Plan-G Suddenly Un-interested in Further Toil

[HighGrounds]

Hullo, Tim:

I've looked high and low in the Forums for this particular snag, but haven't found it.  If I missed it, please forgive for being a weenie and a pest.

Problem:
Out of the blue, when starting Plan-G, I get the dreaded "...has stopped working...." message and it goes dead on me.  This happens 60% of the time I try to start it.

The other 40% of the time, it'll sit pretty until I right-click on an airport.  Immediately thereafter, I get a script error thus:
---------------------
Script Error

An error has occurred in the script on this page.

Line: 23
Char: 46
Error: The type initializer for 'System Windows Automation InvokePatternidentifiers' threw an exception [a kind of hissy-fit?]
Code: 0
URL: file:///F:/Program%20Files/Microsoft%20Games/Flight%20Simulator%203Utils-FSX/Plan-G/JavaScript/misc.js
      Do you want to continue running scripts on this page?  Y/N
---------------------

Answering Y or N will cancel the message, but it'll recur next try, no matter which I select.  Shortly thereafter, the prog will go legs-up again.

Recent Changes:
The only significant recent changes to my lashup that I can think of are  a) I replaced AVG Free with Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), and b) I recently upgraded my Firefox from 3.xxx to 5.0

Paltry Attempts at Fixing:
Suspecting MSE, I de-selected all of the features, but had no change in symptoms. 

I realized by this time that I had no solid trouble-shooting plan, so I then pored-through the Forum.  After trying everything that seemed to possibly hold a shred of promise, I gave up, and as a last resort, I'm sending this Forum entry.

Does anything sound familiar, Tim?

Desperate in Dartmouth,

-Jon
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[tim arnot]

Does the error get recorded in the log? That might have more information.

I haven't found anything relevant on google, but given that you've recently changed your security arrangements, that's the area I'd be looking in:

* Where is Plan-G installed? (Program Files?)
* Are you running it as administrator?
* Have you added rules to your av/firewall to allow Plan-g to do its thing?

[HighGrounds]

Does the error get recorded in the log? That might have more information. . . .

Apparently not -- at least to my feeble eye.  After the last few incidents, the only data I can decipher is something to do with the last install (re-install, actually).

* Where is Plan-G installed? (Program Files?)
* Are you running it as administrator?
* Have you added rules to your av/firewall to allow Plan-g to do its thing?

* Installed on a separate drive with my other FSX utilities.  Always worked a treat -- until now.
* Yes indeedie-do.  Da foist t'ing I checked.
* Yes.  Moreover I just re-checked.

Well, we both seem to be looking askance at the AV. Methinks I'm going to punt the MSE and revert to the AVG Free.  Whaddya think?

If you concur, I'll do the deed and letcha know how things transpired shortly thereafter.

Thanks for your time so-far, Tim.

[tim arnot]

I don't believe it's MSE per se, since I use it here on three PCs with no problems. But I do think that changing the AV caused a fundamental upset: It could well be that AVG didn't uninstall cleanly (AV software can be notorious when it comes to uninstalling).

The error occurs exactly as described (if you open misc.js in Notepad, and go to line 23, you can see it's the callback into the main Plan-G from right-clicking the map). Unfortunately, although the script message tells us there was an error, it doesn't say what the actual error was.

I'm not convinced that going back to AVG will cure the problem, but it's certainly worth a try.

It might also be worth uninstalling DotNet 4, and reinstalling it from a fresh download from Microsoft.com

[HighGrounds]

Well, it's been an interesting -- but fruitless, alas -- exercise.

First, I Done the DotNet Deed, since it was the least invasive.

That failing, I yanked MSE and dumped-in AVG; added the req'd exceptions.  No luck. Tried disabling it temporarily, to no avail.

At some point, however, Plan-G stopped crashing, willy-nilly, during this exercise, and I was heartened.  So I tried a different approach:

I used the "Quick" feature to plot to nearby points;  worked well.  But when I went to click on "Plan", so's to plot an intermediate point, it went legs-up again.  <Sigh>

A wee point of elucidation here: 

This problem resides in the copy of Plan-G on my primary computer -- where I normally cobble-together any major sort of flight plan.  I would normally then ship the completed plan(s) over to my secondary, networked computer, where a copy of Plan-G would actually run my navigation for a flight.

Well, for whatever it may be worth, the networked copy of Plan-G, running on the piddling little networked kludge works like an absolute top!  It's only the one on the Monster Machine that's suddenly become reluctant to cooperate.  [I doubt that has any significance, but there y'go.]

