Skip navigation
LeisaLaDell
Currently Being Moderated

Fatal Error: Unexpected error from Microsoft HTML compiler.

May 8, 2008 9:21 PM


Although I get a happy message in a dialog box that says HTML Help has been sucessfully generated, the Output view tells a different story: Fatal Error: Unexpected error from Microsoft HTML compiler.

And, it does create a CHM, but when I try to open, it gives a Cannot Open File error. Then, when I try to compile again, I get an error that says "Cannot create compiled file. It may be open in another window...", which of course it is not, because I cannot open it.

So....I close everything down, restart, and try again - have done this about 6 times with no better result.

I am having way more problems with RH in the last 2 days than I have had with any software I can remember : ( - My company is building a V1 Enterprise level product, still in Alpha testing, and it's more stable. Arggggh....


Should I reinstall RH? Scrap the project and start from scratch? (no......too many hours investing in TOCs, settings, importing, templates, css, ect)

Any insights? Suggestions? Going home now....

Thanks.
 
Replies
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 9, 2008 1:13 AM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    Oh nice! I've got a problem, I'm dumping it on you and going home. :-)

    OK. You have a number of posts going and put together something is clearly wrong. I haven't worked back through them all so maybe some of the following is covered in them.

    Make a backup before you try anything so that you have nothing to lose.

    Is your project on your local drive and are you generating to your local drive?

    Have you tried deleting the CPD file? - See Opening Projects on my site.

    If those fail, then try uninstalling and reinstalling. Don't forget the installer must have admin rights.

    What you are seeing is not normal or nobody could use the product.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 9, 2008 1:35 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    See Opening Projects for information about the CPD file. Don't worry too much right now about all the other file types, we all love helping a WYSIWYG girl!

    Do make a backup first.

    I think the Book / Page thing only occurs if the book does not have any topics below it.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 12, 2008 12:08 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    I have had a similar problem with the HTML Compiler that RH7 uses. It says it has compiled the project, but then I get an error when I try to open the .Chm. Which is only about 1 K in size, so I know there is something wrong. The error I get says it can't open it, and in doing research, I found that the Hhctrl.ocx file is missing or something. I found this file was missing in my Windows registry. I am trying to locate it and install it, but I do not know how to do this.

    I wounder if re-installing RH7 would make a difference. I was able to successfully compile this project in RH7.

    Kathleen Baine
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 12, 2008 1:36 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    Kathleen

    Was RH installed with your logon and do you have admin rights? (Required for installation).

    It can also be installed by an administrator who will have the required rights.

    If that is not it, search on hhctrl.ocx in this forum. In your profile, increase the number of days to search.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 12, 2008 2:13 PM   in reply to K Baine
    Hi, Kathleen,

    > the Hhctrl.ocx file is missing or something

    If you can open other .chm files on your computer then the chances are that the HTML Help viewer components (of which hhctrl.ocx is one) are fine. To double-check this, you could try running MJ's Help Diagnostics, which is available from here:

    http://helpware.net/downloads/index.htm#MJs

    It's perhaps worth noting that the four HTML Help viewer components are treated as protected system components by Windows; to a large extent, they're indestructible. So although problems with these components do happen from time to time, they're thankfully quite rare.

    The fact that you say that your .chm file is just 1 KB in size suggests that there is a problem with either your help project or (less likely) with the HTML Help compiler components on your computer. MJ's Help Diagnostics can check for problems with these compiler components as well as with the viewer components.

    Pete
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 12, 2008 10:50 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    Make sure your project name has no spaces in it, go to File | Rename to change.

    Make sure the name of the CHM file as defined in the wizard is exactly the same as the project name. Generate to a local folder.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 14, 2008 7:45 AM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    Sometimes it is necessary to start over but usually trashing the CPD will fix things. I would start by importing some topics and then generating, ignore broken link warnings. If something does generate, then keep going in tranches making sure you can still generate. Either you will get all the way through and problem solved, or one of the imports will break things. At that point we can investigate more.

    I thought support only answered if you have a plan. If they are talking to you for free, keep going!

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 14, 2008 12:40 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    This is more of a philosophical piece of advice, rather than specific technical help:

    A few times, we faced the fact that we had an unacceptable problem with our large RoboHelp project, and that we were not able to track it down, so that we could solve it.

    Of course, we could revert to a back-up version, but at the expense of a lot of hard work. And sometimes, problems remain unnoticed for some time, before anyone discovers it.

