PassMark BurnInTest - What's New?

Here’s a summary of all the changes that have been made in each version of BurnInTest. Click here to return to the BurnInTest product page.
Version 6.0 build 1016, 10/November/2009
- Correction to Turbo mode reporting in V6.0.1014 (and later) for Xeon E55xx series and for Core2 CPUs that support IDA (Intel Dynamic Acceleration).
- Corrected an issue with the disk test where in a rare scenario the disk would become full at the end of a full scan and report a disk full error, rather than rescanning the disk.
- BurnInTest now allows an external application to write a subscript of scripting commands that will be run on BurnInTest Startup. This allows report information such as serial number to be set using external applications run before starting BurnInTest (using the bit-script-input.txt mechanism). Other bit-script-input.txt sub-script corrections made.
- Added the script command, STARTLOGGING, so that report information such as the test system serial number, can be configured before the report (log file) is opened.
- Improvement to the default video playback file selection under Windows 7.
- Corrections to copying event log information to the clipboard.
Version 6.0 build 1014, 2/October/2009
- CPU system information improvements:
- Additional Intel Core i5 CPU information reported & number of caches correction.
- CPU Base Clock reported for stock values and over/under clocking (when different) for some CPUs.
- CPU Turbo and non-Turbo CPU speeds and Multipliers reported for Intel Core (Nehalem) architectures. - Minor improvements to the BurnInTest CPU temperature reporting (added Intel Core i5 and improvement to average CPU value).
Version 6.0 build 1013, 10/September/2009
- Improved support for the PassMark Blu-ray test disk.
- A Bluetooth test has been added.
- System information for Bluetooth is now included in the System information sections.
- A Display devices button has been added to Preferences->Network to assist users determine the paired and in range Bluetooth devices.
- A Wi-Fi test has been added as an extension to the standard network test.
New options for 6 Network Addresses allow the user to specify the Network
Adapter type for the destination Network Address. Also, new “Test all
available NICs” options have been added: Test all available Ethernet Network Adapters and Test all available 802.11 (wireless) Network Adapters. - Install BurnInTest to USB drive has been added to BurnInTest Standard (previously only supported in Pro).
- Correction to the number of CPU cores detected for an unreleased AMD CPU.
- Correction for Hyperthreading detection for an unreleased Intel CPU. Additional CPU debug logging.
- Improved the CPU frequency measurement for the highest CPU power state on certain Intel CPUs.
- System information updates for the CPU specification for recent and unreleased AMD and Intel CPUs.
- Additional Intel and AMD CPU temperature reporting added.
- CPU icons updated.
- Improvement to the size of test RAM at the start of the RAM Quick test.
- Increased the number of memory slots that can be reported from 8 to 64.
- Minor Improvement to the reporting of DDR3 memory.
- Increased Disk error logging detail.
- Improvements to the sound loopback test. Including, (i) only increasing the
number of operations for looped waveform samples that are within the user
distortion setting, (ii) adding a watchdog timer (approx. 2 minutes) to restart
the test in the case of failure and no operations (such as a device driver failure). - The 2D video memory test has been tuned such that when it is used with a 3D test window of 800 x 600 or larger, more video memory is made available for the 3D test (Water texture).
- Minor changes to the 3D test to resolve a 3D crash reported on one system.
- Changes to the USB test for handling S3/S4 Sleep states during testing.
- Changed the Errors->Block critical Windows errors setting to apply regardless of what tests were started (previously the disk test needed to be started).
- Correction to a problem where after multiple scripted REBOOTs with Rebooter set to Forced shutdown, the BurnInTest configuration file could become corrupted.
- Non printable ASCII characters are now stripped from the reports (esp. for non-English operating system).
- Error message improved for the case when a BurnInTest Std key is entered in BurnInTest Pro (and vice-versa).
- Improvements to the support of larger font settings in Windows.
- Minor changes for WinPE support.
- Minor consistency improvements to the test Windows.
- Minor help file corrections.
Version 6.0 build 1011, 8/July/2009
- CPU SSE4a test correction for an unreleased AMD CPU.
- Support for the upcoming PassMark Blu-ray test disk.
- Minor improvements to the memory and disk tests for low memory scenarios.
- Minor improvements for Windows 7.
- Minor system information improvements.
- A new error message introduced for XP/W2003 IMAPI2 problems for the optical disk burn test.
- Minor help file changes.
- Increased level 2 activity trace logging.
Version 6.0 build 1010 rev2, 23/June/2009
- Correction to warning when starting the Network test.
