Troubleshooting
In the unlikely event that you experience difficulties running the benchmarks then the information in this section may help. If you're still stuck then you can contact us in the Custom PC Forums at www.custompc.co.uk.
The benchmarks keep failing!
If a benchmark fails then this indicates one of two things, which is either an unstable system or a corrupt installation. If you have overclocked your PC then return it to its default settings and run the tests again. If the problem goes away then you know that the failure was a result of an unstable overclock. If the benchmarks still don't work then try uninstalling and reinstalling the Benchmarks Suite 2007.
It keeps telling me that I need to run in true colour!
To keep everyone on a level playing field, the benchmarks must be run in 32-bit colour mode. This can be adjusted in Display Settings.
It keeps telling me that the benchmark was aborted, but I don't know why!
By default, the Custom PC Benchmarks Suite 2007 will detect any key presses or mouse clicks and abort the benchmark. This is a necessary part of ensuring that the results are accurate.
The benchmarks suite doesn't even load!
Unfortunately, in order to run the Custom PC Benchmarks Suite, you must have administrative privileges. These are not enabled by default in Windows Vista. When running the application, you will be asked for a password to elevate to administrator level. If for some strange reason this doesn't happen, then right-click on the Custom PC Benchmarks Suite 2007 shortcut and select ‘Run as Administrator’. If you are looking to loop the benchmarks, then the dialogue box asking you to run as administrator will certainly slow you down. In this case, you will have to disable UAC - but this is not recommended.
I've run the benchmarks, but it won't let me submit my results to the online Benchmarks Leaderboard!
In order to submit your results to the online Benchmarks Leaderboard you must have run all three tests successfully and the ‘Don’t halt on user interaction’ and ‘Don’t halt on errors’ options must be disabled. You must also be using the latest version of the suite.
I can't run the multitasking test!
If you have only just installed the Custom PC Benchmarks Suite, you will need to successfully run the Video Encoding test at least once, as this generates the input file required.
In the multitasking test, the video doesn't stop playing!
When the 7Zip compression finishes, the video playback should automatically close. However, occasionally this won't be the case. If this happens, it does not affect your score, so just let the video finish playing. If you have user interaction detection turned off, it is perfectly safe to just close the window and you will still get your result.
The H.264 Video Encoding Test is producing an error!
This is normal behaviour. You should see an error such as "CHECK_VALUE failed in ifo_read.c:560". Handbrake is a little picky about the DVD IFO format and kicks up a fuss. However, this doesn't affect the benchmark and is consistent across all machines.
My first results seem a little slow, is something wrong?
The first time you run the benchmark, your results will be slightly slower than subsequent runs. This is because Windows caches certain things to make them run faster. Restarting the machine after you run the benchmark will mean that Windows will have to cache these things again, and the results will return to being slightly slower.
Un-cached results are slightly more real-world than caches results, but not as reproducible. Ideally, running the benchmark 4 times, ignoring the first result and averaging the remaining three will give the best reproducible results.