projects disappearing

[LonesomeJoe]

One of our workstations is acting wonky.  While I am entirely convinced that the machine is possessed by a demon, the I.T. people want me to investigate further.  It's latest trick is to delete any projects in the Project Manager list except the "active" project, "Default" project and "tutorial_files" project.  The actual Project .ipj isn't deleted from the folder, just removed from the list in the Projects window.  Is there a setting somewhere that would remove all except the active project, say... "Clear Projects"???  We've had a LOT of problems with this workstation arbitrarily changing settings, particularily Content Center settings.  Anyone wanna take a guess what might be causing this??  Thanx.

[jalger]

Hi Lonesome Joe,

Well aside from sprinkling some holy water on it, you could check File / folder permissions.

The files that are related to the Project List are stored in: C:\ProgramFiles\Autodesk\Inventor2015\Bin

(same for 2014, 2013, and 2012 just replace the year) Make sure you have full access to that folder.

The files related to the project list are:

IpjProjectList.ocx

IPJPROJECTLISTLib.dll

IpjProjectTree.ocx

IPJPROJECTTREELib.dll

Two of the files are active X (maybe the computer doesn't like active X?)

Without more information it will be a little hard to tell whats going on.

What version of Inventor are you running?

and what OS is on the machine (Win 7, Win 8, etc)?

Do you have any pending windows updates?

Have you run a full scan on the machine to make sure there is no Virus?

Sometimes machines just misbehave for certain people (not sure why... magnet fields around people maybe?)

but I have seen it many times before, try having someone else sit at the machine, and see if it works. 

Regards,

James

[LonesomeJoe]

Oooops, should have given version info...  Inventor R2011, Win XP Pro 64x.  Yeah, I was only half-kidding about this machine being posessed.  We've done repeated scans, it's clean, we've uninstalled and reinstalled Inventor, to no avail.  It doesn't seem to matter who sits at the desk, it just plays up constantly.  Had I an administrative password, I'd type "format C:" "Enter"... tell I.T. I have no idea what happened.

[jalger]

Hi Lonesome Joe,

Are you using vault?

and what Service pack is on the machine? (if you don't have vault it should be a SP1, SP2 was only for vault and can cause some fun issues.)

when you uninstalled the Software did you remove the files from all locations (or just copied over them?)

The main things to check for are in the local and Roaming profiles (basically wipeout the Autodesk file folders and you'll be fine).

some of the files need to be manually removed when things get buggered.

Format C:\ would probably work but your IT likely doesn't want to re-install everything...but be the sounds of it that might not be a bad idea.

one other thing to check is the .net framwork insalled on the machine.  Check if you have 4.0 or newer on the computer... I don't think XP can run 4.0 or higher. (it can install it but it sure doesn't like it). I think 2011 installs .net 4.0, you may need to remove it and go back to 3.5.

Regards,

James

[LonesomeJoe]

No Vault, though we do have SP2.  All the other machines (4 total) also have SP2, and they seem to be behaving.  Unless there's a way you know of, I can't check the .net framework without administrative permissions... and if I had that I'd probably have wiped the hard drive months ago....   I didn't do the uninstall, but I believe they wiped everything to do with Autodesk, though I can't say for sure.  I was really just asking to see if there was a "setting" that controlled what projects were displayed in the Project Manager window.  There seems to be a real problem with this machine, though all 4 of our machines are "supposed" to be identical.  Additional to the Project issue and the flighty Content Center settings, it has "Pony Express" slow pan and zoom, even on very simple assembly files...  Whatever the problem is, at least it keeps my life exciting!! 

[blair]

Possibly a bad User Profile, good chances you are using Roaming Profiles and these items are actually stored on the server within your user account and not on the local machine. Try creating a new user account for this machine and see if the problem persists.

[LonesomeJoe]

Possibly, I'll look at that when I get a chance (I'm backed up earning my keep right now).  The problems persist regardless of who is logged in, tho the corrupted User Profile could be equally corrupted for all users, right?

[jalger]

Hi Lonesome Joe,

You should be able to view the installed programs, the control panel should still open.

If you can get to the CMD Prompt, just type in Control panel. (its a back door method that should work).

You may not be able to uninstall, but it should let view the list of programs.

I did more Digging SP2 should  be fine (you just can't get it without jumping through 3 different web pages.).

there is an update to SP2 which deals only with Vault (thats the one I saw originally).

I Saw your post back to Blair, the user profile would not be broken for each user if it was a User profile issue.

But it gives us some important information, it means Something shared is causing the issue.

Since a re-install did nothing, I'm betting its something leftover in the registry. (easily Overlooked when uninstalling)

Normally the registry doesn't need to be Cleaned, since the uninstall usually takes care of it.

It Could mean that the registry value responsible for the project list is corrupt.

Keep us posted on anything you try.

It might spark another idea.

James

[blair]

I agree, uninstall IV, look for all instances of that version of IV showing up in folders on the system and delete them. Run a registry cleaner, something like cCleaner.com. You may need to scan the registry a couple of times to clean up all old instances. Run the "Check Disc" with the fix option, re-boot and log in as an Administrator and install the software along with SP's.