- Minor help file changes.
Version 6.0 build 1010, 19/June/2009
- Correction to the reporting of the Windows 7 operating system.
- Changes to the CPU measurement algorithm to better raise Core i7 and some newer Xeon CPUs to a higher power state before taking the measurement.
- Changes to the EXECUTEWAIT script command to wait indefinitely (rather than up to 20 minutes).
- The user can now specify Plugin test errors 184 and 187 can be ignored, if they deem these errors are not significant for their Plugin.
- Corrections to the data saved in the clipboard.
- New build of Rebooter included in package, V1.3.1003.
- Increased trace 2 logging for the CPU and 2D video memory tests.
Version 6.0 build 1009, 20/May/2009
- Windows 7 Operating system now supported.
- Improvements to CPU speed measurement for a system in a low power state.
- Specific changes for when BurnInTest is under WinPE:
- The HDD information is now included for WinPE.
- Graphics and USB system information sections have been removed as the information is not available under WinPE.
- The automatically select disk drives and optical drives options will now not select the X: drive (the WinPE RAM drive). - Corrected a bug where the test duration could be changed when starting a script.
- Corrected a failure in the 3D test under a low video memory scenario.
- Improvements to Standard RAM test under very low memory scenarios.
- New trace level 1 error logging for CPU errors.
Version 6.0 build 1008, 12/May/2009
- Improvements to the GPU load with the 3D test. With high-end GPUs and a high BurnInTest 3D test duty cycle setting (e.g. 100%), the CPU can become CPU bound which limits the load on the GPU, this has been improved and the GPU load is now higher on these high-end GPUs.
- Improved the simultaneous testing using the 3D test (particularly for multiple simultaneous 3D tests) and the 2D video memory test.
- The 3D test has been changed such that if Hardware Transform and Lighting is not supported by the Graphics card, then the 3D test will only run with 1 test Window, rather than up to 4 test Windows.
- Improvements in the memory management of the standard memory test when run with the 3D test, sound test and/or Video playback tests.
- The "Install BurnInTest to a USB drive" now also copies the help files to the USB drive or for the BartPE installation.
- Corrected a bug where the test duration could be changed to 21 minutes when starting a script.
- Corrected a bug where a Standard Network test of less than 2 seconds will not record the number of network operations.
- Changed the calculation of the number of Standard Sound test cycles to not increase if no sound test files are specified (i.e. in the case of a configuration error).
- Scripting changes:
- Accumulated results are now always cleared at the start of a test script, but accumulated across all test runs within the script.
- For scripts with multiple REBOOT's, if the script was manually stopped before completing, the next script run may have continued from the last command in the previous test script (in rare cases), rather than the first command. This has been corrected.
- A bug was introduced in V6.0.1007, where on a scripted LOAD or SETLOG command, a change in the log file name would not result in a change until the next script was run (not during the current script). This has been corrected.
- In V6.0.1007, report information set with a script command (e.g. SETSERIAL) was not included in the log file. This has been corrected.
Version 6.0 build 1007, 8/April/2009
- Changed the 2D video memory test default to test local video memory, rather than testing any system RAM used as Video memory as well. With this setting, the memory test should be used to test the System RAM.
- The 2D video memory test data is now pre-committed to memory, improving memory management during the testing.
- Minor tuning to the management of RAM for the memory test, especially for when the 2D video memory test uses a lot of system RAM.
- Correction to the Disk Test, Test all disks, where on restarting BurnInTest, all disks may not be selected.
- Improvements to the Raw disk test and corrections for Physical disks numbered 10 and above.
- New error introduced for the case where a Physical disk is configured to be tested but does not exist on the system.
- Correction to logging script "LOG" commands.
- Correction to the display/logging of the "Notes" field.
- Correction to the test setup window where the Printer duty cycle could be impacted by the setting of the CPU duty cycle.
- Improved portability of configuration files between systems for the Disk test.
Version 6.0 build 1006, 26/March/2009
- The number of disks that can be tested has been increased from 20 to 50. Note: This has introduced a new BurnInTest configuration file format. Old file formats will be automatically updated when first opened with BurnInTest.
- A new disk error message has been introduced when trying to test a raw disk that contains partitions.
- Correction to error description for the Disk test bad sector threshold error.
- Tuning the new V6.0 memory test and memory test corrections when the system was under very high load. New logging information.
- Improvements to the 2D video memory test (error handling and level 2 logging).
- Updates to the 3D test (DirectX Direct3D updated from August 2008 to March 2009).
