RA 2008 won't start

[p-motley]

After successfully loading Revit Architecture 2008 on my computer I am able to open up 1 session of the program immediatly after the install. If I close out of that session and attempt to start another I get nothing.

I have 2 liscensed copies of AutoCad Revit Architecture Suite. I have been able to set up and activate both programs up successfully on one computer and ACAD 2008 is activated and working fine on the problem computer.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[david.kingham]

Same problem here, runs fine for a day, come in the next day and it won't open, nothing, nada, doesn't even show up in task manager under processes. Have to reinstall and it will open....can't keep doing this everyday!!!

[dan.dankert]

We also have 2 computers that are behaving like this out of our 10-15 installs.
It looks like every time you reboot the computer you need to install Revit Architectural 2008.

Anyone have any ideas?
Dan

[david.kingham]

I have development looking at, you should file a support request so they know its not an isolated problem

[dan.dankert]

Just did that this morning.
thanks
Dan

[dan.dankert]

Any update here on this here?
No word back from Autodesk yet.

It is affecting all versions of Revit 2008 on the computers.
Reinstalling everyday is getting old!

thanks,
Dan

[sbrown]

sounds like a how you install issue. Ie did you install as administrator or just local user.

[dan.dankert]

Scott,

We have installed as Admin and local user with Admin rights. We have played with the virus software, disabled during the install and even when launching, and still nothing.

Has never affected other versions of Revit on any computer in our office. Today we installed Revit Systems 2 on one of our 2 "bad computers" and it will work after a reboot, but all 3 versions of 2008 will not.

It's like you never double click on the icon to launch it.

No error messages on the computer and no traffic at the license server.

Dan

[sbrown]

Wow, has adsk got any advice yet?

[dan.dankert]

Nope, just a bunch of standard questions about the system so far.

dan

[david.kingham]

This is the last I heard on Friday....

Thanks for uploading the information. I just want to let you know that I have escalated this to development for further investigation. I will let you know when I have an update from them regarding this case.

[FOUTJM]

get the same thing with the demo of RS2008....bummer

[david.kingham]

Are you guys having problems with laptops only or is it happening on desktops too?

[p-motley]

My workstation is the problem computer and the laptop install is working fine.

[FOUTJM]

Exactly the same here.

i run RS4 perfectly on both. and other people with same setup can run demo.

[dan.dankert]

Both of our computers that are having issues are desktops.
Both with p4d's @ 3+ghz, 2gb of ram and ati 1600 video cards.
Windows xp pro, 32bit, fully patched.

We have many computers that fall into this group, and all of the rest are working.

Still don't have an answer on this.
Dan

[david.kingham]

I figured it out!!! It's the ^$$%&#$% Communication Center! You have to turn it off in the registry. Save this as a .reg file, run it and voila it works!

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Revit\Revit Architecture 2008\CadManagerControl\CommunicationCenter]
"EnableCommunicationCenter"=dword:00000000
"MaintenancePatchNotificationOption"=dword:00000000
"LocalPatchListLocation"=""
"EnableNonPatchNotifications"=dword:00000000
"DataPollingURL"="http://webservices.autodesk.com/CommCntrLinkCollectionRequest"
"DataPollingAltURL"=""
"UseAltURL"=dword:00000000
"PreviewMode"=dword:00000000
"EnableSerialNumberPassing"=dword:00000000

[p-motley]

Disabling the communication center on my workstation didn't work. Still waiting on a great idea.

[david.kingham]

Yeah I jumped the gun, worked on my laptop but didn't work on someone elses. Plus mine quit working today.....

[Andrew Dobson]

I have had some activation issues with machines with SATA hard disks maybe your problems are related?

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=5658721&linkID=9240617

[dan.dankert]

I figured it out!!! It's the ^$$%&#$% Communication Center! You have to turn it off in the registry. Save this as a .reg file, run it and voila it works!

