LabVIEW won't start yet appears in the task manager

[GoofyWires]

Hi,

I posted a message about this at Lavag with no results so I'm trying my NI Forums too. Sorry for the cross link.

I'm using several LV versions from 8.5 up over Win10 64bit.

After installing LV2017 and Windows Developer Update LV8.5 stopped launching.

I can see it in the task manager yet nothing appears in the task bar.

Clean boot, safe mode didn't help.

NI suggested:

1. Even though LV8.5 was working for a long time over Win10 64bit it is actually not supported there so I can get no help

2. There is actually only one engine and LV 2017 might have brought a new engine that conflicts with LV 8.5.

Besides that I got a "An unexpected licensing error has occured" a few days after the issue started while LV was closed and opening the License Manager there was nothing wrong there and the message didn't appear again yet 8.5 is still not opening the splash screen or appear in the task bar and only takes 32% CPU in the task manager.

My guess is that it is something stack in the registry.

Does one of you have LV2017 running along LV 8.5?

Help...

[Bob_Schor]

LabVIEW 2017 may be a bit of an anomaly.  LabVIEW versions work "best" when they are the only version installed on a Windows Platform.  However, up through LabVIEW 2016, it was possible to install a "newer" version of LabVIEW "on top of" earlier installations, with the proviso that the OS supported the newer release.  On my work PC running Windows 7 x64, I believe I have LabVIEW 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2016 all running nicely, and I'm able to develop on each of these platforms.

I'm currently working through what appears to be a "hard incompatibility" where installing LabVIEW 2017 (32-bit) on top of LabVIEW 2016 (32-bit) on Windows 10 x64 results in MAX failing to run.  A symptom of this situation is that about half of the NI Services that are installed when LabVIEW 2016 or LabVIEW 2017 are installed alone get removed following the installation of LabVIEW 2017.  

I know of at least one LabVIEW Forum user who has not seen this problem.  I've demonstrated it on a single machine, and have reproduced the behavior over several Install/Remove All cycles, documenting the Services as I go.  This might be related to the particular version of Windows 10 (Microsoft is currently rolling out the third "release") -- I'm following up with NI tomorrow.

There may be a problem installing LabVIEW-2017 "on top of" LabVIEW 2016

Bob Schor

[GoofyWires]

I tried uninstalling LV 8.5 and reinstalling 8.5.1 - didn't help

I tried uninstalling LV 17 and LV 8.5.1 and reinstalling only 8.5.1 - didn't help

I uninstalled all LV versions and deleted their directories at program files and in program files (x86) and reinstalling only LV 8.5.1 - working!

I added the installation of LV 17 - LV 8.5.1 stopped working with same phenomenon!

It Is tested and repeatable: LV 8.5.1 has no problem with Win10 64bit, it has a problem with LV 2017 64bit!

As far as I care NI owes me 2 weeks salary and a big apology. Fix it and fix it soon!

Such an issue must come as a BIG warning before installing LV 2017.

[GoofyWires]

I tried uninstalling LV 8.5 and reinstalling 8.5.1 - didn't help

I tried uninstalling LV 17 and LV 8.5.1 and reinstalling only 8.5.1 - didn't help

I uninstalled all LV versions and deleted their directories at program files and in program files (x86) and reinstalling only LV 8.5.1 - working!

I added the installation of LV 17 - LV 8.5.1 stopped working with same phenomenon!

It Is tested and repeatable: LV 8.5.1 has no problem with Win10 64bit, it has a problem with LV 2017 64bit!

As far as I care NI owes me 2 weeks salary and a big apology. Fix it and fix it soon!

Such an issue must come as a BIG warning before installing LV 2017.

[Bob_Schor]

Yes, indeed.  I, and a number of others, have demonstrated problems installing LabVIEW 2017 "on top of" older versions of LabVIEW on Windows 10 x64.  To be fair, I've also demonstrated (to myself) that a clean install of LabVIEW 2017 on Windows 10 ("clean" = no previous NI software was ever installed on the PC), and an installation of LabVIEW 2017 on Windows 7, even "on top of" LabVIEW 2016, seems to work.  This has also been reported here on the Forums ...

Bob Schor

[GoofyWires]

Do you know if someone tried installing LV 8.5.1 with LV 2017 64bit on Windows 7 64bit?

I didn't find the posts about it in the forum.

What does NI say about it? Will it be fixed anytime soon or ever at all?

Thanks Bob.

[DonhJoe]

Hi,

LabVIEW 8.5 was never fully tested on Windows 7 (http://www.ni.com/product-documentation/53409/en/) so NI won't say is 100% supported. If it is working indeed, I would suggest installing an intermediate version such as 2013 SP1 or 2015SP1, convert code and applications, remove LabVIEWLV 8.5.1 and finally install LabVIEW 2017.

How to Upgrade or Revert a VI to a Different Version of LabVIEW: http://www.ni.com/tutorial/8387/en/

Several LabVIEW versions can coexist as long as all the versions are 100% with the OS.

Best!

[GoofyWires]

Unfortunately I'm using a LabVIEW application that was developed with an investment of 40M$ that must use LV 8.5.1 and it is not going to be upgraded anytime soon.

I wonder if someone tested LV 8.5.1 and LV 2017 together over Win7 64bit.

[lifeofbrian]

I've had problems with LV 2017 launch on Windows 7, so don't think it's a W10 problem. Software installs with no problems, doesn't run and took down 2016 with it. There is 2015 that still run. MAX still runs also. Install and runs on my laptop though, no problems and it's also W7.

[GoofyWires]

Update:

Since uninstalling wasn't enough and only deleting the leftovers from Program Files allowed the re-installation to work I went down a rabbit hole of errors.

At first it didn't allow me to re-install saying I already have LV installed in a different language and I need to uninstall it first.

The NI Software in add/remove applications was still there yet not functioning.

The solution was to take the uninstaller folder from the CD by installing the Uninstaller alone directly.

Once re-running the exes in that folder in National Instruments/Shared I was able to install LV.

Then, I got Helpasst.dll error from the license manager of LV 8.5.1 asking me to reinstall the software which didn't help and on the web I found a security patch I had to run that did fix the issue.

If all that wasn't enough I now found out that the license that was working on my main HDD is invalid from the cloned SSD that I just installed next to it in the same computer (the main clone running LV 8.5.1 and the new one running 2017 since they don't like each other).

I guess LV on virtual machines doesn't require a different license for each VM but it turns out that in the case of a dual boot the ComputerID is different and thus you can't use the same license if it was already installed on 3 devices.

AHHHHhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!