ni max access violation

[Nimgaard]

Hello

All of a sudden NI Max stopped working on one of my development machines. It wont even start, but goes directly to the NI MAX Crash Reporter. Exception: Access Violation (0xC00000005) at EIP=0x6AC6DD70

I have tried reinstalling NI Max (through System configuration installer). I have uninstalled all NI software and reinstalled. I have reinstalled Visual Studio 2010 (which was on the computer). I have searched for old pdm.dll files, the oldest is from 2009 but most are from 2013.

The computer is a virtual machine (vmware fusion) running Windows 7. The version of NI MAX is 5.6.0f0 and the rest of the NI software were 2013 versions.

I also have another virtual machine with the 2013 setup and the same version of NI MAX. I get the same error there. My 2015 machine works ok with NI MAX starting up without problems.

The two machines that MAX wont start on have worked without problems for a couple of years, this just popped up yesterday.

Have anyone encountered this and have an idea what to do? 

Best Regards,

Nimgaard

[Norbert_B]

Nimgaard,

do these VMs update Windows?

If you didn't change things consciously, i can imagine that a Windows update changed things in the background....

Norbert

[Nimgaard]

Yes, they update windows.

Ive tried to uninstall all the windows updates since the problem occured, which is all in about a year since the VM hasnt been started for a while. It did not help. A couple of them seem to linger though, with no means to uninstall from what i can see.

If its any clue, the crash happens when MAX is "loading plug-ins".

[Norbert_B]

Is it possible for you to install a more up-to-date version of MAX? This might include re-installation (or update) of drivers.

Norbert

[Nimgaard]

Update of drivers arent possible due to live systems i dont want to upgrade in production.

However i did install MAX 15.0, but i got the same error (on the machine with the problem).

[Norbert_B]

It is possible that the crash is generated by a corrupt MAX database. You can reset it following this KB.

If this does not help, I recommend you to create a crash dump, note all NI software you have installed and contact your local NI branch for support.

Norbert

[Nimgaard]

Resetting didnt help either.

You are probably right, but if there is no known fix that others have tried i probably will just install a new VM and hope it works. Going through the process of an official support case is a time luxury i dont really have.

[Nimgaard · Accepted solution]

After other applications started failing as well, i found a tip that upgrading vmware tools for the virtual machine might help.

It actually did, and now its working again. 

Might be worth knowing for anyone who happen to run into the same problem.