AutoCAD 2017 and 2018 freeze on opening

[mvuckovic]

So this started to happen on June 7th gradually with few users in our company and culminated last week with most of the users who had AutoCAD 2017 or 2018. Not sure about 2016. We have mixed AutoCAD installations in the company, AutoCAD 2016-2019.

Users started experiencing freezing after certain time they worked with the software. On some PCs, AutoCAD would start without issues if opened immediately after Windows boot and then stopped working after a random time frame. At this point, on my PC, AutoCAD 2018 freezes immediately when it's opened. Only buttons on Start screen like "Start drawing", "Send feedback" or "Open Files..." show highlighted on mouse hover. Everything else is frozen, Ribbon, File and Help buttons. The whole window is not responding, if another application window is above AutoCAD I'm unable to refocus to it when selecting it in the taskbar.

I have marked on this screenshot an example, red marked are frozen buttons, orange are buttons that still react on hover but are also frozen on click.

We have tried the following on multiple computers:

- update graphics drivers (there are mixed graphics hardware in the company, AMD, Nvidia, Intel...)

- reinstall AutoCAD

- reset AutoCAD to factory settings

- update AutoCAD to latest patches

- uninstall A360 (not all users had it installed)

- delete $TEMP folder contents

- delete BrowserCache from Autodesk folder in Local Appdata

- deleted/renamed %appdata%\Roaming\Autodesk\AutoCAD Mechanical 2018\R22.0\enu\Support\Profiles

The license is pulled from the FLM server without issues, I have checked the license logs.

Most PCs in the company are Windows 10 Enterprise, on different versions. Mine is 1709, for example.

The first report I received was when we had an update of our corporate Antivirus, which is Trend Micro OfficeScan 12.0.1876 so it's possible that the antivirus is causing the problem, but why not to all users at the same time?

And there are still PCs where AutoCAD 2018 is working properly.

The only solution so far is to update all affected PCs to AutoCAD 2019.

So, ultimately, what else can I do to troubleshoot the problem?

[john.vellek]

HI @mvuckovic,

I 'm sorry you are having this issue with different versions of AutoCAD.

Have you tried a Reset Settings to Default on one of the affected workstations to see if it helps?

If you can also tie this to that specific date, i would start looking at what changed on your systems at that point in time. Did you get Windows updates? I am on build 1803 so it seems you have not applied all the updates yet. Perhaps try that too on one computer.

If you disable the anti-virus temporarily does it make any difference?

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[mvuckovic]

Hi @john.vellek,

thanks for replying. 

Have you tried a Reset Settings to Default on one of the affected workstations to see if it helps?

 Yes, with no effect.

If you can also tie this to that specific date, i would start looking at what changed on your systems at that point in time. Did you get Windows updates? I am on build 1803 so it seems you have not applied all the updates yet. Perhaps try that too on one computer.

 This happens on different Windows builds, and we have a user on 1703 where AutoCAD 2018 is still working properly.

We also blocked update to 1803 company-wide back in May, because it caused profile corruption on several PCs.

If you disable the anti-virus temporarily does it make any difference?

 I contacted sysadmins this morning, and told them to make exceptions in the antivirus to the acad.exe and other Autodesk folders found here. Also no effect.

[john.vellek]

Hi @mvuckovic,

Here is an article that explains additional steps you can consider to resolve the issue.  However, if all this happened at a specific point in time I think you need to find what changed in your environment at that time in order to expedite a solution.

I suggest running a MSCONFIG (diagnostic startup) to see if turning everything else off at startup allows you to run AutoCAD normally.

I suggest also (one computer), logging on as a new user with full permissions. Do not change the out-of-the-box configuration or add any customization. Try AutoCAD and see if it will launch normally.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[mvuckovic]

Hi @john.vellek,

I'm unable to try diagnostic and selective boot options because of various domain settings and inability to borrow license from within AutoCAD as the GUI is unresponsive, but having another domain user logging in to my PC with administrative permissions resulted in opening AutoCAD for that user without issues.

Switching back to my user profile doesn't remove the erroneous behaviour, sadly. It is also questionable if AutoCAD would at some point stop working for this additional user profile, too.

In regard to this, I ran sfc /scannow and DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth on my PC to try to restore any profile settings that have corrupted, but also, without effect.

As recreating my complete profile would be too much time consuming, I will do the following:

- uninstall all Autodesk products

- delete any remaining Autodesk folder in my user profile

- reinstall AutoCAD 2018

- copy Autodesk folders from the other user's profile to mine

Will post results here.

[Neil47]

I don't know if it is connected but 3 versions of AutoCAD failed to start for me (Map 2015, Civil 2016 & 2018) this morning until A360 was uninstalled.

[mvuckovic]

Thanks for your input, but it's not related. AutoCAD 2018 starts for me, but it's immediately frozen. I also do not have A360 anymore.

