SecureAssess issues

[aceonbass]

Hi all,

 

We're currently running SecureAssess for multiple exam boards (AAT, EAL, C&G etc) and we're hitting freezing issues in almost all exams. The SecureAssess software will hang and become unresponsive in the middle of exams yet the rest of the OS is completely fine. We're slightly outside of the supported platforms so this is more of a thread to see if anyone has a fix but:

 

• Win 8.1 Update x64 (they say they support Vista, 7 and 8 32- and 64-bit, so this may exclude 8.1)
  
• IE 11 (they support 7-10)
  
• Flash Player 16 (they support up to 11.8.800.94 - released Jul 2013!)
  

 

We also have multiple versions installed on the same machines. I'm hoping we can get these working without issue under 8.1 as we don't have the luxury of dedicated exams rooms, so the classrooms used to take exams must also function normally, and our standard build is Win8.1. We have a potential solution using VMware View but this is tying up valuable licenses and it's completely overkill that we have to devise a complete View setup just because BTL can't be bothered to test/release for even slightly up-to-date software.

 

BTL won't talk to us directly, and tell it's up to the exam boards to escalate the call if they feel necessary but considering we're running outside of their "supported platforms" they aren't forthcoming in doing so.

 

 

Anyone else with similar issues?

[a70sdude]

Hi,

 

You are not the only person with this issue. I too am running Windows 8.1 x64 and have experienced the problem with AAT and OCR exams.

 

My issue has been where a user is taking an exam, they click "Next" to move to the next question following selecting an answer from the multiple choice and it will then bring up a grey box in the middle of the screen with "Loading . . ." which will hang there for a few seconds, then it will change to "Attempting reconnect . . .". That message will then disappear, but the software itself is completely frozen. It is possible to CTRL + ALT + DEL and log the user out which will kill the software and after logging back in and waiting for a minute, the software can be started up again, the user enters their key code again and it will return to the question they had taken with the answer still selected so that they can then click "Next" and continue to complete the exam. It is random though, making troubleshooting very very difficult.

 

I have tried online, offline, in safe mode with networking, put antivirus exclusions in place, uninstalled the antivirus . . . the list goes on and I've not had any luck.

 

Is this the same issue you are having?

[3s-gtech]

What spec is your backend SecureAssess server? We had to make ours fairly beefy to work well.

[a70sdude]

I am not using a server for any of the SecureAssess software - we are running all of the exams using the standalone software. I am also having the issue with the exams run fully offline on the same PC.

[aceonbass]

Sorry - forgot to follow this up. We're not using a SecureAssess server, we just use the clients which are online exams. a70sdude, the issue is similar but we don't get the "loading" or "attempting to reconnect" messages, the clients just freeze.

 

We're still looking at these issues going on. We've put in a VDi infrastructure with Windows 7 virtual desktops with the out of date IE and Flash Players which seems to have stopped these issues. However this is only a limited test and has revolved mostly around the AAT version. No real luck with Win 8.1x64 yet.

[3s-gtech]

We had an email this week saying that you should speak to your exam board if running Windows 8.1 on the clients, there must be an underlying issue:

 

From the WJEC

 

If you are running SecureClient on Windows 8.1 PCs and haven't yet spoken to us please call immediately.

[aceonbass]

We had an email this week saying that you should speak to your exam board if running Windows 8.1 on the clients, there must be an underlying issue:

 

From the WJEC

 

Thanks - not aware of anything that's been sent via AAT/C&G/EAL but I'm not the main contact for exams, I've just been brought in on the issue (IT). I may give WJEC a call and see if they can tell us anything.

[aceonbass]

As a follow up, one of our technicians just got off the phone with WJEC and all they will tell us is that Window 8.1 isn't a supported platform. They've tested themselves and run into the same freezing issue but that's all they'll tell us. Whether or not this is due to us not being a centre with them, I'm not sure.

[3s-gtech]

Can the exam be run in another room on Windows 7, or are they 8.1 site-wide?

 

Sadly a VDI solution is probably not appropriate - SA is video and audio intensive. I can't really offer any other tips.

[a70sdude]

Following a total nightmare with the AAT version of SecureAssess on more than 8 different days (e.g. one student being moved PC 3 time and having the software freeze 9 times in one exam), I have taken the desperate route of now testing Windows 7, despite the "AAT SecureClient installation and testing guide" dated April 2015, stating that Windows 8.1 x64 is supported.

I have set up two new images for the 2015/2016 academic year with exactly the same versions of clients, patches and plugins. One is Windows 7 x64 and the other Windows 8.1u1 x64. Following a test with Windows 8.1u1, it crashed first time. I have also done 12 exams using Windows 7 without any issues at all.

I shall do some more exams tomorrow on other, more troublesome PCs after an image with Windows 7 x64 and will let you know how I get on.

If anyone else has any updates, I'd be really interested to hear about them.

[aceonbass]

Following a total nightmare with the AAT version of SecureAssess on more than 8 different days (e.g. one student being moved PC 3 time and having the software freeze 9 times in one exam), I have taken the desperate route of now testing Windows 7, despite the "AAT SecureClient installation and testing guide" dated April 2015, stating that Windows 8.1 x64 is supported.

I have set up two new images for the 2015/2016 academic year with exactly the same versions of clients, patches and plugins. One is Windows 7 x64 and the other Windows 8.1u1 x64. Following a test with Windows 8.1u1, it crashed first time. I have also done 12 exams using Windows 7 without any issues at all.

I shall do some more exams tomorrow on other, more troublesome PCs after an image with Windows 7 x64 and will let you know how I get on.

If anyone else has any updates, I'd be really interested to hear about them.

 

We've found that our Win7 Vmware View/Horizon deployment has guaranteed that exams, both AAT and C&G SecureAssess, go without issue. One thing I'd recommend checking is that the SQL Compact components are SP2. With SP1 we found even some Win7 machines were having freezing issues. SP1 is bundled with the SecureAssess installers so we made some SCCM configuration baselines to ensure SP2 was installed for anything running locally. That said, we've now made a push to ensure all exams are done through Horizon.

 

You can also disable the exam writing to the local disk (the clients download a SQL database version of the exam, and all answers are written to that database, as well as posting the answer to the AAT/C&G servers) by changing one of the XML configuration files within the install directories. I can't remember the exact path off-hand, but if you dig around, that option has values of 0, 1, or 2 and mentions something about web or integrity in the comment just above.