What to do with an exam error message, freeze or crash
Sometimes an exam may show an error message or freeze, or that workstation will crash, not allowing the candidate to interact with their exam.
- a) The test center staff should first look at the time remaining section of the screen to see if time is counting down or not. If the time remaining clock continues to count down, the test center staff should attempt to stop the exam using the ctrl/shift/F12 key combination. If an administrative menu appears, select "Stop the Exam". Then resume the exam on a different workstation if one is available. If one is not available reboot the current workstation and resume the test for the candidate in Delivery Manager.
1. b) 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.
- The test center staff should create a case in ServiceDirect under “Problem with Pearson VUE application” to document the issue for the candidate. If the time was not counting down on the exam clock, which is the most common scenario, the candidate will not have lost time in the exam. If the time was counting down the on the exam clock at the time the exam froze and if the candidate asks 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.
- 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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