    Somehow exporting and then importing our help project is generally not feasible. This is really a true last resort for us.

    So, what to do, what to do?

    Indeed, renaming the CPD file, and letting RoboHelp re-generate it, saved us a few times already.

    As Peter mentioned, importing bit and pieces of your project into a new project is one systematic approach.

    Another one is to break your broken project into smaller pieces, and hopefully find where the problem is coming from.

    For example, we simply removed half of all our topics, but that did not help. We then went back to our backup, and removed the other half. Tada. We then went back to our backup, and started the process over. After a fairly short time, we had reduced the problem to a handful of topics. Then, we removed the Table of Contents, Index, etc.

    Since RoboHelp can only really import one topic at a time, this multipl-e-topic approach worked better for us.

    Good luck.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 15, 2008 5:29 PM   in reply to Pete Lees
    I never did try to re-install that Hhl... oxc file. I don't know how to install it. I do have Admin rights on my PC. I also re-installed RH7 and deleted the .cpd. No change.

    I took a lot of the files from my non-functioning project and imported them into a new project. I did a short TOC and it all compiled just fine. So, it must be something with the project. It created a nice fat chm which I could open just fine.

    However, it did not create an Index or Glossary - in fact, I did not have the option to select those in the dialog box when I was compiling. But, maybe they were not available because I didn't have any entries in the Index or Glossary.

    Assuming I now have to re-create my Help project (oh joy!), is there a way to copy the Index and Glossary files from old project?

    Thank you for your help, Peter.

    Kathleen

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 15, 2008 5:43 PM   in reply to K Baine
    One more thing. From the same project, shouldn't I be able to generate both WebHelp and HTML Help? I was able to do this in RH5. And I could also generate WebHelp from my old, corrupted project with no problem. I just couldn't generate a .chm. I've always been able to do this.

    Just a thought.

    Thanks.
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 15, 2008 11:15 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    Kathleen

    You can use Windows Explorer to manually copy the files, just give them the correct name for the new project.

    You should also be able to create any of the outputs. Pete Lees has indicated how to deal with the Hhctrl.exe issue.

    In this thread it was indicated in one post that you can only import one topic at a time. That is wrong, you can import multiple files.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 19, 2008 5:03 PM   in reply to Peter Grainge
    Hello, I have been having an inability to compile due to the Fatal Error discussed in this thread ever since I uninstalled Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (the free edition). I believe this was the event that caused this problem which has caused all of my work to come to a standstill.

    The exact message is "Fatal Error: Unexpected error from Microsoft HTML compiler." Attempts to launch the resultant CHM generate the message "Cannot open the file: mk:@MSITStore:[path to CHM file]."

    I have deleted the CPD file. I have reimported the project from the BOOK file (by reference). I have also obtained the latest service packs from Microsoft KB925902, KB928843, and KB935448 which I installed in that sequence and then I registered hhctrl.ocx and itss.dll.

    I have been looking for the solution to this problem for a full half day now with no success. I guess I could try to reinstall RoboHelp at this point. But if anyone had any other ideas, I would appreciate them.

    Thank you,

    Z.
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 20, 2008 1:08 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    Thanks Leisa. I did try reimporting the project already, but will try it again. Not to go off on a tangent, but is it just me or is the server hosting this board unbelievably slow and unresponsive? I was also wondering if you had noticed anyone from Adobe monitoring this board. On the Framemaker board they have someone from Adobe there but it seems like the RoboHelp board does not have anyone. Thanks again Leisa.

    Very Best Regards,

    Z.
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • RoboColum(n)
    5,000 posts
    Oct 8, 2004
    Currently Being Moderated
    May 20, 2008 1:21 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    You are not alone in experienceing a slow response (or occasionally no response at all) on these forums.

    BTW Adobe tend to leave us alone on these forums. They do occasionally pop their heads in but they certainly don't monitor it.
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 20, 2008 5:44 PM   in reply to RoboColum(n)
    Thanks Colum for verifying my experiences here. In other news, I have tracked down the source of my problem. It has to do with the mapping of Framemaker paragraph styles to RoboHelp styles. I felt it was my humanitarian duty to struggle through another twenty near death experiences to let you all know.

