PCMark '04 and '05 failing to run

[Tech Tweaker]

I'm running into this odd problem with PCMark 04 and 05.

For some reason every time I run PCM 04 the benchmark seems to fail the Grammar Check test and/or crash back to the desktop when it gets to it and then gives me an error message saying "System suite must be selected and run to obtain a PCMark score.", even though that is exactly what I have done.

I'm not sure what is causing this issue, because it used to work fine up until just recently.

The only changes I've made have been to upgrade my 939 benching rig from XP Home to XP Pro and upgrading my board to a better one (I did a fresh install of the OS when I upgraded the motherboard).

PCMark 05 has similar issues, and seems to be failing to run (or give results for) about half of the tests in the suite (reason unknown) and is throwing out really low scores.

I've tried reinstalling both programs from the original installation files, re-downloading the installation files from the same website as I had originally downloaded them from and then a different site in case the install file I was using was corrupted somehow, and fully reinstalling the OS and then installing the programs.

Nothing has worked to fix my issues though.

Anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Janus67]

Do you have windows media encoder 9 installed?

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Do you have windows media encoder 9 installed?

Yes, I do.

 

[Seebs]

The PCMark 04 error is a known bug. The only way I've found to solve the issue is to have the Pro version of the benchmark so that you can select individual tests to run... Then run Grammar Test alone and then run the full System Suite test and it will complete without error.

As for the PCMark 05 errors... If you give me more details I may be able to help you out. A screenshot showing what tests failed, the OS you're using, what drivers, what version of Futuremark System Info you are using (pro tip: Uninstall the one that comes bundled with PCMark and install the latest version from the futuremark website... It should be V4.60) and what other programs you have installed.

Seebs

 

[xsuperbgx]

Make sure that you run as admin also.

 

[dejo]

pcmark04 doesnt likemore than 2 cores. often will error with more than 1 core. there is a work around but is time consuming to do and a pain in the butt. the bench is only worth 2 points if you take gold as well. but every points counts

 

[Tech Tweaker]

The PCMark 04 error is a known bug. The only way I've found to solve the issue is to have the Pro version of the benchmark so that you can select individual tests to run... Then run Grammar Test alone and then run the full System Suite test and it will complete without error.

As for the PCMark 05 errors... If you give me more details I may be able to help you out. A screenshot showing what tests failed, the OS you're using, what drivers, what version of Futuremark System Info you are using (pro tip: Uninstall the one that comes bundled with PCMark and install the latest version from the futuremark website... It should be V4.60) and what other programs you have installed.

Seebs

Thanks for the tip, that fixed my problem with PCMark 04. Just finished the bench in the top 5 on HWBot for that hardware. Think I'll go back for a shot at more points with a higher CPU frequency later.

No idea why manually selecting it would fix that issue, but it works just fine after I did that.

And here I thought the issue was my hardware (CPU voltage not high enough to remain stable, or something).

pcmark04 doesnt like more than 2 cores. often will error with more than 1 core. there is a work around but is time consuming to do and a pain in the butt. the bench is only worth 2 points if you take gold as well. but every points counts

That could explain my problem then, because I'm benching with a dual core right now and all of my previous submissions and benches on PCMark 04 and 05 have been with singles' and they had no problems whereas the dual I've tried errors out.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

This is the kind of result I am seeing lately with PCMark 05, and this is the kind of result I am used to seeing.

In case you can't see it, I normally get 4800-5500+ as a result, but lately I am getting 1700-1800 PCMarks.

 

[Seebs]

XP Startup is not running properly.
HDD General Usage is not running or not finishing properly to give you a score.

Could be that your chipset drivers are not installed or maybe you're running the new system on IDE mode instead of AHCI.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

XP Startup is not running properly.
HDD General Usage is not running or not finishing properly to give you a score.

Could be that your chipset drivers are not installed or maybe you're running the new system on IDE mode instead of AHCI.

I installed the chipset drivers this morning, so that shouldn't be a problem.

My bios has no options for IDE mode vs AHCI (that I know of), so I'm not sure what to do there. I've looked all through my bios and the only option I could find relating to the sata ports is RAID vs. SATA for the Silicon Image Sil3114 RAID controller chip and the SATA ports connected to it.

