KNOWLEDGEBASE - ARTICLE #26
Prism 3 (Windows) used to work fine, but now it crashes repeatedly. Why?
- Check this reference if you see an Illegal operation message citing (under "Details..") a page fault in KERNEL32.DLL when saving files.
- There is another possibility. When Prism starts, it reads options and the list of recently-used files from a configuration file. The Prism 3 configuration file is PRISM3.CNF, and it is usually in the Windows folder (Windows is confused by the extension .CNF and lists its type as a "speed dial" file, at least in the U.S.). For Prism 4, the file is PRISM4.CFG. To find it, use the Windows search utility, being sure to include "hidden" files in the search. If the configuration (options) file is damaged, Prism may have trouble starting. The solution is to delete that file. Prism should then replace it with an undamaged version when you next use it. Note: if you have user-defined equations and/or transforms, back up the configuration file before you delete it, so that you can replace it if the deletion doesn't solve the problem. Otherwise, you'll have to re-enter the equations/transforms.
- If you are using Prism 3.00 or 3.01, there may be a problem with your autobackup file. Prism 3 creates an autobackup file every few minutes. If your system crashes, Prism opens that file to recover your work. This works great almost all the time. But if the autobackup file itself is defective, Prism cannot open it, and the system crashes. When you try to launch Prism 3.00 again, the same thing happens. To fix the problem, delete the automatic backup file(s). These are all files with the extension *.PZB in the windows\temp folder (winnt\temp for NT). Now Prism will launch normally. Releases 3.02 and later avoid this problem by deleting the autobackup file after one failed attempt to open it.
Keywords: open start crash