2008LT - not fit for purpose?

[mtc.139414]

I purchased 2008LT at the beginning of May (having long run out of upgrade time on my previous version but have been using the full 2006 for clients) and since then I have experienced frequent crashes - the third one today has prompted this post.
AutoCAD has been around for a long time, it claims to be the market leader, surely they should be capable of producing a program that is stable?

[BrenBren]

I purchased 2008LT at the beginning of May (having long run out of upgrade time on my previous version but have been using the full 2006 for clients) and since then I have experienced frequent crashes - the third one today has prompted this post.
AutoCAD has been around for a long time, it claims to be the market leader, surely they should be capable of producing a program that is stable?

Can you provide further information about these crashes? Is there an error message? What are you doing when the crash happens? Are you able to submit feedback to Autodesk when these crashes occur (I've found this to be helpful in the past).

[mtc.139414]

I have posted feedback to Autodesk but had no response other than the automated thank you. There doesn't appear to be a record of these retained on my computer so I cannot check all the circumstances, but the last one - I was trimming to block entities using a crossing selection box. I haven't noted any error messages as I assume these are transmitted with the feedback - I will do so next time (that's when, not if).

[mtc.139414]

Just happened - had pre-selected a polyline (rectangle) and was accessing pull-down menus. Crashed without the option of saving. Message:
FATAL ERROR: Unhandled Access Violation Reading 0x0000 Exception at 0h

[jaberwok]

Have you tried running diagnostic checks on your RAM?
I really doubt that your problems are mainly software related.

[mtc.139414]

I haven't experienced random crashes with any other program but I ran a RAM diagnostic anyway and it found no errors.

[BrenBren]

I have posted feedback to Autodesk but had no response other than the automated thank you. There doesn't appear to be a record of these retained on my computer so I cannot check all the circumstances, but the last one - I was trimming to block entities using a crossing selection box. I haven't noted any error messages as I assume these are transmitted with the feedback - I will do so next time (that's when, not if).

So are you saying it is crashing without any error messages? Just shutting completely down?

What about your video card/driver?

[mtc.139414]

No - usually the program fails with a dialogue giving me the option to save the currently open drawings, but I haven't made a note of the specific wording, I will do so next time. The last failure was the Fatal Error reported above that shut down the program immediately.

[Brian Myers]

This error most frequently happens when the software is installed on a computer with an unsupported video card driver. To check that, you can go to this page and try to find yours:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet...linkID=9240618

Next, make sure you have the latest video driver available installed on your computer.

EDIT:
If the above is the case and the latest drivers are already installed, then adding the switch /NOHARDWARE may enable you to run AutoCAD without issue.
Instructions can be found in this PDF:
http://www.hyperpics.com/downloads/r...n%20Switch.pdf

[mtc.139414]

My graphics are the integrated Intel 82945G system (on a Dell Optiplex GX620), I have the latest drivers but they do not appear in the Autodesk list - none of the other Intel drivers are supported.
The /nohardware switch doesn't appear to work for LT - I get a message saying the Target is invalid.