The Avolites Discussion Forum

For a while I got an 'abnormal operation' error when trying to run Pearl Sim 2004 on my Windows 7 Ultimate machine (32 bit). It never did this with XP, btw...

The last time the program crashed, I restarted it, and I got this weird situation where none of the virtual LED's on the virtual buttons show up, the virtual LCD screen doesn't display what it is supposed to... When I click on one of the fixture handle select buttons, the virtual LED shows up, but the button doesn't select the fixture- the same thing happens with the gray and blue buttons on the right side.


The roller can be turned, the pages can be selected, but the vLCD screen doesn't show the data.

I have tried uninstalling then reinstalling the simulator, but the same thing happens.

Have y'all seen this problem before?


Oh... and... my Art2000 rack refuses to 'talk' to a Grand MA or to a Chamsys MQ... Putting an opto isolator in the DMX line worked for the MA, but not the Chamsys. Is there an update I can load into the Art2000 rack?

(I haven't tried lowering the refresh rate on the Chamsys, and the rack works just fine with our Pearl console)

I have the Pearl Simulator on a W7 32bit box, too, without problems.

If this happens after a re-install, I'd recommend:

- uninstall it
- search (let Windows search) your computer for traces of 'Pearl 2004 Simulator', and delete them (there might be some bogus files in the VirtualStore)
- download and install again

And for the dimmer, I'd suggest calling Avolites, and asking for JB. He really is the dimmer guru.

AFAIK there is no new version (how old is your dimmer, btw.?) - but I cannot think this is a general problem of the current firmware.

Regarding the dimmers have you checked it's not a cable fault?

nic, that's exactly what it was... someone put something on the cable that made it stretch, and the ground terminal broke off.

Avo boards aren't picky about the ground- MA and Chamsys are