Can't compute Windows Experience Index
Hi,I'm having a weird problem on my system (Athlon 64 3800+ running Windows 7 RC 32-bit version--yes I realize I'm using a 64 bit processor, but that shouldn't matter, right?). I am unable to get Windows to compute my Windows Experience Index. When I go to compute it, it goes all the way through the tests, but after it's done, it tells me that it could not compute my score. I get this vague error message:The Windows Experience Index for your system could not be computed.Cannot complete assessment.The assessment or other operation did not complete successfully. This is due to an error being reported from the operating system, driver, or other component.It does this every time. It goes all the way through the tests and then gives me that message at the end.I've triedreinstalling Windows 7, but it still has the problem. I have all the latest drivers installed for my graphics card (GeForce 8600 GT)and motherboard from Windows Update. My hard drive (SATA) has two partitions: partition 1 is my current Windows XP install, and partition 2 is the Windows 7 install, about 50 GB in size. I've installed Windows 7 RC on another computer (MacBook Pro with an Intel Core Duo T2600)from the same DVD I burned, and it has no problems getting the experience index.I've tried manually running winsat from an administratorcommand prompt to see if it can do anything. No matter what I tell it to do (for example: winsat features), it runs the test I ask for and then I alwaysget this stuff at the end of the output:Error: Failed to load XMLAn invalid character was found in text content.winsat\main.cpp(1041)Unable to process XML file.....ERROR: cannot process assessment resultscannot load XML data from a stringAn invalid character was found in text content.From Interface msxml6.dll:IXMLDOMDocument2On my other working Windows 7 RC computer, this error message does not appear when I type the same command, and it completes successfully. So I'm assuming this XML error is the root cause of the problem, but I have no idea what XML it's talking about.My C:\Windows\Performance\WinSAT\DataStore directory is empty, so it's not anything in there that it's choking on.Any ideas what might be causing this? I'm totally at a loss. I've googled everything, particularly the XML error messages, but I haven't found anyone else who had that error message when they ran WinSAT.Thanks for any help!Doug
May 26th, 2009 8:42am

Doug -I have a similar enough system - it's got an Athlon 64 3400+ chip, and a GeForce 7300 GS based video card and I'm also running the 32 bit version of the RC. I'm also running Win 7 from a SATA drive. So no, the hardware itself isn't a problem. My system managed to chug through the experience index without problems. The error mesages seem to indicate there's an "invalid character" in the XML file somewhere. If we coudl find the file(s) in question, that would be helpful... Maybe we can track down the source of that invalid character...
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 26th, 2009 9:17am

Doug -I have a similar enough system - it's got an Athlon 64 3400+ chip, and a GeForce 7300 GS based video card and I'm also running the 32 bit version of the RC. I'm also running Win 7 from a SATA drive. So no, the hardware itself isn't a problem. My system managed to chug through the experience index without problems. The error mesages seem to indicate there's an "invalid character" in the XML file somewhere. If we coudl find the file(s) in question, that would be helpful... Maybe we can track down the source of that invalid character... Hi Wolfie2k6,Yeah, I would agree--the hardware isn't the problem--there have to be tons of people out there with similar systems and no problem :) I'm just trying to think of any differences between my two systems that might explain it.For sure, it must have to do with either an XML file somewhere. I did a search for XML files on my hard drive and there are a ton of them (no surprise there, haha). I haven't a clue where to begin. It could even be a temporary one that it's creating that contains the test results...who knows.Anyway, this is definitely a weird problem. Thanks for replying!Doug
May 26th, 2009 5:34pm

Hello,I have got the same exact problem on my Lenovo ThinkPad X200 Tablet PC (7448-CTO). It seems that winsat.exe is simply unable to write or create the XML file, even it I force it a location. I think it is unable to read it at the end because the file was simply not created at all. This is my asumption, and I'll validate this up with filemon utility.Now this problem happens on both x86 and x64 versions of Windows 7 RC. I tried running "winsat memformal" to quickly check access to the xml file, and even this fails. I tried to run it before applying any driver or system update, and it fails the same way. I have no idea of what the problem be. As soon as RTM is available on MSDN, I'll try it and check if it solves the problem.Doug, by any chance, did you managed to solve the problem? I'll be pleased to know.ThanksVince
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
July 31st, 2009 8:55pm

Hi, I'm having a weird problem on my system (Athlon 64 3800+ running Windows 7 RC 32-bit version--yes I realize I'm using a 64 bit processor, but that shouldn't matter, right?). Note: I am writing this reply on a AMD Athlon 64 3500+ processor on win7 32-bit with a Geforce 8500GT and I can't tell you how many times I have re-run the assessment to try to get the processor to get a better score. (and determine a better final score because it is the lowest one at 4.2) The 64 just means that the comp is able to run 64-bit windows, it does not mean that you have to use 64-bit Windows.Hello! Please try every solution given to your problem...and reply back with its results...Click here for my thread on Win7 min. requirements - JoelbX
July 31st, 2009 9:31pm

