Background task does not complete

[Robin Sahasranam]

I have developed a workflow in 4.0B where the first step is a background task
which executes a synchronous object method which calls a function. The function
basically sets up some container elements. The problem that I am having is that
the background step never completes. It remains in STARTED status. The workflow
logs do not display any error. After a few hours I get the workflow error
notification sent to WF Administrator.
 
Everything is fine with the workflow, task, business object, method and
function. None of them show any error and everything is generated properly. I
can test the function outside workflow and it works fine.
 
I would greatly appreciate any help you can in diagnosing and fixing this
problem.
 
Thanks.
 
Robin Sahasranam