I’m encountering a runtime error that I’ve never seen before and wonder if the community has any insights on the root cause?
The error from the trace file is:
2025-01-10 15:35:58> SYSTEM : Execute method - error; An error occurred while running Vector. The error description is: Error opening file ‘MethodNameHere.med’ for check sum verification. System error: “An unknown error occurred while accessing C:\Program Files (x86)\HAMILTON\Methods\MethodNameHere.med.” (0x37 - 0x0 - 0x12)
The error message reads like it the instrument lost access to the .med file during the run, but the file is stored locally on the instrument PC. I have successfully run the method without the error occurring, and what’s also weird is the error occurs at different points in the method for the same run setup configuration.
Any insights from this community would be much appreciated!
Based on the information provided, my best educated guess would be that the method in question contains various custom dialogs which include images of a large file size. At runtime, run control reads in all custom dialog data from the .med file at the time the custom dialog is called. For embedded images, all of their respective image data are included in the custom dialog’s data package.
Attempting to use numerous large embedded images over the course of the run can/will eventually cause application memory issues when opening the .med, where you receive the error you are experiencing. In this case, the checksum verification error is a result of the the root error, but not the root cause itself.
If this sounds relevant to your scenario, then I would recommend embedding lower resolution images and see if your issue goes away. Best practice is to keep embedded images under 100kb.
Thanks for the welcome! I’ve been a long time lurker before making this account because this forum has been an invaluable place for information and resource sharing, so I greatly appreciate your help! You hit the nail on the head with the scenario. This method uses a variety of custom dialogs with images to guide the user through run setup. I’ll revisit the dialogs and update them to lower resolution images and see if that does the trick.
While poking around, I also noticed that there is a setting in the system configuration editor, under the security settings, that has a toggleable setting for Checksum Verification. Currently, the instrument’s setting is set to “Enabled.” Would setting this to disabled help prevent the error? What does this setting do on the instrument? I’m also wondering if in addition to embedding smaller images into the dialogs if adding more RAM to the Hamilton’s PC would help as well?
An update - I embedded the lower resolution images in the custom dialogs, and the largest image file size is now 85kb, but most are in the 30-50kb range. However, I still run into the checksum error sporadically. Is there an accumulation of effect? For example, this method is designed to be flexible and repeat the same process up to the chosen number of iterations by the operator. Is it possible that the more custom dialogs with embedded images the instrument processes during runtime, the more likely it is for the memory to be an issue?
Hi Kenny,
I had the same problem with too many graphics in numerous dialogs. I solved it by setting variables with the paths to the images instead. That worked out in my case.