I have exactly the same problem. Please post if u have the answer. 10x.
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 5th, 2009 1:15pm

I recall having that problem. It was fixed by a re-install... Sorry. I doubt that a rescue rebuild or whatever would do anything. I think it had to do with running WEI before activating, and then activating, and then WEI wouldn't complete correctly. Since then, if I do a re-install, I activate before I run WEI. Hope that helps.
August 5th, 2009 7:02pm

The acls for windows\performance may be restricting the .xml creation. Try taking ownership of the windows\performance folder
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
August 6th, 2009 7:32am

Hi,I have found the solution to my problem. My laptop have been repaired (new system board) just before I install Windows 7 on it. Then I found out that the technician who repaired my machine forgot to enter the model number and serial number in the EEPROM of the new system board. Once the correct info was entered in the EEPROM, the performance assessment have been able to run correctly.I hope this can help other folks who may have the same problem as I had.
August 21st, 2009 6:15pm

Hi, Doug.If your BIOS has the item "Quick Boot" (Memory Check), then set it to "Enable" and try to get WEI again.It seems to me the specification of Memory management on Windows 7 has changed. it became more rely on BIOS,but VISTA does not so in the case of computing WEI.Based on the fact, on Windows 7, Memory description in the system information is totally different when "Quick Boot: Enable"or "Disable".This is just my guess but Windows 7 heavily relies on the memory upper limit information by BIOS.hope this might be helpful for you,Kazuyuki,
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
October 26th, 2009 6:06pm

I have run into this problem several times and each time it was caused by a reset bios with incorrect date and time settings. I simply corrected the date and time in the control panel and re ran the assessment and it worked fine. The same thing happen with windows update, if the date and time are wrong it will fail. Hope this helps.
November 29th, 2009 3:21pm

Thank You so much.I went to the bottom right hand cormer of my screen, right clicked it and updated the time and date and it was able to do it.Thanks Alot
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
January 16th, 2010 8:34pm

Hi, Doug. If your BIOS has the item "Quick Boot" (Memory Check), then set it to "Enable" and try to get WEI again. It seems to me the specification of Memory management on Windows 7 has changed. it became more rely on BIOS, but VISTA does not so in the case of computing WEI. Based on the fact, on Windows 7, Memory description in the system information is totally different when "Quick Boot: Enable" or "Disable". This is just my guess but Windows 7 heavily relies on the memory upper limit information by BIOS. hope this might be helpful for you, Kazuyuki, Kazuyuki, Thanks for your advice, it led me to my solution (which was the opposite of what you said). I had "quick boot" enabled and couldn't get results from WEI. It always gave me an error about writing results in the log file. I went into my BIOS and DISABLED "quick boot" and now WEI works! Gigabyte must know this because later I read a forum that showed a Gigabyte tech suggested someone disable the "quick boot" as a workaround. But, besides this thread and the one I just mentioned, that's ALL I've seen after many many google searches. So, thanks again! My Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P (rev. 1.6) OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
May 8th, 2010 8:54pm

Hi, Doug. If your BIOS has the item "Quick Boot" (Memory Check), then set it to "Enable" and try to get WEI again. It seems to me the specification of Memory management on Windows 7 has changed. it became more rely on BIOS, but VISTA does not so in the case of computing WEI. Based on the fact, on Windows 7, Memory description in the system information is totally different when "Quick Boot: Enable" or "Disable". This is just my guess but Windows 7 heavily relies on the memory upper limit information by BIOS. hope this might be helpful for you, Kazuyuki, Kazuyuki, Thanks for your advice, it led me to my solution (which was the opposite of what you said). I had "quick boot" enabled and couldn't get results from WEI. It always gave me an error about writing results in the log file. I went into my BIOS and DISABLED "quick boot" and now WEI works! Gigabyte must know this because later I read a forum that showed a Gigabyte tech suggested someone disable the "quick boot" as a workaround. But, besides this thread and the one I just mentioned, that's ALL I've seen after many many google searches. So, thanks again! My Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P (rev. 1.6) OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64 Thank you for your telling me I described the workaround oppositely, and very sorry made you confused. Mem.Check --> Enable, ie. Quick Boot --> Disable in BIOS is what I meant. My Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55M-UD2(rev.1.0) OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x32 Thanks and regards,
Free Windows Admin Tool Kit Click here and download it now
May 9th, 2010 7:35am

OK - I can confirm that this error in my case was caused by the DMI/SMBIOS strings in the BIOS. In my case by the System Vendor string having a single 'up-arrow' character in it. When I overwrote this using Intel Itoolkitw -SMBIOS command, Winsat now runs! Many thanks to MThd for the heads up!
April 12th, 2011 4:04pm

This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.

Other recent topics Other recent topics