    Best Regards,

    Z.
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 21, 2008 6:13 AM   in reply to Z. Bulova
    I'm still having the same problem. I'm using RH7. I had no problems compiling this project in RH 5. I created a new project and imported several of the files. It compiled ok. Then I imported the rest of the files and copied over the TOC, Glossary, and Index files in Windows Explorer. I tried compiling, and got the same problem.

    I did not create this project by importing Word or FrameMaker files. Every topic was created from scratch, although I did copy and paste some text from other sources, but it was just plain text.

    I also noticed a new problem: wherever a sentence begins with a quote, the beginning quote is replaced by r; Very strange. In other places, an em dash is replaced by &emdash, or something like that. It's like it can't translate the character.

    And these characters replacing the quote marks weren't there in the original project. It's like they've been introduced since I've been working on the project.

    By the way, I have no trouble compiling into WebHelp, except that these weird characters are showing up everywhere. I did fix it in one file and it compiled into WebHelp correctly.

    Makes me wonder if there is some kind of virus. I work for a company that does regular updates of security patches, if that means anything. I have no control over that.

    I appreciate any help anyone can give me!

    Kathleen Baine
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 21, 2008 8:11 AM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    Kathleen

    The quotes problem sounds like you upgraded before applying the 7.0.1 patch.

    There's some information on my site under Using RH7.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 23, 2008 12:57 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    Hi Z,

    I too have suffered with this problem, and was never able to find any one file that was causing it. I had a HUGE project that compiled like a dream in RH 5, and failed with exactly the same error you got after I upgraded it to RH 7. One of the things that MAY have helped was moving my project to the root directory on C, and simplifying its name. When it ran in RH 5, it was several directories deep on my computer, and it never complained. RH7 seems to like it better in C:projectname.

    I too spent hours with Adobe support, sent them my files, and they were able to re-create the problem -- then it mysteriously disappeared for both them and me. Now I work on it, and every so often I generate a CHM file after clicking my heels three times on a day with a full moon, and praying to whoever will listen. So far, it is still building, and I can only hope it will continue to do so.

    Good luck to you!

    --Kat
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Aug 25, 2008 2:07 AM   in reply to LeisaLaDell
    We found that we have 'Fatal Error: Unexpected error from Microsoft HTML compiler.' when one of our *.h files contains comments like /* something */
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Sep 2, 2008 5:18 AM   in reply to DenisKD
    Thanks Denis !
    Removing comments from header files really solved the problem !
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Nov 13, 2008 12:45 PM   in reply to seppos_twg
    I just got past this problem yesterday. I was able to determine the problem file by examining the HTML file that appeared immediately before the "Fatal Error: Unexpected error from Microsoft HTML compiler" message in the Output View. In my case, the problem was caused by broken links within the HTML file (the topic had been imported into the project from a previous issue with a predecessor project). While it may not be relevant, the broken links all pointed to files 4-5 levels deep in the directory structure. The only reason I point this out is that I know there are other bad links within the project, but these were the only ones that seemed to cause a problem.
     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 19, 2009 12:53 AM   in reply to LeisaLaDell

    I had come to this forum with a hope of resolving the issue. But even after trying out all the suggestions by all ( thanks to all ), I could not get this error out. Instead, I feel

    I can help someone by posting my answer which worked for my project which compiled successfully.

     

    Ok, back to the point..

    Starting with, I installed all the patches/upgrades released for RoboHelp 7.

     

    1. Keep an eye on the last .htm page that is shown just before the error message "Fatal Error: Unexpected error from Microsoft HTML compiler" that appears in "Output view"

     

    2. Open the .htm file and remove all the images you have inserted if any. Save and compile. If you are able to compile without any error,

         a. it means you image file name is too lengthy

         b. the image file is too deep in its path.

     

    Fix: 1. Try to reduce the image name length

          2. Try to place the Image file in the outer-most folder instead of placing it inside a "deep" folder.

     

    I was able to troubleshoot and by following these steps, was able to compile my help project without any errors.

     

    Please try this and post your replies.. Good Luck !

     

    Thank you

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 19, 2009 2:44 AM   in reply to PramodRai

    Always appreciated when someone takes the trouble to come back and post their solution. Thanks for posting that

     


    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    May 19, 2009 11:23 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell

    We had the same problem happening on one computer. We ran the MJ's Help Diagnostics utility on both computers and found that the one causing the Fatal Error had "HTML Help Workshop" installed on it. It was uninstalled and the fatal error is no longer occurring.

