Error Messages & Symptoms
In addition to the error messages and symptoms listed below, you should also read the Bug Reports article for more suggestions for dealing with problems you might encounter.
TAP 6.0.2109 and later includes a function to reset configuration files that may be useful in solving some of these problems.
Error or Warning Messages During Setup
Two things to check:
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Be sure that the release number of TAP you are trying to install is 2315 or later. Earlier releases have a problem installing in Windows Vista and Windows 7 operating systems, especially 64-bit systems. If the CD you have is older than that, you can download the Demo installation program from our web site. Install the demo, then copy the license file SWCONFIG.DTA from the previous system to turn the demo into your licensed software. If you do not have a backup of the SWCONFIG.DTA file, please email us so we can send you a new copy.
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Be sure your Windows user account has full Read-Write-Modify permissions on the folder where TAP is installed and the files and folders it contains. Also, those folders and files should NOT be marked Read-Only. You can find more details in an FAQ about Windows account permissions.
General Error or Warning Messages
An action cannot be completed because a component is not responding. Choose “Switch To…” to activate the component and correct the problem.
Method '~' of object '~' failed
Automation error: object invoked has disconnected from its clients.
Application not responding.
Not Responding
Numbered Error Messages
Error 5 Invalid procedure call or argument
Error 6 Overflow
Error 7 Out of memory
Error 9 Subscript out of range
Error 11 Division by zero
Error 13 Type mismatch
Error 48 Unable to Load DLL
Error 61 Disk full
Error 70 Permission denied
Error 75 Path/File access error
Error 76 Path not found
Error 91 Object variable or With block variable not set
Error 364 Object was unloaded
Error 405 Unable to show modal form within this context
Error 429 Active X component can't create the object
Error 430 Class does not support Automation or does not support expected interface
Error 440 Automation error
Error 3043 Disk or Network Error
Operational Symptoms
TAP appears to be “frozen” or “hung” when trying to enter information on a form.
A TAP graphic form (such as the TAP 4 Map Window, or the Path Profile Window) appears to be “frozen” or “hung” and does not respond. The program does not repond to mouse clicks on other forms.
I click Cancel on one of the TAP forms and the program keeps running and does not respond.
Solutions
Switch-to… message
Certain parts of TAP require that you finish a certain input or close a form before you can move to another part of the program. For example, when you are setting up a path profile, you need to enter all the information and click the Continue button before you can set up another profile. This is intended to keep the program (and the user) from mixing information and getting confused.
If you have one of these forms open that requires some input from you and you switch to another application (completely separate from TAP), then come back to TAP and click on a form other than the one that is waiting for input (such as the TAP menu bar), that "Switch to..." message is displayed. Just click the "Switch to ..." button to return to the form that is waiting for your attention.
If the “Switch-to” message is not displayed but the program seems to be “hung”, use the Alt-Tab key combination on your keyboard to switch between different windows on your desktop to display the form that is waiting for input.
Corrupted Defaults File
The problem may be a corrupted or invalid value in the default values file TAP uses to save information from one session to the next. This may happen when updating from an older version to a current maintenance release. While we try to prevent this from happening, the wide variety of versions in use by TAP users, different computer configurations, etc., sometimes result in this kind of a problem.
You can use the Reset Configuration function to reset the files to eliminate possible corrupted values. This operation is described in detail in the Reset Configuration Default Files article.
Regional Settings
Another possibility relates to the “Regional Settings” in the Windows Control Panel. The typical US English settings specify the “.” as the decimal character, and “,” as the thousands separator. That means that “Pi” is written as 3.1416, and a million is written as 1,000,000 TAP also recognizes other settings, such as the European “,” as a decimal and “.” as the thousands separator (3,1416 and 1.000.000)
However, if a Regional Setting uses other characters, such as a space for the thousands separator, TAP may not correctly recognize the values. The space used in one million (1 000 000) would probably be read by TAP as 1, since the space indicates a separate number.
Be sure the values you enter into TAP forms use the correct symbols for the Regional Settings. For example, if the Regional Settings specify the “,” character for the decimal character, and if you enter a power of “50.00” an error will be generated, since the program is expecting “50,00”
This is also important if you are trying to use external ASCII files to import into TAP, such as boundary files, elevation DEM files, etc. If those files use the “.” decimal character and the Regional Settings specify a different character, an error may be generated when you try to import the files.
