ERROR: Basic Troubleshooting for Subject Station or Runtime Machines [34476]

This article applies to:
E-Prime 3.0
E-Prime 2.0
E-Prime 1.x

 
Detail

A typical lab has at least one experiment design machine containing the Full Suite of E-Prime applications and multiple machines dedicated to data collection. Subject Station and Runtime installations are intended for data collection machines. These two installation options only include E-Run, Codec Config, Sound Tester, and depending on the exact installation, StartupInfo Editor. You are unable to make any necessary edits to E-Studio files on these data collection machines since E-Studio is not installed.
 
When you transfer an experiment that is running successfully on your experiment design machine to your data collection machine, it is often initially lacking certain configurations, settings, features, files, etc. that you need to run. It is possible to run into Runtime errors the first time you run the experiment on your data collection machine due to these differences. If you are having trouble running on your data collection machine when the experiment runs successfully on your experiment design machine, then please consider the following potential issues and how to address them:
 
E-Run Compatibility
While multiple E-Run instances are allowed to be installed on a single data collection machine, you should ensure version compatibility between the E-Basic Script (e.g., .ebs3) files you generate and at least one of the installed instances. When you have multiple instances of E-Run on the same machine, but none are a direct match with the minor version the experiment was generated in, E-Prime does its best to find the closest match and gives compatibility information about your available options (RELEASE INFO: E-Run Resolver dialog allows choosing runtime when no direct match is available [19362]). However, there isn’t a guaranteed ability to run on your data collection machine without a direct minor version match.

Operating System Compatibility 
Your experiment design machine should ideally run on the same operating system as the data collection machine. The operating system you run on often dictates the exact major and/or minor version of E-Prime to run (RELEASE INFO: Operating system (Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and XP) support in E-Prime [18652]).
 
To determine what version of Windows exists on your machines, type the "winver" command in the Start Menu to display the Windows About box.  To determine the major / minor version of the E-Prime installations on your machines, navigate to the Control Panel Programs and Features. Additionally, the "Version" column needs to be displayed.

 
Unable to Load Resource File Error

The most common Runtime error you may see when transferring your experiment to your data collection machine is an inability to load resource files such as image, video or sound files. This error occurs if you forget to transfer the resource files to the data collection machine along with the E-Basic Script file. Also, it may occur if the expected filepath is not the same between the experiment design machine and the data collection machine.
 
NOTE: Please view INFO: Organization of experiment resource files [27709] and INFO: Use / for path separation for E-Objects with filename property [16554] for more information on organizing and specifying resource files in E-Prime.

Audio/Video Playback Issues or Related Errors

In E-Prime 2.0, an experiment design machine and a data collection machine may have different codecs available for use with audio/video playback in E-Prime. A data collection machine may experience audio/video playback issues or errors (ERROR: Unable to Update Frame Marker and Unable to Buffer Movie errors [34588]) while your experiment design machine does not. Both the Subject Station and Runtime installations include the Codec Config program to help resolve these issues (EXPERIMENT DESIGN: Codec Config [22687]).

NOTE: E-Prime 3.0 utilizes FFmpeg by default which helps to reduce these issues.

Resolving Errors due to Hardware Components
To avoid specific display errors, you should verify that the resolution and refresh rate specified in the experiment are supported on your data collection machine in the display adapter’s Advanced settings. See ERROR: Troubleshooting error 10051 [27782], ERROR: Detection of invalid Refresh Rate [18535], and ERROR: Error 11076: Invalid DisplayFrameThresholdStimDisplay value when running at a 200+ Hz refresh rate [30240] for more information on these errors. Additionally, if you transfer an E-Basic Script file generated from a Windows 7 experiment design machine to a Windows 8 or 10 data collection machine, you often receive errors related to the Display Device’s Flipping Enabled and Color Bit Depth setting (AV: Windows 8 or DirectX 11 or greater detected (Formerly KB 19543 & 5577) [23888]).
 
Peripheral devices in an experiment often require specified addresses (e.g., Parallel Port, Serial, Socket, eye tracker, etc.). The address of your device often changes when connected to the data collection machine. To verify the address for Parallel Port or Serial Devices, you need to look in Device Manager (INFO: E-Studio provides direct access to Device Manager, Sound, and Joystick Control Panel applets [19558]) To determine the IP address of a connected machine, amp, or eye tracker, verify by using the Command Prompt (INFO: Locate Your IP Address and Ping Another Computer [31363]).
 
Addressing Runtime Errors that occur on your Data Collection Machine
To fix Runtime errors that occur in an E-Basic Script file when running on your data collection machine, perform the following steps:

1. Identify the Experiment Specification (i.e., .es3, etc.) file that the E-Basic Script file was generated from.
2. Make the needed changes to address the data collection machine's runtime errors in E-Studio on the experiment design machine.
3. Generate a new E-Basic Script File.
4. Attempt to run the new E-Basic Script File on the data collection machine.

Other changes, such as the device-specific settings changes, are possible through a StartupInfo file. Depending on the version (and edition for E-Prime 2.0) of your Subject Station or Runtime installations, a copy of StartupInfo Editor may be installed on the data collection machine. This allows you to make the changes in the StartupInfo file as opposed to regenerating an E-Basic Script File.
 
NOTE: Refer to OVERVIEW: Modifying StartupInfo using StartupInfo Editor [22727] and STARTUPINFO EDITOR: Local and Global Values [22734] for more information on StartupInfo files.
 
See Also:

INSTALL: Installation Options [22671]
INFO: E-Prime file extensions [18091]
E-STUDIO: Available Devices in E-Prime [22722]