Labview stops opening menus and windows

[Bob_Schor]

One of the truly "interesting" things about LabVIEW is when an installation goes awry, it is almost never clear what broke, or why.  I typically install LabVIEW, LabVIEW Real Time, Vision, the Report Generation Toolkit (pre-LabVIEW 2014), and DAQmx.  I tend to do it in that order (left over from the instructions that came with LabVIEW 7.0).  Sometimes it works, sometimes (I'm looking at you, LabVIEW 2011!) it fails miserably.  Doing the installation in small steps (one component at a time) with a reboot between each step was (particularly in 2011) occasionally required.

But even when done carefully, certain LabVIEW Services would be turned off during installation of one piece and not get turned back on when the next piece was installed, leaving you with missing Services and a non-functional system.

About a year ago, one of my systems was thus plagued.  I was dubious when the NI Support Engineer suggested going into Programs and Features, selecting everything under National Instruments, and clicking "Repair", but three hours later and maybe 30-50 DVD inserts, I was back up and running.

And last week I got MAX running again (on a system with 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 that was working just fine until I installed 2015) by repairing just MAX (took about 30-45 minutes and 6 DVD insertions).  So I'm becoming "a believer" ...

Bob Schor

[Bob_Schor]

This is a P.S. to my previous post -- I predict that if you attempt a Repair of all the NI software on your machine that has "only one version of LabVIEW", you will be asked for the distribution disks for all of the versions that had ever been installed on that machine, suggesting that there are "leftover crumbs" that the un-installation routine didn't handle properly.  I'll wager a beer or glass of wine on this ...

BS

[JÞB]

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@Bob_Schor wrote:

This is a P.S. to my previous post -- I predict that if you attempt a Repair of all the NI software on your machine that has "only one version of LabVIEW", you will be asked for the distribution disks for all of the versions that had ever been installed on that machine, suggesting that there are "leftover crumbs" that the un-installation routine didn't handle properly.  I'll wager a beer or glass of wine on this ...

BS

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I owe you a beer or glass of wine. collect at any time

[Hooovahh]

I currently have 5 versions of LabVIEW installed on my main development machine, but in the past I've had more.  I use a custom tool that helps keep LabVIEW versions separate.  I have it setup so that when I open any VI file, it brings up a dialog showing me the versions that can open it, and the versions that are already open.  I can then choose to open in any version I want.  I have other options too to do things like if one version can open it, and no others are running to just open it in that.  This is helpful for things like VIs on the forums that could be in any version and I just want to open the source and look around as quick as possible.

I should really make a post dedicated to this software, but my only point is multiple versions can work, but I too have been burned before by up saving accidentally, which is where SCC saves me.

[aartjan]

I have the same issue.

I have a brand new Dell XPS13 with Windows 10 and just installed Labview  2015 32 & 64 bit with the newly released installation DVD.

Installation took a long time. After a while it prompted me that the installation of Labview 32 bit had failed. 64 bit succeeded however.

The installation turns out useless. It will run as if everything is fine, but after a while it will fail to open any menu. This means: the application menu, a case structure menu, or even a cluster unbundle by name.

what is the advise?

[billko]

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@aartjan wrote:

I have the same issue.

I have a brand new Dell XPS13 with Windows 10 and just installed Labview  2015 32 & 64 bit with the newly released installation DVD.

Installation took a long time. After a while it prompted me that the installation of Labview 32 bit had failed. 64 bit succeeded however.

The installation turns out useless. It will run as if everything is fine, but after a while it will fail to open any menu. This means: the application menu, a case structure menu, or even a cluster unbundle by name.

what is the advise?

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The compatibility table doesn't even include Windows 10 so all bets are off as far as "official" support is concerned.  That being said, have you tried repairing the 32-bit version yet?

[ste_edi]

I have now done (in the following sequence):

 o full repair of Labview 2012 SP1 (Spring 2013)

 o complete deinstallation of LabView 2012 SP1 (Spring 2013)

 o update of my video driver to the latest version

 o installation of LabView 2014 from scratch

 o full repair of LabView 2014 (all modules)

None of these steps solved my problem, i.e. I still face the problem that Lavbiew stops to be able to open windows and menus a short while after opening a VI...