- Changes to usage with BartPE, such that the "X" drive (the system disk) is not included in automatic selection of disks or optical drives. Also, it will not be tested as an optical drive.
- Sound loopback test improvements.
- Corrected the stopping of the advanced network test after a configured number of cycles.
- Updates to the CPU system information.
- Improvements made to the detection of the RAM manufacturer.
- Summarized the HDDs in the summary section (grouping the same size disks).
- Corrections to Preferences->Logging radio button selections.
- Corrected temperature preference selections.
- Corrected the check as to whether there is a new version of BurnInTest available.
- Other minor improvements and corrections.
Version 6.0 build 1002, 2/March/2009
- Added a new menu option for installing BurnInTest to a USB drive.
- Evaluation of BurnInTest from a USB drive installation (or a BartPE installation) no longer requires a trial license key.
- When BurnInTest is run from a USB drive, the default user directory is now automatically changed to the BurnInTest directory on the USB drive (the "/p" option required in V5.x is no longer needed for this scenario).
- The Video Playback test now supports .wmv files, and by default Windows Vista sample files are selected when Vista is used.
- Improved CPU information detection and display (particularly for newer AMD CPUs).
- Running a Post-Test batch file (.bat) application now supports user specified parameters such as $RESULT. Previously this was only supported for executables (.exe).
- Correction to the check whether there is a new version of BurnInTest available.
- Correction for the Parallel port test failing on 2nd and subsequent runs in certain circumstances.
- Minor corrections and improvements.
Version 6.0 build 1001, 12/February/2009 - MAJOR RELEASE
System requirements
Windows 2008 Server support added.
New tests & improvements to existing tests
CPU test improvements:
- Created a new CPU test that includes the previous Maths test, MMX/SIMD tests as well a wide range of new CPU instruction tests to provide a more complete CPU test. In addition to the existing tests, new CPU tests include:
New General CPU instructions like:
- Data transfer instructions (e.g. pushing/popping data to/from the stack)
- Bit wise logical instructions (e.g. bit wise and/or/xor)
- Shift and rotate instructions (e.g. shift data left x number of bits)
- Logical instructions (e.g. equals)
- Control transfer instructions (e.g. jump on x greater than y)
- String instructions (e.g. copy a text string)Logical operations, conditional operations
New Floating Point Unit instructions like:
- Transcendental's (e.g. sin, cos)
- Load constants (e.g. load Pi)
New SSE2, SSE3, SSE4.1, SSE4.2 and SSE4a tests.
A new prime number test.
A new 'maximum' heat test.
- The CPU tests verification mechanism has been improved.
- An indication in the CPU test window of the number of concurrent CPU tests per test type has been added.
- The maximum number of CPU's/CPU cores has been increased from 32 to 64.
- The CPU Tests groups are now individually selectable for a test run.
Memory test improvements:
- The Standard memory test has undergone a major upgrade. This removes some of the Standard memory test limitations, like the 1GB limitation for the standard test for 32-bit BurnInTest. It also removes problems with running many BurnInTest tests together with the Standard memory test. The test is now also optimized for multi-core CPU's.
- A new Standard memory pre-test prior to the main set of tests has been added. The advantage of doing this is that the memory can be checked before the other tests are run, making it easier to identify memory problems directly, rather than indirectly (such as faulty memory in the system cache showing as a disk error). Also, when the RAM test is run individually, the allocation of test RAM is more aggressive and thus more RAM s tested.
- The error handling for faulty memory has been improved.
Disk test improvements:
- The Disk test has been optimized to run faster.
- A new option has been added to the Disk test to test raw (unformatted) disks. In general, this test mode is significantly faster than testing formatted disk volumes.
Optical drive test improvements:
- Blu-Ray read test now supported.
- A DVD Burn test has been added. Requires Vista, 2008 Server or IMAPI2 patches for XP and 2003 Server.
- A new DVD test mode to automatically select CD/DVD test modes (1 x DVD burn and 1 x PassMark test CD/DVD) has been added.
3D test improvements:
- The 3D test has been optimized to offload more processing from the CPU to the Graphics card.
- The DirectX 3D test has been updated to use the August 2008 DirectX libraries.
- The full screen 3D tests can now be manually exited with the escape key.
Plugin test improvements:
- The Plugin test now allows 5 external Plugin tests (up from 3) and 6 User defined test strings (up from 2).
