Win XP freezes without obvious cause during continuous data acquisition with LabView 8.01

[groomit]

Does anybody know about problems of software compatibility between Labview 8.01 and Win XP? I've got a nasty problem with Labview 8.01 running on a win XP machine (Pentium 4 > 2 GHz, 1 GB RAM). The vi I wrote performs continuous analog data acquisition (I16 format) from a PCI 6224 board (8 channels, differential input mode, 1024 Hz). Data are saved every 4 s in binary form on the hard disk. Every hour, the binary files are closed and new ones are created. By default, there is no updating of graphical objects during acquisition. Thus, the task seems pretty esay to sustain by the hardware I am using.

The problem is that sooner or later, everything (Labview and windows) freezes during acquisition. This happens in an apparently random manner. In some occasions, freezing occurred after 3 hours of acquisition; in others, freezing occurred after 2, 3 or 4 days. I already formatted the computer and reinstalled WIN xp, disinstalled all aother software, turned the automatic update off, disconnected the computer from the LAN, etc... but the problem persisted. 

When I restart the computer after a "freezing" episode, I do not get any internal failure from Labview and no application, protection or system events in the WIN log are reported before the time, at which freezing occurred.

Does anybody know about similar problems with Labview 8.01 and Win XP? Thanks in advance for any suggestion, I will be happy to provide any information seems useful to solve this problem.

[Filippo_Persia]

Dear groomit,

From your description looks like the PC runs out of resources, did you verify RAM and CPU request during the execution of your Vi?

Maybe something slowly eats out all your RAM. Often it happens with file references or  tasks left opened in a while loop.

Check also the labview examples.

Try to benchmark your application using the example you can find under Hardware Inout Output>>DAQmx>>Analog Measurement>>Voltage>>Cont Acq&Graph Voltage-To File(Binary).vi

Another solution very cleaver is using queques.

You can store a suitable amount of data in a queque, let's say 20s of acq, and flush the entire queque to a file every 20s.

Best Regards

[groomit]

Hi FiloP, thanks a lot for your reply. What you suggest will help me to understand what's going on. However, how can a slow depletion of resources explain the variable amount of time (from 3 hours to 4 days) that elapses between the vi launch and the freezing of WINXP? Yesterday, a collegue of mine suggested me to install win 2000 instead of WINXP. Does this make sense?  

[P. Horn]

I have made the same experience of hanging windows XP up to several seconds by onother task blocking the LabView.

The best way is to use the PC exclusively only for LabView.

Pressing CTR+ALT+DELETE keys you can open the Windows Task Manager to look for the Windows XP resources, task and threads running on you PC.

The surest way is to disconnect the PC from the Internet and close all other applications including Firewalls which control the file written to the hard disk.

[groomit]

Hallo P.Horn, thanks for your suggestion. Actually, what happens with my application is that WINXP and Labview freeze irreversively (I mean, after freezing occurs, I have to perform a hardware restart of the computer, which does not respond to the keyboard or the mouse anymore). This problem occurs with my computer disconnected from the internet and with no applications installed except for a DVD burning software. Similarly, I disinstalled the antivirus and the firewall. Let me say I am new to Labview but I have been programming in Matlab for years. Nothing similar has ever happened to me even with Matlab simulations running for days... 

[Britoa]

How it freezes almost makes it sound like a hardware problem.  I had a laptop that froze like that after a random amount of time, and for a while, I couldn't figure out what it is/was, I even switched OSes from windows to linux.  The problem ended up being heat by the hard drive. It has a much better chance at freezing when the hard drive is warm/hot, I am assuming it is an intermittent connection somewhere, but am unwilling to find it, so I just make sure it doesn't heat up much. 

I would suggest running the computer for a few days without labview running to see if the problem persists, but I don't know how time sensitive your project is.  Other things to do is just run task manager on top of labview, and when it freezes, it will be the top window and you can get a look at what is going on (I suggest the tab with the graphs, it gives you a little history to work with)

[P. Horn]

It could be also the DVD burning software if it is not compatible with the DVD hardware.

There should be also Windows message showing the errors, however I do have a "german" windows, may be somebody can help you with the english version how to read the "Computer Management" messages which application has frozen the windows.

In the worst case you have to reinstall the XP and Update all service pacs