Better Compatibility Fixes?

[treblesum81]

Hi All,

I'm curious if there are other ways to get Win7 to be more compatible with certain programs than just running them in "compatability mode"? The problem that I've run into is with some of my more complex programs like Solidworks. The copy I have isn't really compatible with Win7 so that whenever I try to open a file or save one, the program just crashes. I've found a fix for the problem, which involves renaming a DLL, but such a fix is almost always trouble in my experience, with this one being no exception, making the program very unstable and corrupting saved file data. Now, since I use this program almost every day, I've found myself thinking about going back to Vista x64 because it worked there, but I wanted to stop by here just to make sure there isn't a better way to deal with compatibility issues than simply running the "compatibility troubleshooter" that I might not yet know about that could solve my problem.

Any help would be great,
Greg

 

[NosferatuX]

Hi treblesum81 and welcome to the forum!

Please download and install Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package, here then restart.

It has been reported that installing this package resolves the issue with Solidworks 2009 not running properly in Windows 7. As somehow the redistributable included in the updates needs the update and or experiences corruption during an install together with other components.

Please let us know how it turns out

 

[treblesum81]

Hi treblesum81 and welcome to the forum!

Please download and install Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1 Redistributable Package, here then restart.

It has been reported that installing this package resolves the issue with Solidworks 2009 not running properly in Windows 7. As somehow the redistributable included in the updates needs the update and or experiences corruption during an install together with other components.

Please let us know how it turns out

No such luck, unfortunately. I think part of the problem is that I'm working with Solidworks 2008 (required to be compatible with the copies at school... thanks solidworks for making your stuff non-backwards compatible), but I'm not sure that its that different... I installed both the x86 and the x64 versions of the C++ redistributable, but the program still crashes any time I try to save or load a file.

Any other possibilities?
Thanks,
Greg

 

[treblesum81]

One thing to note about the C++ installations is that they showed the "gathering information" screen then shut down... My programs CP page shows them there, but there are about 7 installations... I'm cleaning them out now and trying to reinstall them, but there isn't any gurantee that was the problem in the first place.

 

[NosferatuX]

Have you tried updating your Solidworks 2008 to the latest service packs and hotfixes?

 

[treblesum81]

Yes I have, but there hasn't been anything new that I've seen since the installation... From what I can tell, Solidworks' attitude towards Win7 Beta is "its beta, so you can't expect us to support it and we can't help you figure it out"

 

[NosferatuX]

Well, that's the way they roll

What Service Pack is your Solidworks 2008 at?

 

[treblesum81]

Sp4.0

 

[NosferatuX]

Please download and install SP5 from Solidworks here

Since this is the last service pack that Solidworks will be releasing for the Solidworks 2008 series, the last SP will make it almost at par with the 2009 release.

Let us know how it turns out for yah

 

[treblesum81]

SP5 didn't fix the problem... it really only dealt with some functionality of some of the add-ins that come with certain versions of Solidworks 2008. For the time being, I'm using the DLL fix, but I can't really do any important work with the chance that it will be irrecoverably corrupted without warning. I'm still looking for other ways around the problem, but ultimately I'll have to revert back to Vista x64 if I can't get a solution found in a day or two. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[NosferatuX]

Unless you're willing to use Solidworks 2009 on your Windows 7 setup, it seems that going back to Vista x64 would be the most viable option at this point

 

[treblesum81]

Sadly, its not a matter of being unwilling but unable... solidworks has not backwards compatibility, so I could easily upgrade to the new version, but then I couldn't deliver any finished projects to my professor. I'll have to do some evaluation of the DLL fix to see if the problems I had with it were isolated or more prevalent before I make the switch back to Vista... Unfortunately I installed Win7 on a fresh wipe of my two main HDDs (third is for data/storage) so going back to Vista means wiping and reinstalling everything all over again... too bad vista doesn't have the ability to search through all programs installed on the computer and resolve their locations and registry needs .

Thanks again,
Greg

 

[NosferatuX]

Honestly, I couldn't wrap my head around Solidworks 2009 not being backward compatible with its predecessor, Solidworks 2008. For me that's just very odd. Even though they've used a totally different implementation and architecture within Solidworks 2009, they should have some way to interface with Solidworks 2008, that's just pretty bad on the consumer side.

I'll try to look into the dll fix you've been mentioning and will get back to you if I have something.

