Hi. We are experiencing a buffer overflow error when using Brain Vision Recorder software and associated data loss. We followed all of Brain Vision’s recommendations for prevented this error but were nevertheless able to recreate it this morning. The problem consistently appears within 20-30 minutes. It occurred on 4 of the 11 recreation attempts. Immediately before the error dialog box appears, the buffer usage indicator in the Recorder task bar begins to increase, and moving the mouse restores it to ~1-2%. Please see below the recording setup and parameters that were used during the most recent recreation. If anyone has found that additional steps are necessary for preventing this error, I would greatly appreciate it if you shared your experience. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dante Picchioni
Scientist (contractor)
National Institutes of Health
Windows 7
Brain Vision Recorder Version 1.20.0801
No other software is running
The WiFi is turned off
No Ethernet cable is connected
A 10 MHz MRI scanner clock is simulated with a waveform generator
The Brain Vision signal tester is connected to the amplifier as a terminator but standard monitoring is being used (i.e., flatlines), and 32 channels are recorded
Control Panel > Windows Firewall > Allow a program or feature through Windows Firewall > scroll to Recorder > Ensure both Private and Public are checked. If more than one copy of Recorder exists, do it for both.
Control Panel > Power Options > Select High Performance as the plan > Click Change plan settings > Click Change advanced power settings > Change when to turn off the hard disk to zero minutes (i.e., never)
Control Panel > Power Options > Select High Performance as the plan > Click Change plan settings > Click Change advanced power settings > USB Settings > Disable everything
Control Panel > Power Options > Select High Performance as the plan > Click Change plan settings > Click Change advanced power settings > Change all options under Sleep to Never
Control Panel > Personalization > Personalization > Change screen saver > change to None
Control Panel > search for Windows Defender > switch off Windows Defender
Start > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter > Configure schedule > Turn off completely
I’m having a very similar issue - We have similarly taken the precautionary measures described in your footnote (not running other programs, not on network, updates turned off, etc). Our computers have lots of RAM and will go from 0 - 1% usage to data buffer overflow with no discernible cause.
Let me know if you resolve this issue! Since the EEG data are not recorded during buffer overflows, this creates quite a headache for lining up the behavioral data with the EEG data during analysis.
Just to inform you that we are facing the same issue on our newest machine, running Win 10 and a fresh install of BVR. Confusingly, it does not occur on our older machines, which are also running Win10, though.
It appears to occur less likely when we use lower sampling rate and/or less channels. We replicate that the “buffer usage indicator in the Recorder task bar begins to increase, and moving the mouse restores it to ~1-2%”
We have a current hypothesis, that it is linked to the HDD-access of Brain Vision Recorder. We will explore a couple of approaches (executing BVR as admin, switching working directory for temporary data to e,.g. other HDD or USB) and report when we know more.
You are definitely on the right track. Some form of HDD-access is also our current best hypothesis. I was waiting for one more successful test, but I might as well submit the post now. We suspect that not offloading the data from our laptop caused this problem. Perhaps Recorder has problems with HDD-access as the disk gets full. In retrospect, it seems pretty clear:
Old computer, no offloading: problem intermittently occurs
Old computer, with offloading: problem disappeared
Old computer, no offloading: problem reappeared
New computer with empty disk: problem disappeared
Brain Products told me that they have been told that the problem resolves when switching to a new computer. And another group reported something similar directly to us.
we have several measurement PCs and USB-BUAs. This allowed us to run some systematic tests.
When we were using a 2-Channel BUA and recorded 32 channels EEG on our Win10 PC, there was no issue.
When we were using a 2-Channel BUA and recorded 64 channels EEG on our Win10 PC, we got a buffer overflow within ~30 seconds. We also got the same buffer overflow on a different Win10 PC. Yet, the identical hardware on a Windows 7 PC run without issues. So, we concluded it is unlikely a hardware issue.
When we were using a 4-channel BUA, and recorded 64 channels EEG, it worked without issues on any machine. We did not know what to make out of this. But maybe a driver issue?
Over the weekend, our student performed a reinstall of the OS, using the “fresh start” feature of the windows defender suite: http://www.thewindowsclub.com/fresh-start-reinstall-windows-10
She subsequently reinstalled BVR, and it works fine now for any BUA.
With you that much luck with your bug-hunting, too!