Another instance of DirectRT already running

[jarvis24]

[edited from support email]
I have a Medialab experiment that triggers both questionnaires in MediaLab and IAT-timed response tasks in DirectRT. Sometimes, after the third of four tests in DirectRT (they are all right in a row), the computer locks up and I get a dialog box that says "executable RT already running" or something of that nature. Then, if I hit "OK" it continues, but it doesn't save the data from the test that it just administered.

[jarvis24]

DirectRT takes a few moments to start up and shut down. It's generally not a good idea to place two DirectRT sessions directly back to back in your questionnaire. Instead, try separating the sessions with a simple Instruction item (e.g., that says Click Continue to proceed, or is timed using a d5 parameter or some such).

[jarvis24]

[edited from support email, same issue]

I'm running v2004.1.63 of MediaLab, and v2004.1.0.18 of DirectRT. I've just put together a study in MediaLab that involves two DirectRT tasks (IATs), and 4 scales in MediaLab. As we have been piloting it, we've noticed some strange behavior. In one instance, MediaLab appeared to freeze up with a solid purple screen. When I used the alt-tab keys to switch between running applications (all other keys seemed to have no impact on the purple screen-- and you should know that we are running Windows XP), I saw both MediaLab and a 2nd application running. The latter didn't have an icon (had the default blue and white Windows box), and when I switched to it, it was a dialogue box needing input. It said "executeDRT" at the top, and the contents of the dialogue box said:

"There is another instance of executeDRT.exe still running."

When I clicked o.k., MediaLab then went on to the first of the 4 scales and seemed to work just fine. Is there a problem with putting two DirectRT IATs back-to-back? If that isn't the problem, any idea what might be causing the issues? I haven't normally had problems with either program.

This is a known issue. See response above re the seperation of back-to-back DirectRT sessions.

[jarvis24]

As far as we know, the latter issue was resolved as of the 2008 version, but we still highly recommend placing a simple instruction screen between sequential DirectRT input files placed within a single MediaLab questionnaire or experiment file.

See also: http://www.empirisoft.com/support/sh...ad.php?p=13026