By the way: both repair sessions only took as many disk swaps as the respective original installation.

As I said before the bahaviour when switching from normal operation to become unable to open windows and menus feels like a memory problem, i.e. that Labview is not allocated enough RAM at runtime.

This impression is supported by the following observations:

 o when opening one VI, LabView may be happy for O(30seconds) for me to 'work',

     i.e. opening windows and menus before it starts to show the problems

 o this is a reproducible time frame, i.e. it never starts the problems immediately, it never lasts longer

 o when left alone after starting the VI, e.g. for 2 minutes, I still have the ~30seconds acivity before it turns sour

 o but if I open a second VI it turns bad instantly after opening the front panel of the second VI

    (correction from tests below:

    one still has a very short window of opportunity to open another window, e.g. a block diagram, but then the problem starts)

 o the state can be reset by closing the VI(s) without closing LabView, i.e. opening then a VI starts the behaviour all over again

So here is some monitoring data gathered with my current installation (LabView 2014):

                                                                                   Memory allocated    Physical Memory

                                                                                    to LabView

action:                                                                                                        Total        Cached        Available

o before LabView is started                                  00,000kB                8073MB  ~2872MB   ~3290MB

o LabView started without VI opened                  81,844kB                8073MB  ~2843MB   ~3118MB

o VI1 opened, not yet worked with                        93,144kB                8073MB  ~2846MB   ~3120MB

o working with VI1 (<30sec)                                  93,684kB                8073MB  ~2845MB   ~3122MB

o once the windows don't open anymore           93,684kB                8073MB  ~2848MB   ~3123MB

o after closing the VI1                                              93,048kB                8073MB  ~2848MB   ~3122MB

o VI1 opened, not yet worked with                         96,964kB                8073MB  ~2847MB   ~3123MB

o after starting 2nd VI (VI2)                                   108,872kB                8073MB  ~2848MB   ~3106MB

o with windows not opening anymore               107,972kB                8073MB  ~2847MB   ~3107MB

o after closing both VIs                                            97,616kB                8073MB  ~2849MB   ~3112MB

o after closing LabView                                           00,000kB                8073MB  ~2902MB   ~3250MB

o LabView started with VI1 (by file association) 76,084kB                8073MB  ~2854MB   ~3127MB

o working with VI1 (<30sec)                                   76,124kB                8073MB  ~2852MB   ~3127MB

o once the windows don't open anymore           76,320kB                8073MB  ~2852MB   ~3130MB

o after closing the VI1                                              83,016kB                8073MB  ~2859MB   ~3124MB

o VI1 opened, not yet worked with                         93,052kB                8073MB  ~2860MB   ~3116MB

o after starting 2nd VI (VI2)                                   104,328kB                8073MB  ~2860MB   ~3099MB

o with windows not opening anymore                104,284kB                8073MB  ~2860MB   ~3100MB

o after closing both VIs                                            92,828kB                8073MB  ~2857MB   ~3102MB

o after closing LabView                                           00,000kB                8073MB  ~2914MB   ~3257MB

Note: over the course of the tests I had the impression that the problem is linked to the number of windows which have been opened so far in the process (not the number of menus...).

There is nothing obviously wrong to me in the above memory data.

All values seem to me to be withing fluctuations you would expect.

There may be a memory leak in LabView, as when you close all VIs LabView does not return to the previous allocation of memory. But compared to the available physical memory on the system this is small and should not hit a boundary for quite a long time.

... I am out of my wits and have tried all suggestions put forward here ...

[aputman]

Is there some sort of utility that you may have installed, maybe from VIPM, that could be causing this?  I doubt this is the case since you said that you have a fresh install of Labview.  I am really just thinking out loud at the moment (if that is possible to do on forums).  

Sounds like a fresh install of Windows is due.  Good luck.

[ste_edi]

I only have installed what I did list in a previous post. So, I think the answer is, no, I don't have VIPM (I am not sure what this would be...)

[pedrofiesta]

I had the same problem when I replaced my 3rd screen for a one with bigger resolution (using LabVIEW 2013) Then I found this known bug for 2014: http://www.ni.com/product-documentation/52150/en/#369142_by_Category I could not disable the Aero Theme (IT policies!?!?), but disabling the 3rd monitor fixes the problem.