RoboHelp 7 Crash - MS Visual C Runtime Error

[Guest]

I have been using RH7 for many months. Today, I was using Single Source Layout > Printed Documentation > Properties. And it crashes without doing any more than looking at the dialogue; sometimes when setting the location for the output.

I get a Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library "Runtime Error" - RoboHTML.exe ... "The app has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information."

This has now happened 3 times in a row.  On one occasion I was warned of a corrupted $StylePrepFile.htm, which I deleted and tried again.

I have rebooted; I have run Norton SystemWorks diagnostics to repair system errors. But it's still doing it.

I have tried deleting the CPD file, but it still crashes on this project. When I click on the OK button in the error message dialogue, RH disappears instantly. But you cannot re-open RH and then open the project again because it tells me it is locked by another instance of RH. I looked in Task Manager, and RoboHtml.exe is still loaded. I have to delete it here before I can reopen it and load the project.

A thought: I have been trying RH8 in Trial mode, and decided not to upgrade just yet; so I uninstalled it. Would this cause problems with RH7? If so, how do I fix it?

Any ideas anyone?

[Peter Grainge]

Have you tried deleting the print layout and creating a new one, not a duplicate?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

Thank you for your suggestion, Peter. I tried it and this is what happened.

I had trouble with two separate printed doc layouts. So I loaded a recent backup copy of the project, and tried adding a new Print layout. I used the same conditional build tags. I built the output, which went through its normal slow processing, and then, at the end, I got an error message like this:

The Output View showed a long log of the build:

===========================================

Starting to build Printed Documentation...
Printed Documentation processor 7.00.145

Building D:\!Active clients\Client BP Sunbury\Client BPOSS Shipboard\Copy of Backup copy 90610 BPOSS_SB_Source\!SSL!\Inst_Setup_Upgrade_Restore_Guide_BP_-_PDF\Inst_Setup_Upgrade_Restore_Guide_BP_-_PDF.doc ...

Preparing to create Printed Documentation...
Clearing output folder...
Preparing files for Print Document...
Copying files...
Updating files...
Finished preparing in 11 seconds.
Preparing environment...
Printed Document Generator Environment: Word 11.0.8307,  OS 5.1.2600, RAM 1535 M Bytes
Building Printed Documentation 'Inst Setup Upgrade Restore Guide BP - PDF'...
Building Single Document 'Inst_Setup_Upgrade_Restore_Guide_BP_-_PDF.doc'...
Building 'TitlePage Installation & Setup Guide - BP Ships'...
Warning: The Word Document became corrupt when attempting to append a malformed topic: 'TitlePage_Installation_&_Setup_Guide_-_BP_Ships.htm'
Failed to build 'TitlePage Installation & Setup Guide - BP Ships'...
Failed to generate section 'TitlePage Installation & Setup Guide - BP Ships'...
Building 'Table of Contents'...
Preparing to build chapters...
Building 'Installation and Setup Guide'...
Warning: The Word Document became corrupt when attempting to append a malformed topic: 'Installation_and_Setup_Guide.htm'
Failed to build 'Installation and Setup Guide'...
Building 'Installing BPOSS Shipboard.'...
Processing 'Minimum System Requirements'...
Processing 'Installation Concepts - BP Ships'...
Warning: The Word Document became corrupt when attempting to append a malformed topic: 'Minimum_System_Requirements.htm'
Processing 'Download BPOSS Shipboard Files'...
Warning: The Word Document became corrupt when attempting to append a malformed topic: 'Installation_Concepts_-_BP_Ships.htm'
Warning: The Word Document became corrupt when attempting to append a malformed topic: 'Download_BPOSS_Shipboard_Files.htm'
Failed to process 'Download BPOSS Shipboard Files'...
Fatal Error: Word Document got corrupt. Abort building 'Installing BPOSS Shipboard.'.
Failed to build 'Installing BPOSS Shipboard.'...
Failed to build 'Installing BPOSS Shipboard.'...
Building 'Configure AMOS Mail'...
Processing 'Configure AMOS Mail for BPOSS'...
Warning: The Word Document became corrupt when attempting to append a malformed topic: 'Configure_AMOS_Mail_for_BPOSS.htm'
Failed to build 'Configure AMOS Mail'...
Building 'System Setup - BP Ships'...
Processing 'Initial Setup - Authorisation Codes'...
Warning: style (p.ListBullet) is not defined and will be mapped to 'Normal'.
Warning: The Word Document became corrupt when attempting to append a malformed topic: 'Initial_Setup_-_Authorisation.htm'
Failed to process 'Initial Setup - Authorisation Codes'...
Fatal Error: Word Document got corrupt. Abort building 'System Setup - BP Ships'.
Failed to build 'System Setup - BP Ships'...
Failed to build 'System Setup - BP Ships'...
Building 'Restore Data from Backup.'...
Processing 'Primary Restore Data Procedure'...
Processing 'Secondary Restore Data Procedure'...
Warning: The Word Document became corrupt when attempting to append a malformed topic: 'Primary_Restore_Data_Procedure.htm'
Warning: The Word Document became corrupt when attempting to append a malformed topic: 'Secondary_Restore_Data_Procedure.htm'
Failed to build 'Restore Data from Backup.'...
Building 'Help Desk'...
Processing 'Technical Support'...
Warning: The Word Document became corrupt when attempting to append a malformed topic: 'Technical_Support.htm'
Failed to process 'Technical Support'...
Fatal Error: Word Document got corrupt. Abort building 'Help Desk'.
Failed to build 'Help Desk'...
Failed to build 'Help Desk'...
Failed to build one or more chapters.
Building 'Glossary'...
Failed to build 'Glossary'...
Building 'Index'...
Updating list paragraphs...
Updating images...
Updating page numbers...
Updating page headers...
Updating Table of Contents...
Updating Index...
Saving 'Inst_Setup_Upgrade_Restore_Guide_BP_-_PDF.doc'...
Generating 'Inst_Setup_Upgrade_Restore_Guide_BP_-_PDF.pdf'...
Failed the generate PDF file 'D:\!Active clients\Client BP Sunbury\Client BPOSS Shipboard\Copy of Backup copy 90610 BPOSS_SB_Source\!SSL!\Inst_Setup_Upgrade_Restore_Guide_BP_-_PDF\Inst_Setup_Upgrade_Restore_Guide_BP_-_PDF.pdf'...
Failed to save 'Inst_Setup_Upgrade_Restore_Guide_BP_-_PDF.doc'...
Cleaning up temporary files...