This, btw, leaves only the Firefox upgrade that I'm aware of in recent changes, and surely that can't have had any effect -- can it?  :(.  Surpassingly strange.

[tim arnot]

Something else you could try: Copy the database files (*.sdf) from the secondary computer back to the main one. It could be that the database has got somehow corrupted. Stranger things have happened...

[STOVL]

I had the same issue "pop up" on my computer.  Like you, I searched the manual and did everything else I could think of, all to no avail.

I finally broke down and uninstalled/re-installed Plan G.  Now everything is back to working just like new!  I had been running for a number (4-6 maybe) months.

Like Tim said, maybe the database somehow got corrupted.  Since I found nothing else to blame it on, that sounds good to me.

STOVL

[HighGrounds]

.
Thanks for the inspiration, STOVL.  I've already tried that, but absent any better option, I think I'll just 'ave another go, 'Arry.  Can't do any harm, and y'just never know;  stranger things.

[HighGrounds]

.
Well, I tried that again, several times, installing in different places.  Now "the problem" is worse:

After a new install,I can start Plan-G, and it'll sit there and behave if I don't DO anything.  But if I go to generate a database, and I move the mouse pointer to the menu bar -- just float it over the area -- I get the "...stopped working...." message and that's that.   Welladay!

I'm beginning to think there's a curse upon us Win7-64 users!

One peculiar and possibly notworthy thing, however:  After what I think is a complete uninstall, and a nice, new, fresh install, the Plan-G map opens to precisesly the same spot that I last visited when it was only half-broken.  Are there remnants left in other spots that p'raps I should be weeding-out with my "complete UN-install" ??

[tim arnot]

Make sure you run the ClearAllSettings app to zap the registry (uninstall won't do that).

You could also try the ClearAllSettigs without doing the un/reinstall.

BTW this has nothing to do with Win7/64 per se - Plan-G is developed on W7/64, and I run it regularly here with no problems on four different W7/64 PCs (including a Macbook Pro); in fact I don't even have a PC that *isn't* W7/64...

[HighGrounds]

Merely popping-in to say I've been working on this snag almost daily, but still to no avail.  Just mainly reading-through the Forum and wondering whether any new, possible fixes have surfaced.

Cheers, Tim.

-Jon
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[zl2bmh]

Just my pennies worth, did you do the 'clear all settings'? as this stroke of genius from Tim got me up and running again.

Good luck,
Jim.

[dritterb]

HighGrounds, back in July you described symptoms close to something I have observed.  Specifically, when I do a clean XP build (w SP3) updated, then add dotNet Framework 4.0 (updated) then install Plan-G, I find that whenever I move the mouse pointer over the map area of the display I trigger a script error which reads "An error has occurred... Line 87.... char 25...  Error: Unable to load DLL "sqlceme35.dll".  My solution is to install dotNet Framework 3.5 SP1.  This fix has been successful for me twice. :)

[HighGrounds]

.
Well, at long last, success!  And I thought I'd stop by to info any who're possibly interested as to what the problem was.  The long version of this story would choke a horse, but I'll be mercifully brief.

My guru had built me a whiz-bang of a machine, with a number of my old drives in it, a new one for Flight-Sim-related stuff, and a small SSD for the operating system (Win7-64).  This C: drive had quickly gotten rather full, alas, and I planned to somehow replace it with a larger one (note: "planned to").  It promised to be a messy operation, and I was putting it off.  Sigh!

But what had happened -- and which I hadn't a clue of -- was that the the available space on this small SSD C: drive had gotten critically low! And it hadn't occurred to me that some programs require a lot of temporary space on C: in which to effect the installation process.

And I suspect things went down the drain hole when I tried to RE-iunstall dotnet4;  the uninstall went fine, but there was insufficient room for the reinstall.  And so-on it went, with space ever decreasing, but me not noticing.

Then the penny dropped, and I suspected what was happening.  But I had to wait.

Ofher factors came into play to forestall my computer machinations for a couple of months, but I just recently got things going with a nice, big, fat, juicy C: drive, and lo -- as was expected -- Plan-G installed, ran and compiled its database just peachy-fine!

So there y'go.  My take-away lesson from all this is:  in a multiple drive machine, DO NOT be parsimonious with the C: drive!  Its size requirements can escalate rapidly with normal use -- especially if you dabble in Flight-Sim applications.

Cheers, all.

-Jon