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Softimage hangs on startup

7 REPLIES 7
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Message 1 of 8
hdace
751 Views, 7 Replies

Softimage hangs on startup

I've downloaded Softimage 2014 four times and installed it six times on four different computers over the last week and it still will not start up on two (at all), and starts intermittantly on the other two.  Usually it hangs with the splash screen and the app window partially rendered behind.  One of the two intermittantly starting PCs refuses to save any files on any volume apart from .mdd's.  Over the last week I've tried many things.  I even managed to get a little work done despite all the problems.

 

That was with the trial.  Believe it or not, even after all this trouble, I decided to purchase it.  I thought, okay, now I own it, now they have to help me fix it.  Imagine my astonishment to find that Autodesk does not offer any support for a problem like this.  You call this forum support?  Hah!  Pay even more money for a subscription?  Are you people crazy?

 

I paid $3,145 for this crap, and I want some damned help!  I've gone to town trying to figure it out on my own.

 

My main computer:

Windows 7 64-bit

Intel E5-2690 - 8 cores, 2.9 GHz

Gigabyte GA-X79S-UP5 motherboard

32 GB ram

2 Hard drives

GTX 770, GTX 660, GT 640, GTX 440 (all up-to-date nVidia drivers)

Stand-alone mode

7 REPLIES 7
Message 2 of 8
dembkod
in reply to: hdace

hdace,

 

Hello. Sorry for the frustration. Not sure what is occurring on your machine. First, if you want to be up and running as soon as possible, I would consider a reinstall of your operating system and then install. This cleans out corruption 99% of the time. The reason I suggest this is there could be a corruption in the installation, or possibly a corruption in the OS that is affecting the program. It is difficult to tell. Sometimes this is the fastest way to get running. Some users can build a machine in a half hour, which is pretty quick.

 

For troubleshooting, I would:

  1. Uninstall the program
  2. Uninstall Microsoft NET
  3. Uninstall the Microsoft Visual C++ entries (will have multiple)
  4. Update your Graphics card driver
  5. Install the software and see if it helps

 

As a purchaser, when you register, you should have “Up and Ready Support”. I believe you should have been sent information on how to create an account and access this function.

 

Thank you for taking part in our community!



David Dembkoski
Message 3 of 8
hdace
in reply to: dembkod

Hi dembkod,

 

Thanks for your reply.  Firstly, my main computer had Windows installed only one month ago.  Another of the four computers I mentioned had Windows installed just two weeks ago.  The idea that they need Windows re-installed seems a little fanciful.  I would point out that the behavior is the same on four computers.  You have completely ignored this.  It points to a problem with the software, not any of the computers.  Also it would take a day to "build a machine", not half an hour.  So I would need a little more persuasion that this will really solve the problem.  You need to tell me that this behavior has been seen before and what solved it.

 

I will try your troubleshooting suggestions, but all this stuff is already completely up-to-date and was only installed a couple of weeks ago, so I really don't see it's likely to help.  And I did mention that the graphics card driver was already up-to-date.

 

Finally, I absolutely have not been sent any information on "Up and Ready Support".  I would appreciate it if you would send me info on how to get this support as soon as possible.

 

Thanks, Hal Dace

Message 4 of 8
hdace
in reply to: hdace

I should also mention that I've tried to register on the website, but that didn't work, which doesn't surprise me. During the process it asks for a "request code". There are instructions about how to get this, but they don't work. So I was unable to complete the registration process. This is the only program I've ever used, in 28 years of using computers, that's so ropy it can't even start up. And the first time I've used a website that's so bad I can't even register the product.
Message 5 of 8
hdace
in reply to: dembkod

I have now followed your five point troubleshooting suggestions and it did not help at all.  This program will not start up.  I will consider reinstalling Windows, but if that doesn't work, then what do I do?  I'm not getting any support.  I'm completely disgusted!  Blaming a new clean Windows installation for bad software is the last refuge of a scoundral!

Message 6 of 8
hdace
in reply to: dembkod

I have now found a workaround.  Wow.  After a couple of weeks of complete insanity.

 

For about the tenth or fifteenth time I was reinstalling and as usual Softimage failed to startup.  I then told Windows to restart and there was an error message that said something like this: netsh failed to start.  It was only up for a second because then Windows closed.  I think I had caught a glimpse of this error once before but it was up so briefly I couldn't read it.

 

So when Windows was back up I clicked on the Start button, searched for netsh, hit it, and a command prompt window opened.  I then clicked the Softimage shortcut and low and behold Softimage started up.  I then loaded scenes and quit and restarted Softimage several times with no problem.  I then closed the netsh window and sure enough, Softimage failed to start again.  Reopening netsh did not help this time; Softimage still wouldn't start.  So I restarted the computer, restarted netsh, restarted Softimage, and it started up no problem.  So I guess the trick is just to start netsh at startup and leave it open all the time.

 

Any comments?  Anyone?

Message 7 of 8
hdace
in reply to: hdace

Arrgh! This fix worked lots of times over a couple of hours, then suddenly stopped working! Now I'm stuck with hanging starts again. Completely friggin' bizarre!
Message 8 of 8
hdace
in reply to: hdace

Okay, this really is it.  It was my VPN, Astrill.  I'm an American living in China, and any expatriate from any country living in China will say that living here is unbearable without a VPN.  They just totally mess up the internet here.  It just doesn't work unless you have a VPN.  I should have figured it out earlier because it's the only thing all four of my Windows computers have in common.

 

Now Softimage starts up normally, and behaves better, every time.  However, it does mean that one of my computers will no longer have a VPN.  It's a problem, but not too big.  The really big problem was the pathetic response I got to this.  One reply, completely useless ideas.  If I'd followed the advice I would have spent a day reinstalling Windows and updating it (because the internet here is so slow).  I'm also completely disgusted that Autodesk thinks it's okay to engineer software that can't be used if someone has a VPN installed.

 

Let me be clear, the VPN HAS to be completely uninstalled, not just turned off.  That's not good enough.  Autodesk needs to sort themselves out.  Their software is already substandard, in my opinion, and this is just another reason for me to dislike it.  Unfortunately, they have a near monopoly, which creates inertia.  They can't be moved.  Disgusted.  I should change my login name to that.

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