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Revit\Revit Architecture 2008\CadManagerControl\CommunicationCenter]
"EnableCommunicationCenter"=dword:00000000
"MaintenancePatchNotificationOption"=dword:00000000
"LocalPatchListLocation"=""
"EnableNonPatchNotifications"=dword:00000000
"DataPollingURL"="http://webservices.autodesk.com/CommCntrLinkCollectionRequest"
"DataPollingAltURL"=""
"UseAltURL"=dword:00000000
"PreviewMode"=dword:00000000
"EnableSerialNumberPassing"=dword:00000000

Yes, i posted this yesterday afternoon in another thread, but it does not change if it starts or not.
Still no reply or fix for us yet!
Dan

[raul.137081]

Has this been resolved. I've installed it on 5 desktops and so far I haven't had any problems. I installed it on our department's floating laptop and it never started. I have a nagging suspicion that it is Hardware related. Insufficient memory. The other desktops are running with at least 4GB of RAM.

[rookwood]

I have yet to install the public version of 2008 since I have had the same problem with the Beta version. I can install and run until I shut the computer down and reboot. Absolutely no activity and RAC2008 will not open.

The Factory had no success and turned it over to Support, over one month ago. I have installed and uninstalled over 12 times with the same results. I am holding on all corporate installs of 2008 until this is resolved.

I don't see it as a graphics issue, since everything functions properly upon install.

I'm kinda glad to see this is happening to others, as I hope Adesk will take heed now.

BOXX GoBoxx 2300 notebook workstation, P4 CPU, 3.8 GHz, 3 GB RAM, (2) 80 GB HDD, RAID 0, Nvidia Quadro FX Go1400 graphics.

[dan.dankert]

New week and still no fix, here!

Dan

[david.kingham]

Just spent 3 hours on the phone with development, they connected remotely to our problem computers and collected lots of info but no solution as of yet. Said they will get back with me later this week....

[dan.dankert]

No word or update here from Autodesk.
I have spent several hours in the registry or in the install directory looking for changes after a reboot.

I think I have done all that we can here.
Let us know if you find anything out.
Dan

[p-motley]

After a series of unfortunate events last Friday involving my local electric utility and a fried registry, I wiped my hard drive and upgraded my OS from xp to Vista. To my suprise RA 2008 is working just fine. Now if I could only find the KeyboardShortcuts.txt file I would be great.

[Rols]

I just got off the phone with my local reseller who had the short-term workaround.

Right-click on the RA 2008 icon and select "Run As" and select "Administrator".
Note that I call this a workaround because I really should be able to run it as a local admin and I really don't want to type in my administrator password every time I start RA 2008!

It's baffling because it works just fine on most computers. I'll dig into it deeper and post any results.

[chrisb.130178]

Try right clicking on the icon and "run as administrator"

[dan.dankert]

Your right!

If i right click on it and even run it as me it works!
Even though I am currently logged in.
No need for Administrator!

Looks like it is a permissions issue.

Dan.

[david.kingham]

Just got off the phone with support, they just tested a new build and this is still not fixed....unbelievable. The Run As does work for the time being but not well, any mapped networked drives do not show up in Revit, you have to use the unc path. and we seem to be having tons of printing issues with the users that have to use run as....not pleased with development right now.

[jspartz]

Hmmm... I was just going to start deploying 2008 today. It works on a laptop of mine, and I have admin rights, but I don't know if I want to go ahead yet if I'm going to run into this with other users.

So, I'm wondering if this is a privledge issue or an application issue. Can someone check? Try to run the program on a computer that won't run it and go to Start - Programs - Administrative Tools - Event Viewer (if you have Windows admin tools installed). If it's a program issue, it should be listed under Applications and say Error under type. If so, double-click on it, what is the description of the error? If nothing is under Application, it's probably a privledge level issue. Go to Security and under type should be a Failure Audit. If so, what's the description?

[david.kingham]

It creates no errors or logs of any sort, I would hold off on deployment until this is fixed. They have no idea what is causing the problem anymore and have no timeline of when it will be fixed.

[jspartz]

If I do a Run As to run the program, and go to Open in Revit, I get question marks next to the network drives, but when I select them it finds them. I don't have to use UNC paths, and don't have any problem printing to shared printers or to files. I'd have to try this on someone with a lower privledge level though.

[david.kingham]

I have full admin rights and have all the issues, just recently I noticed my Program folder was gone like I uninstalled, tried to reinstall...didn't work, so now Revit won't even install on this laptop, fortunately I have a desktop that works just fine.

[pogibob]

We had the same probably here at my work. We have a lot of seats and each time we would open up 2008 it would go to demo instead of the license on the server. We found out the problem was that it was a latency issue. Here is a link from Autodesk that we used and it seemed to solve the problem. Might not be the exact problem you are facing but its worth a try. I hope this helps!

