NO projects will open in RH7

[eastcongress]

All of a sudden, I can no longer open any project--even the sample project. Instead, I get the following message:

I've tried to uninstall and reinstall, but I suspect that isn't working entirely, either. Shall I perform a manual uninstall? If so, how is that done? After I do that, will a reinstall get me going?

Help...

[Captiv8r]

Hi there

The message shows an issue with the .CPD file. Perhaps try opening the .XPJ instead. Delete the CPD if you need to.

Cheers... Rick

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[Amebr]

There are a bunch of posts in the forums about this message although a lot seem to deal with earlier RH versions and some of the suggestions might no longer apply.

As the problem seems to affect all your projects the following suggestions might be the most appropriate to try:

* uninstall and reinstall RH. Make sure you've completely uninstalled the product. If you have any of the v7 patches installed, I believe you need to uninstall them one by one.

Go into Add/Remove Programs, select RH and uninstall.

Once that finishes, press F5 to refresh the view.

Repeat until RH is completely gone from the list. If you are on 7.03, you might need to repeat 3 or 4 times.

* ensure your projects aren't on a network (sometimes "My Documents" is networked. If you can log into any computer and your files in this folder follow you, then it is a network folder.)

* ensure RH is installed using your login, after checking with your tech support that your login has admin rights

(I don't think this one is relevent for RH7, but hopefully Rick or Peter can confirm)

* shorten the path of your projects (e.g. C:\MyProjects\Project1\project1.xpj)

If only one or two projects were affected, which it doesn't sound like, the following might be worth trying:

* ensure the cpd file is not in source control

* Delete the pss file - we've had some odd messages that seem to have been fixed by deleting this file, even though the message didn't seem to relate to it at all. I can't remember the exact issue fixed

* close RH and make sure there is NOT an .ldb file present. If there is delete it, as it should only exist while RH projects are open. Sometimes a crash leaves it floating around.

Hope something in there helps

Amebr

[eastcongress]

Well, first, I don't seem to be able to uninstall the program... At least I don't think I am--as every time I "reinstall" (after what I think is an uninstall), my most recent projects still appear on the Starter page.

Is there any way to manually get rid of the program from, say, the Registry?

Also, since I have a copy of RH8 on hand, I tried to install that. Same thing. NONE of my many projects will open. I keep getting the same corrupt CPD file issue.

You mention an "ldb" file; while I can't find any in the RH7 project folders, I noticed that there are many of those associated with another application entirely. Will they have any impact?

Wow, I'm stuck here...

Jeff

Dr. Jeff Schiff

Associate Chair, Technology & Services (English Dept.)

Associate Professor of English

Columbia College Chicago

Chicago, IL 60605-1996

312-369-8103 (Voice)

815-361-4107 (Fax)

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

Certain registry keys will remain after uninstalling. You can try a registry cleaner but you can also manually delete the keys. I know the following key remains after uninstalling:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Adobe / RoboHelp / 7.00

As far as I know, the following keys are the registry entries from RoboHelp:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Adobe / RoboHelp

HKEY_CURRENT_USER / Software / Adobe / RoboHTML

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Adobe / RoboHelp

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / Software / Adobe / RoboHTML

A registry cleaner (CCleaner is a free and simple program) can also delete all unused file associations from the registry, so you should have a 'clean' install. Always backup your registry before changing it.

-- Do you also have the same problem on other PC's? You say you have a CPD issue, if that is so, your projects should not work on other RoboHelp installations. Deleting the CPD, as Rick suggested, should normally solve your CPD problem.

Greet,

Willam

[Peter Grainge]

I suspect Willam's suggestions will clean the registry sufficiently but if not, another cleaner that people have used to clean up bad installs is http://www.revouninstaller.com. You use that to uninstall, not after you have uninstalled used Add/Remove programs.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[eastcongress]

Thanks, all. I used Revo Uninstaller, and it seemed to reach deep into the bowels of my machine and clean everything RH7 out. Unfortunately, when I reinstalled, all of the recent projects still appeared in the Starter list--leading me to believe I missed something(s). I then took one of my projects to another machine and installed the software from the same disc (for testing purposes), and all was fine. I am grateful that it isn't a corrupt project; however, I can't work on the alternate machine, and I am flummoxed. Any more suggestions on insuring a proper and thorough uninstall and reinstall? Or, am I missing something else?

Dr. Jeff Schiff

Associate Chair, Technology & Services (English Dept.)

Associate Professor of English

Columbia College Chicago

Chicago, IL 60605-1996

312-369-8103 (Voice)

815-361-4107 (Fax)

[Peter Grainge]

RevoUninstaller has three levels of uninstalling. Did you go for the deepest clean as that does remove the list?

One other thing to check. If you have the patches installed, uninstalling removes ONLY the last patch. In Add/Remove if you press F5 to refresh, you will see the previous patch. So you uninstall that until you get back to the core program, then you uninstall that.

---

See www.grainge.org for RoboHelp and Authoring tips

[eastcongress]

Used the deepest clean. Got rid of all the patches. Cleaned the registry. This is a sticky beast!

Dr. Jeff Schiff

Associate Chair, Technology & Services (English Dept.)

Associate Professor of English

Columbia College Chicago

Chicago, IL 60605-1996

312-369-8103 (Voice)

815-361-4107 (Fax)

[eastcongress]

I was finally able to reinstall without RH7 showing old projects in the starter; however, this did not remedy my problem. After reinstalling, I attempted to load the program and access the "clownfish" example or the Customer Care "xpj," and I received the same error message: ("Open project was cancelled or the application was unable to load database for…"):

Curiously, I can't create a new HTML Help project, either. I can access the New Project dialog and the new Project Wizard, but after I enter anything in the title, name, location fields, and click Finish, I am merely returned to the New Project dialog page. In other words, it is an endless loop, and nothing happens.

At this point, I am beginning to suspect a program in memory is standing in the way. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Dr. Jeff Schiff

Associate Chair, Technology & Services (English Dept.)

Associate Professor of English

Columbia College Chicago

Chicago, IL 60605-1996

312-369-8103 (Voice)

815-361-4107 (Fax)

[Willam_van_Weelden]

Hi,

It is likely that some (temporary) files remained on your computer after uninstalling. Perhaps those create your problem. I haven't played with this before, so it's a bit of a guess...

Look for the following directory's and delete them:

- RoboHelp installation directory, normally C:\Program Files\Adobe\RoboHelp

- C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Adobe\

- All your temporaty directory's. Using a cleaner for this (like CCleaner) is the fastest way to clear them.

If this doesn't help, I can only think of one other thing: Reinstall your pc

Hope this helps or that someone has a better idea.

Greet,

Willam