USB and long time runing apps

[waldemar.hersacher]

I know this is also a hardware related question but regarding the audience I decided to post it here.

I have two applications running at two different customers which give us trouble for some time. There are a lot of differences and the symptoms are very different but both have two common things: USB based DAQ hardware and long time running.

App1 is in LV 7.1.1 with DAQmx 8.7.2 and using PXI-Cards over MXI-3 and 4 USB Thermocouple modules. A variant of this application without the USB modules is running without any problems.

App2 is in LV 8.5.1 with DAQmx 8.8(?) and using CompactDAQ.

Both applications start normally and after 3+ days will stop working correctly. The symptoms are different and therefore I didn't thought about any common things.

App1 will stop aquiring data over the PXI-System. All other things are working correct and the user can stop the test using the application.  There is no need to cancel the application using the Task Manager.

App2 will complete the test normal, but the screen is getting gray and the keyboard will be blocked. The customer is  getting the Beep on the BIOS keyboard buffer overflow. There is no other chance as to power off the PC.

We have some other applications using USB modules or CompactDAQ. But those applications will run only one workday and then the PC will be powered off and switched on the next day.

So my question is: has someone else long time running apps  with USB modules or CompactDAQ and is running into problems which aren't directly related to the hardware or the driver?

[Intaris]

I HAVE heard of several problems similar to this but have never had the problem myself (Never ran usb-based anything for 3 days).

I have vague recollections of previous problems and I don't have any links for you, sorry.

I'm not aware of ans USB-specific reasons why this would happen.  Maybe it's a driver issue?

Is the point of failure reproducible?

Shane.

[waldemar.hersacher]

Unfortunatly it is not reproducible.

App1 is running three weeks without failure, the next time only three days.  From the logs I can see when it happened and that the "Available samples" property node will return 0 samples for the PXI-4204. The USB-modules are running fine, at least I dont get any error from them.

App2 is more complicated beacuse no one will notice the situation before the test stops. People coming around will see the movement of the test and think its all OK.

[Marco_Brauner]

Hi Waldemar,

are you receiving any error messages while these applications are running?

M. Brauner NIG 

[waldemar.hersacher]

For App1 I don't get any errors. Even DAQmx.IsTaskDone will not report any error and says task is running.

I changed the application and removed the access to the USB-Modules (the data was only used for logging).

If the app is running for the next 62 day it is really caused by the USB-Modules.

Mostly we get the problem after about 2 until 3 days. Since the system is not networked any virus scanning or automatic system updates aren't involved.

For App2 I cannot tell anything, because the screen is gray.

[waldemar.hersacher]

Just as a follow up:

App1 stopped twice again and I was adding more logging into the app. The problem was a code part unrelated to the USB devices. It was a timeout overflow and I don't know why noone was complaining about this error in the older USB free variant of the software.  The problem is there too.

For app2 the customer decided to change the computer. I have to wait if this will help.