New system information
A large amount of new system information has been included in the new version:
- CPU: Support for new CPUs. Also, new CPU information includes: Internal codename, Family, Model, Stepping, Revision, socket type, Fabrication, features (e.g. SSE4.1 and VMX), CPU clock frequency, multipliers, minimum and maximum CPU ratios, Turbo information, TDP limit, TDC limit and number of caches. Also, manufacturer CPU icons added for many of the CPUs.
- Memory: Memory module information and virtual memory information is now also displayed.
- Optical drive: Blu-Ray optical drive information is now also displayed.
- Graphics: Multiple graphics cards and multiple monitor information is now displayed. New information includes: chip type, amount of video memory, BIOS information and Device driver information
- Ports: PS/2, USB, Firewire and audio port information is now also displayed.
Improvements to testing facilities
The main improvements to exiting testing capabilities are listed below:
- A new Logging option to automatically generate HTML customer test certificate reports has been added.
- A set of pre-defined common tests, 'Quick tests', has been added. These include:
- Maximum CPU temperature: Runs a short CPU test to 'maximize' CPU temperature and check CPU cooling.
- CPU coverage: Runs a short CPU test to validate many different CPU instructions.
- RAM: Runs a single pass of the standard RAM test for each test pattern.
- Video RAM: Runs a single pass of the video RAM test.
- 3D: Runs a short 3D test.
- Local disk scan: Runs single pass of the disk test for all locals fixed disks.
- Removable disk scan: Runs single pass of the disk test for all removable disks, excluding floppy disks.
- Users can also add their own tests to the Quick Tests menu simply by creating test scripts and putting them in the certain BurnInTest directories.
- BurnInTest temperature collection for certain CPUs and Hard disks has been added (this is in addition to using the existing 3rd party products).
- Additional error trapping has been added, to help determine where system component failures occur.
- New scripting commands have been added to set the report attributes for the customer name and the technician, SETCUSTOMER and SETTECHNICIAN.
- Changed the Start tests warning message to not be displayed during a test script, unless it is the first test run from the script or the test may require some user action.
- An option to restrict User's modifying the tests selected has been added.
- HotKeys added for common functions, like starting tests.
- Added the menu option to edit the BurnInTest error description and classification file.
- Double clicking the Results table opens the help file on the error description page.
- Context sensitive right mouse button menus added for common tasks.
- The number of clipboard options increased, including copying a System summary, system information and results as text and HTML.
- A link to online CPU comparisons from the CPU section of System Information has been added. This shows the system's CPU type performance against a range of other CPUs.
- Log file name prefix can now include environment variables to help with dynamic naming of log files.
- System beep on Pass and Fail is now user configurable (when sound card/ speakers are not setup). System pass and fail sounds are also now different.
- The Logging User Interface has been re-organized to better group like items.
- Improved the portability of configuration files between systems. Specifically, the default Sound test files (.wav, .midi and .mp3) and other test files may be specified without a directory path, in which case the bit.exe directory is used at run time.
- If a LastUsed.bitcfg file is not found in My Documents\<username>\BurnInTest, BurnInTest will now check the bit.exe directory (e.g. C:\ProgramFiles\BurnInTest).
- Changed the disk free space bar chart on the Disk test window to be a bar chart showing progress in terms of testing the whole disk.
- Added footer information for the print and export reports.
- A left margin has been added to printouts.
- Common numeric error codes shown during logging are now shown as a textual description.
- Save Image and Save Report last user preferences are now remembered.
Release 5.3 build 1036, 18/November/2008
- Correction to a license warning message.
Release 5.3 build 1034, 3/October/2008
- Correction to setting the CD burn test drive in preferences.
- Changed the mechanism to check for the required DirectX Direct3D as the previous method did not work on some systems (some W2003 servers).
- Enhanced the mechanism to report memory hardware read errors in the Memory torture test.
Release 5.3 build 1033, 1/October/2008
- Changes to correct a BurnInTest crash problem on some systems. When the disk and standard RAM tests were run for many hours, BurnInTest may have disappeared with no error message on some systems. This was mainly reported on XP SP3.
Release 5.3 build 1030, 25/September/2008
- Changes to investigate a reported crash in BurnInTest on some XP SP3 systems with some test combinations with a duration longer than about 6 hours.
Release 5.3 build 1028, 11/September/2008
- Two 2D Video memory test crash bug workarounds implemented. Crashes in (i) DirectX DirectShow and (ii) ATI atiumdag.dll library.
- When BurnInTest crashes, it will not generate a "minidump" file. Minidumps will need to be sent to Microsoft as per the normal process. However, a log entry will be added to the normal BurnInTest log where possible.
