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 ProcessorDell Precision 7550 , 32 Gbyte RAM, Windows 10 Enterprise 22H2, Intel Xeon ProcessorAlso a notebook of which I only know the following:Notebook 32 Gbyte RAM, AMD Ryzen, Windows 11And here are the computers on which the error does not occur:Dell Optipelx 7050, 16 Gbyte RAM, Intel Core i7-6700 CPU, Windows 10Dell Precision 360, 8 Gbyte RAM, Windows 10, Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-6700 CPUAlso a notebook of which I only know the following:32 Gbyte RAM, Windows 11 Enterprise 24H2, Intel i7 1260p

128GB RAM is sufficient for Quartus Lite. Your design compile fine and finish within seconds in my PC.Which devices are you using? How much disk space does your machine have? Minimum disk space recommended for Quartus lite is 14 GB. Additionally, go to Task Manager > Performance> Memory, to check and monitor the memory usage.Here are troubleshooting steps that you may check during installation process: 1. Before you download and install the software, please check that your machine system met the minimum Hardware and Software Requirements. Ensure that your Operating System is supported.https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/programmable/683472/25-1/system-requirements-and-prerequisite.htmlhttps://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/programmable/683472/25-1/operating-system-requirements.htmlQuartus 24.1std Software and Device Support Release Notes:https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/docs/programmable/683593/24-1std/disk-space-and-memory-recommendations.html2. Check that the disk space is sufficient for the installation of the Intel FPGA software. 3. If you are running antivirus software, try to temporarily disable the antivirus software during the Quartus Prime software download and installation process.4. Install the software with Administrator privileges. 5. Try to download and auto install using the new Quartus installer.6. If install using .tar, try to re-download the Quartus .tar installation package and install again. Check that the installation files .tar is not corrupted by checking the checksum. 7. Check your OS history update, e.g. to check if the issue happen after some specific Window update. Regards,Richard Tan

Any update on this? Do you able to resolve the issue?Regards,Richard Tan

Thank you for your reply. The device is MAX 10, 10M50SAE144I7G.We have followed all the instructions! I apologize for only replying now.We have spent several days with several employees trying to find a cause for the problem. As already described, the problem usually occurs on very powerful computers with at least 32 Gbytes of memory (and more), sufficient hard disk capacity and CPUs with 8 cores.On less powerful computers with only 4 cores the problem does not seem to occur. We have run the same design, which I have also sent, on many different computers. On some computers we can compile it 20 times. On other machines it occurs about the third time we compile it. If the problem occurs once, the Quartus installation is corrupted! Then you can no longer compile anything.We then uninstalled Quartus completely and used CCleaner to search the registry several times for errors. Several errors were found here. When we had cleaned everything up, we reinstalled Quartus. Then the problem no longer occurred on the same computers where the problem previously occurred.I have now found out that the error may occur when we compile this design on our network drive. After a complete reinstallation as described above, I was able to compile the project 5 times without errors when saving it to the local hard disk with both Prime Lite 24.1 and Prime Lite 19.1.When I opened the project on the network drive, the error occurred on the 5th compile with 19.1.This is the current status. The problem is very serious for us. If we don't get it solved, we will no longer use Quartus for teaching and research projects in our department.

Could you try deleting both the db and incremental_db folders from the project directory on the network drive after the error occurs? Then, try recompiling the project again to see if the issue reoccurs.Additionally, in the Compilation Process Settings, try to set the Maximum processors allowed to 1, to disable the parallel compilation. Regards,Richard Tan

Hello,I was able to prove through testing that the error only occurs when compiling on a network drive with a fast, powerful computer. I tried this with a Dell Precision 7540 with Windows 11, 128 Gbyte memory, Intel Core i9-9980HK CPU, 2.40 GHz.I was able to compile the Blink design locally on the hard disk 5 times without any errors, without any change to the design with use all available processors.If I take the same design and compile it on the network drive (connection via the LAN of our university), the error occurs again the second time and the Quartus installation is corrupted! Fitting is no longer possible. (The first time I compiled, the computer even crashed with a blue screen).I uninstalled Quartus, cleaned the registry with Ccleaner, reinstalled Quartus Prime and tried again.Locally on the hard disk I can compile Blink 10 times without any changes.Then I copied the project to the network drive and, as Richard Tan recommended, deleted the db and incremental_db directories and set Maximum processors allowed to 1.The second time I compile, the same error occurs again!The network drives at the university are sometimes slow, but I work with many other programs (Altium Designer, KiCad, field simulations with CST, …) that show no problems on the network drives.

Error (293007): Current module quartus_fit ended unexpectedly

33 Replies

StephanBoruckiPrivat
New Contributor
9 months ago
Unfortunately, I am having problems logging into Intel with my work email. That is why I have just created a private Intel account and I am responding using this account.
I have tried the following two things:
3) "Can you try quartus --reset_desktop to see if it helps?"
I went to the installation directory c:\intelFPGA_lite\24.1std\quartus\bin64\ and opened a command line window there, where I entered quartus -reset_desktop. The error persists.
4) "In the C:\Users\<user>\ directory there is a quartus2.qreg file, delete it and see if it helps."
I have deleted the file. The error persists.
7) Run quartus_fit.exe on the project in the command line.
I can't find a quartus_fit.exe file,
only quartus_fit.pdb under c:intelFPGA_lite\24.1std\quartus\bin64\pdbmin\.
How should I start it? I can set a path to this file and than I can start quartus_fit.pdb in the project directory?
I will be in touch again next week.
Best regards,
Stephan
- StephanBoruckiPrivat
  New Contributor
  9 months ago
  This morning, I was able to verify that the quartus_fit.exe file is missing from the computers on which the fit function does not work. It cannot be found in the same location as on the computers where the fit function works. I checked this on several computers.
  Best regards
  Stephan
  - StephanBoruckiPrivat
    New Contributor
    9 months ago
    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?
RichardT_altera
Super Contributor
9 months ago
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
New Contributor
9 months ago
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
Quartus_test.txt0 KB
Test2-network.txt76 KB
Test1-local.txt175 KB
- RichardT_altera
  Super Contributor
  9 months ago
  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
    New Contributor
    9 months ago
    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
RichardT_altera
Super Contributor
8 months ago
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
  New Contributor
  8 months ago
  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
New Contributor
8 months ago
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
New Contributor
8 months ago
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 .)
RichardT_altera
Super Contributor
8 months ago
Nice! We finally managed to pinpoint the root cause. Hopefully, this will get Quartus running successfully this time.

Regards,
Richard Tan
- StephanBoruckiPrivat
  New Contributor
  8 months ago
  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
RichardT_altera
Super Contributor
8 months ago
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

Forum Discussion

Error (293007): Current module quartus_fit ended unexpectedly

33 Replies

Recent Discussions

Is Quartus Prime Pro 22.4 Compatible with Stratix 10 NX Series Device?

Timing analysis - long combinational path

QuartusPro 25.3 Crashed after using the Signal Tap Logic Analyzer

Duplicate_hierarchy_depth / duplicate_register

Automatically added negative node for TDS output doesn't work with Agilex 5