tickhromeroi

Join Date 04/2003

SmartException Doesn't Work Under Vista

I'm running DA 1.7 Beta 1 under Vista Ultimate (x86). To help report any problems, I installed SmartException 2.00.007 from Stardock Central's "Free Stuff" area. I had a DA crash last night and tried to have SmartException package up the stuff to send off. When I clicked "Email selected exception," it came back with an error message saying:

"Location is not available
C:\Program Files \Stardock\SmartException\Zipped Exceptions refers to a location that is unavailable...."

My guess is that this is a permissions problem and that Vista isn't allowing SmartException to create the "Zipped Exceptions" subdirectory.

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

Did you run SE from SDC or directly? It may need administrator privileges, so if you run it via SDC, it should inherit them from it.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Maybe this permissions stuff is behind why I've never gotten an exception to email even though I've had SmartException running during *many* crashes of various sorts.

Kryo, if permissions are part of the problem, can you get one of the devs to give us instructions on what to modify on the shortcut, e.g. Run as Administrator or run in XP compatibility mode?

Starting SDC just to start a testing support app seems rather bothersome, not to mention unsettling for us PC conservatives who long for the days of reliable local control...

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Did you run SE from SDC or directly? It may need administrator privileges, so if you run it via SDC, it should inherit them from it.

Until you mentioned it, I wasn't even aware I could run it from SDC. Initially, after downloading it from SDC, I ran it from Start Button | All Programs | Stardock. At that point, either I or it set it(self) up to run automatically at startup (with normal permissions). Doesn't SE have to be running at the time of a crash for it to grab the data? If so (and I don't see anything appear in SE after starting it from SDC), that doesn't seem a viable way to run it.

I also wouldn't want to have the "run at startup" option have it default to Admin privileges since it would prompt for those permission at every boot. I think I'll try manually creating the Zipped Exceptions subdirectory that it wants to use. Maybe Vista will let it write the files if the directory already exists. Also, it might be possible for it to create its own subdirectory if it weren't located under "Program Files." I think that directory has special permissions applied to it.

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BTW: the subdirectory is ZippedExceptions instead of Zipped Exceptions (no space). SE doesn't give a "location is not available" error if the directory already exists, but nothing gets written into it.

Also, from other posts around the forum, we're supposed to email these things to gc2bugs@stardock.com. Yet, SE defaults to telling us to email them to support@stardock.com. Which should it be?

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Some more information:

- When I ran SE, it showed me two exceptions (with the same date) to report. AFAIK, I'd only had the one crash while SE was running. So, I figured it was just some kind of left-over. With what I've found, below, those two exceptions have the same time stamp (as well as date stamp). I assume the one with the higher serial number in the file name is the latest. But, I don't know why two exceptions were generated for one crash.

- Even though SE won't write anything into the SmartException folder (i.e., the .CRA and .DMP files) or the ZippedException folder (mailinfo.txt and the .ZIP files), those files do get produced and written into Vista's special equivalent locations. The pathname basically prepends (in my case) c:\Users\Dave\AppData\Local\VirtualStore to where it would point under XP. I just have to manually travel through the alternate file path and attach it to the email myself instead of dragging a file from a Windows Explorer panel that SE opens.

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I also can't delete the Exceptions from within SE. I have to go to through that big, long path and manually delete everything in the SmartException folder. Not a problem since I've put a shortcut to the folder on my Desktop.

BTW. I've sent two reports to gc2bugs@stardock.com. I haven't received an automated "yes, we've gotten your email" reply back. Is that normal?

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Is there any fresh info on SmartException under Vista? It has never once generated any files in C:\Program Files\Stardock\SmartException even though I began regularly running it with admin privileges after my last post above and have managed to crash it not infrequently.

I'd really like to hear from some other Vista sufferers if they've managed to get exceptions to mail. I'm interested in the TA beta but don't see much point in participating if I can't submit the full debug data.

p.s. I suspect one of my major configuratin problems is about stupid iTunes and stupider Vista not playing nicely together and iTunes maybe not playing nicely with GC2. Does SmartException data help the devs ID a problem like that?

