PI Will Not Open (No Access Violation or Dell)

[Warhen]

As of this morning, PI won't open. Could not 'repair' via Uninstaller- see attached. Had been used for 2 weeks with no issues. PC was not turned off. Nothing unusual about last termination of program. After uninstall/reinstall, it's back, for the moment. Thank you!

[Juan Conejero]

Hi Warren,

What is the exact meaning of 'won't open'? Do you get some error messages when you launch the application? This is weird after 2 weeks working normally. AFAIK, this has not been reported before.

The new installer packages are also uninstallers, so you should keep a copy of the installer file for the version you have installed, in order to uninstall it easily. With old 1.8.4 versions, the application distribution included an uninstall.exe executable, which is handier because the original package is not required. The software I am using now to generate installation packages on Windows (Advanced Installer) is great but does not support this feature, supposedly for good reasons (standalone uninstaller programs may cause problems with Windows in some cases).

[Warhen]

Hi Juan, It was odd. Double-clicking a PI program icon would generate a Windows spinning circle for a few seconds, which would then die without PI opening- no error message. I rebooted, and also tried running as admin. I had to uninstall/reinstall to get 'er back. 

So, you say it's best to uninstall from the installer come next update, rather than going through Windows 'Remove Programs?' Thanks!

[topboxman]

I get exactly same thing as well but rebooting the computer resolved it. But exiting PI would not allow me to restart PI again unless I reboot the computer or use "PixInsight - New Instance".

Peter

[topboxman]

Warhen,

Try this. Process your image using many PI tools and exit PI using the "X" at upper right. Can you restart PI?

If the answer is no, reboot the computer and if you can restart PI, reprocess your image again and exit PI using "File->Exit". Can you restart PI?

Starting and then exiting PI does not seem to affect restarting PI. In my case, I need to use at least two or three PI tools to process in order to make this issue repeatable. I know it sounds very strange.

In my case, exiting PI using "File->Exit" seems to work better.

Peter

[GordonH]

I'm having a similar issue. Sometimes when I exit out of PI (using the "X") and then try to restart it later all I get is the spinning circle. I started monitoring my Windows 10 system using the Resource Monitor - Memory tab and the Task Manager. When exiting PI the PixInsight.exe process in the Resource Monitor will change from normal print to grayed out and ultimately disappear. It also disappears immediately from the Task Manager.
Sometimes the PixInsight.exe process disappears from the Task Manager but stays in normal print in the Resource Monitor and doesn't disappear with time. That's when PI will not restart. If I re-boot the computer PI will restart.

Today I did some searching on the web for processes that don't terminate properly. What I discovered is if I open an Admin level command prompt window you can type Tasklist and you will get a list of running processes similar to the Resource Monitor. I did that when PI would not restart. The PixInsight process was not listed. However, I entered:

Taskkill /PID xxxx /F        (where xxxx was the PID number listed next to the process on the Process Monitor)
The process reported success, the PixInsight.exe disappeared from the Resource Monitor, and then I could restart PI.

I'm over my head here. I don't know if this is a Windows bug or a PI issue.

Gordon

[topboxman]

Interesting detective work!!!

Peter

[tloebl]

This all sounds similar to the Windows 7 issue except that one can be reproduced 100% of the time and cleared in Task Manager.

[topboxman]

I never see PI in task manager even if I cannot restart PI.

I find exiting PI using "File->Exit" much better and 100% reliable than using upper right "X".

Peter

[tloebl]

Sounds like a different issue in Windows 10 than mine in Win 7....