HS3 .163, speaker client cannot start

[LeoS]

I haven't been using the Speaker client, but when I looked it up today the speaker client on my HS3 machine didn't start. There are two events about speaker.exe in Win 8.1's event viewer:

Application: Speaker.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: System.InvalidOperationException
Stack:
   at Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices.WindowsFormsApplicationBase.DoApplicationModel()
   at Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices.WindowsFormsApplicationBase.Run(System.String[])
   at Speaker.My.MyApplication.Main(System.String[])

Faulting application name: Speaker.exe, version: 3.0.0.3, time stamp: 0x552527a6
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 6.3.9600.17415, time stamp: 0x54504ade
Exception code: 0xe0434352
Fault offset: 0x00014598
Faulting process id: 0x14b8
Faulting application start time: 0x01d0851398694d43
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS3\Speaker.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: d635d21d-f106-11e4-9c0a-d050990a6b7f
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID:

How can I fix this?

[Rupp]

If you reboot your server does it auto start without error?

[LeoS]

If you reboot your server does it auto start without error?

Unfortunately, no...

I had my HS3 autostart through Win 8.1's Task Scheduler (started headless), so I thought that was the problem too at first. I disabled that, rebooted the server and ran HS3 manually, same error.

Should I try rerunning .163's installer? Reinstalling .NET 4 runtime?

[Rupp]

Unfortunately, no...

I had my HS3 autostart through Win 8.1's Task Scheduler (started headless), so I thought that was the problem too at first. I disabled that, rebooted the server and ran HS3 manually, same error.

Should I try rerunning .163's installer? Reinstalling .NET 4 runtime?

Yes, I would re-install which should fix this issue.

[LeoS]

Yes, I would re-install which should fix this issue.

I will try that.

But I've never reinstalled HS3 exe over a running installation. Would there be any files I need to watch for? Or just let it overwrite everything since it will retain all config and 3rd party plugins?

Edit: ran installer, saw 'repair' button, clicked that, rebooted, still no go.

[LeoS]

I've tried reinstall HS3 .163, checked windows' files consistency (sfc /scannow), unpacked HS3 on a separate machine and copied all the speaker client files over, reran .NET 4.5 runtime installer and repaired my system.

All no go.

Is there anything else I can do short of reinstalling Windows and HS3 from scratch?

[Rupp]

At this point I would try a clean build of Windows or another server.

[LeoS]

At this point I would try a clean build of Windows or another server.

There's no question that a clean HS .163 install on a clean win 8.1 will run. The question is that at what point of my HS3 customization will it break down again?

[Pete]

I just looked here and running Speaker dot exe for Wintel version 3.0.0.3 on XP embedded for a touchscreen. It is talking to Homeseer Pro 3 V171 on 64bit Buntu (not using speaker on buntu box).

All this stuff should be in your Homeseer directory by default. The following stuff is just related to running speaker dot exe remotely. Test maybe running speaker dot exe on another 64 bit machine/laptop?

Copy all of the stuff to a USB pen stick and then to another computer.

Looking at the speaker.exe.config file it shows:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<configuration>
<startup>
<supportedRuntime version="v4.0" sku=".NETFramework,Version=v4.0"/>
</startup>
<runtime>
<assemblyBinding xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1">
<probing privatePath="bin"/>
</assemblyBinding>
</runtime>
</configuration>

What does your speaker dot ini file show here?

gTTSDevice=SigmaTel Audio
gTTSVoice=NeoSpeech Kate 16k
gTTSSpeed=0

You mentioned you have never configured speaker dot exe?

Run it as an admin and see if it starts?

I needed two BMP files for it to run which didn't make sense to me:

1 - NotifyClose.bmp
2 - NotifySkinPhone.bmp

One wave file (never hear it though)
1 - speaker_start.wav

Bin path shows:

Directory of C:\Program Files\HS3 Speaker\Bin

05/07/2015 02:35 PM <DIR> .
05/07/2015 02:35 PM <DIR> ..
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 110,592 adodb.dll
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 53,760 AxInterop.WMPLib.dll
05/07/2015 02:35 PM 0 bin.txt
02/08/2014 07:39 PM 176,128 CSScriptLibrary.dll
01/15/2015 10:26 AM 415,744 HomeSeerUtil.dll
05/17/2007 09:49 AM 32,768 hsrecord2.exe
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 7,680 Interop.hsrecord2.dll
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 14,848 Interop.MSScriptControl.dll
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 7,168 Interop.SIMPLEAUDIOLib.dll
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 163,840 Interop.SpeechLib.dll
06/12/2014 12:57 PM 330,752 Interop.WMPLib.dll
08/29/2014 10:22 AM 930,816 Mail.dll
05/16/2013 07:33 AM 1,147,904 Mono.CSharp.dll
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 700,928 SQLite.Interop.dll
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 251,392 System.Data.SQLite.dll
10/24/2006 01:12 PM 192,512 w2cUSB.dll

Main HS3 root directory has:

05/07/2015 02:40 PM <DIR> Bin
01/26/2015 12:48 PM <DIR> Grammar
01/15/2015 10:26 AM 91,648 HomeSeerAPI.dll
08/07/2006 05:14 PM 69,632 hsaudio2.dll
01/15/2015 10:26 AM 47,616 HSCF.dll
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 196,608 lame.exe
05/07/2015 02:42 PM 0 maindir.txt
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 1,616 NotifyClose.bmp
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 62,300 NotifySkinPhone.bmp
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 126,976 RssToolkit.dll
01/16/2015 05:44 PM 3,327,488 Scheduler.dll
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 1,529 Scheduler.dll.config
01/16/2015 05:43 PM 182,784 Speaker.exe
02/14/2014 10:57 AM 307 Speaker.exe.config
05/01/2015 05:00 PM 818 Speaker.ini
02/14/2014 10:58 AM 91,126 speaker_start.wav
05/07/2015 10:45 AM <DIR> wave_files

Walk away from your computer for a few minutes; have a few shots (1-2) of Espresso and return to looking at it few minutes later.

