MIDI issue with Burn In Test

[psuturtle]

Hello,
I'm running Burn In Pro v5.3 build 1039 on several systems for some early hardware testing. On several of these systems, I'm getting the following error:

SERIOUS : 2009-01-28 21:31:02, Sound, Could not open MIDI Sequencer or MIDI file

Our systems are using the ADI 1988A audio codec. We've been running stress testing on 12 units, and this error has not appeared on all systems

Have you seen this error before? A search of the forums turned up another user who noticed a similar problem, but it was mentioned that it might have been fixed in a later build of Burn In. I believe we're running the most recent version of the test.

Any suggestions of what might be causing this issue would be helpful. Let me know if more system details are necessary.

Thanks.

[David (PassMark)]

Do you get this error all the time on this system (i.e. it never plays). Or only some of the time. Or do you always get it after a certian period of testing (e.g. always after the 4th hour of testing)?

Check that the MIDI file you have selected in the BurnInTest Preferences window actually exists.

Then check that the file plays OK outside of BurnInTest.

Otherwise I would suspect a device driver issue.

[thanh]

Hello,

I got the same issue with BIT v5.3 (1034) in XPsp3 32bit.

The test system has 1GB memory shared VGA.
The OS is 500MB RamDisk sit totally in memory with 80MB free space.

Follow your instruction, I verify the existence of midi file, the path to it and I can play it in WMP.

BIT test CPU,NIC,COM,PARA,SOUND (set at 10%) but fail at midi.
without sound, all pass.

I test sound only (set at 10%), it again fails at midi playing.

Any suggestion?
To my memory, it worked fine in xpsp2.

Thanks
Thanh

[David (PassMark)]

What was the exact error messages?
Can you also check if you see the problem with V6 of BurnInTest.
Are you using the Testsound.mid file that we supply or your own file? Did you try a different MIDI file?

[thanh]

Thanks,
The error is "Could not open MIDI Sequencer or MIDI file".
The mid file is in the BIT package.

Just download BIT pro V6.0 Build 1009.2, install and run test Sound only at 50% duty cycles. I get the same thing. Test fails immediately when changing to midi test with the same above error message.

Under device manager, the drivers look normal:
*MPU-401 Compatible MIDI device.
*Vinyl AC'97 Codec Combo Driver (WDM)

It can play the mid file with WMP.

Again Thanks,
Thanh

[Ian (PassMark)]

This error occurs if BurnInTest can't open the file for MIDI playback.

In V6.0, if you turn on Preferences->Logging, and set Activity trace level 2, this should include more detail about the error. You can post the error details from the *.trace files here if you like (only the lines showing errors, like "...Failed with error ...").

Regards,
Ian

[thanh]

Here is what it shows:
=========================
MEMORY
Total Physical Memory: 990MB
Available Physical Memory: 258MB
......
DISK VOLUMES
C: Local drive, ADS_RAM500, NTFS, (0.48GB total, 0.03GB free)
...............
LOG NOTE: 2006-07-21 16:42:56, Sound, Starting MIDI test
LOG NOTE: 2006-07-21 16:42:56, Sound, Opening MIDI file C:\Program Files\BurnInTest\TestSound.mid.
LOG NOTE: 2006-07-21 16:42:56, Sound, mciSendCommand Failed with error The specified device is not open or is not recognized by MCI. (263).
=========================
<!-- Please ignore the wrong date setting above. -->

BIT has tested fine with mp3 and wav file.
WMP can play the mid file.

The OS contains framework 2, and C# application works beautiful.


Hope it helps to diagnostic the cause,

Thanh

[Ian (PassMark)]

This is a problem opening the MIDI file with the MCI Sequencer device. BurnInTest uses the Microsoft MCI Sequencer Device in the operating system to play back MIDI files. WMP does not use this device and plays the MIDI file directly.

Specifically, this the "MCI Wave Device" and ""MCI Sequencer Device" are required for the test. I would look in Device manager and see if you can enable MIDI on your sound driver. Enabling MIDI is different on a lot of systems. For example, on one of the systems I have here, Midi can be enabled in, System->Device Manager->Sound, video and game controllers->ATI Function Driver for High Definition Audio - ATI AA01->Properties tab-> MIDI Devices and Instruments, ATI Function Driver for High Definition Audio->Properties button->"Use MIDI features on this device".

If you can't see a setting like this, then I would try updating your sound device drivers.

Regards,
Ian

Update: Also see this post for more details of MIDI playback issues.