Disk Permissions
Several error messages relate to the need for TAP to have read-write access to all the files and folders in the TAP system. For example, if your TAP software is installed in the folder C:\SWTAP, then that folder, and all the folders and files below that folder (such as C:\SWTAP\SYSTEM, etc.) must have read-write access and your user account must have full Read-Write-Modify permissions. This requirement also includes all of the topographic data files you have indexed for use with TAP.
You can use Windows Explorer to find the folder and files under the TAP system. You can right-click on a file or a folder and then click the Properties item at the end of the popup menu. Look at the “Read-only” check box on the Properties form. If the box is checked, click it to uncheck it. For folders, if the check mark is grayed out, it probably means that some files and sub-folders are read-only, and some are read-write. You may have to open the folders and select files individually, right-click and open the properties page to uncheck the Read-only property.
You may run into a symptom described on the
Microsoft web site at:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/326549/en-us
Don't be surprised if you set a folder to remove the Read-Only flag, then you
come back to the folder and the flag is back. The Microsoft page describes
this. The main thing to be sure of is that the properties of all the files have
the Read-Only flag removed.
If you cannot change the Read-only property, or if you still have the same error message after making the changes, check your Windows User account (or contact your network administrator) to be sure you have Read-Write permissions on all the folders and files TAP uses.
It may also be necessary to run the setup program again in case some TAP components were not installed correctly due to problems with Read-Only attributes or user-account permissions. Be sure to install the software into the same folder as the first installation to avoid duplicate installations.
Active X Objects
Several “Active X” or “Automation” errors usually means some component that was not installed properly, or the program is trying to use an older version that has some incompatibility.
You can request a new CD be sent to you (mailto:admin@softwright.com) and you can install from that. The Update.exe file from our web site does not include all the components, just the ones that need to be updated. If some component is missing or corrupted, installing from the CD usually will correct the problem.
If you want to get started without waiting for the new CD (if you can download a file that's about 240Mb from our web site) you can download the CD files from our web site. You don't need to uninstall TAP, just run the installation (described below) to be sure any missing or changed components get installed.
You can download the file from:
ftp://ftp.softwright.com/pub/CD_DEMO.EXE
The file can be downloaded, then executed. It is a self-extracting installation program. When the program asks where you want to install the software, be sure to give it the same folder where TAP is already installed (usually C:\SWTAP).
Although it says "DEMO" in the file name, if you install it in the folder where you have TAP it will find your license file and run normally, not as a demo.
Version Incompatibilities
This may result if different versions of the TAP components are installed and are incompatible. Download and install the latest update from our website. Be sure to install the update into the same folder where TAP is currently installed.
Be sure you do not have SoftWright software installed in different folders on the same machine. Since several components are shared by TAP, QuickPath, AssetManager, etc., all SoftWright programs should be installed together into the same folder. If you have multiple software installations of SoftWright software, remove all but one of the folders and re-install all the SoftWright programs into the one remaining folder.
Installed or Removed Software
If you have installed or removed other software on this machine since the last time you ran TAP successfully, it is possible that some component that TAP uses was changed or removed.
You can request a new CD be sent to you (mailto:admin@softwright.com) and you can install from that. The Update.exe file from our web site does not include all the components, just the ones that need to be updated. If some component is missing or corrupted, installing from the CD usually will correct the problem.
If you want to get started without waiting for the new CD (if you can download a file that's about 240Mb from our web site) you can download the CD files from our web site. You don't need to uninstall TAP, just run the installation (described below) to be sure any missing or changed components get installed.
You can download the file from:
ftp://ftp.softwright.com/pub/CD_DEMO.EXE
The file can be downloaded, then executed. It is a self-extracting installation program. When the program asks where you want to install the software, be sure to give it the same folder where TAP is already installed (usually C:\SWTAP).
Although it says "DEMO" in the file name, if you install it in the folder where you have TAP it will find your license file and run normally, not as a demo.
