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What to do with an exam freeze or crash

Article ID: 9
Last updated: 11 Aug, 2026

What to do with an exam freeze or crash

Occasionally an exam will freeze on a Delivery workstation, or that workstation will crash, not allowing the candidate to interact with their exam.

  1. The proctor should first look at the time remaining section of the screen to determine if time is ticking down.  If time remaining clock continues to tick down, the proctor should attempt to stop the exam using the ctrl/shift/F12 key combination.  If an administrative menu appears,  select Stop the Exam and then resume the exam on a different workstation if one is available, or reboot their current workstation and resume the test for the candidate in Delivery Manager. 

  1. If the computer is frozen, the ctrl/shift/F12 key sequence will not work.  The next step is to press and hold the power button on the computer until it powers off.  At this point, you can move the candidate to another workstation if one is available, or power on the current workstation and attempt to resume the test for the candidate in Delivery Manager.

  1. The proctor should create a case in ServiceDirect under “Problem with Pearson VUE application” for the candidate to document the issue.  If time was not ticking down in the time remaining screen, which is the most common scenario, the candidate did not lose time in the exam.  If time was ticking down the on the time remain screen at the time the exam froze and if the candidate inquires about lost time, you should stop the exam and call VUE technical support for assistance.  The VUE Agent will be able to examine the log files to determine how much time has been lost, and in many cases restore that time.
     
  2. If during any of the above steps, you are unable to resume the exam, please call VUE technical support for assistance. The VUE Agent will help you to resume the test, or look into the possibility of restarting the exam from the beginning, or rescheduling the exam depending on the exam provider.

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Article ID: 9
Last updated: 11 Aug, 2026
Revision: 4
Comments: 0