- Note: We have seen a report of the Video Playback failing (crash) due to a faulty video codec, ffdshow.ax. If you are using this we suggest you try a different test Video file and codec.
- Changes to trace logging to reduce activity when trace logging is not turned on.
- Corrected a bug where BurnInTest would fail to start if Activity trace level 2 logging (debug level logging) was turned on and the Logging Summarize option was also selected.
- A hang on startup has been corrected. A 2 minute timeout has been added to the collection of system information.
- Video playback, Hard disk and CD/DVD test 'no operations' error reporting changed.
- Changed the 2D test to wait for the Video Playback test in order to allow memory allocation for the Video playback test.
- Changed the Memory test to wait for the Video Playback test and 3D test to allow memory allocation for these tests.
- Minor correction to the Butterfly seek test.
- Minor change to the serial port test where, if "Disable RTS/CTS and DSR/DTR
test phase" was selected the DTR and RTS lines would be explicitly disabled
to prevent any toggling of these lines. Previously these where enabled, but
not explicitly toggled.
Release 5.3 build 1026, 17/July/2008
- Corrected a Disk test bug where on rare occasions a verification error is incorrectly displayed. This is during the random seeking phase of the "Random data with random seeking" test mode and only occurs with some specific test settings.
- Updated Level 2 and Level 3 CPU cache information for newer Intel CPU's.
- Updated the detection of Hyperthreading and the number of logical CPUs for a new Intel CPU.
- Workaround for the rare crash bug in Vista in atklumdisp.dll at address 0x730676ae.
- Added trace debug information for BurnInTest startup and the 3D test.
Release 5.3 build 1022, 12/June/2008
- Corrected a bug where the 2D video memory test in BurnInTest v5.3.1020 and v5.3.1021 would report a "Not enough video memory available for test" error if the test was run a couple of times (without closing BurnInTest).
- Other minor changes.
Release 5.3 build 1021, 5/June/2008
- 32-bit BurnInTest PRO 5.3.1020 would not start on Windows 2000. This has been corrected.
- Other minor changes.
Release 5.3 build 1020, 29/May/2008
- BurnInTest could have crashed on accessing bad video memory hardware in the 2D test. This problem is now just reported as an error (and BurnInTest continues).
- When BurnInTest stops working, it should now generate a "minidump" file to help
debug which system component caused the problem (32-bit BurnInTest Pro only).
- Other minor changes.
Release 5.3 build 1019, 16/May/2008
- Corrected rare crash bugs in the 2D and Video tests.
- Added a hot Key, F4, to set the auto run flag and run the tests (i.e. set"-r" and then run the tests).
- Other minor changes.
Release 5.3 build 1018, 16/April/2008
- Added an operation watchdog timer for all tests. In rare cases, a single test can stop in the operating system - i.e. there is a problem in the operating system/ device driver that prevents control being returned to the BurnInTest for that test. This was added for specialized serial port hardware that could lockup after several hours of testing.
Release 5.3 build 1017, 3/April/2008
- Corrected the Advanced Network test to run on non-English Operating
Systems.
Release 5.3 build 1016, 17/March/2008
- Added additional USB 2.0 Loopback plug test initialization to ensure plugs
are in a 'clean' state when starting the USB tests. This was added due to
reported USB data verification errors after scripted USB testing across
multiple reboots.
Release 5.3 build 1015, 27/February/2008
- Increased error reporting detail for the standard RAM test, when the -v command line option is used.
Release 5.3 build 1014, 26/February/2008
- Corrected a problem where the loopback sound test could run out of memory if run for several days.
Release 5.3 build 1013, 31/December/2007
- Improved the reporting of COM port errors such that in the rare case a COM port locks up in the Operating System, the error is still reported.
- Corrected a bug, where in rare cases, the result summary could be duplicated in a log file.
- Updated license management, in an attempt to remove a rare crash on startup.
Release 5.3 build 1012 rev0002, 1/November/2007
- New build of Rebooter (64-bit Windows correction).
- Clarifications in the help file.
Release 5.3 build 1012, 17/October/2007
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Changed the Standard Network Test, "Test all available NICs" such that the number of Network Addresses specified in Preferences->Network will be the number of NICs tested. This will error faulty NICs that are not detected by the BurnInTest auto NIC detection mechanism.
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Minor change to the 2D memory test when run with the 3D test (multiple large windows) and the RAM test. Aimed at correcting sympton: Access Violation 0x00404CF9.
