USB3 cameras show 0 fps/black screen after few minutes of acquisition

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Sriram Rangarajan
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We've seen certain cases where a USB3 camera that is recognized and operational in a system abruptly stop transmitting images (image window shows a black image, frame rate indicates 0 fps). This could be due to Windows switching the USB3 card to a low power mode. There are different settings in Windows which affect USB power.

Windows 7, 8, and 10:

To ensure smooth operation, the "USB Selective Suspend" option should be set to "disabled". This is applicable to both laptops and desktops running Win 7 or higher. 

The "USB selective suspend" can be disabled by accessing the Power Options through Control Panel. Once here, go to your current plan settings, click on change plan settings, then access "advanced settings". Under advanced settings, you will find "USB settings" as an expandable menu option. Expand this option to access "USB selective suspend", which will be another expandable sub-menu item. Once expanded, you can then set USB Selective Suspend" to "disabled" for both "Plugged in" and "On Battery". This will ensure that the camera is never affected by the USB3 card switching to a power save mode. 

Windows 10:

There is a second hidden power option, "USB3 Link Power Management", which can sometimes cause trouble in Windows 10 systems.

The default setting seems to be "moderate power savings". It should be changed to off.

It is explained in this link:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/108194-add-usb-3-link-power-management-power-options-windows.html

There are some registry files in the article, which works as the author claims. The setting can also be activated via the command prompt, if you are more comfortable with that solution.

A short explanation of the different USB power modes can be read here (links to Cypress, but this is valid for other chipsets too):
https://community.cypress.com/docs/DOC-14420

 

Tags: USB 3 camera stops, disconnect, USB3 Vision, USB power

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3 Comments

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  • 0
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    James Rha

    I am using at 140ge. I have same problems now. It abrupted stopped. How to solve this problem?

  • 0
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    Sriram Rangarajan

    Hi James,

      I just noticed the comment as we don't have notifications enabled for comments yet but if you're still running into this, it is a packet size/packet delay issue and adjusting the packet size on the camera to match what is on your NIC should resolve it. If your NIC has jumbo frames, please enable that and then set a packet size in the camera that matches that setting. 

  • 0
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    Harry Hashimoto

    MMCSS settings would affect camera(regardless of I/F)'s streaming stop.

    For example, USB device connections/removing, sometimes Beep sounds affects camera's streaming.

    In this case, you can try settings below:

    * Disable MMCSS:

    a) Launch regedit
    b) Select "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\MMCSS"
    c) Double Click "Start" and open editing popup window.
    d) Change value from 2(Automatic) to 4(Disable), and press "OK"
    e) "File" -> "Close registry editor"
    f) Reboot the PC

     

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