Internal error encountered,  Failed to generate Printed Documentation.

===========================================

As you see, this is full of Warnings - I think it reports every topic as Malformed.

The final output is a word doc that fails to load when I double-click on the filename.

If I load MS Word 2003 and load the file, it disables Word such that where the document should view, the area is white all over and the scroll bars are disabled. I can switch between Normal View, Print view etc, but all look the same white area.

If I load a "good" word document, the same problem - all white and no text. Something has gone badly wrong. See short movie:

____________________________________________________________________

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RH7 does not offer the option of a repair, so I would have to uninstall and reinstall.

This is an important Help project, so I've got to fix it somehow...

Any idea, anyone?

[Peter Grainge]

I suspect the problem is that the document has tracking turned on, or at least, changes that have not been accepted.

You must accept all changes and have tracking turned off.

Try that and post back.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Peter Grainge]

Ignore above. Taking another look.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Peter Grainge]

See "Malformed topics message" in Print Issues on my site.

See also "Table borders missing and / or duplicated" on the same page. Whilst it may not appear relevant, I have seen it cause other problems.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

Thanks Peter, I'll have a look.

Just to say that I had to reboot my PC to get control over MS Word again. I couldn't do anything with it - couldn't type text etc.

(Full disk diagnostics reveal no disk errors. Virus scan finds nothing.)

I'll get back to you.

Philip

[Guest]

Hello again,

I've had a look at a few things.

I don't import from Word docs except on rare occasions, and have not done so on this project in that last several months.

I have been working on this project for maybe 2 years without this kind of problem.

All has been working well until around the time I uninstalled the RH8 Trial. COULD THIS BE THE PROBLEM? Anyone in RH Support know anything?

Peter, from your web site - thank you for these tips -

1. "Table borders missing and / or duplicated" - I searched my PC for <meta name=OriginalFile content="filename.doc"> and <meta name=Originator content=ImportDoc> do not exist on my PC; so it's not that. Nor could I find the imported "<p style="mso-bookmark" anywhere.

2. "Malformed topics message" - I removed CSS links completely, and detached the Template from all topics.

3. Then I did a CHM build to see if that worked OK. It builds CHM OK, in as much as the output works OK. But the Compilation Report shows dozens of errors such as "HHC5003: Error: Compilation failed while compiling bposs_net3.gif." About 60 out of 350 images images failed to compile.

4. Then tried a WebHelp build, which was completely error-free.

5. The I tried a Printed Doc using a layout that I have not used for some months.

[Peter Grainge]

In theory, the RH8 trial should not affect things here as you can dual install RH HTML. However, you have the choice of continuing to find something and maybe getting lucky or going for an uninstall and reinstall now. At least that is quick and easy and gets the suspicion out of the way.

Does the PC you are using have a decent amount of ram?

Have you tried a layout with half the number of topics?

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

Hi Peter,

I have 1.5 Gb of RAM; 2 Gb pagefile; loads of free disk space; 2 GHz Pentium 4 etc.

The layout that I had problems with, only had maybe 8 or 10 topics out of the 100+.

I'm just running another one that has maybe 20 topics, but it's been running for maybe 30 minutes, stuck on "Processing Topics..." Task Manager showed Nil processor on RoboHTML, so I cancelled the output.

I'll try uninstall and reinstall. Do I need to DeActivate first?

[Peter Grainge]

You only need to deactivate when you don't intend to reinstall on the same PC.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

Hi Peter,

I've uninstalled RH7, deleted remaining folders in C:\Program Files\ and reinstalled it. And got exactly the same fault again, but this time the RH crash sent a fault report to MS.

I got this screen on the way, which I had yesterday:

If I click Show Help >>, I get a longer message (attached gif image) that tells me the file has been disabled by an Office application.

