LabVIEW crashes - upgrade or not?

[cordus]

Hello,

I have a LV VI application that used to run on a LV 7.1 on a NT OS system. Problem is that the OS rebooted in a non-systematic manner while running the app. Sometimes run well for weeks, then rebooted. To fix this I attempted to ugrade to XP. Problem still exist but instead of rebooting the LV application freezes up and the "Have to shut down LabVIEW .. " turns up. No error code or other LV/OS specifics.

After this I went on to try LV 7.2, 8.2 and finally 8.5. Problem got progressively worse. On the 8.5 LV terminates before 2 minutes after running the application.

This is my configuration now:

labview 8.5
vision 8.6
IMAQ USB installer 1.3.0
PID Control Toolkit 5.0

NI IA OPC Server 5.1

I know the IMAQ USB has a memory leak, but my problem is there still while the USB camera is not connected/used.

From my point of view I have two options:

1. Debug the application for errors. (Its a rather huge and complex app so this is PITA)

2. Attempt an upgrade to LV 2009.

I think the 2009 version has the IMAQ USB as default so if this NI non-supported package is the cause of my problems that might work. Also noted that there is a new PID and fuzzy logic toolkit. On the other hand, if my problem is more likely to be found within the LV application then the LV 2009 will merely be a wast of (a lot of) money.  

Any opinions on this would be most welcomed.

Thanks.

[Ben]

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cordus wrote:

Hello,

I have a LV VI application that used to run on a LV 7.1 on a NT OS system. Problem is that the OS rebooted in a non-systematic manner while running the app. Sometimes run well for weeks, then rebooted. To fix this I attempted to ugrade to XP. Problem still exist but instead of rebooting the LV application freezes up and the "Have to shut down LabVIEW .. " turns up. No error code or other LV/OS specifics.

After this I went on to try LV 7.2, 8.2 and finally 8.5. Problem got progressively worse. On the 8.5 LV terminates before 2 minutes after running the application.

This is my configuration now:

labview 8.5
vision 8.6
IMAQ USB installer 1.3.0
PID Control Toolkit 5.0

NI IA OPC Server 5.1

I know the IMAQ USB has a memory leak, but my problem is there still while the USB camera is not connected/used.

From my point of view I have two options:

1. Debug the application for errors. (Its a rather huge and complex app so this is PITA)

2. Attempt an upgrade to LV 2009.

I think the 2009 version has the IMAQ USB as default so if this NI non-supported package is the cause of my problems that might work. Also noted that there is a new PID and fuzzy logic toolkit. On the other hand, if my problem is more likely to be found within the LV application then the LV 2009 will merely be a wast of (a lot of) money.  

Any opinions on this would be most welcomed.

Thanks.

---

"The only thing you can say for certain about an intermitant problem is it will not fix itself." (Ben, circa 1980)

Attempting fix intermitant crashes by upgrading LV will only work if the crashing was due to a LV bug that has since been fixed. Since you don't know the nature of the crash, there is no way to determine if teh upgrade approach will work.

"The first step in correcting a problem is clearly defining the problem." (Yes, me again)

So I suggest you go with the PITA approach.

Ben

[RDR]

There is also the option to demo LabVIEW 2009:

http://www.ni.com/trylabview/

I agree with Ben, if you want to fix the problem the PITA approach is your best bet. You can also work with Applications Engineering if you get stuck (assuming you have a support contract).

Good luck!