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nrfConnect for Desktop (Bluetooth Low Energy App) ALWAYS results in blank/white application window after some time of use

nRFConnect for Desktop v3.3.0 
App: Bluetooth Low Energy v2.3.2 
Windows 10 x64 ( 19.04,  19.09), using Dual Monitor. 
Device: PCA10059 or PCA10056

I can start, connect, and use the nRFConnect / Bluetooth Low Energy App without problems for some time. For a certain time it works fine and simply as expected. 
The device attached to my PC usually is a nRF52840 Dongle ( PCA10059 ), but I also verified the problem with a nRF52840 DK  (PCA10056)

But after some time the window becomes completely blank/white. 

I have seen some complaints about a white window in the forum, but none of them seems to have the problem that it first works and then turns white after some time. 
The typical scenario is: 

- Start nrfConnect for Desktop
- Start the Bluetooth Low Energy App from the list of apps
- Select the BTLE device (usually PCA10059) 
- Select "Start Scan" to discover my BTLE devices
- Connect to some BTLE device and communicate with it. 
From now on it is only a question of time (seconds to several minutes) when the client area of the Bluetoot Low Energy app window turns completely white.
May be important to mention: when the window turns white, I usually do nothing in this window.  So the problem appears without any obvious reason. 

I can close the window through the Windows captions close box, but clicking into the white window at different locations does nothing. So it's not just a simple Windows Refresh problem, minimizing and restoring the window does not help. 
What is possible is to press Ctrl-R, then the windows content will appear again, but all connections are lost. So thats not more helpful than restarting the Bluetooth Low Energy App. 

So I cannot work with this longer than 5 minutes in average until I have to restart everything. 
This problem is around since I use the nrfConnect for Windows (1 year approx) , so it was also present with previous versions and never worked for me. 

I investigated the log file, which looks ok, but the final problem is not logged there in any way. 

Is this a known problem ?
How can I get rid of this annoying problem in nrfConnect for Desktop ?

# nRFConnect System Report - 2019-12-06T20-02-51.791Z

- System:     System manufacturer System Product Name
- BIOS:       American Megatrends Inc. ALASKA - 1072009
- CPU:        1 x Intel® Core™ i7-6700 3.40 GHz 8 cores (4 physical)
- Memory:     20.6 GB free of 31.9 GB total
- Filesystem: C: (NTFS) 475.9 GB 62.8% used

- OS:         Microsoft Windows 10 Pro (10.0.18363) win32 ia32

- Versions
    - kernel: 10.0.18363
    - git: 2.12.0.windows.1
    - node: 12.0.0
    - python: 
    - python3: 

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  • Hi

    I let the nRF52840DK run for a while after I replied to you yesterday, and did not see the issue you describe in almost an hour of having the BLE app open and connected here on my side. I'll try again today to see if I'm able to recreate it while we're waiting for a reply from the devs.

    Thank you for providing all the details you can think of!

    Best regards,

    Simon

  • I also did some short tests with my home PC (Windows 10 x64), same PCA10056 board which I used before). Just starting and connecting also does not show a problem over e.g. one hour.  But I think we should not assume this problem would appear for everyone or under all conditions.  It certainly needs some special condition which must apply. 

    An interesting test was the following.  If I send my Windows (not a Laptop) into Sleep mode or Hibernate mode, then after awaking from that the problem appears ! The Window is blank, and only with Ctrl-R or restart of the BTLE app I can fix that (of course the USB connection to my then is also lost). 

    I tried to reproduce this on my Office PC (for which I reported the problem), but this does not cause the problem.
    Sleep and Hibernate (and the detailed CPU sleep states) may behave different on different PCs, so I would not  expect that they all behave the same. 
    However this might help to isolate the problem, if someone can reproduce it. 
    It strengthens a bit my suspect that the problem itself could have to to with USB, and the Nordic app to react improper to some unknown USB event in the system. In this case the problem would be part of the Firmware which is automatically programmed into the PCA10056 or PCA10059 upon first use with nrfConnect. 
    To repeat: on my Office PC there usually is no obvious human interaction when the problem appears. It just happens out of nothing, i.e. I assume it is caused by some Windows event. 

Reply
  • I also did some short tests with my home PC (Windows 10 x64), same PCA10056 board which I used before). Just starting and connecting also does not show a problem over e.g. one hour.  But I think we should not assume this problem would appear for everyone or under all conditions.  It certainly needs some special condition which must apply. 

    An interesting test was the following.  If I send my Windows (not a Laptop) into Sleep mode or Hibernate mode, then after awaking from that the problem appears ! The Window is blank, and only with Ctrl-R or restart of the BTLE app I can fix that (of course the USB connection to my then is also lost). 

    I tried to reproduce this on my Office PC (for which I reported the problem), but this does not cause the problem.
    Sleep and Hibernate (and the detailed CPU sleep states) may behave different on different PCs, so I would not  expect that they all behave the same. 
    However this might help to isolate the problem, if someone can reproduce it. 
    It strengthens a bit my suspect that the problem itself could have to to with USB, and the Nordic app to react improper to some unknown USB event in the system. In this case the problem would be part of the Firmware which is automatically programmed into the PCA10056 or PCA10059 upon first use with nrfConnect. 
    To repeat: on my Office PC there usually is no obvious human interaction when the problem appears. It just happens out of nothing, i.e. I assume it is caused by some Windows event. 

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