Non-repairable error during Moodle quizzes

[NikolaasD]

Problem
Since the start of the school year (September) I have been getting reports of classes where quizzes with Safe Exam Browser are giving a lot of errors.
In a classroom, approx. 20-22 students, some students get an ‘unknown error(see picture with the attached files - It's in Dutch)’ when taking their quiz. At this point the quiz has started.
Closing the Safe Exam Browser and starting the test again solves the issue for most students. A few students encounter the same problem more than once while taking the same quiz.

How to reproduce
Not all students in a class consistently encounter this problem, so it is difficult to reproduce. I have not been able to. I have observed it in a classroom.

Versions
Moodle 4.3
SEB versions 3.1.1 and 3.6. We are probably using other versions as well, as they are baked in the image our laptop supplier makes for us every year.
Windows 11 Pro Education 23H2 Build 22631.4169
All devices should be on the same version of Windows, as this is pushed through inTune. All devices are HP ProBook 445, but there’s a new generation each year. The problems are G10 and G7/8.

Not all teachers use Moodle+SEB for their tests, so the gap in SEB and laptop versions might just be because no one has tried it there.
Attached are some SEB log files. The newest ones are from a lesson I observed where there was a problem.

Context
Last June we organised examens with Moodle. In a period of two weeks we regularly organized more than 100-200 consecutive quizzes. The problem didn’t occur.

I’ve reported this issue to my current Moodle host and they advised me to switch to ‘a newer version of SEB’. I haven’t tested this yet because this would require me to install this version in an entire class. This take some planning and time.
Does anyone recognize this problem? Where do I start looking? Moodle, SEB, Windows, network?

Some thoughts of my own

• I’m ruling out the network for the moment because we have already successfully organized the exams.
• I’m wondering if the SEB-version has to be taken into account because there are problems with v3.1.1 and v3.6.
• I’ll be asking if my host has done a Moodle update in the past summer. This might explain why it worked in June and not now.
• Google gave me a forum post with someone describing roughly the same problem and hinting at something with session certain symbols in the session keys that Moodle generates for the SEB. This is outside my area of expertise. But, would this not prevent the SEB-session from starting at all?
• Does it look a bit like this issue? SEB 3.7.1 unexpectedly terminated #977

I have reached out to some Moodle experts as well. If they come up with anything, I'll pass on the information.

2024-09-16_10h25m48s_Browser.log
2024-09-16_10h25m48s_Client.log
2024-09-16_10h25m48s_Runtime.log
2024-09-25_11h20m58s_Browser.log
2024-09-25_11h20m58s_Client.log
2024-09-25_11h20m58s_Runtime.log
2024-09-25_11h28m41s_Browser.log
2024-09-25_11h28m41s_Client.log
2024-09-25_11h28m41s_Runtime.log

[dbuechel]

Only one of the sessions you provided shows a crash (the other two were terminated normally):

2024-09-25 11:28:05.408 [16] - ERROR: Client application has unexpectedly terminated with exit code -532462766!

If there is any issue, it may be found in the Event Viewer system application under Windows Logs > Application. However:

I’m wondering if the SEB-version has to be taken into account because there are problems with v3.1.1 and v3.6.

Yes indeed. By official policy, we only provide support for the latest release version (currently 3.8.0 for Windows), so please update and then verify whether the issue still occurs.

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open for 28 days with no activity. It will soon be closed automatically if there are no updates.

[NikolaasD]

In the past weeks we've worked on distributing the newest SEB version to all student laptops.

• In 2 classes (50 students) we installed it manually. The probleem hasn't replicated in 2 weeks worth of lessons.
• Schoolwide distribution was just under a week ago. No complaints yet.

[dbuechel]

Great, that's good news!

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open for 28 days with no activity. It will soon be closed automatically if there are no updates.

[NikolaasD]

The previous reminder came just in time. The exam period is in full swing now. Today we've got approx. 300 machines using the SEB in conjunction with Moodle. I've got one student with me with an SEB problem. At first glance, that will be due to some mouse pointer software.