Possible Fix for QTP Crashing and Hanging Issues

Automation Testing Published on:
patch update

Is your installation of QTP causing any of the following weird behavior:

  • Blue Screen of Death
  • QTP hangs when you try starting or closing it
  • QTP hangs when using text recognition methods
  • On a 64-bit OS the QTP report contains the error “driver cannot be loaded and needs to be updated for 64-bits”

If so before throwing your computer out the window, or sticking your HP voodoo doll with pins, try this quick fix first.

Possible reason for this QTP Crashing Behavior

Sometimes an older system driver pal_drv.sys, that was developed for old text recognition mechanism that is no longer supported, can cause these odd behaviors.

Possible fix for QTP Crash

  • Open a command prompt (Start > Run > type “cmd” > “Ok”)
  • Navigate to “/bin” directory (for example: “cd C:\Program Files\HP\QuickTest Professional”)
  • Run the following command:nt_tr.exe -remove
  • Reboot the machine.

Give it a try

This doesn't always fix these odd issues, but it doesn't hurt to give it a try

33 responses to “Possible Fix for QTP Crashing and Hanging Issues”

  1. Hi Joe,

    I find your site very useful..Thank you for sharing your valuable knowledge.
    I am working on QTP 11. When I run multiple scripts from HP ALM(QC) 11, the 1st script runs fine,2nd script status is ”Unable to open the testname> test”..from 3rd script, all has the below status “Unable to open the test in the testing tool”.
    The execution log for script 2 is shown as “Unable to open the ” test.
    Error from QuickTest Professional: Element not found..”. The execution log for all scripts frpm script 3 is shown as “Unable to open the test in the testing tool.
    Error from QuickTest Professional: Cannot retrieve object..”

    I can run these scripts 1 by 1 from QC successfully. This issue happens only when i try to run more than 1 script from QC. The most confusing part is that till last week, they were getting executed without any such issue and as far as I know nothing is updated in QC or QTP. I reinstalled the remote agent and QC/QTP add-ins. Still the issue persists.
    Any light you could shed on this will be much appreciated.

    Thanks, Neenu

    Reply

  2. HI Joe,
    I am getting the error “Unable to open test in the testing tool.Error from QuickTest Professional: Cannot retrieve object..”
    This error is associated with few scripts when i tried to run from qc rest of them is working fine. I tried on all the lab machines, still have the same problem.
    Details are following:-
    1. OS:- Windows XP/Vista/Windows7
    2. QC:- Component Build

    OTA Client 10.0.0.2154
    User Interface 10.0.0.2154
    WebGate Client 10.0.0.2154
    Test Run Scheduler 10.0.0.2154
    Execution Flow 10.0.0.2154
    Site Administration Client 10.0.0.2154
    HP Quality Center 10.00 Enterprise Edition
    QTP:- QTP 11

    We used to run the scripts from Remote desktop through citrix.

    Hope you understand my issue. Please let me know if more clarification is required.

    Thanks and Regards
    Vineet

    Reply

    • Vineet » Hi Vineet not sure about this one sounds like a QTP QC connection issue – or all machines on same domain? I usually see the “Unable to open test in the testing tool” error when the QTP machine does not have the “Allow other HP products to run tests and componets” selected but if that was your issue you would not be able to run any tests on that machine.

      Reply

  3. Hi,

    QTP was freezing for me when opening scripts in Windows 7 32-bit so I tried your suggested “nt_tr.exe -remove” command. Now, the I can’t get the menu bar back. Even if I right-click and select “Customize -> Toolbars -> Restore All”. I can’t even check-off the “Menu Bar” option.

    Please help,
    Thanks

    Reply

  4. Hi Joe,

    Thanks for all fixes and suggestion on QTP. I need your help to understand why QTP 10 is hanging when I save new script or edited script. It wouldn’t as for file path to save or change not saved. completely QTP paralyzed. May I ask you what can I do to fix this issue.
    environment details
    – Windows 7 prof 32 bit
    – QTP 10
    – IE 8

    Reply

  5. Hi Joe,
    QTP 11 is recognizing swfEdit as Edit box, swfButton as Button whereas UFT 11.5 is recognizing them as only swfObject for the same application. I am not sure what I am missing and why UFT 11.5 is recognizing as swfObject.
    It would be great if I get your help please.

    Thank you very much.
    Regards,
    Rajkumar

    Reply

  6. Hi Joe,

    Thanks a lot for all the advice, its really helpful !!

    Joe, i am running suite of around 1500 test cases on different OS (XP,7) without use of QC (I am using different File system to get which runs to be made).

    But in this process QTP either stops working / Explorer.exe hangs / JIT debugger appears only in XP machines both (Machines / VM’s) also on

    Where as everything runs smoothly on Windows 7 professional both is desktops/ VM’s

    Solutions tried:-
    1. I tried restarting QTP after a particular module with mercury object. Restart QTP and continue with remaining modules of the suite (But still the suite hangs in between on XP)

    Please letme know if there are patch rolled out by HP to fix these or any other solutions

    Thanks
    Vinod Bhat

    Reply

  7. hi.
    when i tried to run QTP as administrator then my application run successfully , but when i open QTP directly by double click , then my system get crash, why it happen?

    plz help me for this issue

    Reply

      • Hi sir.
        No there isn’t any error. let i explain you exactly what happen?
        i worked on both web and desktop application, when i tried to run QTP as administrator then it works only on web application and script is created successfully, but when i tried same on desktop application script is not generated.
        In other hand when i open QTP directly by double click, it works only on Desktop application and script is created successfully but after some time all application get crashed.