Geez maybe no Espresso as its 3:00 AM your way right now...go to bed and sleep on it some...

[LeoS]

Thanks Pete, I've tried running speaker.exe with admin numerous times and it always spewed out unhandled exception. If HS had coded speaker.exe to give a proper error message for that unhandled exception, then I wouldn't be in this situation, but oh well, I guess it's such a rare circumstances that it's not worth writing the error check/error message anyway.

So yeah, I've tried running speaker.exe as admin, I've tried overwriting the speaker.exe components (found on another thread discussing speaker.exe-only install for HS3) from a clean installation (that I've verified works). But I've not tried copying the parts from this botched install to another HS3 installation to see if it would mess up the other HS3 too.

One thing of note is that this machine is an Avoton based server that doesn't have built-in audio controller. I'd reckon virtually 99% of machines that HomeSeer gets installed on has some sort of audio interface preinstalled on it. So maybe that's what's causing it. (Yes, I've installed a usb audio stick on it. Yes, other audio apps work with it).

I'm just gonna wait til my new server gets here, move my HS3 yet again... this time to a vm. Then make a lot of save points on that one. Geez I hate windows.

[Rupp]

One thing of note is that this machine is an Avoton based server that doesn't have built-in audio controller. I'd reckon virtually 99% of machines that HomeSeer gets installed on has some sort of audio interface preinstalled on it. So maybe that's what's causing it. (Yes, I've installed a usb audio stick on it. Yes, other audio apps work with it).

This is most likely the issue as the speaker client requires windows media player to be present and working.

[LeoS]

This is most likely the issue as the speaker client requires windows media player to be present and working.

OMG that's it. Thank you for lifting this headache of mine.
I installed Windows 8.1 N, without the Windows Media component. So I just went and installed Media Feature Pack for Windows 8.1 N and now it works

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2929699

I wish they had put a proper exception handler for that!

So I've connected the Speaker Client to Zello now and things pretty much work well... but speaker client speaks everything twice. I've searched and found that this condition happens when HSTouchClient and SpeakerClient runs on the same machine, but I don't have HSTouchClient running on this machine.

What could be causing it?

May-09 01:11:32	 	TTS	Speak: ():Welcome to Home-Seer
May-09 01:11:30	 	TTS	Speak: ():Welcome to Home-Seer
May-09 01:11:30	 	Sonos	SpeakIn called for Device = 100, Text = Welcome to Home-Seer, Wait=True, Host =
May-09 01:11:29	 	Speaker	Speaker host added, Name: HS3 Instance: Default IP address: 127.0.0.1

May-09 01:13:30	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):yes sire
May-09 01:13:30	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):yes sire
May-09 01:13:30	 	Sonos	SpeakIn called for Device = 100, Text = yes sire, Wait=False, Host = HS3:Default
May-09 01:13:20	 	Speaker	Speaker host added, Name: HS3 Instance: Default IP address: 127.0.0.1

Edit: Hmm.. nevermind. It's due to SONOS plugin.

May-09 01:23:58	 	PLCBUS Device	Device [138-A1] status set to [Off]
May-09 01:23:58	 	ASR	Device voice command: T V Light off
May-09 01:23:55	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):T V Light off
May-09 01:23:53	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):T V Light off
May-09 01:23:53	 	Sonos	SpeakIn called for Device = 100, Text = T V Light off, Wait=True, Host = HS3:Default
May-09 01:23:46	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):I don't understand
May-09 01:23:46	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):I don't understand
May-09 01:23:46	 	Sonos	SpeakIn called for Device = 100, Text = I don't understand, Wait=False, Host = HS3:Default
May-09 01:23:41	 	PLCBUS Device	Device [138-A1] status set to [On]
May-09 01:23:39	 	ASR	Device voice command: T V Light on
May-09 01:23:36	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):T V Light on
May-09 01:23:35	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):T V Light on
May-09 01:23:34	 	Sonos	SpeakIn called for Device = 100, Text = T V Light on, Wait=True, Host = HS3:Default
May-09 01:23:26	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):I don't understand
May-09 01:23:26	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):I don't understand
May-09 01:23:26	 	Sonos	SpeakIn called for Device = 100, Text = I don't understand, Wait=False, Host = HS3:Default
May-09 01:23:11	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):yes sire
May-09 01:23:11	 	TTS	Speak: (HS3:Default):yes sire
May-09 01:23:11	 	Sonos	SpeakIn called for Device = 100, Text = yes sire, Wait=False, Host = HS3:Default

[Pete]

Good news Leo!

Here recently installed a thin Wintel 32 bit VM on Buntu 14.04 64 bit.

Running 32 bit Sapi and speaker dot exe. TTS works well.

Sending a wave file to speak dot exe with the TTS from Buntu 64 bit Homeseer 3 Pro to the 32bit Wintel speaker dot exe does not work.

The short speaker dot exe log file posted is indicative relating to this issue. It's a Linux / Wintel or a Wintel Linux nomenclature thing.

5/8/2015 8:41:38 AM:Rebuilding VR commands due to configuration change
5/8/2015 8:42:59 AM:Error playing wave file: Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Program Files\HS3 Speaker\wave_files\usr\local\HomeSeer\Media\Electronic_Chime 1.wav'.
5/8/2015 8:42:59 AM:Wave file: C:\Program Files\HS3

Apologies for burying this issue in your thread relating to speaker dot exe.