Burn-In Test Application clashes with WinXP SP3?

[Ian (PassMark)]

Malte,

Thanks for the feedback.

Just FYI, build 1034 is now available with some minor corrections.

Best regards,
Ian

[malte]

WinXP SP3 problem solved

Hi Ian,
I just want to confirm, that since build 1033 we have no more problems with SP3.

Thanks a lot
Malte

[Ian (PassMark)]

The standard BurnInTest build of V5.3.1033 is now also available.

Regards,
Ian

[Ian (PassMark)]

We have released a new public build of BurnInTest Professional 5.3.1033 that corrects this problem. Both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of BurninTest have been updated. BurnInTest Standard will be updated tomorrow.

Please follow the links to see the updates and download the latest version of BurnInTest:
http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm

Regards
Ian

[Ian (PassMark)]

We believe that we have resolved this problem in V5.3.1032. We would appreciate confirmation from users that this problem is now resolved.

The new build can be downloaded from here (for now):
http://www.passmark.com/ftp/bitpro5....0003.debug.exe

Based on feedback and our ongoing testing, we currently hope to make a public build available tomorrow.

Thanks.

Regards,
Ian

[Ian (PassMark)]

We have made a new build of 32-bit BurnInTest Pro, V5.3.1030, to try and address this problem. Could you please download this new build and let us know whether the problem has been resolved, or the behavior has changed.

The new build can be downloaded here:
http://www.passmark.com/ftp/bitpro.exe

Regards,
Ian

[Ian (PassMark)]

If you are having the problem of BurnInTest v5.3 'disappearing' on XP SP3, then please send us an email and we will send you a debug version of BurnInTest. Please contact us at:
http://www.passmark.com/support/index.htm

Regards,
Ian

[Ian (PassMark)]

we had 2 units that failed:
1st w/o 2D test
2nd w/o extended CPU test (MMX)

We have had a number of reports of this behavior with BurnInTest 5.3 on XP SP3.

The common items with the reports to date seem to be:
- The problem does not occur on XP SP2
- BurnInTest just closes with no Windows "Sorry BurnInTest has closed "... window. This would normally provide debug information for this type of problem.
- The problem occurs after 2 to 6 hours of testing.
- The problem does not occur for every test run.
- The minimum test set to date seems to be CPU Maths, Standard memory, Disk (each with default settings). One report suggests it may be related to the memory test with the disk test. The problem does not seem to occur if the tests are run individually.
- The problem seems to occur on both desktop and laptops, with both integrated graphics and graphics cards. Raid and non-raid disks.
- Duty cycles may be set on 100%.
- The problem occurs on non-English Operating Systems (Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and German). No confirmed reports on English OS yet.
We have been unable to reproduce the problem. If you have this problem please contact us at, help [at] passmark [dot] com, as this should help us identify what the problem is.

There was absolutely nothing in the logs, also my batch file just continues work as it should if the BIT is passed and than closed by user. It seems it's just closing it self. (Why ever)

This is an unrecoverable software exception in BurnInTest. The software error could occur in BurnInTest, a library BurnInTest uses (like DirectX), the Windows Operating System, a device driver, in some cases a hardware error can cause a software problem (like faulty RAM) or even the BIOS. I would say that in most cases it is BurnInTest exercising a Device driver with a bug. In your case, as it is after a long test, then maybe a device driver has a resource leak, such that when the resources are low enough, the device driver fails in some manner.
In saying this, you would normally get a message indicating that BurnInTest has closed. Our current thinking is that a software (.dll/.sys) updated in XP SP3 has a stack corruption and is unable to recover to the point of producing a debug file (minidump).

P.S. Do you know any difference if Windows is in preinstallation mode? We do unattended Windows installation, that means we run sysprep after BIT is passed. So everytime windows is booting up, it launches factory.exe, but we normally close it before launching BIT.

I don't know of any difference.

[malte]

Hi Ian,
we had 2 units that failed:
1st w/o 2D test
2nd w/o extended CPU test (MMX)

There was absolutley nothing in the logs, also my batch file just continues work as it should if the BIT is passed and than closed by user. It seems it's just closing it self. (Why ever)

You don't need to care about the german words, the batch file does prcessing of a checklist before BIT is launched. This checklist is processed by

type checklist.txt >> %_sn%.log

after BIT is closed.
So that you see this german words, just tells us that the batch continues it's work. It's more interesting, that the beginning of the words is not starting in a new line.

That's the only difference to BIT that passes normally.

I have to interrupt the analyses now, we have to deliver theses batch of laptops this week, so we already installed WinXP SP2 on friday. That is what we do until we find a solution. Also I'm out of office up to wednesday. So I think we'll contionue next week.

I've just send the files by eMail.

Best Regards
Malte

P.S. Do you know any difference if Windows is in preinstallation mode? We do unattended Windows installation, that means we run sysprep after BIT is passed. So everytime windows is booting up, it launches factory.exe, but we normally close it before launching BIT.

[Ian (PassMark)]

Malte,

Did you find any pattern removng tests? Can you please tell me which test sets caused the problem (e.g. it can be interesting to know that the problem occured without the 2D test).

Is there anything in the Windows System or Application event logs around the time of the failure?
Some information about event logging is here:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308427

I don't read any German, what does "Ware komplett kommissioniert, Vollzaehligkeit geprueft: i.O. " mean and why is it in the log report?