        Reply

  8. Hi,
    Please any workaround.
    I am using UFT 11.52 and facing some issues.
    1. Hangs while adding objects to OR
    2.Hanging while highlighting objects from rep.
    3.While spying objects it gets hanged

    Reply

  9. Hi Joe

    we are facing a strange issue. there are some objects in our application on which if we try to do object spy or try to add objects in OR, system hangs

    also, on Object spy on some other objects > all the properties and corresponding values are displayed properly in the Object Spy dialog
    but when we try to add this object in OR no property and values are displayed for this object in OR and object is not adding in the OR.
    Environment: .NET 4.0, wpf application, QTP 11, Windows 7, 64 bit machines

    Pls reply and suggest how this issue can be resolved

    Reply

    • Hi Amit,

      Not sure – I have seen some spy freezes resolved by disabling the enhanced object spy features in the registry.

      You can disable the enhanced Object Spy features by adding the following registry entries. This will disable the advanced features added with the QTP 9.5/UFT 11.5 and above releases:

      HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Mercury Interactive/QuickTest Professional/MicTest/DisableObjectsHighlight =dword:00000001

      HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Mercury Interactive/QuickTest Professional/MicTest/DisableSpyEnhancement=dword:00000001

      Please let me know if this helps you.

      Reply

  10. Hi Joe,
    I’ve encountered a similiar problem to the one Neenu mentioned.
    When i try to run an automatic test from QC i get this error:
    Unable to open the ‘Create User’ test.
    Error from QuickTest Professional: Test not found..

    I tried to run the same test (from same test set) from a different computer and it worked…
    Do you have any suggestions?

    Thanks,
    Mor

    Reply

  11. Hi Joe,

    I am using QTP 10 on windows XP. I have a problem that whenever I try to open a previously saved test, QTP crashes. I cannot work further. I tries your cmd method of ‘nt_tr.exe -remove’, but its showing command not recognized.
    Could you please help.

    Thanx

    Reply

    • I have not seen this issue before. I did find the following suggestion from itelearn . Does it help you?
      pal_drv.sys is a system driver that may cause frequent QTP crashes. Try to follow below steps, it may help you

      Uninstall pal_drv:
      %ProgramFiles%\hp\QuickTest Professional\bin\nt_tr.exe /UNREGSERVER

      Install pal_drv:
      %ProgramFiles%\hp\QuickTest Professional\bin\nt_tr.exe /REGSERVER

      Reply

      • Joe,

        I did run this command ‘nt_tr.exe -remove’ in cmd, and message came that ‘Test recognition has been installed successfully’. I then reboot my machine, but still there is the same problem.

        Reply

  12. I am facing with the same issue as the one Gurjinder mentioned ”
    when i tried to run QTP as administrator then my application run successfully , but when i open QTP directly by double click , then my system get crash, why it happen?”

    I haven’t found a solution yet but try:
    1.Closing All the Browsers before opening QTP.
    2.Right click QTP icon and ‘Run as Administrator’

    Thanks

    Reply

  13. Here’s a question for you:

    Related to QTP 11.0, Windows XP and Windows 7

    Sometimes when QTP has been running for a while, it goes “stoopid”. It cannot see objects that it has been working with all day forcing me to restart the software, and often cannot save my edited tests. It seems to get lost in the Do-loops and If-Then statements, telling me that I’m missing an End If, or have a Loop without a Do.

    I look at the line number referenced, and there’s usually nothing wrong. If I try then to run the test, the error message returns but now shows one or two lines of code that QTP apparently changed or saved incorrectly.

    That is; there may be two Wait statements in a row instead of the lines that I wrote as If-Then, and Wait. Or it might add an extra End If statment. In other words, it randomly replaces lines of code with adjacent lines.

    I live in fear that QTP is really going to booger something up!

    I doubt that the issue is patch-related. We keep our systems fully up-to-date. I’ll give you a dollar if you can figure this one out!

    Reply

    • Hi Jeff – I have seen odd issues on our QTP execution VM but can never track down the root cause. Basically we have a job that reboots the machines every night and we also reboot after long test runs to avoid these type of issues.

      Reply

  14. I am using QTP 11,all the scripts are running successfully. After windows update, not able to execute the scripts. That means if I Run the scripts, it shows running only but no action takes place. I cannot stop QTP scripts also, need to stop forcibly using task manager.
    Tried uninstalling QTP,Registry cleanup…but no success.
    Kindly help me resolve this issue.

    Reply

  15. What should be done if we need to keep qtp execution on going when qtp execution is hung up on that machine for unlimited time? I mean we can’t even invoke recovery scenario of qtp here as qtp itself got hung up and caused machine to hung up for unlimited time?
    > I do not want to restart the machine here
    > I want to break the execution here

    Reply

  16. Joe

    I have scripts in QTP11 now we have upgraded to UFT12.2 so scripts created in QTP11 when I tried to run in UFT12.2 it is not running and we are using SAP application. Could you please help me on this issue?

    Reply

  17. Hi Joe,

    I have test to open application in a browser which i call in different tests to open browser and launch application. Test was working fine but now browser is closing after execution of the test. I am using UFT 12.54.

    Reply

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patch update