TROUBLE WITH SAM 2020.11.29 FAILING TO OPEN PROPERLY

Since my last posting, I tried running two earlier versions of SAM - version 2017.9.5 and version 2018.11.11 - on all three computers.

In all cases this failed, with the same symptom.

The initial screen showing "...starting up... please wait..."etc. appeared, accompanied by endless looping ("hourglass" symbol) followed by SAM suddenly shutting down with no error message. 

I think what I need to do is find a Microsoft rep. in Ottawa who also knows about SAM and have him/her look at my two computers running Windows 10 Version 20H2. I know somebody here who has been giving courses in clean energy analysis for project feasibility studies and these have included SAM, so he himself or one of his ex-students might be able to direct me to the right Microsoft people based locally. Maybe it's some obscure virus or malware specifically targetting SAM - that nobody's heard of - that's causing the trouble. I've no idea - but it's bloody infuriating for a number of reasons.

Robert T. Chisholm

Hi!

I don't know if you've talked to anybody at Microsoft about my problem.

I'm expecting to hear back from my Ottawa contact, Frederic Pouyot, some time in July.

Robert T. Chisholm

While I wait to hear from Frederic Pouyot, I'm going to try downloading SAM 2020.11.29 and running Steve Sjanzhou's recommended test on two more computers belonging to other people I know here in Ottawa.

If this works OK in both cases, then we know the problems that I reported earlier are confined to the 3 computers in my own household.

If this fails on one or both of the other computers then I've likely run into new "gremlins" not previously known to anybody and which could cause trouble for other people.

We'll see.

Robert T. Chisholm. 

Since my last posting, I had a friend called SOL download SAM 2020.11.29 and then carry out the same test with PVWATTS that Steve recommended. 

After doing step7 in Steve's test with PVWATTS, SOL produced the "Screenshot SOL.png" file attached. 

SOL's computer runs Windows 10 Home, as shown in the "System Information SOL.pdf" file attached.

He reports no problem - and as far as I can see  all is well with his result. 

In my own  tests with SAM 2020.11.29 and using PVWATTS, I realised I'd forgotten to  click "No financial model" before clicking OK prior to trying to click "Simulate". 

I tried doing it again on one machine just now - making sure to include the step just referred to - but SAM still got into the same endless loop and shut down without warning, preventing me from doing step 7. 

So at this point, we have to work on the assumption that my problem is in fact confined to the three computers in my own household. 

Can you direct me to someone at Microsoft who can work with me on fixing this?  I think this would be too specialised a problem to expect just any Microsoft support technician (who would not know SAM) to deal with. 

Robert T. Chisholm

Quite apart from what I've said before, it has come to my notice that some Windows 10 users have been having trouble with some of the Windows 10 updates continually being released. I'll look into this further.

It's possible that something like this could be responsible for me running into identical or very similar symptoms with SAM failing on all 3 computers in my own household. Two of them run Windows 10 version 20H2, the third one runs Windows 10 Home. I  had a friend with Windows 10 Home on his computer download SAM 2020.11.29 direct from the NREL website, and then run the same test with PVWATTS recommended by Steve - and the result appeared to be fine!

Go figure THAT one out!

Robert T. Chisholm

Hello again!

I posted some comments about this to one of the Microsoft online discussion forums yesterday. You can see my posting here:-

docs.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/452240/windows-10-suspected-update-problems-and-nrel-syst.html

I'm not optimistic about the chance of anybody posting to that discussion forum being able to respond at all to what I posted, "never mind" responding with the solution(s).

So as noted before, if you can refer me to someone at Microsoft who can help with this, then that would be a big help.

I will wait to hear back from you before doing anything more.

Robert T. Chisholm
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