MAJOR PROBLEM -- I've lost the ability to load BTP

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billvelek
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MAJOR PROBLEM -- I've lost the ability to load BTP

Post by billvelek »

My system is a Compaq Presario with an AMD-64 processor and I have 1-gig of RAM; I'm running WindowsXP Media Center 2005. I did some rather routine maintenance on my computer this weekend. Besides the usual scans for virus, spyware, rootkits, and adware, etc., I did the following:
1. cleaned my drive of what it identified as temporary files, etc.
2. emptied the trash and compacted folders in my mail reader
3. shredded my recycle bin
4. scrubbed my registry using 'RegScrubXP' which I've used many times and have never had a problem
5. did a defrag of my drive.
I have done all of the above on various occasions without ever having problems.

After doing the above this weekend, _all_ of my usual programs work just fine ... except for BeerToolsPro. I've tried just about everything I can think of to get it to work again, including doing a 'restore' to a previous point to no avail. I have tried reinstalling it -- not only the latest version 28 but also the original version 1, but it still won't work. I have even downloaded the program all over again and did the install, which seemed to go okay -- the BTP Setup Wizard opens, and I step through it as usual, ending with the 'Finish' button which appears on the final screen that says "Completing the Beer Tools Pro Setup Wizard", and the file appears as it should in my program menu. But when I click on the program, it won't load, and instead gives me an error message. I have made copies of my screens and the error messages, which can be found here -- http://home.alltel.net/billvelek/BTP-not-loading.html

One thing that has changed since I posted that webpage is that I was finally able to remove version 1 and so I attempted to load the latest version again, but without success. I don't know if the problem lies with BTP or with my system, but I certainly expect to be able to complete routine computer maintenance without losing a program. I might add that my scans revealed NO viruses, adware, or other malware -- and this was just routine maintenance -- and BTP is the ONLY program that I've discovered which has been affected. I hope someone will be able to help. Thanks.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
Visit www.tinyurl.com/bvelek - portal to my brewing sites: 3,100+ members on 'Grow-Hops', and 1,350+ brewers on my 'BrewingEquip' group.
Running BTP v1.5.3 on WinXP 2005 SP3 w/AMD Athlon 64@3800+, 1GigRam, Res 1024x768
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Still not loading; could this help?

Post by billvelek »

After running into the loading and reinstallation problems I've described in my first post, I've continued to try to solve the problem. In looking around, I note that my BTP folder under 'programs' has what looks like an 'uninstall' "application" called "unins000". Double-clicking on it results in an error message that says that it can't uninstall because "unins000.dat" does not exist. I don't know if this would work -- safely -- but I'm wondering if I were to save someone else's "unins000.dat" file in the appropriate folder, if I could then proceed with the official BTP uninstall; Jeff, would that be possible, and would it be safe (not cause me to foul up my whole computer)? I'm getting pretty desperate and frustrated over this, and will really appreciate some help and any suggestions.

By the way, when I initially tried to uninstall the program when my loading problem first appeared, I can't remember if I checked for a designated 'uninstall' feature under the BTP program menu, but it does not appear there now; just the program itself (which won't load). That _might_ be why I used the 'Windows' control panel to remove the program instead of the designated uninstall -- I can't recall. I realize that it is probably better to use a program's official uninstall when it is available, so I'd like to try that.

For those of you who have an _operable_ program, could you please check your program menu and see if the 'Uninstall' program appears there (not in the 'directory', but in the 'pop-up' menu). If it does not, then I would like to suggest that BTP be fixed to display that command.

Thanks.

Bill Velek
Visit www.tinyurl.com/bvelek - portal to my brewing sites: 3,100+ members on 'Grow-Hops', and 1,350+ brewers on my 'BrewingEquip' group.
Running BTP v1.5.3 on WinXP 2005 SP3 w/AMD Athlon 64@3800+, 1GigRam, Res 1024x768
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Error Message

Post by jeff »

What is the error message that you get when trying to run BTP? The screenshot above is missing. Thanks.
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IMG SRC

Post by jeff »

The src url for your images on that page refer to the directory "file:///C:/Bill/BeerToolsPro/". That directory is local to your machine which is why the images in it are not world viewable.
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Re: IMG SRC

Post by billvelek »

jeff wrote:The src url for your images on that page refer to the directory "file:///C:/Bill/BeerToolsPro/". That directory is local to your machine which is why the images in it are not world viewable.
Duhhhhhhh. Sorry about that. My bad. Try it now. http://home.alltel.net/billvelek/BTP-not-loading.html

Hope you can help. Thanks.

