I am having an unexpected crash in Wealth Lab. Yesterday everything was working fine but this morning when I turned on my pc and tried to open Wealth Lab I got the classic windows 7 message "WealthLab Dev has stopped working" without even being able to see the application for a single second. Can you please provide some help?

Does that mean it crashed once or that it continually crashes every time your try to launch?

If every time, retrace your steps.
1. Which extensions have you added in the last 2 days?
2. Have you changed the default Workspace? If so, rename default.ws in the \Data\Workspaces folder to something else and try again.

More ideas, as always, on the Wealth-Lab Wiki

It is every time.

default.ws is non existent. No new extentions have been added in the last 2 days (just updates of the extentions I already had instaled). I also tried the General troubleshooting procedure for "Wealth-Lab crashes on start" as described on WL Wiki. I am posting the details from Event Viewer which might give you a better indication on what's wrong. Unistalling and reinstalling WL could do the job?

QUOTE:

- System

- Provider

[ Name] Windows Error Reporting

- EventID 1001

[ Qualifiers] 0

Level 4

Task 0

Keywords 0x80000000000000

- TimeCreated

[ SystemTime] 2011-09-16T08:31:18.000000000Z

EventRecordID 32213

Channel Application

Computer Christos

Security


- EventData


0
CLR20r3
Not available
0
wealthlabdev.exe
6.2.34.0
4df890a8
WealthLabDev
6.2.34.0
4df890a8
263
be
System.TypeInitialization

C:\Users\Christos\AppData\Local\Temp\WERE7B1.tmp.WERInternalMetadata.xml
C:\Users\Christos\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportArchive\AppCrash_wealthlabdev.exe_c1cc543e7952967ac9e3c946d74e221ae9a2ef7_17ddf316

0
3db5179b-e03e-11e0-bbac-90fba6eba39e
65

QUOTE:
just updates of the extentions I already had instaled

Which ones? After installing them, did you have a successful launch? Something changed on your system, you have to undo it. Delete (with Windows Explorer) the extension dll files that you updated one at a time and try to launch after each deletion.

What is really strange is that I did have several successful launches after installing the extentions. I was working with WL without any problem since this morning...

Christos,

Most likely, you've changed regional settings? In this case (or anything for that matter), date ranges saved in Wealth-Lab's configuration file become unrecognizable. Hence System.TypeInitialization exception and hence the solution - click Cone's link above - it's in the same KB article.

On a related note, it would be really beneficial for our international customers to avoid this crash on parsing dates in DataRange= strings which have become "alien" after changing the culture. It's a simple fix like changing Date.Parse to Date.TryParse and resetting unrecognized DateTime string to some default value, but the idea is that it's readily possible to avoid the ugly crash. Robert, do you like me to submit a formal report for this?

QUOTE:
Unistalling and reinstalling WL could do the job?

I have a problem. Tried to reinstall Wealth-Lab, but it didn't help!

I am absolutely sure that I haven't changed regional settings.

As I said I performed the process described in WL Wiki "Wealth-Lab crashes on start" where I renamed the WL folder to WLX and tried to reopen WL. Then as expected WL created an new folder with the name WL and I copied all relevant strategy and data set files. So if I have correctly understood this should have corrected for the problem of extentions conflict and the problem with the changed regional settings (correct?)

QUOTE:
So if I have correctly understood this should have corrected for the problem of extentions conflict and the problem with the changed regional settings (correct?)

Changed regional settings (or otherwise broken config file) is cured by closing WLD6, removing WealthLabConfig.txt (from ..AppData\Roaming\WealthLabDev\1.0.0.0\Data\), and reopening WLD6. Renaming the WL folder under AppData is equivalent in this sense, but is a more powerful way of clearing stuff.

If you're telling that even after this procedure Wealth-Lab is locked in a TypeInitialization crash, it's time to revisit your DLLs - including any custom built of course. Open Wealth-Lab's main folder under Program Files, sort the files by date, temporarily move out absolutely anything with a modification date later than end of June 2011 (latest Y! update), then try starting WLD6 again.

Did exactly as you said... Unfortunatelly still getting the same error. :(

According to the clues coming from our auth server logs, I have a good reason to believe that currently you are in Safe Mode. Please boot Windows back in Mormal mode before continuing any further.

I was not in safe mode but I did perform a restart as soon as I saw your post. I am not in a safe mode currently as well. One additional thought. I did upgrade to internet explorer 9 yesterday. Could that be the problem (although ie9 & WL were working together yesterday without any problem)

No, IE9 couldn't do it.

What I saw today in the auth system logs compared to your penultimate authentication in August, is a highly specific change and a pretty rare event. I will not go into the details of it on a public forum like this but it is known to happen in Safe mode.

It was stable for the whole year, but you probably noticed an hour ago when trying to activate Wealth-Lab that your hardware fingerprint has changed, did you? What changed? Are you running WL in a sandbox of any sort, under antivirus protection, or anything close for that matter? Have Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) service been stopped on your computer?

QUOTE:
I renamed the WL folder to WLX ... So if I have correctly understood this should have corrected for the problem of extentions conflict and the problem with the changed regional settings (correct?)

This wouldn't necessarily cure an extension conflict, but it would isolate that any of the users Data files were in conflict.

Pending your response to Eugene's questions, you can try this for a complete fresh start, but it won't help if the problems are those that Eugene implies.

1. Repeat the user data folder renaming procedure.
2. Uninstall WLD
3. In the installation directory (.. MS123\Wealth-Lab Developer 6\) move all of the remaining files to the MS123 directory. These are the extensions.
4. Re-install WLD
5. Launch succesful?

With respect to the hardware fingerprint change: You are correct - I tried to activate WL in the same pc but in the guest account and I did get the message that my hardware fingerprint has changed. I really can't see the reason for that. I haven't changed any antivirus protection settings. The WMI doesn't seem to be included in the Task Manager Processes List so it must have been stopped by something.

I will tell you what I did this morning and if this could be related to what is happening now. I unistalled gladinet application. That's all. Nothing more. The reason for that was the following. Yesterday, I used to be getting the windows "start navigation" sound all the time without navigating at all. So I thought that the cause could be some application working in the background searching for updates. I tried to end the Gladinet process in the Task Manager Process list and the sound stopped. This morning I decided to unistall the application since it was not neccessary for my job.

Many thanks for your help Eugene

QUOTE:
You are correct - I tried to activate WL in the same pc but in the guest account and I did get the message that my hardware fingerprint has changed. I really can't see the reason for that.

Bingo! Guest mode. My best bet that it's the lack of privileges. Among things not possible to do under Guest is inability to take a free trial or being unable to install Wealth-Lab and/or Extensions. This all requires elevated (admin) privileges.

Please proceed with Cone's procedure from 9/16/2011 6:40 AM. Should all else fail, then please create a support ticket and I'll provide one more, private suggestion to you.

Bingo 2 times!! It finally worked! Can you please give me some indication of what the problem was? Any advice to avoid similar crashes in the future?

Finally, what is the correct steps to follow so as to bring everything back as it used to be before the crash (strategies, datasets, extentions etc)?

QUOTE:
Can you please give me some indication of what the problem was?

Most likely, conflicting extension (including your own) or partially damaged configuration file.

QUOTE:
Finally, what is the correct steps to follow so as to bring everything back as it used to be before the crash (strategies, datasets, extentions etc)?

Strategies, DataSets - see link in Cone's first reply (General troubleshooting procedure Step 7).

If this step goes fine, reinstall Extensions from our site. (If you have custom developed libraries,-you should already know what to do with them).

Many thanks to both of you guys. Everything is working now as before!