Xara Stopped Working - Help Please!!

[Trekart]

Xara has stopped working!! I can't recall anything I've done to my PC out of the ordinary recently, however Xara X (1.0aa), which I've been using without a problem ever since first installing it, no longer starts.

All I get is a dialog box - "XaraX.exe has generated errors and will be closed by windows... etc etc". It generates a DR Watson Dump but I don't have a clue as to how to use the massive 24Mb dmp file.

I'm running win2K SP2. Can anyone out there help solve this, I just do not want to have to re-install windows to solve the problem [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

Thanks guys

Stuart.

[Trekart]

Xara has stopped working!! I can't recall anything I've done to my PC out of the ordinary recently, however Xara X (1.0aa), which I've been using without a problem ever since first installing it, no longer starts.

All I get is a dialog box - "XaraX.exe has generated errors and will be closed by windows... etc etc". It generates a DR Watson Dump but I don't have a clue as to how to use the massive 24Mb dmp file.

I'm running win2K SP2. Can anyone out there help solve this, I just do not want to have to re-install windows to solve the problem [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_frown.gif[/img]

Thanks guys

Stuart.

[Sean Sedwards]

It's only the last part of the drwtsn32.log file that's useful. I'd delete the existing one (which probably contains other events) and try again. You could post the smaller file here.

Regards - Sean

[This message was edited by Sean Sedwards on September 29, 2001 at 01:39.]

[Egg Bramhill]

Have you tried unistalling XaraX and reinstalling it? It might be that a XaraX file has become corrupted. I would try this first before reinstalling Windows
Egg

[Trekart]

Ok, I've tried uninstalling and re-installing XaraX.

I've tried re-installing to a different path.

I've searched the registry for everything "Xara" and deleted all references and keys, then re-installed. I've installed on another machine, exported the Xara registry keys and imported into registry on this machine.

I've downloaded and tried the latest trial version from Xara

I've run Windows2000 install and done a repair. I've re-applied service pack 2.

Nothing has worked!!! I can only assume some system file has been damaged that a windows repair doesn't detect.

I've attached the DrWatson log that is generated when I try to run Xara - hopefully it will help identify what has gone wrong with my Windows installation [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img]

Cheers,

Stu.

[Trekart]

After doing a virus check on my machine I have found a word document with the macro virus "W97M_MARKER".

Could this have anything to do with Xara crashing when I try to run it?

(Nothing else on my machine is malfunctioning, I've just run every single App I have installed, Xara is the only problem [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img] )

Appreciate any advice...

Stu.

[traceyp]

Stuart

I've just done a check on the McAfee site and found a reference to the virus you mention. From what I can make out it shouldn't have the effect of stopping XaraX in its tracks. Nevertheless it's a good idea to remove the virus as everytime you send or give a Word file to someone else it will be infected with the same virus hence you will be spreading the virus. Sadly the Symantec site had no info on this virus, at least not that I was able to find anyway. I should add that the risk is low but I would advise getting rid of it anyway.

I'm afraid I have no suggestion re XaraX stopping working. I would suggest that if you feel you need to reinstall Win2000 (I don't have Win2000) first try installing over the top before going the whole hog and wiping your hard drive and then reinstalling. If that fails then you MAY have no choice but its got to be worth a try.

Tracey

[Sean Sedwards]

Stuart

The code in the Dr Watson log is bogus and might be corrupt, code entered at the wrong point or it might not be code at all. There's nothing to indicate whether the fault is caused by a corrupt Xara file, a corrupt system file or an incorrect setting.

If there's a corrupt Xara file, reinstalling may only be effective if you've removed all previous DLLs and references in the registry. That includes file extensions and CLSIDs in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT as well as HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Xara\XaraX etc. Search for duplicate copies of Xara's DLLs and temporarily remove any plug-ins or custom templates and XAR files, i.e. anything that doesn't come with Xara X.

If that isn't successful you can reasonably conclude that the problem lies outside X and I'd want to know what you did in between it working and not. What did you install, what did you remove and what did you change in that time? E.g., when did you install SP2?

It's not clear to me exactly how the program fails. Does anything from Xara appear before the error message?

Regards - Sean

[Trekart]

Sean,

I tried creating the Dr Watson file several times. Each time I deleted it before running Xara; the same file was produced every time.

I don't get any clue from Xara at all. After I start Xara, the hard disk thrashes for a few seconds then I get the "Xara has performed an illegal operation" dialog box, right when you would expect the Xara Splash Screen to appear.

I installed my old copy of CorelXara 2. That doesn't run either - nothing happens at all!

I strongly suspect my problem may lie in a system resource/function that Xara uses in some way. You mention removing all Xara DLL's - I completely deleted the Xara directory from program files, so does Xara put anything in Winnt/system? or system32?

You also mention CLSIDs in HKCR - I deleted all registry keys found by searching the registry for 'xara' - will I have missed anything by just doing that?

Its hard to pinpoint exactly when Xara stopped loading; I leave this development machine running 24hrs and it had been up over 2 weeks with several apps, including Xara, open all the time. Its not until I restarted recently after installing some more ram and tried to run Xara that I noticed the problem (I tried removing the ram, but that didn't change anything!).

There is nothing else that has changed software-wise on the machine, however I recall recently I visited WindowsUpdate at Microsoft and installed the latest Win2K security fixes.... sure that wouldn't be the cause [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img]

Thanks for your help,

Stu.

[Sean Sedwards]

By "bogus" I meant that the code wasn't part of any legitimate program. I'm sure Dr Watson was accurately reporting what it found.

It's possible to install Xara X with its DLLs in other directories and that may have happened in the past on your system. The registry may continue to refer to those DLLs so it's important to delete everything to be sure. It's extra thorough but your problem is extra tricky! A registry search for "xara" should be enough to catch all the entries, so long as you search the keys, values and data.

The Win2K security patch could have elements that might be the cause, but why hasn't anyone noticed before? Does the system on which you were able to install X have the patch (assuming it uses Win2K)? Could you try to install it on another machine with the patch?

Regards - Sean