Bill Velek
Visit www.tinyurl.com/bvelek - portal to my brewing sites: 3,100+ members on 'Grow-Hops', and 1,350+ brewers on my 'BrewingEquip' group.
Running BTP v1.5.3 on WinXP 2005 SP3 w/AMD Athlon 64@3800+, 1GigRam, Res 1024x768
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No Uninstall

Post by ColoradoBrewer »

Bill, sorry hear you're having problems. I checked and I do not see an option to uninstall when i go Start > All Programs > Beer Tools Pro. All that is there is the option to run the program. This is in Windows XP Media Center 2005 Edition. I'd be happy to send you the uninstall file referenced in your post, provided that doing so doesn't violate the licensing agreement.
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Uninstaller

Post by jeff »

Maybe you can install 1.0.28 over the current installation which might restore the unins000.dat file. Then maybe you can try to remove the program using Add/Remove Programs. I don't know if uninstalling BTP will help with your problem though, because it seems to me that there is something missing on your system that BTP depends on. The error messages that appear are generated by the OS and not BTP.
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RE: Uninstaller

Post by wottaguy »

Hi Jeff and Bill!

Sorry about your problem Bill. Have you checked the application logs of the maintenance applicatios that you used? And Jeff, would you have a list of windows XP files that BTP is dependant on? Perhaps this list would give some insight to Bill of what maybe going wrong. Bill...what exactly are the error megs saying if any?? Also, maybe this would be a good time for you to backup your most needed files just in case of further pending doom!!

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Problem is now fixed

Post by billvelek »

Sorry I've taken awhile to reply, but I've been too busy (including harvesting hops) to keep playing around with my system. Anyway, I finally had some time late last night and managed to fix the problem. Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions.

I'm not sure exactly what it was or what I did; after trying just about every earlier restore point that I had available without success, I returned to my latest restore point. Tried an install again which seemed to go okay as usual (created directory and placed files on my system) but it _still_ would not load, so I tried the BTP uninstall application again and got the same message that a file is missing, so I then went to control panel remove programs, saw BTP there, and "removed" it again. As far as I know, this was all the same procedure I had followed before. I then ran 'regedit.exe' and found some lines for BTP so I deleted them -- since the program was supposed to be removed -- and did a save. Rebooted. Installed version 28 of BTP and 'VOILA' -- it works. At no point did I ever download or install any Windows files, Jeff, so while it still might have been a Windows problem that caused this, it wasn't exactly what you suspected -- not unless Windows reinstalled something without me knowing about it, which I guess is possible. None of this is very explicable, because as I said originally, ... ALL of my other programs continued to work just fine. Maybe if some other unfortunate soul encounters a similar problem, this tread will help. And by the way, I was never asked for a registration key.

Now that BTP is working on my PC again, Jeff, I've checked my file directory and see "unins000" (an application) and "unins000" (a DAT file), with matching dates and times. I imagine the uninstall application will probably work correctly now with the correct DAT file, but I don't want to try it and risk a problem now that I finally have BTP working. However, I do note that when using my program menu, that "Uninstall" does not appear there. Let me suggest that if using the BTP uninstall is recommended over using the generic Windows "Remove" programs, then it ought to appear on the menu because most folks probably won't think to look for it by checking the files directories. Quite possibly my entire ordeal could have been much simpler if, with the first trouble, I would have used the designated uninstall first.

Anyway, after all of that time messing around to get this up again, I sure hope we can expect that promised upgrade pretty soon. As I've told other people, the BTP program is great, and even though it is lacking in some respects, it is WELL worth the money ... but it is my investment of TIME (at least in MY case) that has made this program so costly for me. After what I've paid for this program in blood, sweat, and tears, ... I'm really anxious for an inventory feature, etc. Is there any light at the end of the tunnel?

Thanks.

Bill Velek
Visit www.tinyurl.com/bvelek - portal to my brewing sites: 3,100+ members on 'Grow-Hops', and 1,350+ brewers on my 'BrewingEquip' group.
Running BTP v1.5.3 on WinXP 2005 SP3 w/AMD Athlon 64@3800+, 1GigRam, Res 1024x768
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Well, I can't load BTP ... AGAIN!!! '$%#&'

Post by billvelek »

Well, I'm suddenly having almost the same problem that I had just over six months ago, and I've spent all ^T%#*%$ day on it, and I still can't get it to work. My equipment and operating system are the same as before, so you can either glance at my signature line below, or read about it in the first post to this thread, made back on 8/13/07.

I'm ready to pull my hair out or finally give up on BTP unless I can manage a break-through REAL soon. It just isn't worth spending much more than a day for a program like this. Now, before someone thinks that it's something that I've done ... that I 'broke' it ... _EVERY_ other program that I've tried still works just fine. Of course, I'm not going to load every possible program, but I'm referring to the ones that I always use, and I've tested better than a dozen different programs which are still okay. In any event, I didn't _DO_ anything to mess up my system, although it's possibly those automatic updates that I receive occasionally from MicroSoft, etc. However, they never mess up any of my other programs, so what's the deal with Beer Tools Pro?

Now, I'm not the only one who has ever experienced a problem like this; here is a link to another thread where a user named 'coaster' reported virtually the identical problem -- http://www.beertools.com/forum/viewtopi ... ins000+dat -- but since there are no further posts from him/her ever since then, that user seems to have left the forums and I don't know if s/he ever got it fixed.