Sorry, if I was not able to provide much help

 

[treblesum81]

Solidworks claims that it has something to do with the encoding of the files during save, but its hard to divorce that fact from what must be a nice level income from forced upgrades across the commercial sector. Whatever the case, the DLL fix seems to be working for the moment, but if you can throw some better expertise than mine into it to tell me if the instability and file corrupting are a result of the renamed DLL or of he program interacting with Win7.

Thanks,
Greg

 

[NosferatuX]

Can you please give a summary of the following;
How did you install solidworks 2008
What error(s) you encountered
Where you got the dll fix and how it was applied

I will try to verify from my end the steps you've made to recreate the issue(s)

Thanks

 

[NosferatuX]

Solidworks claims that it has something to do with the encoding of the files during save, but its hard to divorce that fact from what must be a nice level income from forced upgrades across the commercial sector. Whatever the case, the DLL fix seems to be working for the moment, but if you can throw some better expertise than mine into it to tell me if the instability and file corrupting are a result of the renamed DLL or of he program interacting with Win7.

Thanks,
Greg

Here are a few things you should look at in your installation of Solidworks 2008;

There's only one dll fix I'm aware of for the crashing during saving and opening files. The suggested approach is instead of renaming/deleting the sldfileopen.dll, "move" it on safe location, make a dummy dll file, and place that where you removed the original sldfileopen.dll. To make a dummy sldfileopen.dll, open notepad, save a blank copy to the desktop as sldfileopen.dll, make sure that under the notepad's save dialog, chose all files instead of *.txt.

Additional references;

Top 10 Cleanup Steps before Installing SolidWorks 2009 by Brian Zias

SolidWorks Tools that keep your workstation healthy

Both contain good best practices on how to do upgrades and to go around crashes.

Cheers

 

[thunder2008]

Hello Nos

Tre...

After reading through your thread I have to say that I too have been having a problem as well.

Though it is with SW09 2.0 and recently updated to sp2.1 still same issue that your having namely if I go to open any existing file or save on a newly created file SW crashes immediately.

Funny that this is happening with your sw08sp4 when it's happening with my sw09sp2 & 2.1.

I am not concerned with the 08 to 09 compatibility issue as I have files that are from 04 up to 08; while its true you can not save old files then use them on any old version of sw afterwards.

To get around this I simply don't open then save old files to conversion without a backup of the later version i.e. 08.

This solves any problems.

As for the open file dll issue I will try the note pad route you spoke of NOS.

 

[thunder2008]

Well I have tryed to several work arounds such as opening a SW file from the actual windows user files location does suffice. However when it comes to saving a SW file solidworks crashes immediately.

I also have been using the newest SW2009 x64 SP3.0EV with the ev exe and the older files same open/save issues.

Atm I am dl'ing the 3.0ev solidworkscore and addon files to use the fresh 3.0 files to see if the 3.0 has an update within any of these files for resolving the open/save crashing issue while using Windows 7.

I should know in about 5-hours from now as this is when the total package files shall have completed dl'ing.

I will be sure to make a new post on the results.

 

[thunder2008]

Well I tryed SW2009SP3.0EV with W7 last night it also has the exact same issues...nothing is different the open files crash out the program as well as saving a file crash out the program.

I even tryed SW2008sp4 & 5 same thing...I know treble tryed 2008 already but I had to test it out for myself.

So, this makes three program/hardware issues that I have found to not work properly
in the transition from Vista to Windows 7;

1-Solidworks CAD absolutely necessary for work for me.

2-Asus Creative Audio Driver is not recognized by W7 with many various updated drivers from creative and non-official creative drivers to the 'ole work around individual driver delete instal...nothing works.

3-Bluetooth driver support is not working properly at all. In Vista I could use the full function features of my bluetooth dongle to any of my devices the one that comes must to mind is my Samsung SGH-P310 Mobile Phone.

Currently W7 only allows for individual photo files to be dl'd one at a time. No Samsung driver support is working.

I must say that I know this W7 -build 7000 is a beta but I hope that Microsoft does not actually plan on going retail after RC unless all of the compatibility bugs are fixed. Otherwise it's just another example of false advertisement of W7 being fully compatible with Vista when it is not~!

 

[NosferatuX]

Sorry for replying only now... Took a bit of a vacation time but I'm back...

I'd have to dig deep on how it is that it crashes.

Will probably have an answer later in the week at the most.

I'll keep y'all posted.

Thank you for posting your findings