I've actually had this issue with two motherboards in a row now (DFI SLI-DR and DFI SLI-DR Expert) with multiple OS installation and setup attempts, my old DFI Infinity nF4 SLI didn't have this issue for whatever reason.

This seems to be a DFI LanParty motherboard issue. May have to call in someone who's an expert on DFI boards to resolve this one.

 

[Seebs]

You are connecting the HDD to the SATA ports that are right between the FDD port and the NB heatsink, or to the ports on the far end of the board?

The ones next to the FDD port at SATA 3GB/s and the ones on teh far end are SATA 1.5GBs

 

[Tech Tweaker]

You are connecting the HDD to the SATA ports that are right between the FDD port and the NB heatsink, or to the ports on the far end of the board?

The ones next to the FDD port at SATA 3GB/s and the ones on teh far end are SATA 1.5GBs

I have my drive connected to SATA port 1 near the FDD port that is controlled by the nF4 SLI chipset.

Could it be anything to do with the SATA cable being damaged in some way? EDIT: Could it have anything to do with me running a dual core CPU, whereas I normally run single cores (a glitch of some kind related to multi-core systems)?

 

[Seebs]

I'd test a different cable... different port...

The number of cores should not matter...

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Now I'm getting somewhere.

I had coiled up the drive cable to tuck it out of the way, and apparently it didn't like this because I think I put too extreme of a bend on it (or more likely by coiling it up caused some EMI that was messing with the electrical pathways and signals).

On a hunch I just uncoiled it (same cable in same port) and got this result.

Now 4465 PCMarks, not as high as I was expecting, but at least it's much better than it was.

 

[Seebs]

Your HDD General usage is still failing. I'd try a different cable; the bend may have done some damage to that one.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Well, so far I've tried three or four different SATA cables (one of which was brand new near as I could tell) and two different SATA ports on my board, it hasn't made any difference though as the benchmark just keeps throwing out really low scores of 1600-1800.

The General Usage test doesn't even seem to run half the time, as it shows no result at all.

So, I don't think the reason for my problems is the cable. I'm not sure what the real cause of my issues is though.

 

[Tech Tweaker]

PCMark 05 is being really weird, now XP Startup and General Usage are failing to run entirely half the time and output no results.

And on one or two runs of the benchmark the HDD-Virus Scan test failed to run.

 

[Seebs]

Very weird stuff... Maybe instability? Or are you doing all this testing at core speeds known to work?

Only other thing I can think of is borked OS / Bencmark SW...

 

[Tech Tweaker]

Very weird stuff... Maybe instability? Or are you doing all this testing at core speeds known to work?

Only other thing I can think of is borked OS / Benchmark SW...

That's the weird thing, I'm running the system with everything at all stock settings (CPU frequency, FSB, HT Link, memory speed and timings, voltages), and yet it's still failing.

I was running it overclocked to 2.6GHz before (with a voltage increase to 1.4V after Vdrop) with the memory at or below the stock speed and with stock timings, and that didn't work either.

I have confirmed both of these speeds to be prime95 stable and stable enough to complete SuperPi 1m, PiFast, UCBench 2011, and PCMark 2004 (after I was told the solution to the problem). Temperatures shouldn't be an issue either, since at full load at stock speed I don't break 50°C, and at 2.6GHz I think my max core temp was around 50-52°C. The Northbridge is at 30°C at the moment and holding steady (was at 38-40°C with stock heat sink before I swapped it out). The PWM's/VRM's/mosfets are at 30-35°C. All of this seems to be well within reasonable temperature ranges to me.

I should mention that the CPU I am using right now is an Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Manchester (E4 stepping) (ADA4200DAA5BV), with a stock speed of 2.2GHz and stock voltage of 1.35V. I don't think I mentioned that initially.

Could it really be the OS, on three separate installations?

 

[Seebs]

I'm running out of possible causes to this... I've never played with such old chips so I couldn't tell you if that has anything to do with it.

I guess one more thing to try would be a HDD swap.