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Corrections to the mapping of paths with ".\".
Release 5.3 build 1011 rev 0002, 20/September/2007
- Modified the Multi-Process torture test to better describe a new error message introduced in V5.3.1010.
Release 5.3 build 1011, 11/September/2007
- Corrected a bug where "Limited Evaluation Version" could be displayed even after BurnInTest is licensed (problem introduced in 32-bit BITPRO V5.3.1010).
- Changed the Sound test to allow any of the tests (Wave, Midi or MP3) to be excluded from testing by blanking the filename.
- The Command line parameter "-j", cycle disk test patterns after each test file, could fail during the Random data test due to the mechanism used in BurnInTest. The Random data test is now excluded from the test when (and only when) the "-j" command line parameter is specified.
- In rare circumstances, the 2D test number of operations could potentially overflow and become negative. This has been corrected.
- In rare circumstances, BurnInTest could hang if there was a system problem in rebooting the system (ie. it failed to shutdown) using PassMark Rebooter. This has been corrected.
Release 5.3 build 1010, 28/August/2007
- As BurnInTest exercises system components, it is possible for faulty hardware or device drivers to cause software exceptions. These are normally seen as Windows reporting an "Access Violation". Changes have been made to handle these errors for the memory tests (for faulty RAM) and direct device driver access (for some device driver errors), as well as overarching more generic handling of these types of errors.
- Corrected a software failure bug on startup (particularly Vista) where a DirectX function was causing software failures in "dsetup.dll".
- Updated the "Activity Event" generated with the periodic results summary report to be numbered (from 1 upwards) such that when "Logging->Summarize" is specified, these activity events are not summarized.
- Corrected a bug where the HTML log name could include a duplicate of the filename prefix.
- Updated the Common Errors section of help.
- Corrected a 'zip' version cleanup problem.
Release 5.3 build 1007, 7/August/2007
- Standard Network Test changes:
- Increased the number of destination IP addresses from 4 to 6.
- Added an option "Test all available NICs", which will force traffic down every system NIC with a basic algorithm of NIC1 to IP Address 1, NIC2 to IP Address 2 etc. - Advanced Network test changes:
- Simplified the test.
- Removed the UDP and FTP options.
- Removed the Advanced Network test specific logging, and included all relevant logging in the standard BurnInTest logging mechanism.
- Replaced the complicated dynamic balancing of any system NIC to any Endpoint NIC with a simpler static allocation on test startup.
- Changed the error detection mechanism to detect errors much more quickly.
- Re-worked the errors reported.
- Changed the CPU throttling mechanism to reduce the CPU load.
- Updated endpoint.exe.
- Removed checkend.exe (now obsolete).
- Corrected a disk test startup problem for some large RAID systems when SMART testing is selected.
- Added additional logging for the disk test when an error occurs.
- Changed the 3D (windowed) test when run with the 2D EMC test to be 'behind' the EMC scrolling H's test. Allowed the test to be easily exited when running the 3D test in windowed fullscreen mode.
- Corrected the "Unknown" reporting of some operating systems.
- Added the skipping of the Butterfly seek disk test when run on Vista and
insufficient privileges. A notification of this is logged.
- Intel Quad core L2 cache size reporting has been added.
- Added new SMART threshold descriptions.
- Added new disk test options, accessed via command line parameters:
/ka: keep disk test files in all cases (c.f. /k keep disk test files on error).
/j: cycle patterns between test files. Note: Random seeking will be skipped in this case. This option has been added to allow multiple test patterns to be used across very large disks. - Correction to the behavior of a static RAM test pattern (rather than the default Cyclic pattern).
- The "Select all CD/DVD drives" preferences option has been made user configurable, rather than using pre-defined test settings.
- Bug correction for the CD auto selection feature.
- Changed the log file reference of "Network Name" to "Computer Name".
- Changed the logging rollover to work with the output of interim results (e.g. per 1 minute). Previously rollover only occurred on error events written to the log. This also prevents the delay of the interim results being written to the physical disk (due to Windows disk caching).
WIN64 specific:
- MMX and 3DNow! are obsolete for native 64-bit applications. BurnInTest has been changed to show "NA" (Not applicable) in the test window for these tests.
Release 5.3 build 1005 rev 0001 Standard, 29/June/2007
- Corrected a bug introduced in v5.3.1005.0000 STD (only) where the disk test
would use up more and more system resources, causing the system to run out of resources (until BurnInTest was closed) and tests to fail.
