labview 8.0 hangs during start

[mysterj]

I am having a recurring problem with LV8.0 hanging during start every few weeks.  I startI click the LV icon, LV appears in the Windows taskbar and then it hangs.  The NI splash does not appear.  Once this behavior starts, it does it every time thereafter.  In the Windows Event viewer, I get the following message:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    Application Hang
Event Category:    (101)
Event ID:    1002
Date:        3/13/2006
Time:        8:19:56 PM
User:        N/A
Computer:    JA3
Description:
Hanging application LabVIEW.exe, version 8.0.1.4000, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.


I have contacted NI Support, but they were unable to provide a resolution other than suggesting a reinstall.  I've done a complete reinstall of LV 8.0 two times already and am poised to do it a third time.  I'm getting fed up with the uninstall/reinstall approach since this sucks up 1/2 day of my time per episode.

There are two potentially relevant entries in the Event Viewer, that occurred prior to LV8.0 going into perpetual hang mode.

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    Application Error
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    1000
Date:        3/12/2006
Time:        3:33:37 PM
User:        N/A
Computer:    JA3
Description:
Faulting application labview.exe, version 8.0.1.4000, faulting module lvdaq.mxx, version 1.0.0.49154, fault address 0x0001a1a7.


Event Type:    Information
Event Source:    NI Variable Engine
Event Category:    None
Event ID:    0
Date:        3/13/2006
Time:        6:22:14 PM
User:        NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
Computer:    JA3
Description:
The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( NI Variable Engine ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event:

NI Variable Engine started.
Executable: C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\Tagger\tagsrv.exe
Plug In Path: C:\Program Files\National Instruments\Shared\Tagger\
Plug Ins: LogosRTServer, NI OPC Server Plugin., LogosRTClient.


Any help in finding a solution to this recurring issue would be appreciated!

Thanks!

[smercurio_fc]

In a situation like this I would try the elimination approach. First off, do you have administrative rights on your computer? What other third-party services and/or hardware do you have installed on your computer? Have you cheked your computer for spyware? Have you tried a scandisk to check for any disk errors? When installing LabVIEW install the absolute minimum just to get LabVIEW running. Don't install any device drivers, or any other toolkits. Just LabVIEW. Also, disable anything else that you might have running on the machine. Can you install it on another machine?

[Tyler]

Mysterj,

I have run into this issue before and there really isn't a way to exactly tell what is going on. However, if you are experiencing what I think you are then the solution could be very easy. From what I am understanding, when you start LabVIEW you can see LabVIEW show up in the toolbar, but no splash screen appears and the only way to exit the app is to use Task Manager. If this is the case, try deleting the "LabVIEW.ini" file in the LabVIEW folder on your machine. I believe that this is happening because the ini file is somehow getting corrupted.

If this does work I suggest that you set up LV the way you like it and then make a copy of the ini file. If the behavior shows up again, copy the saved version and overwrite the existing one. If this fixes it, it would be helpful to us to see the difference in the file.

Let me know if this solves the issue for you. Sorry again for the inconvenience.

Regards,

Tyler H.

Applications Engineer

National Instruments

[mysterj]

Tyler:

Your understanding of the sequence of the problem is correct.  The LV icon shows up in the taskbar, but the splash screen never appears.  I have to kill LV from the Task Manager.

Per your suggestion, I have made a backup of my "Labview.ini" file and will try your suggestion of using the backup .ini the next time this event occurs.  One obvious question: What is LV 8.0 doing between the time the taskbar logo appears and the splash appears?  Is it loading the .ini file and configuring the system?  Or is it doing anything else?

Thanks for your help!

- Keith J.

[Tyler]

Mysterj,

    I am not sure of all the initializations that LabVIEW goes through before the splash screen, but usually if it doesn't occur it is due to a corrupt ini file. That is the reason that I wanted you to back up a working copy, so that if it happens again you can send us copies of both of them and we can investigate where the corruption is taking place. By the way, did deleting the ini file get everything working?? We currently don't have any knowledge bases on this issue, and if that solved the issue I would like to create one for future use by customers and technical support here at NI. Thanks again for your patience.

Tyler H.

[rpursley8]

The same thing happened to me and deleting the labview.ini file did fix the problem.

[mysterj]

Tyler:

I completed a reinstall of LV before I received your first post so I couldn't try deleting the INI file.  However, I definitely will try that next time.

- Keith

[mysterj]

I just had another hang-up event.  Per the earlier posts, I deleted the Labview.ini file and restarted LV.  This worked like a charm -- LV started right up.

I'm posting two copies of LabVIEW.ini -- the "Good" version, which is a backup from when LV was working, and the "Bad" version that causes LV to hang.  I leave it to NI to decipher the cause of the problem.

Thanks to all for your help with resolving this problem!

Regards,

Keith

[KittF]

I'm glad to hear the ini file solution worked.  It was my first guess as to the source of the problem. The differences are so few between the good and bad file it would be useful if you could try a few edits to narrow the source of  the problem.  I only suggest this because it may be difficult to reproduce at NI since the problem may be specific to your installation of various NI software.  This will probably only take 10-15 minutes.

You'll see in the ini files that the differences come down to the lines that start with the list below.  I am most suspicious of the section starting ProbeDefaultCache.  I don't think the window position or recent files list has anything to do with the hang.  I am not sure why there are parenthesis around ",CleanUpWire" in the good ini file.  Everything below the empty line below is only in the bad ini file and not in the good.  I think I would start by 1) making it hang again with the bad ini file, 2) deleting everything from the bad ini below the empty line below, 3) putting quotes around ",CleanUpWire" in the 4th line below, 4) deleting the recent files list, 5) updating the window position, AND FINALLY 6) changing the ProbeDefaultCache to that of the good ini file.   If it turns out to be 2 that fixes the problem, I'd add it back and then delete lines one at a time. 

Let me know what you find.

Kitt

ProbeDefaultCache=
ProjectExplorer.ClassicPosition=45,28,620,380
RecentFiles.pathList=
NoAdvice070=,CleanUpWire

FPGADialogControl=compileWarningIfBitfile
MenuMRUItems="Tools:Options...,1391;"
FPFont="" 120 IS
NewDlgRecentMainTemplates.pathList=""
NewDlgBounds=800;600
NewDlgLastSelected=C26E7225-44A0-4CDD-8B16-BA9836DBD5A7
NewDlgSmall=False
NewDlgCollapsed=VI
NewDlgRecentTemplates.pathList=""
DontShowProjectRemoveDialog=True

[mysterj]

Kitt:

The offending line is:

FPFont="" 120 IS

Removal of this single line made the 'Bad Labview.ini' file usable again.  I'd be curious to know what this keyword does and why it's causing a hang.

- Keith