Please send the trace file and configuration to
help [at] passmark [dot] com

I will send you a debug version of BurnInTest in response.

Thanks.

Regards,
Ian

[malte]

Hi Ian,
I now did the test with the new build, but it's same result.
There is still absolutely no error message, that is really strange to me.

I have 2 log files and a trace log:

****************************************
RESULT SUMMARY - INTERIM PERIODIC REPORT
****************************************
Test Start time: Thu Sep 11 13:59:36 2008 
Current time: Thu Sep 11 20:42:36 2008
Test Duration: 006h 43m 00s 
Test Name                   Cycles   Operations      Result Errors   Last Error
              CPU - Maths   11558    2.107 Trillion  PASS   0        No errors
               CPU - SIMD   8421     2.015 Trillion  PASS   0        No errors
             Memory (RAM)   45       108 Billion     PASS   0        No errors
              2D Graphics   1092     314 Million     PASS   0        No errors
              3D Graphics   188      377001       Ware komplett kommissioniert, Vollzaehligkeit geprueft:     i.O. 
Geprueft von: NB04 
Sichtpruefung:                                              i.O. 
Geprueft von: NB04

****************************************
RESULT SUMMARY - INTERIM PERIODIC REPORT
****************************************
Test Start time: Thu Sep 11 13:49:42 2008 
Current time: Thu Sep 11 22:36:42 2008
Test Duration: 008h 47m 00s 
Test Name                   Cycles   Operations      Result Errors   Last Error
              CPU - Maths   15046    3.089 Trillion  PASS   0        No errors
               CPU - SIMD   11147    3.217 Trillion  PASS   0        No errors
             Memory (RAM)   75       181 Billion     PASS   0        No errors
              2D Graphics   1107     247 Million     PASS   0        No errors
              3D Graphics   167      334246          PASS   0        No errors
               Disk (C: )   11       28.380 Billion  PASS   0        No errors
 
****************************************
RESULT SUMMARY - INTERIM PERIODIC REPORT
****************************Ware komplett kommissioniert, Vollzaehligkeit geprueft:     i.O. 
Geprueft von: NB06 
Sichtpruefung:                                              i.O.

Please let me know where to send the trace log, if you need it.
I also can send you the configuration file and an extraction of the batch we use for launching BIT.

We're using a batch fil that waits for BIT to be closed then process other testlogs to the same logfile. That's what you can see here, BIT is writing the log, but don't finish. Than the batch file continues.

if exist %_sn%.log del %_sn%.log
echo SETLOG "%_sn%.log" >> tmp-script.txt
echo SETMACHINETYPE "%_model%" >> tmp-script.txt
echo SETSERIAL "%_sn%" >> tmp-script.txt
echo SETNOTES "Assembly order: %_fa% Tester ID: %_test%" >> tmp-script.txt
type tmp-script.txt >> bit-script-input.txt
start /wait bit -p -c .\stresstest.bitcfg -r

Also the running time is always different I saw units that only ran less than 1h, these ran more tha 6h AND we had units that passed w/o any problem. In this batch it was 1, in other batches they passed when launching the test for a 2nd time. It's totally confusing me.

[Ian (PassMark)]

Malte,

Thanks.

I assume you are using the 2D "All video memory" test. BIT5.3.1028 has two 2D Video memory test crash workarounds implemented. Crashes in (i) DirectX DirectShow and (ii) ATI atiumdag.dll library. So it will be interesting to see if this solves your problem.

Regards,
Ian

[malte]

It seems to be a combination of various tests.
The unit that didn't run the 2D graphics test but all others, did fail. All other units are still running since mor the 5h now.

I'll update with http://www.passmark.com/ftp/bitpro.zip to build 1028 now and test this failed unit once more, to see what happened.

By the way, there is absolutely nothing written to the event log. So I'll setup the testrun as you told before.

[Ian (PassMark)]

Thanks.

FYI, if you set Preferences->Logging, logging interval to 1 minute, this will output interim results every 1 minute and hence give you a good indication when BurnInTest closes.

Regards,
Ian

[malte]

How long into the test was it before they failed (e.g. did they all fail around the same time of e.g. 2 hours)?

Unfortunatly I have no idea, because tha failed at night when nobody was here. We started next Testrun 1,5h ago. So we might have more results soon.

We have made some changes in BurnInTest for this type of problem, v5.3.1028.

Can you please use this new build with one of the laptops that failed to:
(i) see if the problem occurs, or whether you at least now get the option to send the error report to Microsoft (which we can get from them);
(ii) reduce the test set to the smallest, e.g. Disk and Memory.
We have another report of this behavior and their testing seems to indicate that it may be related to the disk test, in conjunction with another test (but this may have nothing to do with your problem).

I'll wait the results with Build 1026 first, than update to 1028

So, if you could first retry the test without the disk test and see if you don't get the problem. If you don't, then could you please try the disk test with SMART turned off and the test pattern set to sequential (rather than cyclic)?

I'll have a look for it also, but as I have some drives running in SATA with conventional setup (like IDE) on the Laptops, and a RAID configuration on my DisplayWall Controller. I don't really think this is the problem.

On one of the Laptops we don't run HDD test so this unit should pass, if your guess is correct.