BIT Intermittently locks up on Closing Test message

[ljpaquet]

Hi,

I'm using BIT Pro 5.1 to test laptops running XP and on about 40% of tests we see the following problem. When the test is done and the status window opens with the Closing Tests progress bar, the program locks up. The Closing Tests message usually remains on the screen and the whole computer freezes up except for the mouse. The computer needs to be powered down and restarted in order to get XP running again, but then there is no log file generated and there are bit data files on both hard drive partitions. Not only can we not tell if the unit passed (as the closing tests message blocks the results), we can't see a log file either to determine if the unit passed.

Any suggestions on what is causing this issue? I've tried lowering the hard drive duty cycles, raising the file size percentage to 10% and only using sequential data. This lowered the rate of the problem, but didn't completely resolve it, so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Lyle

[David (PassMark)]

Can you upgrade to the current release V5.3 and see if you have the same problem. The upgrade from V5.1 to V5.3 is a free upgrade.

There have been a fair number of bug fixes since V5.1.

That said, you should never get a total PC freeze. It might be a device driver or hardware issue.

[ljpaquet]

How can I upgrade to 5.3?

Thanks

[David (PassMark)]

If you have V5.x already, then you just download V5.3 and install it.

If you have an older version of BurnInTest (V1 to V4) then you might need to purchase an upgrade or it might be a free upgrade depending on how old the software is.

[DXJ]

Same issue with 5.3 on win 2003 consistently

I get a consistent freeze, except mouse, on Win 2003 Server every time I close (use Stop button). This is a RAID enabled machine.

I have to reboot to gain the OS control again. When I do I never get a compelte log with stop time. Is there a setting I can change to make sure the log posts even with a freeze and then reboot?

I have two HDD's at 160GB each. Drive C and D. I have run bitpro for over 17 hrs three times on this machine but have never completed a cycle of the hard drive test. Why? I do not understand HDD cycle

lastly, Why does drive D (second HDD) say new volume next to drive letter?

[Ian (PassMark)]

A system freeze is usually a problem at the operating system level, including device drivers. It is hard to say how pressing the stop button could ‘freeze’ the system.
What tests are you running and how long do you need to run them for before this problem occurs?
What is the physical mapping of the drive letters to physical drives, and what RAID configuration do you have configured?

In v5.x of BurnInTest, a HDD test cycle is defined as writing, reading and verifying a single test file. The test file size is defined in preferences, eg. 10% of a 160GB HDD is 16GB test file size. To test HDD’s as quickly as possible you should set the HDD duty cycle to 100%, and the CPU and memory duty cycles such that the CPU load is not hard on 100%. Ideally, you would also have 1 CPU (or CPU core) for each hard disk you test.

The label after the HDD drive letter is the volume name assigned to that drive (in Windows) when it was formatted, the default is “New Volume”.
Regards,
Ian

[DXJ]

Testing pereformed when freeze happens

Ian Thanx for response:
The tests are CPU math, CD-RW/DVD (Read Only) , CPU SIMD, RAM, Video (Machine can not handle 2D or 3d),Disks (C and D), Network (internal Loop back) and 3x USB 2.0 (with Passmark Loop backs and Drivers).

I usually run for 24hrs. The lock ups or freeze occurs consistently when the STOP test button is used. The task manager will show each test (Not responding). This happens after 20 minutes or longer.

RAID is configured as RAID 1, with Physical mapping of C and D.

[Ian (PassMark)]

I think the problem is most likely related to the Disk test and the RAID configuration.

Can you try the test:
(1) with only the disk test
(2) with only the disk test and only the C: disk specified.
In both cases please use Level 1 trace logging and send me the last few .trace files to: help [at] passmark [dot] com


FYI, On another note, when you say that the system can't handle the 2D and 3D tests, the most common reason for this is that on servers DirectDraw and Direct3D are disabled by default. You can usually enable these DirectX features and use the 2D and 3D tests by by changing the :
Control Panel -> Display -> Settings tab -> Advanced button -> Troubleshoot tab, and move the hardware acceleration tab to the right. Of course if you don't ever plan to use these graphics features, then you might not want to change these settings.

Regards,
Ian

[DXJ]

Logs sent

Log files for the requested tests have been submitted

[Ian (PassMark)]

Thanks. Well it seems that it is not the disk test in isolation. Could you try reducing the test set from your original test set until you have the smallest set of tests (e.g. 3D only, or HDD + RAM test) that leads to the lockup on stop. Then please email us the .bitcfg file for this test set.

Thanks.
Ian