Has anyone else ever had any problems like this? Now, in trying to fix this today, ... besides going back to some previous restore points, scrubbing my registry, resetting my computer numerous times, repeatedly removing and reinstalling BTP, ... I also ran full system deep scans for anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-adware, anti-rootkit software, ALL of which came out negative. Here are some screen shots to show the problem and my efforts:
http://home.alltel.net/billvelek/btp-crash.html

I hope someone can help. I was hoping to brew this Saturday.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
Visit www.tinyurl.com/bvelek - portal to my brewing sites: 3,100+ members on 'Grow-Hops', and 1,350+ brewers on my 'BrewingEquip' group.
Running BTP v1.5.3 on WinXP 2005 SP3 w/AMD Athlon 64@3800+, 1GigRam, Res 1024x768
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Re: Well, I can't load BTP ... AGAIN!!! '$%#&'

Post by jeff »

billvelek wrote:Well, I'm suddenly having almost the same problem that I had just over six months ago, and I've spent all ^T%#*%$ day on it, and I still can't get it to work. My equipment and operating system are the same as before, so you can either glance at my signature line below, or read about it in the first post to this thread, made back on 8/13/07.

I'm ready to pull my hair out or finally give up on BTP unless I can manage a break-through REAL soon. It just isn't worth spending much more than a day for a program like this. Now, before someone thinks that it's something that I've done ... that I 'broke' it ... _EVERY_ other program that I've tried still works just fine. Of course, I'm not going to load every possible program, but I'm referring to the ones that I always use, and I've tested better than a dozen different programs which are still okay. In any event, I didn't _DO_ anything to mess up my system, although it's possibly those automatic updates that I receive occasionally from MicroSoft, etc. However, they never mess up any of my other programs, so what's the deal with Beer Tools Pro?

Now, I'm not the only one who has ever experienced a problem like this; here is a link to another thread where a user named 'coaster' reported virtually the identical problem -- http://www.beertools.com/forum/viewtopi ... ins000+dat -- but since there are no further posts from him/her ever since then, that user seems to have left the forums and I don't know if s/he ever got it fixed.

Has anyone else ever had any problems like this? Now, in trying to fix this today, ... besides going back to some previous restore points, scrubbing my registry, resetting my computer numerous times, repeatedly removing and reinstalling BTP, ... I also ran full system deep scans for anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-adware, anti-rootkit software, ALL of which came out negative. Here are some screen shots to show the problem and my efforts:
http://home.alltel.net/billvelek/btp-crash.html

I hope someone can help. I was hoping to brew this Saturday.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
Sorry you're having trouble. My first suggestion is that you try to start BTP while disconnected from the internet. That may or may not help. If it does, I need to know that. Next, take a look in your C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\BeerTools Pro folder and tell me what you see. There may be files in there that need to be tossed.

Thanks.
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Re: Well, I can't load BTP ... AGAIN!!! '$%#&'

Post by billvelek »

jeff wrote:Sorry you're having trouble. My first suggestion is that you try to start BTP while disconnected from the internet. That may or may not help. If it does, I need to know that. Next, take a look in your C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\BeerTools Pro folder and tell me what you see. There may be files in there that need to be tossed.

Thanks.
Jeff, I tried starting while disconnected from the Internet, but got the same error. However, I can't seem to follow that exact file thread, but these are the files that I have in my program section (cropped image):

Image

Hope you can figure something out.

Thanks.

Bill Velek
Visit www.tinyurl.com/bvelek - portal to my brewing sites: 3,100+ members on 'Grow-Hops', and 1,350+ brewers on my 'BrewingEquip' group.
Running BTP v1.5.3 on WinXP 2005 SP3 w/AMD Athlon 64@3800+, 1GigRam, Res 1024x768
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Re: Well, I can't load BTP ... AGAIN!!! '$%#&'

Post by jeff »

billvelek wrote:
jeff wrote:Sorry you're having trouble. My first suggestion is that you try to start BTP while disconnected from the internet. That may or may not help. If it does, I need to know that. Next, take a look in your C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\BeerTools Pro folder and tell me what you see. There may be files in there that need to be tossed.

Thanks.
Jeff, I tried starting while disconnected from the Internet, but got the same error. However, I can't seem to follow that exact file thread, but these are the files that I have in my program section (cropped image):

Image

Hope you can figure something out.

Thanks.

Bill Velek
Thanks for the screenshot. The program folder looks good. To find the folder I was talking about, <username> refers to your user name on the system or "Administrator" if you are the only user on the computer. In that case you would look for C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data\BeerTools Pro The directory is usually invisible so you may have to type the path into the Address field manually. Your screenshot shows the address field right below the toolbar buttons. It would be helpful if you can tell me what's in that folder.

Thanks!
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Re: Well, I can't load BTP ... AGAIN!!! '$%#&'

Post by slothrob »

jeff wrote:The directory is usually invisible so you may have to type the path into the Address field manually.
Alternately, go to the Documents and Settings><username> folder, then go to the Menubar choose: Tools>Folder Options...>View>"Show hidden files and folders" then click "Apply". The Application Data folder should appear.
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Re: Well, I can't load BTP ... AGAIN!!! '$%#&'

Post by jeff »

How's it going with the error starting BTP? Any success?

Thanks!
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