Difference between revisions of "OSCAR Troubleshooting"

Revision as of 09:43, 26 August 2021

This article is part of the official OSCAR software project. (OSCAR Help)

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OSCAR Help

This guide is part of the suite of OSCAR help articles. See OSCAR Help.

Installing OSCAR

Data won't load correctly (or at all)

OSCAR starts but crashes

If I open the profile then the program crashes

Description: After creating a profile, OSACAR crashes when the user first attempts to open that profile.
Possible fault mechanism: OSCAR has three different graphics engines available -- OpenGL, ANGLE, and Software engine. OpenGL is the default but does not work with some older computers. The problem may be overcome by using an alternative graphic engine.
Solution or workaround: Use the solution below for your version of OSCAR.

[OSCAR 1.2.0]
OSCAR will restart automatically using the Software engine.
Later, if you want to try the ANGLE engine, go to File/Preferences/General and select the ANGLE engine.

[OSCAR 1.1.0 or later]
Press and hold the SHIFT key when you start OSCAR. 
OSCAR will use the Software engine.
Later, if you want to try the ANGLE engine, go to File/Preferences/General and select the ANGLE engine.

[Any version of OSCAR] 
Disclaimer: Editing the Windows registry can cause damage to your computer including the possibility that it will no longer work. Undertake this procedure at your own risk.
1. Download FixGraphics.reg, open Windows Explorer, navigate to where you saved the file, and double click on FixGraphcs.reg to update the registry.  
2. You will get a variety of warning messages from Microsoft about the danger of editing the registry.  Go ahead and allow the registry changes to be made.  
3. Restart OSCAR and see if that helps.

The registry script forces use of the Software engine.  Later, if you want to try the ANGLE engine, go to File/Preferences/Appearance and select the ANGLE engine.  If it doesn't work after you do that, just run the registry script again and you'll be back to the software engine.

OSCAR graphics problems

Description: Text is extremely small or unreadable.
Possible fault mechanism: This can occur with ultra-high definition screens.
Solution or workaround: In Windows 10:

1. In the Windows file explorer, go to whatever folder contains the oscar.exe program (usually C:\program files\oscar or c:\program files (x86)\oscar)
2. Right click on 'oscar.exe'.
3. Left click on 'Properties'.
4. Left click the 'Compatibility' tab.
5. Left click on 'Change High DPI Settings'.
6. Left click box for 'Override high DPI scaling behavior'.
7. Scaling performed by: Click on drop down box just below and select 'System'.
8. Click Apply, then OK.

OSCAR doesn't show the entire day or detail charts are missing

Description: OSCAR shows nap in afternoon but not the night's sleep with a ResMed machine. Detailed Charts are missing for a session.
Possible fault mechanism: Before 1.2.0, OSCAR only allowed one import of data per a 24-hour day for ResMed machines.
Solution or workaround: Purge and re-import the day or upgrade to OSCAR 1.2.0.

Prior to OSCAR 1.2.0, OSCAR allowed one import of data per a 24-hour day. For a Resmed, a day is from noon to noon. If you import a nap session from the afternoon, then you won't be able to see any further data for that day without purging the day's data then re-importing it again. To purge a day's data; Go to the day you wish to purge in the Daily Screen, then select Data ⇾ Advanced ⇾ Purge Current Selected Day from the menus at the top. Now, you can import back in the data for that day and it should all be there.

With OSCAR 1.2.0 and later, this problem does not occur.

Your SD card should always remain inserted in your CPAP machine and only removed to read its data. The machines required that an SD card be present to record the detailed sleep data. If you forget to have it inserted during a sleep session, then only summary information will be available. SD cards must be 2 GB to 32 GB in size formatted as FAT 32. Read more about SD Cards Secure Digital (SD) memory card

Start OSCAR with a different Data folder

Description: OSCAR always starts from the default data folder.
Possible fault mechanism: Before 1.2.0, OSCAR only allowed one import of data per a 24-hour day for ResMed machines.
Possibly expected: In SleepyHead one could choose a different data folder. That was taken out of OSCAR for a good reason.
Solution or workaround: Start OSCAR with --datadir "complete address of other data folder".
Example: "c:\Program Files\OSCAR\OSCAR.exe" --datadir a:\OSCAR_Data-languages
The last folder will be used the next times OSCAR is started. Until this trick is done again... Note that there are two hyphens in "--datadir", not just one.

OSCAR and ResMed CPAP screen show different AHI values

Description: AHI reported by ResMed CPAP machine may differ from AHI reported by OSCAR.
Possible fault mechanism: OSCAR determines length of usage more accurately than ResMed CPAP reports.

There may be usually slight differences between the AHI reported by a ResMed CPAP machine and by OSCAR especially if there is more than one session in the night. The machine reading can be higher or lower than what OSCAR reports. This is caused by a difference in the way the machine and OSCAR compute the length of time the machine was in use.

ResMed CPAP machines round the length of each session to the nearest minute, then adds those together to get the total minutes for the night. OSCAR doesn't round the session lengths and thus computes the total time for the night in seconds. AHI is calculated as # events/total time, so OSCAR and the machine are using a slightly different denominator for total time.

OSCAR "unable to write to Oscar directory" at startup

Description: OSCAR terminates with an error message "unable to write to OSCAR directory" at startup.
Possible fault mechanisms: 1) An anti-virus or other security program is preventing OSCAR from writing to disk, 2) permissions are set incorrectly on some folders, or 3) you have placed OSCAR_Data in a directory that the system has reserved and will not allow user data to reside in.
Solution or workaround: 1) Specify that OSCAR is an allowed program in your anti-virus or security program. 2) If permissions in Documents or OSCAR_Data directories are not set to allow writing, change the security settings so that writing is allowed, or move OSCAR_Data to a directory that allows programs to write to it. 3) Do not place OSCAR_Data in a system reserved directory (such as C:\Program Files on Windows).

OSCAR 1.2.0 added a test at startup to check that it could properly write data to your OSCAR_Data directory. Previous versions of OSCAR would stumble through and give partial results but not write data to the OSCAR database.

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