Frequent "Application Error" crashes

[dickdorfman]

I really appreciate any help with this:

 

I frequently get "Application Errors" (see jpg attachment) which crash MEP on start up, especially if I've been opening and closing .mex files. I thought it was because I've been using version 4.0.2.1 at work (I don't have admin rights to upgrade) but it also happens at home with 4.1.0.1. Both places run Windows XP. It used to happen only if I open and close .mex files, but one of my beta testers had MEP crash just on regular start up. The only way to get MEP working again is usually a hard reboot.

 

This is really frustrating because I'm about to distribute the macros I've spent dozens of hours creating to coworkers, but I'm afraid they won't be used if MEP keeps crashing. My boss will be pretty disappointed, too, since he's been supporting my project.

 

So I'm wondering if somehow my .mex files have become corrupted, and if so, how would I go about fixing them? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Mike

[terrypin]

I really appreciate any help with this:

 

I frequently get "Application Errors" (see jpg attachment) which crash MEP on start up, especially if I've been opening and closing .mex files. I thought it was because I've been using version 4.0.2.1 at work (I don't have admin rights to upgrade) but it also happens at home with 4.1.0.1. Both places run Windows XP. It used to happen only if I open and close .mex files, but one of my beta testers had MEP crash just on regular start up. The only way to get MEP working again is usually a hard reboot.

 

This is really frustrating because I'm about to distribute the macros I've spent dozens of hours creating to coworkers, but I'm afraid they won't be used if MEP keeps crashing. My boss will be pretty disappointed, too, since he's been supporting my project.

 

So I'm wondering if somehow my .mex files have become corrupted, and if so, how would I go about fixing them? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks,

Mike

 

I get similar messages. This version of ME Pro is not very stable IMO, and I've attributed the errors to that, hoping that the next release will be more reliable.

 

Other equally obscure variations of that type of message which I've noted recently are:

 

Exception EAccessViolation in module macscript.exe at 00150C98.

Access violation at address 00550C98 in module 'macscript.exe'. Read of address 00000010.

 

Exception EInvalidPointer in module macedit.exe at 00004BC5.

 

Exception EOSError in module macscript.exe at 00011ABD.

System Error. Code: -2147023728.

Element not found.

 

I usually close and restart ME Pro and all is then OK for a while.

 

--

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[kevin]

I frequently get "Application Errors" (see jpg attachment) which crash MEP on start up, especially if I've been opening and closing .mex files.

When Macro Express Pro crashes the ISS Bug Reporter is launched and offers to send information about the crash to us. Have you seen the ISS Bug Reporter? Have you sent the crash reports?

 

 

So I'm wondering if somehow my .mex files have become corrupted, and if so, how would I go about fixing them? Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Please contact Insight Software Solution's support people. See the Contact Us page for contact information.

[Cory]

Your first step is to contact Insight support.

..............................................

I’m not sure if you realize this but this site is not hosted by ISS although a few of them do read a lot of the posts. Unlike most software companies ISS actually has people you can speak to and understand that know their product well.

 

But if I were you the first thing I would do is to create a blank MEX and load it and see if that causes the error as well. That will tell you if it’s something in your macros. It still shouldn’t crash but it will help you narrow it down.

 

Oh, and it goes without saying before you do any troubleshooting upgrade to the current version. The version you cited is buggy and you might be seeing different errors at home. Your IT staff should have no problem doing this for you assuming your licensing is up to snuff.

 

And of course the first goal in any troubleshooting exercise is reproducibility. Do whatever you can to get it to fail reliably. Otherwise you have the rain-dance troubleshooting.

 

Also you might consider your startup options. If you notice in the error the error is happening in macscript.exe which is the script editor which is only the part that edits scripts. If I were you I would not load the Macro Explorer or anything.

 

Check your security software as well. Some things MEP does could be interpreted as virus-like and over zealous security software might be messing with it. Also the fact that MEP is pretty stable and you have co-workers running it and having problems suggests a commonality causing the behavior. And of course f these machine might be ‘crapped up’ with ages of software trials and such so it might be good to start again with a fresh machine.

 

Finally when troubleshooting there’s a common problem a lot of us experience that MEP crashes and appears to be gone but is not. Open your task manager and go to the processes tab and kill the macexp.exe process if present.

 

Take heart, I have MEP running on several dozen computers with OS’s from Windows 2000 to Vista and have never seen a crash on end user machines. There are a few crashes on computers where I edit macros but even those only happen abut once a week or so. And I do spend a lot of time with MEP.

[rberq]

I have frequently seen crashes of ME3 at the point where I save a macro I have been editing; also when clearing the recycle bin. Usually the ME message says something about the .mex file being corrupted, or not a valid macro file. Crashes seem to be directly related to scheduled macros that may be running (or trying to run) at the time the .mex file is to be updated. My crashes are not as bad as your crashes; all I have to do is restart ME, and always I find the edited macro was saved successfully prior to the crash. As long as the scheduled macros are disabled, no problem. I realize ME3 is not MEP, but it's something for you to consider....

[dickdorfman]

Thanks for all the help. You guys are great!

 

I'll contact ISS, check my start up settings, spend some time trying different files, and do everything I can to avoid resorting to rain dancing to get this to work.

 

Mike

[terrypin]

Thanks for all the help. You guys are great!

 

I'll contact ISS, check my start up settings, spend some time trying different files, and do everything I can to avoid resorting to rain dancing to get this to work.

 

Mike

 

Rain dancing can work, also kicking some nearby item of furniture while swearing mildly.

 

--

Terry, East Grinstead, UK

[Cory]

Not what I meant by rain dancing.

................................................

But I like where you took it I was referring to the rain dance problem as an analogy to troubleshooting unpredictable systems. The upshot is that if one hires a ran dancer and it rains the next day how does one know it wasn’t going to rain anyway? So too with troubleshooting computers. If you can’t reliably reproduce a symptom how do you know that anything you changed had any effect? This is why I hate intermittent symptoms.