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=7574782&linkID=9240617

[duvalsf]

I have discovered how to get the software running when this happens.

You can open task manager and click on "new task" then just search for the icon on the desktop and hit "open"

for some dumb reason this works...! and I have installs on a few different types of machines. it works perfectly fine on some, but for others, we have had to use this trick. i found this out on accident.

[jspartz]

David, are you using Active Directory for installing the program? You get problems if you do a manual install and then set Active Directory to install it to a group of people including yourself. Even though you already have it installed, it will try to install it and mess up the program. Or if manually installed, you can't use Active Directory to uninstall it or it will not install again. If using AD, it has to be installed and uninstalled through AD, or has to be both done manually. AD does installs after a reboot. This may be why some people are having problems after a reboot.

[david.kingham]

We are not using active directory

[dan.dankert]

I have discovered how to get the software running when this happens.

You can open task manager and click on "new task" then just search for the icon on the desktop and hit "open"

for some dumb reason this works...! and I have installs on a few different types of machines. it works perfectly fine on some, but for others, we have had to use this trick. i found this out on accident.

Thanks for the post. We had found a way to get the "run as" option working with network drives, but it was messy. This worked on 3 computers here. I had been working with Autodesk last week, but were still having the issue.

this is much cleaner and almost acceptable!
Dan

[david.kingham]

Agreed, this works much better, thanks for the tip!

[SCShell]

Hey there,
Well, add me to this thread! Can't get it to run on machine either, even with support's assistance. I was told to wait. They are working on it.

Bummer
Steve

[bleonard]

i had the same issue on my machine when it first installed. I couldn't open the application I went through a system reboot.

We seemed to solve the problem by removing the application and re-installing it. Works fine now. I would suggest simply removing t he application and re-install.

Good luck!

[dan.dankert]

i had the same issue on my machine when it first installed. I couldn't open the application I went through a system reboot.

We seemed to solve the problem by removing the application and re-installing it. Works fine now. I would suggest simply removing t he application and re-install.

Good luck!

For us this only works until the next reboot or logging off/on!
I really hope that there i some simple fix or build to resolve this.
I am kinda happy that others are having the same issue, so I know it just not us!

Dan

[Baldwin_4-6-0]

All I can say is our firm is "unfortunately" staying away from RA 2008 due to it's CONSISTENT INSTABILITY.

WAIT FOR THE NEXT RELEASE (hopefully 6 months from now)
and test it for 3 weeks before upgrading your entire staff.

Also check the forums to see what kind of issues people are having.

[dan.dankert]

To keep everyone in the loop, the new build does not fix this for us here.

Dan

[david.kingham]

Did you reboot yet? I thought it was fixed too then realized I hadn't rebooted yet, I bet it stops working after you reboot. I just talked to support and they said the problem is not fixed in this build.

[FOUTJM]

thought i posted this already. i got it to run by going to the properties of the shortcut and unclicking the "compatibility mode" checkbox...dont know if this will help others but it worked for me.
im running XP.

[jspartz]

Is anyone else with the problem running the program in compatibility mode?

I hope the factory is reading this thread. I would like to deploy 2008 so the users can use the new features.

[david.kingham]

Compatability mode is shut off by default, tried turning on/off and nothing works

[SCShell]

Hey there,
Yup....nothing, nada, rien! Tapping fingers while I wait too. Bummer.
Here's to being patient.
Steve

[dan.dankert]

Any update to this?
We have another 2 computers now that have this issue!

Dan

[david.kingham]

Nope, it's been how many months now? Maybe it's time for them to hire an outside consultant to look at this. This is just insane.

[Rols]

I'm actually getting kinda used to starting it through the task manager. Although not right, it's been working just fine.

[Scott D Davis]

I'm trying to find a topic that was just yeterday (I think) on the newsgroups that mentioned deleting 2 registry keys, and then everything was fine....hope I can find it!

Update: Found it! Try this...hope it helps!



