Getting desperate for 2010 crash answers!

[asdemeter]

My AutoCAD 2010 keeps crashing. It's at work, so I really need help with it. Here's what I know so far:

1. It's my understanding that when you open a new drawing, the default "Drawing 1" is supposed to close. Mine won't. When I do go to close it, AutoCAD has an error...it calls it an "unhandled exception". But it's not in my event viewer, because you can't actually close AutoCAD...it freezes up and won't let you actually shut it down unless you go to the Task Manager and end the process (acad.exe) itself.

2. It's also crashed randomly otherwise. I tried to copy an item from one palette to another, and it crashed.

3. This all started when I had it tell me that AutoCAD was running out of memory. It asked if I wanted to cancel the action I was attempting. I said yes, and it crashed anyway. I went into the options and changed it from caching everything to regenerating each new layout...and it crashes when I try to save options. It does actually save them, but then crashes.

4. I noticed that when I started AutoCAD, it said certain .dll files couldn't be loaded. I found that fix, and re-registered one of the .dll files. That's not a problem anymore, but it started when this "memory event" happened.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'm really at my wit's end, and need a solution for this so I can get some projects back on track. Thanks!

A.D.

[Ed Jobe]

Have you tried rebooting?

[cadtag]

As Ed pointed out, rebooting is a "Good Thing (tm)" - and whenever there's a crash, you should reboot the machine completely (e.g. Shut down, poser off, and restart)to ensure that all memory is released.

If that doesn't help, you will need to provide more information about configuration, video, hardware, etc. My gut reaction to your problem is that the PC need to be fdisked, formated, and rebuilt from scratch. It sounds like just way to much corruption has happened.

[dgorsman]

... (e.g. Shut down, poser off, and restart) ...

Poser off? Thats a step that needs taking a little more often :D

Now, to the OP: do you have your Communication center disabled or no?

[cadtag]

:Oops:

true enough.... but fdisking is fun!

[asdemeter]

Yes, I've done that several times, to no avail. The main thing I'm sure of at this point is that it crashes whenever I close that "Drawing 1"...and then it freezes during the crash. The only way to turn AutoCAD off at that point is from the Task Manager's process menu.

It's also crashing whenever I click Apply or OK in the Tools>Options menu.

The rest of them are random.

Keep in mind that it was running perfectly until last week, when this "memory event" happened...and now it's crashing all the time.

I tried the repair install option...and the idiot who used this computer before me has it screwed up. I've done a total search of the computer for the acad.msi file, and it's not there either.

I'm getting beyond frustrated. We're licensed and all that good stuff, with subscriptions and the whole bit, and I can't get Autodesk to tell me jack squat. I'm just getting very frustrated, and I'm running out of options here. All the simple stuff, I've done. I've even tracked down stuff like installing .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 (already had it, but also repaired it...didn't work), re-registering some .dll files, updating some other ones, changing options (which will crash it, though the changes do take effect)...and nothing's changing.

But rest assured...I've done all the simple stuff like turn off the computer, reboot, etc. lol Any experts out there have any other ideas?

[s_morgan_b]

Is this possibly a hardware error?

Try finding memtest86 and creating the bootable CD. At the very least, this will let you know if a physical memory error is making this happen.

Do you have other crashes or just Autocad? Is the machine performing in a reliable fashion?

[cdatechguy]

Try deleting your profile.....or just changing to a different one and see if you have the same issue....

Did you actually try uninstalling and reinstalling the program yet?

[asdemeter]

The computer's fine otherwise...nothing else crashes.

I was going to reinstall, then realized I could repair...but I can't, because the guy before me has gotten rid of the acad.msi file. What a moron. lol

The profile thing sounds promising...can you sort of walk me through with a bit more detail there? That could very well be it.

[Opie]

Go to Options -> Profiles tab -> click Add to List...

[asdemeter]

Well, I tried what you said...and the bad news is, as I stated before, it crashes every time I do anything in the options, too. lol Doesn't this suck? I'm getting beyond desperation and into just plain depression over this thing.

Reinstalling it is an option...but wow...I really don't want to do that if I don't have to. But it may be at that point...I'm just trying desperately to avoid that.

[cadtag]

are there any entries in EventViewer that are related to you crashing? (right click on My Computer, then choose Manage and expand Event Viewer)

If you have the original media, try Repair on the installation, and then Reinstall.

If that fails, you can try a clean uninstall and re-install, and then if there are still issues, fdisk the box and start over with a fresh OS installation.

[asdemeter]

The event viewer doesn't show anything, because it freezes during the crash. You know that window that pops up and says AutoCAD had to close unexpectedly? Well, it doesn't show up all the way...and it freezes there. It never registers in the event viewer as having crasahed at all.

As I said before, I tried the repair...that won't happen, because the acad.msi file is missing...from the whole computer. Thanks so much to the jerk who used this computer before I did! lol

I've been at this desk with this computer since January. Nothing's ever been a problem until last week. I'm just hoping to avoid the reinstall...but I'm not sure I can at this point. I'll wait to see if one of you has another idea, though. But then, by the end of the week, I'm going to have to give up and try a reinstall...assuming that it will do at least that!

[ccowgill]

to see if it is the profile, you could add a profile switch to the icon on the desktop you use to open cad. just place
/p original at the end of the target line. and it should open a new profile called original using the default AutoCAD settings.

[cadtag]

If you've got the original CD, you ought to be able to do a repair with that, rather than a local copy of the msi file. Or at least do the reinstall pretty quickly, vs crashing constantly.

Probably be a good idea to to check for malware, virii, etc. If the problem suddenly surfaced after months of no problems, then something changed on the system. And that could easily be some badly written virus...

[asdemeter]

Yeah, we have the original DVD. I'm thinking of trying that. The thing that changed was what I'm calling the "memory event". Basically, I was working with something that had like 60 pages, and I went through all of them numerous times, making changes. I didn't know that it was set to cache all that...and I was able to change it to regenerating every time, to save myself from another memory problem. But it was too late!

[asdemeter]

Could it be this simple?

One of the things I'd also noticed was that my initial "Drawing 1" was opening without being maximized, and in paper space...that was new. So I reset it to model space, made sure it was how I wanted and saved over my old template.

So far, so good. It's not crashing when I close the drawing at any point. It's not crashing when I save options. My thinking is that the template somehow was corrupted, and maybe now it's fixed?

I'm not sure if it's a permanent fix, but I've opened and closed AutoCAD at least a half dozen times, and so far, it's fine. I'm also not sure whether to be thrilled with myself for figuring it out (though that's a lot more luck than skill) or disappointed with myself for being so stupid as to not have figured it out much, much sooner. I'm leaning towards the latter.

Anyway, thanks so much to all of you for your ideas and help with it! So far, I think it's a permanent solution...but the ideas helped teach me a lot more things than I knew before this happened. Thanks again, and happy drafting!

A.D.