The full message is:

"If you attempt to open a file marked as damaged or disabled by an Office application, you may encounter this error.  You will continue to receive this error each time you attempt to open the file even if the file was recovered or repaired.

The file is in the Disabled Items list because it has caused the application to fault or shut down more than once in previous attempts to open the file.  This error message helps you avoid potential problems that may occur if the file is opened and causes other currently open files to suspend.

If the file was properly recovered, replaced, or deleted, you can remove the file from the list of disabled files (re-enable the file) by selecting Help, About Microsoft Office <ApplicationName>, and clicking Disabled Items....

Re-enabling a file does not guarantee the application can open it.  The file must be recovered from either a backup or undamaged recovered file.

More information about this error message online."   ... 

I tried the online link, but there is no help there - it just says "No Information for this fault".

I can enable these files in MS Word > Help > About > Disabled Items. I have just enabled 3 files in there; one was the $StylePrepFile.htm and another was a Word doc I tried to export earlier.

MS Word is crippled again, and I'll have to reboot the PC to clear it.

Needless to say, I cannot produce work that my customer needs somewhat urgently.

I'm running out of things to try... Any further suggestions?

Philip

.

[Peter Grainge]

You should be able to find the instance of Word that is running in Task Manager > Processes and kill it there without rebooting.

How big is this project zipped?

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

I could close and open MS Word normally, but couldn't do anything with it. Perhaps part of it was still locked open. I'll try that next time it happens.

The zipped project file is 3.8 Mb.

[Peter Grainge]

Email me via my site.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

Just back from holidays and I'm still having problems with running RH7.

Just to recap where I've got to.

• In my current Help Project, I can build WebHelp OK.
• But if I just look at any Properties screen for a Word layout, after a few seconds it crashes, leaving MS Word still running somewhere in the background but invisible to the screen. As you suggested, Peter, I used Task Manager to select and close it.
• I have uninstalled RH7 and reinstalled it - but the problem still exists.
• I have run a Detect and Repair on MS Word 2003 - but the problem still exists.
• I tried a Word Doc layout on another Help Project that I completed a year ago. I could view the Properties screen OK, but the build failed. The Output View showed loads of 'Failed to build...' and 'Fatal Error: Word document got corrupt. Abort building [topic name]...' warnings. The final word doc is only 24Kb and has nothing but the header page, lots of section breaks with no text whatsoever, and an Index field at the back with 'no fields found'.

Today I received an "Update RH7" alert - so I downloaded the update to 7.0.1, which then treid to install automatically. However, the update failed to complete, and I get an error message something like: "Adobe RoboHelp 7.0.1 update failed to install". Tried the update twice, but both failed.

So it seems I am in a position where I cannot use RH7, and I cannot update the original version 7 that I bought. Is this a consequence of uninstalling the RH8 Trial, I wonder?

Can anyone help please?

[Peter Grainge · Accepted solution]

We know the problem is not the project as I was able to generate printed documentation from a project that was giving you these problems.

I have both RH7 and RH8 installed on the test machine but I did not install RH8 for Word.

I think we will be agreed that whatever way you look at it, the machine you are testing on has problems. So first are you able to test on another machine that has not had RH8 installed? What problems, if any, do you see there. What I am wanting to achieve is you seeing that all the problems are one machine, maybe you know that already.

If so, here is what I would do now.

Reinstall the RH8 trial, reboot and then use http://www.revouninstaller.com (it's free) to uninstall it using the advanced options. Reboot.

Uninstall RH7 the same way and reboot.

Now you have a choice, reinstall RH7 AND all three patches (http://www.adobe.com/support/robohelp/downloads.html if they will not install automatically) and see if all is well. If it is not, you will have to reinstall RH7 again (using revouninstaller) and then uninstall Office that way. The choice is you could just go straight for uninstalling Office before installing RH7 and all the patches.

The whold process is fraught with issues because of potential issues with other programs. However, I cannot see another way as at the moment, that PC is as useful as a chocolate teapot.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[Guest]

Thanks Peter,

I spent some hours following your procedures and finally - at 10pm last night! - got the blessed thing working again, without having to uninstall MS Office. Something had gone badly wrong, somewhere.

That's a very good Uninstaller - (it's free, but what do they get out of it?). I removed sundry Adobe associated applications as well - just in case - and reinstalled afresh afterwards, such as Adobe Reader etc. There were also bits of Adobe RH7.0.1, 7.0.2 and 7.0.3 still on the system... Cleaned them all out.

So it's fingers crossed, and a big Thank You for your help.

Philip

[Peter Grainge]

Several people have posted back good reports of solving uninstall issues after using RevoUninstaller. Someone else posted on these forums that their IT people had used it and I have suggested its use since.

A good example of how sharing knowledge works.

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See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[rwrich21]

Have you had any more problems?

[Guest]

All seems to be working OK in that respect; no more crashes, thank you.

(Although there is another bug! If your topic body content is held within a table, then nearly every time you edit that topic, or rename it in the Topic Properties, it detaches the Template. I'd better report this one separately though!)

Best regards.