6.02 Problem - Process duplicates in task manager - Locks Lookout

[erblock]

As unbelievable as it sounds, I have seen this now on two machines.  Under certain conditions of task switching between Lookout and another program either by Alt+Tab, mouse click, or combo of the two, Lookout process screens (hypertrends, timers, etc) completely freeze.

Symptom elaboration.  Lookout screens/trends/times recover when other application is quit, but hypertrends are flatlined for the entire frozen period.  Lookout cannot be used for control (totally unresponsive to screen events) in this situation and has caused some control problems.  Taskman.exe application tab will now list two identical lookout instances with the same process name (whichever process had window focus at the time of freeze).  Second instance of process will disappear in taskman when Lookout recovers (after other application exits).  On a few occasions (blank screen saver was activated at time of freeze I suspect) when GUI access was reinitiated, the screen actually shows the "Loading...processname.lkp...." popup as if the machine had reboot!

Lookout is actually self initiating a second instance of an active panel process which then locks up Lookout!

I know, I'm crazy right??

Well, I did get to have an NI field support rep. witness the oddity earlier this week (THANK GOD!).

NI...Please tell me what -if anything-...you know about this.

Message Edited by erblock on 12-16-2005 01:58 AM

Message Edited by erblock on 12-16-2005 02:01 AM

[DimensionFinder]

Hi There:

That definitely seems very weird. We here at NI use the Alt+Tab function to switch between programs all the time and never really see that behavior ever. When you say flatlined are they showing 0 or are they just not updating? Also, have you tried disabling your screen saver?

Thanks,

Jaideep

[erblock]

One of the machines has no screen saver enabled.  Also, the screen saver is just what enabled actually seeing the restart symptom, independent of dual task listing in taskman.exe.  When it happens in front of you, often large portions (sometimes even the entire lookout screen and/or windows start bar, go entirely white during stages of the freeze....it varies.  Also, although I used Alt+Tab during the testing, it may actually be a mouse click that is more likely to initiate it.  Also, I'm not 100% sure that gui interaction is necessary to initiate the problem....maybe just increase the likelihood...ALOT!  I will test more next week, so if you have more ideas....fire away.  I do seem to have one DOS application that reliably causes the problem repeatably on one machine (haven''t tried on the other machine but may get to it over the weekend), and I could send the application to you if desired.

Thanks,

Ed

[DimensionFinder]

Hi Ed:

What kind of a pc do you have?
Also, can you replicate this same behavior for every process or does it only happen when you run a specific process?
Lastly, I would recommend applying the latest Lookout patch (6.0.2).

Thanks,
Jaideep

[erblock]

I provided some more detailed infomation last night to my NI Field Engineer (Boston/Northern MA).  I assume she will pass it on to you folks, but let me know if you want a copy of the details here.  I also sent her a complete install set of the software that most easily exhibits the problem so you folks could see for yourselves (about 5 MB total).

Best,

Ed

[erblock]

^bump...

Any updates on this issue?

[MattS98]

Ed,

I tried installing the software you sent on a Windows XP machine, but it looks like this software was meant for a Windows 98 machine?  Can you give me your full system information so I can try to accurately recreate your issue?  (i.e. Pentium 4, 512 MB RAM, Windows XP...etc) 

Also, what is running in the background of your computer when this behavior occurs? It would also be worth checking out your CPU usage during this freezing behavior.  Maybe some other program is consuming all your system resources during this time.

Resolving the issue may be as simple as upgrading to a hyperthreaded machine. DOS programs will only run in one thread which would give Lookout the other thread to operate smoothly. Another possible solution is to set the thread priority of Lookout to "Higher" and the thread priority of the DOS window to "Lower". Another possible solution would be to run LogicMaster on a different PC. Since it's DOS based, it shouldn't require a very powerful PC.

Windows applications, like Lookout, have no control over how Windows schedules resources (CPU, memory, serial ports). There is little that Lookout can do to "not freeze up". In cases where multiple applications run on the same computer, those applications must share resources. If one application "takes over" the CPU (or other resources) then other applications are granted no authority take control back. The only practical solution at this point is to prevent the offending application from taking over resources in the first place.

Based on the information provided so far, my recommendation is to not run LogicMaster on the same computer as Lookout. This is the simplest and safest way to proceed. 

Matt S.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[erblock]

Hi Matt,

I have duplicated the symptoms on three diferent machines as follows: Dell Power Edge 6450 (PIII Xeon 700Mhz), dual processor, 3GB, Raid 5, running Windows 2003 SP1+ (32-bit); Athlon 64, 1GB, single SATA 150 drive, running Windows XP Pro SP2+ (32 bit); HP Intel Pentium 4 2.3 MHz, 512MB, Single EIDE, running Windows XP Pro SP2+ (32-bit).

The logicmaster installer I sent was for windows 2000 and XP with a 32-bit serial driver included,  the other files I sent were only to enable licensing for your test.  It is of course, a DOS application.  If you use the installer only (not over the other LM90 files I sent), you should get a windows XP compatible install.  I have been able to get succesfully working on multiple machines by just copying the LM90 directory over to the new machine, then running the installer over that directory.

When the "freeze" occurs, all system resources and cpu usage is normal.  As a matter of fact, you can watch nicitdl5.exe and lookout.exe cpu usage fluctuate in the normal range as if everything is OK!

I was hoping you folks might be able to snoop what resources the logicmaster (menu90.exe) program is actually using that might cause this conflict in conjuction with a lot of video activity (hypertrend charts and window dragging over them for example).  Since the logicmaster has been used on the same computer with Lookout since Lookout 4.1 with ZERO problems, I thought maybe you folks could figure out what may have changed with Lookout 6.2 on your end also.

However, the biggest issue seems to be when the focused lookout process detects the "freeze", it reinvents itself!  What is with that behavior....??

Thanks for your assistance,

Ed