Release 5.3 build 1005, 18/May/2007
- In a number of cases, such as when specifying the post test application, uppercase application names were not accepted. This has been corrected.
- The default font height in the 2D scrolling H's test should have been Arial 9. This has been changed.
- The BurnInTest Video playback test incompatibility with Nero 6 and Nero 7 has been resolved.
- When testing multiple disks with the BurnInTest disk test the throughput for dual core systems has been improved.
- Changed the Standard Network Test to better report packet error ratios. In addition, a new warning has been added to indicate that errors have been detected but not enough packets have been attempted to be sent to determine accurately whether the configured error ratio has been exceeded.
- Corrected a bug where the "append to existing" logging option did not work across scripted reboots, and a new log file was created instead of appending to the existing log file.
- If the 3D test was running, then BurnInTest blocked a forced close of BurnInTest, this blocking has been removed.
- Changed the PASS and FAIL windows so they can now also be closed by selecting
the Windows Close "X" button.
Release 5.3 build 1004, 10/April/2007
New functionality:
- Multi-monitor 2D, 3D and Video tests (BurnInTest Pro only) are now available. Test windows (2D, 3D and Video playback) can be started across multiple monitors (up to 4). The Window positioning and size can be specified.
- The 3D test has been improved. The 3D ball test has been replaced with a more complex 3D terrain test. This will more thoroughly exercise modern graphics cards.
- A new 2D GUI (Graphical User Interface) test has been added to the standard 2D graphics test to exercise common Windows controls.
- The Video test has been changed to allow 4 video files to be specified (up from 3).
- The video card description is now collected for a larger range of Vista systems.
- When running the CD test under BartPE (Pre-install environment) 4 additional specific files are skipped as they are unavailable for testing.
- On some systems, the Disk test could pause momentarily even when a duty cycle of 100% was specified. This pause has been removed.
- A command line parameter -P has been added to allow the BurnInTest directory to be used rather than the User's personal directory. This may be useful when running BurnInTest from a USB drive for example.
- A command line parameter -X has been added to skip the DirectX version checking on BurnInTest start-up.
- A number of undocumented command line parameters have been documented:
-B: BurnInTest will generate additional Serial port test information when activity trace level 2 logging is set.
-E [data]: Specifies the test data to use in the serial port test.
-M: Automatically display the Machine ID Window when BurnInTest is started.
-U: Force BurnInTest to set logging on at startup. - A new version of rebooter has been included (supporting the /P command line parameter - see above).
Platform support changes:
- Windows 98 and ME are no longer supported. Please see our website download page for an older version supporting Windows 98 and ME.
Bug corrections:
- Corrected a problem introduced in BurnInTest v5.2 where BurnInTest could run out of memory (the main symptom) when tests where run for long periods (> 12hours).
- Resolved an issue where BurnInTest would fail to start on Vista systems with DEP enabled for all programs.
- Corrected a bug introduced in BurnInTest V5.2 where selecting accumulated logging could lead to rebooter failing to launch.
- Corrected a bug where BurnInTest would fail to start on certain Vista systems.
- Corrected a bug where some files (where the full path was not specified) would be incorrectly referenced in the Program Files directory, rather than the User's personal directory.
- A change has been made to support Hmonitor temperature monitoring on Vista.
- WIN64 specific: Corrected a bug where the number of cores reported on a Quad core system was incorrectly reported as CPU packages.
Release 5.2 build 1005, 21/February/2007
Windows Vista support:
- Updated the reported Operating system for the various Vista product editions.
- Reduced the need for elevated administrator privileges:
- Changed the location of the disk test files from the root directory of the test volume to a BurnInTest data files subdirectory (e.g from "C:\" to "C:\BurnInTest test files\")
- Moved many of the files from the Program Files directory to the User directory for Windows 2000, XP and Vista. When running BurnInTest on Windows 98, ME or from a key.dat file (e.g. from a USB drive with a licensed key.dat) BurnInTest will store these files in the BurnInTest program directory. Specifically, the following files have been moved from the Program Files directory to the User Personal directory, e.g. Vista - "C:\Users\<username>\Documents\PassMark\BurnInTest\" XP - "My Documents\PassMark\BurnInTest\"
Files: Configuration file, Configuration load/save default directory, Save log file and image default directory, parallel port override "ioports.dat" directory, default command line script directory, log file directory, video file directory, Plugin directory, machine id file directory, Run as script default directory, CD burn image, Advanced network FTP temp files.