Btw, I tried what I wrote in my previous comment, about uninstall/reinstall AutoCAD, without effect.

[ArchD]

I've experienced this issue. As soon as you put your cursor into the view port, it freezes.

Apparently it has something to do with recent windows updates. So go into your program uninstall window and start uninstalling the most recent windows updates until you find the culprit. I know it's not the best solution, but it's the one that seems to work for now.

[mvuckovic]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I went to the PC where we first encountered this behaviour on 07.06.2018. to check if there was a Windows update installed around that date and couldn't find any. All previous updates were installed 3-4 weeks before.

I have started to uninstall updates on my PC, beginning with KB4284819, which didn't help.

Uninstalling updates one by one and restarting PC after each uninstall is extremely time consuming and I think it would lead to nowhere based on findings on previously mentioned PC.

Do you perhaps remember which update caused the problem?

[john.vellek]

Hi @mvuckovic,

Since it appears that you have multiple workstations that show this errant behavior, is it possible to re-image one of them?  It would be good to know that if a fully updated OS  prior to installing your applications allows AutoCAD to work properly.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[mvuckovic]

Hi @john.vellek,

sure, I could try that next week. 

Also, another user reported today that AutoCAD 2018 stopped working.

No recent Windows updates installed.

[john.vellek]

Hi @mvuckovic,

This computer that just failed to launch AutoCAD 2018, is it hanging on the license check?  If AutoCAD is being prevented from obtaining a license from BitDefender or other security applications, then it will hang.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[mvuckovic]

Hi @john.vellek,

the license is pulled correctly, I've checked the license logs.

I think license is pulled during splash screen, and the freezing occurs when the main window is loaded.

[john.vellek]

Hi @mvuckovic,

Did you have time to do a rebuild on one of the computers?  I would like to see if a fully updated Windows with AutoCAD  behaves normally before anything else gets added to the computer.

If you are getting past license check do you see anything in your Windows Event Viewer logs to show what might be occurring?

Do you see anything running in Task Manager for AutoCAD when it hangs?

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[mvuckovic]

Hi @john.vellek,

we reinstalled Windows 10 build 1803 on one PC, updated it with latest Windows updates, and installed AutoCAD 2018 which works fine there.

I have one entry in Event Viewer for AutoCAD 2018 from yesterday (there should be more, IMO).

Faulting application name: acad.exe, version: 28.0.49.0, time stamp: 0x58940897
Faulting module name: KERNELBASE.dll, version: 10.0.16299.492, time stamp: 0x5c04cfa2
Exception code: 0xc06d007e
Fault offset: 0x00000000000450d8
Faulting process id: 0x24e8
Faulting application start time: 0x01d4178dbba4d40a
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\AutoCAD 2018\acad.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll
Report Id: 7f046925-9446-4728-9c0d-35fb6a315597
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

Only Chromium host exe runs when AutoCAD hangs, apart from acad.exe, which I noticed.

[john.vellek]

Hi @mvuckovic,

Here is an article that might help address the Kernelbase.dll error.

For the Chromium Host issue, trying turning off the Autodesk Desktop App and perhaps remove the A360 desktop app.

Please select the Accept as Solution button if my post solves your issue or answers your question.

[mvuckovic]

Hi @john.vellek,

I think that kernelbase.dll issue is not related because it appeared once despite running AutoCAD numerous times.

Chromium host processes are also not an issue because they are there in the same number also when I start AutoCAD 2019.  There are even more of them when the Autodesk Desktop App is running.

Is AutoCAD storing logs somewhere? Or is it possible to activate some special logging that would trace its activities?

[mvuckovic · Accepted solution]

We have found the solution, for all interested.

For some reason, System locale for "Language for non-Unicode programs" was set to United States on my PC.

When I switched it to Croatian and restarted PC, AutoCAD 2018 started to work again.

We have also tried on another PC to switch it to Croatian and then back to US, and it still works.

One PC already had it in Croatian and AutoCAD didn't work. We switched it to US and it started to work again.

It seems just switching any system locale brings AutoCAD back to life.

Thanks for all feedback, I think this is solved now.

[john.vellek]

Hi @mvuckovic,

Thanks so much for posting your discovery.  I don't see anything like this logged in our knowledge base so I will bring this to the team.

I did find this AKN article that describes locale code support.

Thanks again.

[slinderman]

Nearly every CAD computer in our office is having this issue.  (two are not, both are running 2018 but so are several others).

I have been able to use the above solution to a small degree of success.  Some computers have been able to change unicode region settings and were able to work but others have worked for one drawing and then the next one they try to open it freezes again.

It's not related to any particular drawing and it will freeze even with just the base program open as soon as you even mouse over one button.

I'd say half of the computers that initially had this problem were resolved by just changing the unicode language location once.  The other half have had to be changed each time civil 3d or watercad is opened.