Pro E No longer Opens

[madmattd]

Well, this has been a very hard error to figure out. I have had Pro E WF4 installed on my desktop for over 2 months (last formatted then, had it for 6 months before that too), no problems. I was using it last Thursday afternoon, but left town for the weekend Friday. Upon getting back Sunday, Pro E suddenly decided it wasn't going to open. It would get just past the splash screen, and look like it was trying to load the web browser bit when it closed. No explanation, nothing. I checked for the std.out file, and it only contained the following line:

Exception - code was -1073741819.

Now, I did some looking around, and PTC claims that this is an incompatibility issue with the graphics card. Well thats stupid, because it has worked fine on this system for over 8 months all told, with NO hardware changes along the line. I did try the most recent version of the graphics driver from Nvidia, same error. I tried adding the graphics win32_gdi to my config.pro, no dice (and yes, Pro E starts up in the directory where that config.pro file is located). I tried starting from a directory with no config.pro. Nothing. Always getting the same error. I even tried a complete uninstall and reinstall to a different folder, still the same behaviour. It did open up and work ONE time correctly. But the next time, nothing. A second reinstall didn't even replicate this behaviour, it just doesn't open anymore.

Just to reiterate, nothing on my computer changed between the last few days where it worked and now. No new Windows Updates, no hardware changes, nothing. It just stopped working.

I'm at my wit's end with this, I have a project I need to be able to work on, and right now I cannot. If anyone can suggest something, because I have spent hours trying to fix this this week to no avail.

System Specs if it helps:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 (2.83 GHz stock)
Nvidia GeForce 9800GT 1GB (yes, technically not blessed by PTC, but it worked great until Sunday)
2 x 2GB DDR2 1066 RAM
Windows XP x64 (yes, I know I only need the 32-bit version here, but I am ordering another 4GB soon)
PRO Engineer Wildfire 4 Datecode M020 (SE)

Now, there are a few other things that have been suggested to me to try, not that any of them worked either. One person on another forum informed me that he was having the same problem on WF3 and that PTC told him to rename the .wf folder in C:\Documents and Settings\USER NAME\Application Data\PTC\ProENGINEER\Wildfire\ to let the program rebuild the folder. I tired this, and was able to restart Pro E successfully once, but not again.

This is a wierd problem in that it started suddenly, not on a fresh install, and so far I have had no luck getting it working again, despite several reinstalls, some to different directories, etc. And PTC won't talk to me since I don't have a maintenance subscription. So if any of you guys have an idea on how to fix this, I'm all ears. Please.

 

[looslib]

Well, there are more files that could be causing the system to bulk than just the config.pro.

Search and rename ALL .pro and .sup files so you are susre that you have NO changes from the default conditions.
Remove the whole PTC folder under D&S, not just the .wf file.

Are you connected to a PDM system?

FYI - Even if you had maintenance, PTC could tell you that they won't help because your graphics card is not certified!



"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[madmattd]

Yea, I know. But like I said, things worked fine with the card since the beginning of the year when I installed WF4 on the system. The weird thing is that I turned on my laptop today, and the same behavior.

I deleted the whole PTC folder, no dice. And I have tried starting from frech default files, and no dice. I was thinking I needed to do a hard format and reinstall everything (which I just did a month ago, and I really don't want to have to already), but with my laptop doing the same now, I'm wondering what is going on. Perhaps I will generate a new license and try a reinstall. Hopefully that will do the trick, though at this point I doubt it.

 

[looslib]

Have you installed any other software recently?
Is your license server working and the LM software running?
Network configuration changes?
OS patches on workstation/laptop/server?
License expired?


"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[madmattd]

Installed software: Not since a few days before the issue started.
License Server: Well, its a node-locked license tied to my machine. No server to deal with.
Network config: unchanged in months.
OS patches: Was my first thought when it first occurred, but no patches since a few days before the issue.
License: Is perpetual, so not expired.

I am currently having issues generating a new license, actually, and am working with PTC to resolve the issue. I'll post once I get a new one and reinstall.

 

[PeterStock]

Uninstall the software installed a few days before the issue started, it may have taken a couple of days before the problem appeared. Same for the OS patches.

Peter Stockhausen
Senior Design Analyst (Checker)
Infotech Aerospace Services

 

[madmattd]

Yea, that didn't work, as I expected. Worth the try, though. I've found some other people with the same issue, different hardware, on another forum. PTC support has been useless for them. This is very annoying...

 

[looslib]

Why do you thing PTC uses 1-800-4prohel as their tech support number?

Ok, node-locked to what on your machne, dongle, NIC card address, IP address?
There is an issue with multiple NIC addresses and cards. Run the cpuid(?) program and be sure it still returns the same ID as your license file. Windows has been know to swap primary and secondary cards and PTC verifies against the primary card only.



"Wildfires are dangerous, hard to control, and economically catastrophic."

Ben Loosli

 

[madmattd]

Yea, it is tied to my NIC card. Originally my wireless card, but I since got an ethernet cable run to the room the computer is in, so the new license I just got is tied to the ethernet, not that that works either. I was actually running just fione with ethernet as my only connection to the world with a license tied to the wireless. I just couldn't disable the wireless card. The new license does in fact match the CPUID returned by the PTC setup.

Interesting, though. Disabling the card and then renabling it seems to make Pro E work once. Then I have to repeat to get it to work again. Sounds to me like a possible driver issue with my NIC. I'll have to look into a newer one.

 

[madmattd]

Well, I think I might have this sortof fixed. There is a new driver for my NIC, but before I even installed it, I tried something. If I click on a folder on the left navigation tree (My Documents is what I keep doing, as that is where my files are anyway) AS SOON AS I SEE THE TREE, it seems to load fine. If I let the browser try to come up, it crashes. If that is all I have to do, I can live with that. It's annoying and new, but manageable.

Thanks all,
Matt

 

[robertib]

If this is the problem, then once you have ProE loaded, do the following to prevent the browser opening:

Tools -> Customize Screen
Click the browser tab
Uncheck the box next to Expand browser by default when ProE Opens.
Save the config.win file to your startup directory.

 

[madmattd]

That did the trick. I figured there had to be a way to disable the browser, just hadn't looked for it yet. Now I don't have to click like mad to keep it open. I never used that browser anyway, so its no big loss...

Thanks again,
Matt