Program Crashes on Windows 2000 Computer

[Int_man]

This post is a little long, but I tried to provide as much information as possible.

Due to increased production volumes we added an additional test station. We have been having problems with a LabVIEW program crashing when I run the program on new test station I just installed. The program works fine on the older station but doesn’t on the new test station. The main difference I see is that the new station runs on Windows 2000 professional and the old station runs on Windows NT 4.0. The other difference is that new computer is faster. The program usually crashes after testing 12 devices (4 devices are tested simultaneously), so after the 3rd time through the test routine the program crashes. We can reload the program and test another 12 devices until the computer crashes again. It appears like program is crashing in the “Write 1 point to digital line.vi” because one of the digital lines is stuck high after it crashes. I have attached the library “Press Key.llb” for reference. The main vi is named “Press Key.vi” which controls the action/duration of digital lines for each test ( 0 through 32).

Hardware/Software overview:

The Test Station consists of Pentium IV computer with four (4) National Instruments PCI MIO16E-1 DAQ cards and 1 PCI – GPIB card that communicates to a power supply.

The program is “written” in LabVIEW version 6.0. The program is built into an executable and runs with LabVIEW runtime engine. The program is rather large (2.5 MB)

The program uses the 4 DAQ boards to simultaneous acquire data from four devices under test. Two of the DAQ boards are also used to control relays that activate air cylinders. The air cylinder presses on specific keys on the devices under test. Once the devices are set, the 4 DAQ boards each take the another set of measurements. This process is repeated (Approximately 30 times) until the devices are complete.


Note: The program typically uses 184 MB of Ram

Computer 1: Old Station (In use for 2-3 years) Working fine

Computer Pentium IV computer
Processor Pentium IV 1 Ghz
RAM 256 MB
Operating System Windows NT version 4.0
NI DAQ Version 6.6


Computer 2: New Station Problems crashing

Computer Pentium IV computer
Processor Pentium IV 3.00 Ghz
RAM 256 MB
Operating System Windows 200 Professional
NI DAQ Version 7.2


Any Help would be appreciated!


Thanks Jayme

[Brian_Beal]

I can only think of a couple things to look for. On the problem computer, make sure that the memory that is being used is release, and doesn't just keep on growing. Does the program make any calls to dll's that were created with Labview? The dll's are compiled differently on NT machines versus Windows2000 machines.

[Int_man]

Regarding the releasing of memory. Yes the "problem" computer memory starts at 184 MB and climbs to 197 MB right before it crashes. The "good" computer memory starts at 184 MB and stays there. They are both running the same exe file only different OS.


Yes I do use a DLL called LVDAQ.DLL. I this DLL is probably being called when the software crashes

When I generate the exe using LabVIEW application builder (on a Windows NT station) the lvdaq.DLL is created automatically. Is there a setting to define which library is created? or can I get this file from NI?

[Brian_Beal]

You may want to find out why the memory isn't being released.

I don't know that the lvdaq.dll is the problem. I think that it is already there, but just added to the application. The problem with dll's that I was referring to regarded building dll's instead of exe's. If possible, build the executable using the Windows2000 machine.