Error (293007): Current module quartus_fit ended unexpectedly

[StephanBorucki]

I have been working with Quartus Prime for many years and I teach students how to program FPGAs with Quartus. We use the DE10-Lite board with a MAX10 but also a self-developed board with MAX10.  Recently we have had a serious problem.

On some of our computers we can no longer compile even simple designs. I have attached the example.

We get the following error message:

Error (293007): Current module quartus_fit ended unexpectedly. Verify that you have sufficient memory available to compile your design. ...

The error occurs on powerful, newer computers that have 32 Gbyte to 128 Gbyte RAM with Windows 10 and Windows 11. After that, we can no longer fit even the Introtutorial from Altera. We have uninstalled and reinstalled the software. The third time the error occurs again.

On older computers with only 8 Gbyte memory or 16 Gbyte memory we can compile exactly the same design more than 10 times without errors.

The error occurs with Quartus Prime Lite Edition 19.1.0 but also with the latest version 24.1.

We have searched all answers in the community but have not found a solution.

We urgently need a solution, otherwise we will no longer be able to use Altera at the university!

Here is a description of the computers on which the error occurs:

Dell Precision 5820, 128 Gbyte RAM, Windows 10 Education 22H2, Intel Xeon Processor

Dell Precision 7550 , 32 Gbyte RAM, Windows 10 Enterprise 22H2, Intel Xeon Processor

Also a notebook of which I only know the following:

Notebook 32 Gbyte RAM, AMD Ryzen, Windows 11

And here are the computers on which the error does not occur:

Dell Optipelx 7050, 16 Gbyte RAM, Intel Core i7-6700 CPU, Windows 10

Dell Precision 360, 8 Gbyte RAM, Windows 10, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700 CPU

Also a notebook of which I only know the following:

32 Gbyte RAM, Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2, Intel i7 1260p

[StephanBoruckiPrivat]

I will reinstall Quartus Lite tomorrow on the computer, where the quartus_fit.exe is missing. I will seach for quartus_fit.exe. I'll expect it to be there then. The I'll try to start quartus_fit.exe in the command line.

I would like to ask again how I can run quartus_fit.exe in the command line?

[RichardTanSY_Altera]

You run it using the command below:

quartus_fit.exe <project_name>.qpf

Prior that, you need to set your Path environment variable to the Quartus command line executables directory. e.g. C:\intelFPGA_lite\24.1\quartus\bin64, in order to call the command line executables.

Regards,

Richard Tan

[NTA]

Hello @RichardTanSY_Altera ,

here are some very interesting new findings:

1) Compiling from the command line leads to the same exact error. I put together a batch file that calls all the compiler steps (map, fit, sta, asm) 10 times in a row (attached as Quartus_test.txt). Compiling a project that is locally stored on the computer works fine (see Test1-local.txt). But compiling an identical copy of this project that is stored on our network drive leads to the error on the second try (see Test2-network.txt). The text files contain the entire content of the CMD window.

"Der Befehl "quartus_fit" ist entweder falsch geschrieben oder konnte nicht gefunden werden." -> Translation: quartus_fit does not exist.

2) This leads to the second discovery:

After the first (successful) compilation on the network drive, the quartus_fit.exe file is simply gone. So, it's no wonder that the compilation will always fail from this point on.

Astoundingly, when I copied the entire bin64 folder to the desktop (as a backup), the file was also gone from that folder.

After placing a new fitter file (copied from another machine) in the bin64 folder of Quartus' installation files, I was again able to compile the project.

Since all quartus_fit.exe files from the entire machine are gone after every compilation of a project on the network drive, we suspected that maybe Windows Defender kept moving the file(s) to a quarantine folder for some reason. However, this does not seem to be the case.

So, we can boil the issue down to the fitter suddenly disappearing.

Perhaps you have an idea why this could happen.

Regards,

Nils

[RichardTanSY_Altera]

Could you check if there is a third party antivirus program running behind?

Have you try to temporarily disable Windows Defender and other antivirus program?

Regards,
Richard Tan

[NTA]

I am fairly certain that there is no other antivirus program besides Windows Defender on most of our test machines. On my personal notebook Windows Defender is definitely the only antivirus software and it has not reported any suspicious activities.

Regards,

Nils

[RichardTanSY_Altera]

Have you try out the number #6) yet? That is, make the entire quartus installation directory and all subdirectories read-only.

Regards,
Richard Tan

[RichardTanSY_Altera]

Any update on this?

Have you try out the number #6) yet? That is, make the entire quartus installation directory and all subdirectories read-only.

Regards,

Richard Tan

[NTA]

Hello Richard,

we were busy with other things and will give #6 a try tomorrow.

Sorry for keeping you waiting this long!

Kind regards,

Nils

[NTA]

Hello @RichardTanSY_Altera ,

we have just tried your suggestion regarding write protection.

Setting the entire bin64 folder to read-only does not seem to be accepted by Windows.

Making the quartus_fit.exe file read-only leads to an (understandable) "access denied" error when calling the fitter from the command line.

Also, I confirmed that Windows Defender's history is empty - so no obvious intervention from this side.

We will try using Visual Studio to debug Quartus but this may take a while as we are not familiar with that process and would like to seek help from the computer science faculty.

Regards,

Nils

[StephanBoruckiPrivat]

Thanks to the support of a colleague from the IT department, we discovered today that Cisco Secure Endpoint software is installed on the PCs. This software recognizes quartus_fit.exe as a malicious program and moves the file to quarantine. I will contact my colleagues at the data processing center to have an exception made for this.
(Many thanks to Thomas Dey .)

[RichardTanSY_Altera]

Nice! We finally managed to pinpoint the root cause. Hopefully, this will get Quartus running successfully this time.

Regards,

Richard Tan

[StephanBoruckiPrivat]

Hello Richard,
My colleagues have now set up an exception for quartus_fit.exe in Cisco Security Endpoint. I was able to compile the project on the network drive 12 times in a row. The problem is finally solved! Thank you very much for your support.
Stephan

[RichardTanSY_Altera]

I'm pleased to know that your issue has addressed.

Now, I will transitioning this thread to community support. If you have any further questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out. Please login to https://supporttickets.intel.com/s/?language=en_US , view details of the desire request, and post a feed/response within the next 15 days to allow me to continue to support you. After 15 days, this thread will be transitioned to community support.

The community users will be able to help you on your follow-up questions.

Thank you and have a great day!

Best Regards,

Richard Tan