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AFAIK, all my SmartException submissions have been complete. When DA fails under Vista, all I do is:

- Double-click the SmartException icon
- Select the top-most of the two exceptions listed and hit the "Email Selected Exception" button
- Enter a description of what I was doing and hit the generate report button (that's from memory since I don't have any exceptions in there)
- Close the resulting file browser since there won't be any files in the standard directory
- Open my Desktop shortcut to C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Stardock\SmartException\ZippedExceptions which is where the exceptions are actually located under Vista (I had to manually create the ZippedExceptions directory (I believe))
- Drag the ExceptionLog.zip file out to the Desktop for easy access
- Open a file browser and go to D:\Data\Dave's Documents\My Games\GC2DarkAvatar
- Using whatever zip utility available, add debugg.err and a recent save game to ExceptionLog.zip
- Run Vista's Problem Reports and Solutions utility from the Start button and see if something comes up as a solution. If not, I view the Problem History there and copy the text of that history to my email (below). If there is a solution, that Problem History might include dumps. I add those to the zip file, too.
- Open my mail program (Outlook), do a New Mail, put gc2bugs@stardock.com in to To: field, click on the still-open SmartException window and Copy the Subject line, paste it into the message's Subject: field, drag ExceptionLog.zip onto the message (don't forget this, I have -- repeatedly), and enter some text into the message body (I add a copy of the contents of mailinfo.txt from the ZippedExcpetions directory).
- Send the email.
- Tell SmartException to delete the reports (which it ignores) and then manually delete the four files under the actual SmartException subdirectory.

This seems to work (though it's a bit of a hassle -- but, hey, Stardock is worth a little work from me).

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

In a late August post in another thread, Cari told you "SmartException should work on Vista although if the crash is in the video driver it may not catch the crash." I think audio drivers might also be a possible villain.

I had no problem sending reports for the DA beta on my old XP box. But under Vista, SmartException has never once created an exception that I can view in its interface, nor has it left a *.cra file anywhere that I can find manually or via this funked-up new search. I do not even have a ZippedExceptions folder.

I might have missed a thread somewhere explaining how to beat Vista into letting SE work. I'd appreciate anyone who could post a reference to such a thread or help us get some authoritative posts here. Kryo?

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

I might have missed a thread somewhere explaining how to beat Vista into letting SE work. I'd appreciate anyone who could post a reference to such a thread or help us get some authoritative posts here. Kryo?

The only thing I could think of is that it would need admin rights so it can make the ZippedExceptiopns folder and write to it, but if that's already been tried, I'm at a loss.

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- Open my Desktop shortcut to C:\Users\Dave\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Stardock\SmartException\ZippedExceptions which is where the exceptions are actually located under Vista (I had to manually create the ZippedExceptions directory (I believe))

Are you saying you've manually created that directory noted above (not the fake one Vista shows you) and things still don't get put into it (again, not in the fake Vista one)?

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

David, I didn't manually create anything. What I'm fishing for here is some response from the Stardock dev(s) who own SmartException. I want authoritative posts that can help others, not just a down & dirty workaround that gets me going.

That said, the caps BoogieBac recently posted of the differences between a DA radioactive planet map and a radioactive planet in TA have made me think I should do the beta regardless of whether I can pass full debug data. There is so much new stuff that there could be plenty of little details a beta tester could find that have nothing to do with crashes.

Plus, I have to admit I have no real confidence in my new-last-August Vista box. It has been a willful, secretive beast from the gitgo, and I'm about ready to give up any illusions of owning and controlling my own PC. But that's an Off-Topic rant trying to start...

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Kryo, is there any word yet on when SmartException will get a Vista update or the devs will give official guidance on a workaround for Vista users? I've only had a couple of crashes since NVIDIA released better drivers, but I could have sent reports if I could have gotten SmartException to play nicely with Vista.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Hmm...pretty unusual to not get any response at all to this sort of question. Am I wildly misguided to think this is a pretty simple question?

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kryo

Join Date 05/2003

+458

We're still waiting on it. AFAIK SE is developed by the WindowBlinds dev though, and since SE is just a troubleshooting tool, it hasn't been a big prioirty (much as we may like it to be).

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

Thanks; explanation makes sense, and like I said the problem is not as big as it was for me several Vista months ago. I'm pretty sure the "fix" for my most recent crashes is "Don't put Vista into hibernation with the game running."

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