Knowledge base

Troubleshooting Grid 2 start-up problems

If you are having problems getting Grid 2 to start please phone the help desk for advice.
This article is intended for use by experienced IT support staff for fault-finding and repair start-up problems with The Grid 2 where remote support is not possible.

Introduction

Occasionally Grid 2 won’t start. Sometimes you get a ‘Runtime Error 0’ message or it freezes and Windows announces there is a problem and it has closed the program. File locations in this article are for 64 bit versions of Windows. On 32 bit editions use the following folders:

C:\Program Files (x64)\Sensory Software -> C:\Program Files\Sensory Software
C:\Windows\SysWow64 -> C:\Windows\System32

Step 1 – Make sure the software is up to date.

Make sure all Windows updates are installed.
To force the sensory updater to do a ‘repair’ install delete the file:

C:\Program Files (x64)\Sensory Software \The Grid 2\The Grid 2.exe.manifest

and then run the on-line installer. This will check all files for corruption and are up to date.

If you don’t have access to the on line installer it is important to use the latest version of the installer CD. This can be downloaded from www.sensorysoftware.com/downloads/iso/the_grid_2. Failure to use the latest version of the installer can result in mismatched components.

Step 2 – Try to start into Grid Explorer.

Force Grid 2 to start in Grid Explorer by renaming the file:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Sensory Software\The Grid 2\Preferences.xml

Reboot the machine and then try to start Grid 2. If it starts in Grid Explorer goto Step 3.
If you still cant start Grid Explorer, the problem is most likely to be one of the following:
Anti Virus software blocking access to either Sensory Licence Manager or Sensory Speech.
The installer failed to register/update some of the shared Microsoft dlls.
Location for the User folder is missing. Make sure the folder

“C:\Users\Public\Documents\Sensory Software\The Grid 2\Users”

exists and you can create files in that location.

AV Products

Some anti-virus products have an option to pause their protection but it is necessary to completely uninstall the product to be certain. Be especially careful to check for out of date versions of AVG, McAfee and Norton. We find Microsoft Security Essentials one of the least intrusive products. McAfee and Norton frequently cause problems.
You can test Sensory Speech using the program:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Sensory Software\Common\Speech\Sensory Speech Test.exe

When setting exceptions, most AV products require separate settings for computer scans and real time protection. See How to configure exceptions for Microsoft Security Essentials for more details.

Shared DLL files

Occasionally programs running in the background block access to some of the shared Microsoft DLLs (MSWINSCK.OCX, mscomctl.ocx and mscomm32.ocx) during the install process. On startup, Grid 2 will normally raise a dialog naming the dll. To fix:

Open an elevated console window and CD to C:\Windows\SyWow64
Unregister and delete the three files:

regsvr32 /u xxx.dll
del xxx.dll

Rerun the installer.
If you have problems deleting the files you may need to start in safe mode to delete the files.

Step 3 – Try to start in a new user

Once any Grid Explorer start-up problems have been resolved you should try to open a new user. Creating a new user ensures the problems are not related to corrupt user files. If Grid 2 crashes when opening a new user is most likely to be due to one of three problems:
Internet Explorer missing or corrupt.
Windows Media Player missing or corrupt.
AV products blocking access to Sensory Speech.

Internet Explorer

Open Internet Explorer to confirm it is working correctly (it need not have access to the internet, but it must be able to open correctly). You should also check for signs of malware in Internet Explorer (e.g. unwanted adverts). If you suspect malware we suggest you scan the machine with Malwarebytes (www.malwarebytes.org).

Windows Media Player

Occasionally corrupt media files cause Windows Media Player from starting. You may need to rename folders containing your media and then reset the library.

Sensory Speech

To test for problems with sensory speech, start Grid 2 into Grid Explorer and then, from Grid Explorer, select the new user and select ‘User Settings’ and test the speech from the speech settings dialog. If you experience problems at this stage they are most likely due to Anti Virus products.

Step 4 – Return to normal operation

Restore the preferences file to its normal name (see Step 2) and see if Grid 2 will start. If Grid 2 can open a newly created user, but crashes or hangs when trying to open a specific user is most likely to be a corrupt file in the users area. The name of the startup user is in the Preferences File as “<startuser>Fast Talker 2</startuser>”

Try deleting the touch type prediction file (where xxx is the username):

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Sensory Software\The Grid 2\Users\xxx\Settings0\Dictionary\touchtype_personal.lm3

Step 5 – Report the issue

If, after completing the above steps you are still having problems, please run sensory diagnostics to collect information and send the log file to support@smartboxat.com. Please also include details of any AntiVirus software you are running and your contact details.