Testing your set up and settings at your office or home with everything working don't usually mean it will translate over when your are at your Event's Venue and testing again to ensure everything is working. It should be working if you've set everything up properly while you were at home or at your office. However, there are times when strange phenomenons happen while setting up for your event or in the middle of your event; your event is happening outside of tech support hours; and you're under a lot of pressure which results in you going into panic mode. Fortunately, before you start to panic, let's going over these troubleshooting steps for common problems to help get you sorted and head in the right direction.
You can reach tech support via email at support@laphotoparty.com or 323-473-4883. Please make sure you attempt these solutions first as they could save you a lot of time. LA Photo Party Tech Support team is more than happy to assist you on your issues and get your sorted. However, if you cannot reached us due to various reasons, these solutions could very well help you resolve your problem(s).
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Problem: My front touchscreen is not working! It's powered on, but it is not responding to any touch. Help!
Summary: This problem is usually caused by problems relating to your touchscreen drivers not functioning, missing, calibration issues or the front-touchscreen simply malfunctions and requires a replacement.
Step 1: Unplug your front touchscreen's USB cable connection that connects it to the shuttle PC. Wait about 1 minute and then plug it back in. This will trigger your Windows Operating system to reinstall the touch screen drivers.
Step 2: If your touchscreen is working but there seem to be issues in which the touch reaction is happening at different places on the screen, run a touchscreen calibration.
If you've tried the above two solutions and there's no luck, please reach out to tech support for further assistance.
Problem: My iPad or Windows sharing tablet cannot connect to the PPU Helper on my computer (booth)! Help!
Summary: There could be various causes as to why your sharing kiosk cannot connect to your PPU Helper. Two of the main culprits are usually the windows firewall and wireless interference. Please try the solution below. You may need to go through multiple solutions if your settings aren't set correctly.
Step 1: Ensure that your sharing tablet is on the same wifi connection as your PPU Helper computer.
Step 2: Check the windows firewalls on your booth or laptop computer and ensure that both the Public & Private firewalls are turned off. You can locate them by clicking the "up" arrow on the bottom right corner of your windows computer -> Click the shield icon known as Windows Security -> Select "Firewalls & Network Protection" on the left-hand side menu -> Turn off Public and Private firewalls. Also repeat these steps on your Windows tablet if you're using that for your sharing station.
Step 3: Check your wifi connection properties and make sure it is set to private. You can do so by clicking on your list of wifi networks -> select the wifi you're using -> click properties -> set connection type to "Private".
Step 4: If you've done the above 3 steps, and you're still having troubles connecting especially if your connection is sporadic and unstable, you're very likely experiencing wifi interference. A good indication of this problem is if you observe your wireless icon on the kiosk going from solid green for a minute or so and suddenly goes solid red despite being connected to the wifi. To resolve this issue, you can either hardwired an ethernet cable to your sharing tablet or manually connect to the Helper by setting a static IP address on the sharing Kiosk so that it will always know where to find the PPU Helper.
**Note: Microsoft is notorious for turning on features on your windows computer without informing you. So if you turned off your firewalls previously and did a windows update. It is very likely to be turn on by Microsoft after your update. Thus, always check your firewalls when setting up.
Problem: My devices are connected, but sharing is going out really slow. Help!
Summary: There could be a lot of reasons why your shares are going out slow. One of the main reasons is your wifi speed is slow. If your wifi speed is slow and you're attempting to share large files, you're very likely going to be having a hard time getting those shares out.
Step 1: Check your file sizes and reduce their size if possible.
Step 2: Check your wifi connection speed. If it is slow, consider swapping your wifi connection channel from 2.4Ghz to 5Ghz. Most modern wifi hotspots will come with 2 channel for connections. The 2.4Ghz provides a wider wifi range but slower speeds. The 5Ghz will provide a smaller wifi range but higher network speed.
Problem: My PPU Helper is starting up but then disappears and would not stay running in the system tray. I cannot connect to my PPU Helper. Help!
Summary: This is very likely caused by a corruption of dependency files that the PPU Helper needs to stay running.
Solution: Type "Control Panel" on your search by tapping on the windows logo on the bottom left corner of your screen. Then type "uninstall" on the search menu of your control panel located to the top right of control panel's menu. Press "enter" twice to access the Program Uninstallation Menu. Download PPU Helper from Event Manager and reinstall it. Now restart your computer and everything should be fine. If the problem persists, please call tech support.
Problem: My live view keeps on freezing in PBU and then PBU suddenly crashes or exit. Help!
Summary: PBU don't crash under normal circumstances unless it encountered an unresolved error. The culprit that cause this problem 90% of the time is due to a camera cable issue especially if the live view is freezing.
Solution: Unplug your camera usb cable that connects to the computer and wait 1 minute. Then plug it back in and ensure you go to your PBU Settings -> Camera -> DSLR -> Refresh to pick up the camera. If PBU cannot pick up the camera, ensure that your windows computer is picking up your camera. You can check that by opening a file explorer and select "This PC" on the left hand side. If your computer is picking up your camera, it will show up there. PBU cannot connect to your camera if your windows computer is not picking it up. You may want to swap out your cable for a replacement cable if you still cannot connect your camera.
If this problem persists, please reach out to tech support.
Problem: My GIFs(saved as video) and videos are not saving to my output folder (watched folder). They're not processing or they're processing but won't save an output file. Help!
Summary: This problem is very likely caused by a K-Lite Codecs issue. Video format files requires K-Lite Codecs for encoding, if you have an outdated K-Lite Codec or don't have it installed at all, you cannot process or save video files.
Solution: Please install the latest K-Lite Codec Packs.
Problem: My slideshow is not showing on my extended monitor, it shows up on my main screen but not the extended monitor. Help! (PBU or PPU)
Summary: The reason why your slideshow is showing on your main screen and not your extended monitor is very likely because you have "Show on main screen" checked in your slide show settings.
Solution: Uncheck the checkbox "Show on Main Screen" in your slideshow and select the display monitor you want to use if it does not automatically show on your extended monitor.
Problem: I cannot find my event in the PPU Helper. I created the event in Event Manager. | I set my event to have specific sharing options in Event Manager and I have the correct event selected in PPU Helper but the correct sharing options is not showing up. Help!
Summary: This is very likely caused by your PPU Helper's event being outdated or you did not refresh your helper after creating your event, thus the event doesn't show up in the helper which allows you to select it.
Solution: Right-click your PPU Helper in your system tray or on the right side of your taskbar and hover over "Events" -> Select Refresh. This action will trigger PPU Helper to download any new events you created or update any existing event setting changes you've made to your event in Event Manager.