Freeze Windows

[Lorielle P]

Hi Robert.  I have a few other questions/suggestions for you to try.

I'm curious because you said "The problem occurs when running the VI as well as running a compiled .exe of the same program."  Just to clarify, was this statement to illustrate that the behavior occurs in an executable application as well as if running in LabVIEW, or are you actually running them simultaneously?

View the Windows Task Manager while the VI runs to see what process/application/service is taking up the CPU power.

Is the GPIB card recognized?  In other words, are you able to communicate with the instrument in MAX or through a simple VI since the upgrade?

Also, what do you mean by "seemingly randomly?"  Does it freeze only with this VI in 8.2?  Every time you run this VI?  Different lengths of time in the VI?

Make sure that you have the most recent version of the drivers needed.

There's not a real clear-cut culprit here, but some more information may help to bring the picture into focus.

[Robert.Bedford]

See below:

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@Lorielle P wrote:

I'm curious because you said "The problem occurs when running the VI as well as running a compiled .exe of the same program."  Just to clarify, was this statement to illustrate that the behavior occurs in an executable application as well as if running in LabVIEW, or are you actually running them simultaneously?

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The problem occurs either when I run the VI or when I run the .exe of the same program.  I have never tried to run them together.

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View the Windows Task Manager while the VI runs to see what process/application/service is taking up the CPU power.

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There is only system programs and labview taking up CPU power.  See the attached two pictures showing processes and CPU usage.

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Is the GPIB card recognized?  In other words, are you able to communicate with the instrument in MAX or through a simple VI since the upgrade?

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Yes, the GPIB card is recognized.  The program works fine for some amount of time (sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 60 minutes) and then windows freezes.

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@Lorielle P wrote:
Also, what do you mean by "seemingly randomly?"  Does it freeze only with this VI in 8.2?  Every time you run this VI?  Different lengths of time in the VI?

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All of the above.  I have altered the VI, saved it under a different filename and rerun and still had the problem.  It freezes every time I run the VI, although each time it freezes, it spends a different length of time executing the VI.

The one thing I am honing in on is what altenbach mentioned, which is to use simulated data in the subVI. I haven't crashed the program using this.  Alternatively, I have put together a much less functional main VI calling the same functional subVI and that hasn't crashed either. 

Thanks for your help.

Robert

[altenbach]

I am still thinking "hardware error"....

Do you use the same GPIB card for other tasks without problems or is this the only program that uses GPIB?

Maybe the GPIB card is faulty? As a first step, maybe try to take it out and re-seat it.

I wonder if there are any hardware diagnostic programs?

[Robert.Bedford]

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@altenbach wrote:

I am still thinking "hardware error"....

Do you use the same GPIB card for other tasks without problems or is this the only program that uses GPIB?

Maybe the GPIB card is faulty? As a first step, maybe try to take it out and re-seat it.

I wonder if there are any hardware diagnostic programs?

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 I will try to follow up on this, but I use this GPIB card extensively without problem.  I will look into the aforementioned hardware issues and scanners.

Thanks.

Robert

[Robert.Bedford]

I have a solution to my problem, but I don't have a full understanding of the errors. First, I did what altenbach suggested; that is, I created a simulated subVI that simply returned a random number from the subvi (I still passed a VISA address and an error bundle to and from the subVI).  In this case, there was no windows freeze for more than 24 hours of run time. Second, I did the opposite.  That is, I created a main VI that was much simpler (a while loop) that simply returned the output from the real subVI.  In this case, there was also no windows freeze for more than about 16 hours (I stopped the test after that). Unfortunately, this points at not a single problem, but somehow the mainVI and the subVI were getting in each other's way (I know this is not particularly technical). However, after inspecting the mainVI, I decided to change the timeouts to the queue elements function to finite times (5ms, I think).  The function defaults to infinite timeouts.  Low and behold, the program for 72 hours without a windows freeze.  The reason I don't understand it is that if I had the same problem on a VISA-read, for example, it would keep the VI from progressing, but I would still have control over the mouse, I could stop the VI, I could run other programs, etc.  I wouldn't have expected this reaction from an infinite timeout in the queue function. So, that is my story.  I can post the "final" version if anyone is interested in seeing it. Cheers, Robert