     

    Debbie Sarig

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Dec 10, 2010 12:16 PM   in reply to LeisaLaDell

    Hi, Folks!

     

    I had the same problem and just wanted to mention how I solved it -in case it helps anybody. I followed the suggestion above of noting in the compiler output view what files caused the compiler to fail and then deactivating those files until I could determine exactly which file caused the problem.

     

    -My first failure was in the TOC (.hhc) so I renamed it so the compiler would skip it -avoiding that failure.

    -On the next compile it failed with the Index (.hhk) file, so I renamed the Index so it would not compile.

    -On the next compile it began compiling the topics (having skipped the renamed TOC and Index) but it failed when it reached a particular topic.

    -I continued disabling failed topics until I determined they all had links to one topic that had some suspicious problems. When I removed all references and links to that suspicious topic the compilation succeeded, and it said the one suspicious topic "was not compiled". I replaced that problem topic and restored its links to other topics, the TOC, the Index and the Context Sensitive map file. Then everything worked fine.

     

    -I believe the problem in the topic was caused during the conversion of the project from WinHelp. The topic had a very long title in the body of the text including an ampersand and carriage return. Maybe that caused a problem with an XML file somewhere.

    -Note that the references to the bad topic caused the TOC and Index files to fail to compile at first, even though there was nothing wrong with the TOC or Index itself.

     

    Thank you to everyone above who provided helpful suggestions!

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 21, 2011 4:39 AM   in reply to LeisaLaDell

    Hi Everyone. Just thought I should add my experience here. Had exactly the same issue myself today and came here looking for the solution. Eventually solved it myself - for me it was caused by renaming the project - the .hhc and .hhk files still had the old project name. As soon as I renamed them -> hey presto, it compiled ok. Apologies if this was already explained elsewhere. IMHO renaming the project in Robohelp ought to take care of this really, since it cause such an unfriendly error.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 21, 2011 5:21 AM   in reply to TA Andy

    If you rename a project in RoboHelp it does rename those files. Usually such problems are where people have changed the name in Windows Explorer.

     


    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

     

    @petergrainge

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 21, 2011 5:31 AM   in reply to Peter Grainge

    Thank you Peter. I thought I had used the RH rename function, but in truth I'm not 100% sure (it was a long time ago - I've been using Webhelp, but now a colleague needs a chm version). Also I can compile locally but not on the network, so my "solution" is clearly not the full picture.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 21, 2011 6:10 AM   in reply to Peter Grainge

    Me again - clearly not giving up actually...

    I don't know if this helps, but I've just observed one compilation that worked and one that failed - both on the C: drive. The difference between them is the length of the path name to the destination folder. The really long one failed. I hope this helps. Cheers.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 21, 2011 7:13 AM   in reply to TA Andy

    Yes, there is a windows limit of 256 characters. If something is in your profile, that takes a whole chunk of characters.

     


    See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

     

    @petergrainge

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 11, 2012 8:45 AM   in reply to LeisaLaDell

    Hi everyone!

    I've just faced with the same problem working with RH 9. I've investigated all replies to this post and would like to share a few comments from my side.

    In my situation, the compiler shows the fatal error message when it starts processing the .hhc file. (Still the file is fine,) I would really appreciate if RH development team rewrites the message, because the "Fatal Error: Unexpected error from Microsoft HTML compiler.", in fact means nothing.

    Well, let us get back to the problem. I've managed to fix it. First of all, it looks like the CPD file does not cause the problem. I've renamed it (deleted it), but it did not actually help. I've checked names of files and folders and eliminated all spaces and dots. It didn't help either. Finally I've placed the folder with source project files to the root of partition, and it DID help. So, I suspect, the problem is with a path length. But in my situation it is even less than 256 characters. It is only 127 (along with names of .hhx, xpj. and other files.) Even path to the default destination folder is less than 256 characters.

    I would also thank all for you for your advises and thoughts.

     
    |
    Mark as:
  • Currently Being Moderated
    Jul 11, 2012 8:50 AM   in reply to drbotkin

    Best practices dictate keeping the path as short a possible - c:\projects\[project_name]\ is the recommended structure.

     
    |
    Mark as:

More Like This

  • Retrieving data ...

Bookmarked By (1)

Answers + Points = Status

  • 10 points awarded for Correct Answers
  • 5 points awarded for Helpful Answers
  • 10,000+ points
  • 1,001-10,000 points
  • 501-1,000 points
  • 5-500 points