I finally figured out the issue with Revit not launching and wanted to explain the issue and the fix. There was a specific issue with certain desktops receiving a Data Execution error on logon from Windows Explorer. This error is more of an annoyance then a real problem. To resolve the issue it was recommended (based on several Internet forums) to update the registry with a few Application Compatibility flags to disable the error. The registry updates fixed the Windows Explorer errors. However, for some unknown reason these registry keys prevent Revit from launching. The fix is to delete the registry keys. No need to make any modifications to the Revit installation. The following two registry keys need to be removed if they are present:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers\
REG_SZ: $WinDir\Explorer.exe

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\NoExecuteState\
REG_DWORD: LastNoExecuteRadioButtonState

Once deleted a reboot of the machine and launch of Revit runs successfully.

Happy Revitting.... Autodesk, where do I send the bill

[dan.dankert]

Scott,

All of our computers with issues had the first entry in the registry.
After deleting, all work now.

Thanks!
Dan

[david.kingham]

Incredibly it seems to work, just have to back to seeing that damn data execution error again..oh well

and for everyone else, save this as a .reg file to get rid of these keys

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]
"C:\\WINDOWS\\explorer.exe"=-

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\NoExecuteState]
"LastNoExecuteRadioButtonState"=-

[cparsons]

Hey Guys,

This is driving us nuts as well. We have a ticket in with Autodesk but have not heard anything back yet.

The funny thing with us is that changing the registry settings above does not work. What those settings are essentially doing is changing the Windows DEP settings. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/875352 for more information from Microsoft on this. We changed the boot.ini to use all of the 4 options listed by microsoft with no luck.

Fresh local installs, fresh network deployments of Revit 2008 SP2 all with the same results.

Right now we have having users right-click the shortcut, click run as, and enter their credentials. That's right, you don't need any other permissions.

This is terrible and the strangest part is that it is only happening with Revit. I have over 100 apps installed on my laptop and I don't see this with any of them.

Anyone else making progress here?

Thanks,
Chris

[david.kingham]

Strange, since we've deleted those keys nobody has had the problem (76 different computers)

Here's the .reg file we run after every install

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Autodesk\Revit\Revit Architecture 2008\CadManagerControl\CommunicationCenter]
"EnableCommunicationCenter"=dword:00000000
"MaintenancePatchNotificationOption"=dword:00000000
"LocalPatchListLocation"=""
"EnableNonPatchNotifications"=dword:00000000
"DataPollingURL"="http://webservices.autodesk.com/CommCntrLinkCollectionRequest"
"DataPollingAltURL"=""
"UseAltURL"=dword:00000000
"PreviewMode"=dword:00000000
"EnableSerialNumberPassing"=dword:00000000

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\Layers]
"C:\\WINDOWS\\explorer.exe"=-

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\AppCompatFlags\NoExecuteState]
"LastNoExecuteRadioButtonState"=-

[cparsons]

Thanks David.

We tried a different route (below) and so far so good on 4 computers. But again, I'm worried we'll run into the Data Execution Errors in Windows Explorer again.

Chris

[david.kingham]

Good to know, at least the DEP errors are easier to deal with than revit not starting. They should be able to fix this in revit though, it's seems ridiculous to me that this is still not fixed.

[fsstudio]

I'm having the same issue. I have an HP Pavilion laptop with NVidia graphics. I saw a post somewhere that mentioned NVidia graphics as a possible problem. Dunno.

My symptoms are the same as most. Won't start on a desktop/toolbar/start menu click, or right-click "run as..", but will start when coerced through task manager, and will start if I delete those keys. However, if I delete those keys, I get the Explorer DEP crash and lose half my session. NG.

I have to point out that the registry thing is not a fix. It is a dodge at best, since it has nothing specifically to do with Revit. It is an operating system setting that applies indiscriminately to all programs, so mucking with it may affect others. Not a solution..

The real solution, of course, is for Autodesk to get off their butts and fix it. This is a serious show stopper of an error, and should be attended to. No other program I have run doesn't run. Especially an industry standard, heavyweight like Revit. Unfortunately we all appear to be in the minority, or something, so may not be getting attended.

Has anyone seen any mention of this on the Autodesk/Revit site?

I also have another Revit issue, but I'll move to another post for that..

[david.kingham]

I've been doing some research on DEP and it seems it has caused a lot of problems for many other programs, not just Revit. It was added to windows in XP SP2.

Here is another fix, edit your boot.ini and change /noexecute=optin to /noexecute=AlwaysOff

This disables DEP altogether.