RH8 Crashes upon "save all" or "save"

[Guest]

Hello,

I have for several weeks been experiencing intermittent crashes of RH8 when I "save" using various methods:

• The "save all" icon within RoboHelp\
• The keyboard shortcut "Ctrl S"
• Right-click of mouse

I manage 4 different projects using RH8.0.2, and this happens fairly frequently within each of the projects. I have installed all of the upgrades, and rebuilt the .cpd files. When this happens, the newly-entered (or revised) content is lost. Until today, I have been safe when using "save topic" from each individual topic tab - but now this method has also failed.

Has this been reported?

If analysts are interested, I have saved the "error report" file on this, and can send it, upon request.

Thanks.

Helen

[RoboColum_n_]

Hi Helen.

Where are the project located? Network = Bad. Local Drive = Good.

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[Guest]

Colum,

Sorry ... Of course, on my local drive.

Helen

[Jeff_Coatsworth]

Have you contacted Adobe Support & sent them the logs? This is a user to user forum.

[Guest]

Colum,

I've just checked out related "crash" issues reported in the Forums.

1. None of these projects are associated with FrameMaker or Word imports. They are all built in RoboHelp 8.
2. I am not using any strange symbols like ampersands.
3. Often this "save" / "crash" sequence follows "drag-and-drop" of a hyperlink (a baggage file, topic hyperlink) BUT NOT ALWAYS!
4. The projects are less than a year old, all having been built or rebuilt in the past year.

My next step is to send error log to Adobe tech support.

Helen

[RoboColum_n_]

Try creating new project and see if the same occurs there. Is there another user there with the same problem on these projects?

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[Guest]

Colum,

I'm the only user here at present. And, I'm on a tight release deadline - don't have time to create another project to test. Good old RH 8 has crashed 6 times in the past hour. I'm taking all corrective measures possible.

H.

[Peter Grainge]

Helen

Is this one of your projects with a monster amount of baggage files? If it is, I think it has been stated before that the whole workflow needs to be rethought.

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@petergrainge

[Guest]

Peter,

Yes - it is. I'm limping along to another monthly release, due out today.

Helen

[Peter Grainge]

Sorry Helen but while you stick with that workflow, I think you are going to have problems.

I think it is time you got John back on site.

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@petergrainge

[Guest]

RoboHelpHTML 8.0.2.208 on Windows XP/32 sp3 systems.

We've suddenly started having a similar problem. Our projects are well established, and our baggage file count is never more than three. The problem doesn't seem to be isolated to a single project, or a single machine.

.Mw

[RoboColum_n_]

Have you checked for the things mentioned elsewhere in this post (e.g.not having source on a network, .cpd file)

[Guest]

Our projects are kept in an RSC 3.1 database (sitting on top of SQL Server Standard) and checked out to the local drive for use. We have a dozen or so writers. Here is an example of the crash report RH generates.

[RoboColum_n_]

Well the first thing I'd do is download and install the two RH8 updates. They can be downloaded from here. Psot back if you still have issues after these have been installed.

[Guest]

We've done that. I'm fairly rigorous with the writers about staying up to date with updates. If you look at the properties of the RoboHelpHTML.exe file, it still says 8.0.0.203. I verified this by uninstalling my Adobe Updater applied patches and reinstalling  both 8.0.1 and 8.0.2 manually. 

Since very little has changed on the RH side from a few weeks ago when this wasn't being a problem, I'm wondering if the problem could stem from other sources.

Can network instability cause RH to crash when performing database operations? That sort of thing.

.MW

[Peter Grainge]

As long as Help > About shows 802 and Add/Remove shows 802 installed, the patches are good and you need to look elsewhere.

I am sure you know the files not to check in and beyond that, I cannot help you.

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@petergrainge

[Guest]

In the interests of being thorough, I thought I'd check the "files that shouldn't be added to RSC" and found to my dismay that ehlpdhtm.js was listed there. We've been using this as a baggage file since RH5, and I was unaware this could be a problem.

What do I do now? Recreate the project without the baggage file?

How is that functionality implemented without the file in the project?

.MW

[RoboColum_n_]

That file is required for any DHTML elements inside your project (e.g. drop down / expanding text) so you can't get rid of it from your project. However what you found refers to source control. You just need to ensure it is not checked in.

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[Guest]

Uhm, that sounds like a contradictory statement. Yes we use ehelpdhtml.js for twisties, so how do I keep that file in the project if I don't check it in?

Ah, I see!  RH creates that file when you generate. Lets see if thats the answer.

[Peter Grainge]

I just created a new project, closed it and trashed the ehlpdhtm file. On reopening the project, RH created a new copy of the file.

It is therefore always in your local copy and when you generate it finds its way into the output.

Haven't tested it against a source controlled project but it looks as if it should work.

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@petergrainge

[Guest]

Well, taking that file out hasn't solved that problem, but maybe  it will resolve other issues. In the meantime, I did a bit more poking around. The error screens I included above are reproduced in XP's Event Viewer, and there they are reported as .NET Framework 2.0 errors. Is anyone familiar with how .NET Framework interacts with RH?

[Guest]

Well, our automated build process doesn't apparently generate ehlpdhml.js. That explains why I added the file as a baggage file a couple of years ago. I can see if we can have the build script sprinkle copies as a post-process I suppose, unless there is a setting I can make in the project to create the file.

.MW

[Guest]

You aren't going to beleive this, but here is the solution that worked for this problem for us.

Our new machines have C: and D: partitions. Based on our data backup scheme, we had the data files on the D: partiton. Moving the data files to the C: partition eliminated the crashing behavior. I have no explanation for this except these are new machines and the image our IT group created may be defective.

.MW

[Peter Grainge]

Weird. I have been working with projects on the D partition for ten years so there has to be more to it.

I'm assuming RH was on the C drive.

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@petergrainge