Hello

Ever since installing PLCSIM Advanced V4.0 (had V3.0 before and older versions before that, no issues there) I'm getting a Windows Blue Screen every time I log on to my VPN (also when not using PLCSIM Advanced at all, and even without having TIA installed). 

Our IT department have tracked the issue to PLCSIM Advanced related files (also - this started happening right after installing it with no other special changes), but have not been able to fix the issue. We've even tried formatting the entire machine and installing it anew from scratch, but after installing PLCSIM Advanced 4.0 the issue again persists. We use Pulse Secure VPN.

You can imagine working from home often requires a lot of both these tools (PLCSIM Advanced and VPN...) so this issue is really hurting me currently. Any ideas are welcome ! 

Thanks for the reply!

I've tried unchecking the ISO item from all my adapters (what the hell), no luck.

Also tried disabling PLCSIM Advanced, uninstalling the adapter, and uninstalling the entire PLCSIM Advanced. Even after removing it completely, something is already broken, and connecting to VPN goes BLUE. A complete format of the laptop fixed the issue of course, but it persisted after the new installation again...  Any other ideas ? 

Sure, here's the mini-dump (need to rename back to .dmp). 

The full dump is 66GB... 

The Stop code is KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED.

What failed: ndis.sys. 

Alright - managed to solve it. A nasty and annoying issue. 

Basically, ChristophD was right. The problem is caused by the SIMATIC Industrial Ethernet Connection which is Active on the VPN Adapter, causing a blue screen during connection. It even seems like this issue is somewhat known to both Siemens and Pulse, but no official solution is given yet. I guess it's not really about PLCSIM Advanced, but rather about TIA Portal in general.

The big problem is that the Pulse Adapter is not visible in the PC's Ethernet Adaptors dialog, so I can't simply go uncheck the SIMATIC connection like I can for all others. The adaptor only shows up during VPN connection - which is when the blue screen happens... so a nice magic circle. 

There is however a workaround suggested:

1. Login to VPN
2. While VPN is connecting, the Pulse adaptor will show up in the Network Settings adaptor list. You need to REALLY quickly click it --> Properties, and then Cancel the VPN connection before it goes blue on you. 
3. Then you can uncheck SIMATIC Industrial Ethernet, click OK, and connect again. In theory that would work, except try as I may I could not do it fast enough and always got the blue screen... Tried connecting to a very remote server, tried running over a hotspot with 2G, tried some keyboard shortcuts to fast-forward myself... nothing worked. 

So courtesy of a colleague, we ended up writing a PowerShell script which automatically disables the connection for certain adaptors. This script can run continuously prior to making the connection to the VPN, and it will "catch the right moment" for making the change when the VPN adaptor becomes visible. Worked like a charm - it even connected right away, no need to cancel and remake the connection. 

A full poweroff of the PC and restart showed that this is retained, so now the PC can make a VPN connection ok, hope it stays that way. 

Still - SOMEONE should really solve this issue. 

Here's the script we used. It's ridiculously simple, though might need some tweaking around to work for someone else; Just open PowerShell as admin and run it before making the VPN connection. 

do {Disable-NetAdapterBinding -DisplayName "SIMATIC Industrial Ethernet (ISO)" -Name "Local Area Connection*"} while(1)

FYI, 

After installation of Tia Portal Update 5 (and update step 7 v5.6 SP2, but maybe this is irrelevant), the problem with Tia Portal and VPN Pulse Secure was solved.

Regards,