Labview (8.21) consistently crashes on this simple vi with some loops

[brendan vastenhouw]

Hi,

I have quite some problems with Labview 8.21 crashing my application.

NO warnings,  NO errors, the application (or labview environment) just crashes and disappears.

After an extended search, I found that this simple vi containing a few loops consistently crashes on most PCs.

When I run this on my laptop with a core 2 Duo T7250 (and windows XP), all is OK.
On most other systems I tried, the application will crash within a minute. (including 4core AMD Opteron 2218  with windows 2003 server, 6core AMD Opteron 2431 running 2008 server, Intel core i7 running windows 7, Intel Core2Duo E8500 running Windows Vista)

Does anyone know what is wrong ?

Best regards,

 Brendan

[smercurio_fc]

As far as Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, and Windows 7, LabVIEW 8.2.1 is not supported on those platforms.

As far as Vista is concerned, does it crash regardless of the value of "Active"?

Have you checked this: http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/allkb/AF9F8181F6082CFA86257442006D4833 

It references LabVIEW 8.5, but may apply to 8.2.1 as well.

[brendan vastenhouw]

We have been running labview applications on Windows Server 2003 for years without any problems.

But OK, I agree labview 8.2.1 is not supported on these platforms, but same issue occurs with Vista.

It will crash regardless of the value of "Active".

Sorry, this code is not really functional (or clear), but I have striped it down to the minimum.

Despite the fact that this code does not do anything, except increase the loop counters, it will crash.

Thanks for the link.

I have not checked it yet, but I will have a close look...

[brendan vastenhouw]

Hi,

Even more simple example:

Just having 2 timed loops is enough to crash labview ! (see example attached)

The Windows Vista x64 machine which I tested has only 2 cores (Intel core2duo E8500).

I think that this problem is related to Windows x64. Windows XP (32bit) on my laptop runs fine.

Windows Vista x64 (and newer) all crash. Unfortunately, I do not have a 32 bit Windows Vista to test it on ...

Can anyone confirm that this runs OK on 32bit Windows Vista ?

Regards,

 Brendan

ps: Yes, the runtime engine labview 8.2.1 is available for Vista x64.

(https://www.ni.com/en/support/downloads/software-products/download.labview-runtime.html)

[Norbert_B]

Brendan,

when you start LV development system after such a crash, do you receive any error messages? If so, what do they tell (e.g. crashed in lvalarms.dll)?

Now for the debugging part:

1) It is very, very weird for me seeing an event structure within a timed loop. Does the VI also crash if you remove the event structure?

2) Both timed loops are manually assigned to the same core. Is the behavior different if you assign different cores or leave it to automatic load balancing?

3) I have not encountered a crash with LV 2010 running on Windows 7 32 bit. Can you check more up to date LV versions?

4) What Windows rights does your login give your user? Is there any dependency on the crash (e.g. admin does not crash, "operator" does)?

5) I understand that the crash occurs if two timed loops are in the blockdiagram in parallel. But it is obviously not connected to their parallel execution (crash in disregard to "Acrive"!). Is this understanding correctly? If so, are there other combinations of parallel timed loops which will also crash?

hope this helps,

Norbert

[WiMAX_Eng]

HI,

FYI this is okay in LabVIEW 8.6 running on Windows 7 x86 so maybe comparable to Vista x86.

[brendan vastenhouw]

Hello Norbert,

On the Vista machine, I will get a error message (see attachement).

1) OK, agree. But that is not the problem. See my previous post. It will also crash with just 2 timed loops.

2) How to assign this ? From the task manager ? No time to do this, app already gone in 2 seconds.

3) I think it is related to x64.

4) running it as admin.

5) See my previous post. Just 2 timed loops will crash.

Thanks,

 Brendan

[Norbert_B]

Brendan,

after closing LabVIEW, you will eventually restart it. Does an error dialog appear during the launch of LV?

To clearify: The following block diagram will be sufficient to crash LV on your machine?

Regarding Core Assignment: I am not sure if this feature is already available in LV 8.2.1. In the screenshot above, the core assignment is '-2', which results in automatic load balance. Your VI shows two '0', which would be the same core with the ID 0.

To summarize a bit:

- Updating LV seems to be the easiest solution for the issue (but not necessarily the cheapest)

- I am not sure if you have to rely on timed loops. Maybe you can exchange one of them with a "normal" while loop including timing VIs.

hope this helps,

Norbert

[brendan vastenhouw]

Hello Norbert,

After I restart Labview I get a message that it did not shutdown normaly (see attachment) and the posibility to recover the unsaved file.

That is all.

I can not assign a core for the loops with this version of labview.

Currently, trying to convince my boss to upgrade labview, but it is quite expensive.

I will try to change our code to avoid using 2 timed loops.

However, I find it quite frustrating to spend 3 days debugging our code to finally find that the problem is not our code, but in the most basic labview operation you can find. I will also contact NI to explain this problem and ask for a solution.

Thanks for your input !

Brendan

[AKA_TG]

Tell your Boss you need to get as far away from 8.2.1 as you can

I lost 6 months trying to get basic work done with that version and I never got anywhere with it and I had to stand there with my hat in my hand to my big bosses.

Im no LV expert but from my past experience with it I would  say  be warned.

My experience with 8.2.1 is that it is the absolute worst version NI ever put out.

Others experience may vary of course.

But you should definately upgrade.