New PI Installation fails to start due to Fatal Error

[Juan Conejero]

The PixInsight distribution for Windows already includes all necessary C and C++ redistributable modules. There is no debug information in the distributed executable files, so a debug session would be of little or no help.

The problem you are experiencing does obviously not happen under normal operating conditions. There is something in your Windows installation and/or hardware/software configuration that is incompatible with PixInsight for some odd reason. I have never seen anything like this before.

[msmythers]

Here is something I found that again may not have any baring but thought it was worth a look. This is dealing with a driver causing this error. Don't know but again might be worth a look. Maybe an odd graphics driver problem or some other driver. Also maybe a page file problem. You might check to see if you have the latest hardware drivers for your computer.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff546823(v=vs.85).aspx

Also look at the Event Viewer to help track down the issue.

https://www.winhelp.us/event-viewer-in-windows.html


Mike

[dnault42]

It's been a few months since I updated any drivers, so I'll check that.  I entirely forgot about Event Viewer.  I'll see if it provides any other information.  Thanks Mike.

I do appreciate everyone trying to help.  I'm definitely scratching my head here as well as all other versions of PI I have installed have worked fine.

I have noticed that after uninstalling 1171 and reinstalling 1123 my PI environment comes back up exactly as it was, with all the same global preferences, explorer tabs, etc.  Could there be some sort of setup file in my user space that is not playing nicely with build 1171?  I may also try a PI reset with 1123 installed, then uninstall it before installing 1171 again.

Regards,
David

[Juan Conejero]

I have noticed that after uninstalling 1171 and reinstalling 1123 my PI environment comes back up exactly as it was

This is normal behavior. PixInsight 1.8.3 and 1.8.4 use different settings files (so actually they can be used simultaneously on the same computer).

Version 1.8.4 is more demanding hardware wise (and hence driver wise). PixInsight now requires a working OpenGL subsystem on all supported platforms, while version 1.8.3 doesn't use any graphics hardware acceleration. Other than that, there should be no substantial differences.

[dnault42]

Still no success.  I updated the video card drivers, tried clearing the cache and running in uninstall mode with the previous version before uninstalling it and installing the new version.  I can find no event that corresponds to the launching of PI in the event log.

Are there major differences between 1170 & 1171?  1170 worked fine.

Regards,
David

[dnault42]

I tried installing it on my laptop and it worked, sort of.  It will come up and says it has 5 updates, if I say to go ahead and install them it shuts PI down but then nothing happens.  The task manager shows that PI is running and it never seems to exit.  Let's not address that here though.  I'll make another post if I can't past that.  Suffice it to say that 1171 only fails on my desktop machine, which is of course where I need it to run.

Regards,
David

[dnault42]

So today, I took the drastic measure of moving to Windows 10.  It went smoother than I expected actually.  It kept all my data and programs, but it also kept the same problem.  Build 1171 still fails to start presenting the same error.  At this point I am reduced to slowly uninstalling every program and driver until it works and if that fails it will be time for a clean install.

Regards,
David

[msmythers]

David

One more thing to try. Safe mode. I have Windows 7 64 and I'm still running 1123 but it worked in safe mode. I used the minimum services select also. Have no clue how OpenGL will react in safe mode and your video resolution might be reduced?


Mike

[dnault42]

No luck with safe mode.

Regards,
David

[msmythers]

David

This is odd. Makes me think it might be some odd hardware failure like a memory stick needing to be re-seated or a connector or something. Safe mode would have eliminated all third party software that hides during startup and runs in the background. It completely eliminates antivirus software also. Safemode I believe leaves only Microsoft code running including generic Microsoft drivers for hardware. Upgrading to Windows 10 and the problem continuing makes it even more baffling.

Maybe some parameter in the bios for video or memory?

I'm out of wild guesses.


Mike
 

[dnault42]

I uninstalled every program without success, which left me only with a full re-install of the OS, rather than just the Windows 10 upgrade.

That did fix it, indicating that it wasn't a hardware issue.  I can only assume it was some sort of corrupted file that was not removed or modified by either the Windows 10 upgrade or removal of all programs.  What could be corrupted that wasn't effecting anything else I'm not sure.  However, it's done now and I'm back up and running.  Shouldn't take me too long to get everything re-installed as I don't really have a lot of stuff on this machine.  It's only purpose is for processing my images.

If I do find that PI starts failing the same way again after installing some other program or driver I will post it here.

Regards,
David

[msmythers]

Glad it's running David. I see a hard drive image backup in your future!



Mike

[dnault42]

Almost certainly!

Regards,
David