Technical Support
If you encounter an unexplainable test failure or any other problem with MobileMark 2005, follow these steps to diagnose and solve your problem:- Read this documentation carefully, particularly the System Requirements and Known Issues.
- Check the latest known issues on the BAPCo website (www.bapco.com). See if there is a update/patch available that addresses your problem.
- Read the MobileMark 2005 White Paper, available on the BAPCo website (www.bapco.com) for BIOS and OS configuration recommendations that may help reduce testing errors.
- Look in the test results folder for screenshots that might help you see if, for example, a third-party program or utility is popping up in the middle of testing and interfering with the test. See Troubleshooting with Screenshots below for more information.
- Try running the test again. A test can fail if someone accidentally presses a key or clicks the mouse. It is helpful to know if the problem is reproducible. Always reboot the system after any test failure.
- Finally, contact BAPCo for technical support. See Obtaining Technical Support from BAPCo below for instructions.
Troubleshooting with Screenshots
Sometimes it can be difficult to identify the cause of a test failure because when an error occurs, it is often the case that no user is present to notice the problem. Since the system is unplugged during testing, eventually the battery will die and much of the evidence of the error will be lost.That is why, during the last few minutes of the system's battery life, MobileMark periodically takes snapshots of the screen and saves them to disk. These screenshots are stored in the project folder for the current test (usually C:\Program Files\BAPCo\MobileMark 2005\Results\project_name). The files are named battery_*.jpg. Use the file date/time to determine the order in which these screenshots were taken.
Here are some diagnosis strategies:
- Open each image and look for any MobileMark or application error messages that might help you to understand the problem.
- Look for interfering applications or utilities. Did a window appear unexpectedly and steal the keyboard/mouse focus from the benchmark? If so, uninstall the offending program.
- Look at the taskbar at the bottom of the image to see which applications are open. If you see MobileMark on the taskbar (unless the screenshot shows that MobileMark was paused) it is likely that MobileMark detected a script error and attempted to show an error message. If the problem persists, contact BAPCo as directed below.
- Look for activity between the screenshots. If all of the screen shots look the same (same applications and dialogs open, documents are in the same state) then it is likely that a script failed. If the problem persists, contact BAPCo as directed below.
Obtaining Technical Support from BAPCo
If the troubleshooting steps given above don't solve your problem, please follow these directions to report your error and to obtain technical support from BAPCo:-
If applicable, obtain a screenshot of the problem by running the included SERGT
Error Reporter utility. Follow these steps:
- If possible, reposition any open dialogs and error message windows so they can be fully seen.
- Run the SERGT Error Reporter by clicking the icon on the desktop or Quick Launch menu (to the right of the Start button if enabled) or by choosing Start > All Programs > BAPCo MobileMark 2005 > SERGT Error Reporter.
- SERGT will run silently in the background for a second or two, collecting a screenshot and some data files and putting them in the project folder corresponding to the most recent test.
- To capture additional screenshots, simply run SERGT again.
- If applicable, open the project folder corresponding to the failed test (usually C:\Program Files\BAPCo\MobileMark 2005\Results\project_name) and zip the contents of the folder, including all files and subfolders. Subfolders named SMERROR* contain the screenshots and data files collected by SERGT.
- Send an e-mail to support@bapco.com, explaining in detail your system configuration and the problem you're having. If applicable, attach the zip file created in step 2.
- If the failure occured in the middle of a test, reboot the system before performing another test.
