedy material... its annoying when trying to use it.  I'll try to debug this some more but any comments or help would be appreciated.

I seem to be having a lot of problems with Hal.  Don suggested it might be low system resources.  So I setup a system monitor to check up on this.  Despite the fact I am on an older P3 machine, my resources seem fine... Hal will sometime cause a spike when it does a new task, but most of the time (even during chat) CPU usage hovers at 3-4% and I have plenty of available memory.  So I don't think its system resources, but I could be wrong.  If anyone can suggest anything else I might check (and how to do so) I'm all ears.

Hal is a neat little program that I think could grow into something really terrific.  I've already sent a lot of suggestion to Don (he may be cross-eyed after reading the list [] ) and am looking forward to seeing how the software develops.  So I really want to get these issues solved so I can enjoy the program.

Thanks,
Sean

[KnyteTrypper]

Try using a character for Hal that you're not using in any of your CyberBuddy settings(i.e. not used for default, chat, weather, time, jokes, et al). If the problem persists then it's probably not character related, but more likely to be related to a conflict between the CyberBuddy server and the Hal.exe. Sorry, no clue about Hal "losing his mind."

[Padriag]

Just set that up, well see what happens.  I don't know if my download of Hal got corrupted or if its something else.  Nothing to do but experiment and see what I can figure out.  At least I'm learning something as I go []

[Padriag]

Looks like it is definitely a conflict with CyberBuddy.  I can run Hal fine and it exists and terminates fine as long as I don't run CyberBuddy... if CyberBuddy has been run at all, I get the TSR problem with the HalAsst.exe app.  I don't know what causes this, except that it must be something to do with the way the NT platform Windows 2000 is based on handles things.  So there is probably no fix for it.  The good news is that I can go into task manager and end the HalAsst.exe process without apparent ill effect.

Still no idea what caused Hal to forget where its brain was... haven't had a recent re-occurence.  I have repaired Hal twice, that might have eliminated whatever was causing it.  Still curious about what happened though.  Call it my need to know []