Best practice for installation

Hi,

I have just been working on my first installation using Max/MSP and the Make Controller. It is a really simple set up invloving the use of a reed switch  connected to one of the analogue inputs. The user doesn't have direct access to the laptop, but triggers sound files by opening and closing a door.

Most of the time it works fine and I can leave it alone for the whole of a session (8 hours), but occasionally the patch (just a slight variation of the mc.analogin helpfile triggering some sfplay~ objects) stops working. The audio side is OK, but I don't get any response from the mc.usb object.  If I close Max and open mchelper, the Make Controller is not recognised. The only way round this is to restart Windows. 

Are there any strategies for dealing with long term installations - would an error log have been written somewhere deep inside Vista so maybe I can find out what the problem is, should I disable all non - essential services and start up items ? Currently there is no screen saver and power settings are set to always on. I have just purchased Max 5 so maybe I'll try that and see how I get on.

Thanks

Nigel

Max/MSP 4.6.3

Heavy 1.6.2

MChelper 2.5.0

Dell XPS M1330
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.40 GHz)

Windows Vista Home Premium SP1

Hm - ideally this would work over longer periods of time as is.

But I've been on a fairly successful bug hunt expedition over the last little while in our USB code on Windows, and have uncovered a few issues that might lead to some situations like this.  The improvements have not been ported over to the Max code yet, however.  In the meantime, you might consider using the UDP option for communication.