Multiple Installations of TAP
Windows uses the Registry to keep track of the various components used by different programs. If you have multiple copies of TAP installed in different folders or even on different drives on the same machine, this can cause confustion in the Registry and result in upredictable operation of TAP.
You should search your machine to see if you have more than one copy of any of the TAP executable (.EXE) or component (.OCX or .DLL) files. The only copy of these files you should have should be in the folder where you have TAP installed.
If you installed a new version or update of TAP into a different folder or drive, or if you installed the TAP Demo into a different folder or drive, or if you copied program or component files to a different folder (such as a backup), the Registry may contain invalid entries. You should decide which folder you want to use for TAP, then delete any folders containing duplicate copies of the TAP files. Then install TAP from one of our program CDs, and be sure to specify the same folder where TAP is installed. The installation process will update the Registry entries with the correct component locations.
Incomplete Installation
If you installed only the Update.exe file from our web site, or if you only copied files from one machine to a new machine, TAP will not run correctly.
The Update file only installs the components that are changed. TAP uses a number of Windows components that are installed from the program CD. If your first installation was not performed using a program CD or the CD_DEMO.EXE file from our web site, some of the needed components may not be present.
If the TAP folders were copied from one machine to another, and the installation setup program was not used, the required Windows Registry entries for the TAP components were probably not made.
For either of these situations, you should install TAP from one of our program CDs, and be sure to specify the same folder where TAP is installed. The installation process will install all the required components and update the Registry entries with the correct component locations.
Cascade Errors
Since TAP consists of a number of interrelated components, a problem that causes one component to fail may result in one or more additional error messages. For example, if there is an error encounterd in “Component B”, that is used by “Component A”, the initial error message reported by Component B might be followed by a message from Component A, reporting an “Automation error” or “Unable to create object” or similar error.
Orphaned Components
Since TAP consists of a number of interrelated components, a problem that causes one component to fail may result in other components being “orphaned”, running in the background but no longer connected to the TAP software. This can result in error messages if you try to run the same function again, since TAP will be trying to start the component fresh, with new values, but cannot because the component is already running. Since some of the components run in the background with no form displayed, you might not see anything on the screen to indicate this situation.
Exit from all TAP programs and check the Windows Task Manager (press Ctrl-Alt-Del and choose Task Manager). If any SoftWright Task or Process is listed, you should select it and use the End Task button to close the program.
Unexpected Sequence
Some error messages indicate an unexpected sequence of operations within the program. While these messages should be rare, please report them to SoftWright so the exact problem can be determined.
Graphic Input
The graphic forms in TAP4 (Map Window, Path Profile Window, Antenna Plot Window) can appear “hung” and the program does not respond to mouse clicks or attempts to move to other forms. If this happens, look to see if there is a yellow banner near the top of the graphic window. When you initiate certain actions (for example, placing a test label on a graphic in TAP 4) the program prompts you to click on the drawing. The yellow banner is displayed with instructions about clicking the desired location on the graphic. Other parts of the program are suspended while the focus is on the graphic input. If you change your mind or want to cancel the operation you can right-click on the graphic. This will reactivate the other parts of the program.
Not Responding
Several calculation functions in TAP (such as coverage calculations, aggregate studies, intermod, etc.) use a significant amount of processor time, and it is possible if you try to click on one of the TAP forms, Windows may report that the "Program is not responding". Usually this is because TAP is doing the intensive calculations and is not expecting to respond to user input.
If you want to continue the operation, you can click the Cancel button on the "Not Responding" dialog box and let TAP continue to run to complete the calculation. If you want to interrupt TAP and abandon the calculation you should usually click Cancel on the "Not Responding" dialog, then click the Cancel button on the TAP form. This will allow TAP to go through a more orderly sequence to close files and end the operation. Note that on some calculations, it may take several seconds for TAP to respond when you click the Cancel button. The program is designed to check for Cancel or other button clicks or input only at specified intervals. Otherwise, too much time would be spent checking for user input and the calculation time would be increased.
If you decide to use the "End Task" option on the "Not Responding" form, some parts of TAP may be left running in the background. You should follow the instructions in the Orphaned Components section to check for and correct this condition.
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Copyright 2005 by SoftWright LLC