- Moved files from the Program files directory for the Advanced Network Test (BurnInTest, EndPoint and CheckEnd). Specifically, the User Application directory is now used for the temporary test FTP files and the User Personal directory is now used for the log and configuration files.
- Updated the Graphics card description for Windows Vista systems.
- Updated the Advanced Network test to indicate that elevated administrator privileges are required when running on Vista.
- Replaced the Help system with Browser based help.
- Included a new version of PassMark Rebooter that supports Windows Vista.
Disk test improvements:
- The Block size used in the disk test is now configurable per disk. The default block size has been increased from 16KB to 32KB.
- Increased the number of disks that can be tested from 20 to 26.
- Disk test settings can be configured for "Automatically Select all Hard Disks", rather than using defaults.
CD test improvements:
- An option has been added to automatically detect all of the CD and DVD drives for the CD test (as per the disk test). This may be useful when testing across many systems with different optical drive configurations.
- When running the CD test under BartPE (Pre-install environment) 4 specific files are skipped as they are unavailable for testing.
Other improvements:
- Updated the cleanup process for when running the "zip" version of BurnInTest Professional from a CD or flash drive.
- Changed the USB preferences and test to more completely check for the PassMark USB Loopback plugs and ignore any device that is not a PassMark USB Loopback plug (due to reported incorrect detection with another hardware device).
- Updated BurnInTest to reflect that Temperature monitoring with Intel Desktop utilities is supported. Intel Desktop utilities essentially is a replacement for Intel Active Monitor for newer Intel motherboards.
Bug corrections:
- Disk preferences displayed in the Preferences window could have been incorrect when the system had no Floppy drive.
- The Advanced Network test results might not have been displayed until after entering the Duty Cycle selection (ie. just changing from the standard network test to the advanced test).
- Temperature information could have been duplicated in the HTML report.
- Certain 'save report' warning messages could have been truncated.
- In rare cases in Disk preferences, invalid default values could be set for a disk, an invalid value error would occur and the values would need to be manually corrected.
Release 5.1 build 1014, 6/November/2006
- Corrected a bug when running on Vista, where the Standard network test would report a checksum error when the transmitted data was correct.
- The Parallel port test may now be used on Windows x64 Vista. Specifically, the PassMark device driver used for the parallel port test could not be loaded on 64-bit Windows Vista as it was not digitally signed. It is now digitally signed.
- Corrected a bug where BurnInTest would not stop the tests based on the number of test cycles for the Plugin test or the Advanced Network test.
- Changed the preferences Window to fit on an 800x600 resolution screen.
- Made the "Could not set USB2Test mode" USB error message more specific by adding an error for insufficient system resources.
- Corrected a minor bug in Activity level 2 trace logging with the 'hide
duplicate' preference setting.
- Corrected a minor memory leak if the 2D test failed to initialize (such as due to a DirectX problem).
- Note: The USB 2.0 Loopback device driver V6.1.1 is now digitally signed
and can be used on Vista.
Release 5.1 build 1013, 8/September/2006
- The "Notes" section has been added to the Customer results certificate.
- Some additional configuration parameter range validation has been added.
Release 5.1 build 1012, 15/August/2006
- Corrected a false report of a "Unable to get disk volume extent information" for the disk butterfly seek test.
- Advanced Network test changes for errors: "Corrupt header - packet discarded" and "Advanced Network test timed out"
- Advanced Network test Endpoint changes for problems on non-English
Operating Systems and systems with the Windows "Network Interface"
performance statistics disabled.
- SMART parameters on a Samsung Hard Disk caused BurnInTest to fail when
running the disk test with SMART thresholds enabled. This has been corrected.
- The 2D scrolling H's test could display corrupt characters on the second
and subsequent test run. This has been corrected.
- A problem with the Integer maths test where the results could display
a negative number of operations has been resolved.
- Minor improvements to the help file.
- HTML help file added for Windows Vista and Longhorn Server.
- Minor improvements to the Error Classification file (error descriptions).
- Some CD Trace level 1 logging has been moved to trace level 2.
- Trace level 1 logging has been added to the test closing software.
- New build of Endpoint.exe (1.0 1010).
Release 5.1 build 1011, 7/July/2006
- New Advanced Network test error reporting added in the previous build V5.1 1010 has been removed.
- A broader range of USB 2.0 Loopback plugs can now be used with BurnInTest.
Release 5.1 build 1010, 4/July/2006
- Corrected the HTML report description of the L2/L3 CPU cache when the
L3 cache size could not be determined.
Advanced network changes:

