All versions crash at startup

[github4moses]

On a 32-bit Windows-7 SP1 machine, I’m trying to use Notepad++. It installs, but crashes rather than running, and produces 3 error windows:

Win32Exception
An exception occured. Notepad++ cannot recover and must be shut
(X) down.
The exception details are as follows:
Code: 0xC0000005
Type: Access violation
Exception address: 0x00D4A46B
[OK]
<NPPexception.pdf>

Notepad++: a free (GNU) source code editor

Notepad++: a free (GNU) source code editor
has stopped working

A problem caused the program to stop working correctly.
Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is
available.
[Close program]
<NPPstopped.pdf>

File size problem

File is too big to be opened by Notepad++

				[OK]

<NPPfile2big.pdf>

The 3rd window doesn’t pop up if I restart NPP later: Feeding a file or running the blank EXE crashes immediately. No other utility does this.

I’ve checked a lot of online help to no avail:

• Installed on an NTFS C: or a different partition - both FAT32- or NTFS-formatted
• Installed random 32-bit NPP versions 7.3.3. … 7.8.9.
• Un-Installed / Re-Installed
• Deleted %appdata%\Notepad++*
• Windows-7 compatibility mode
• Applied -noPlugin switch
• Toggled Admin mode
• sfc /scannow returns clean.
• mdsched and chkdsk return clean.
• The antivirus is Avast 10.4.2233 that I couldn’t stop.

In C:\Users{me}\AppData\Local\Temp\ there are *.DMP files: notepad++.DMP and GUP.DMP .

I’ve found no NppJumplist. I can find *.*DMP files in C:\Users{me}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQueue, describing an NPP crash and a GUP crash. The two *.HDMP and *.MDMP files are huge and binary. The two *.WER files are text. I can avail them as NPPcrashWER.txt and GUPcrashWER.txt of the 7.8.9. version if it helps.

What can I deliver more?

[andrecool-68]

You need to check if the following updates are installed:
KB2859537, KB2872339. KB2882822
Try to remove them!

PS
On my Windows 7 update KB2859537, KB2872339 is not.

[Ekopalypse]

@github4moses said in All versions crash at startup:

NPPstopped.pdf

I would try to test a zipped alias portable version like this:
https://github.com/notepad-plus-plus/notepad-plus-plus/releases/download/v7.8.9/npp.7.8.9.bin.zip

Unzip it into any directory and run notepad++.exe from there.
If this works, I would uninstall the previous one, delete the notepad++ folder from the program files directory and delete the notepad++ folder from the %APPDATA% folder. Additionally I would run a registry cleaner like ccleaner to remove all old npp entries from the registry.
Restart your PC and try to install npp again.

[github4moses]

@Ekopalypse & @andrecool-68: Thanks so much for your contributions! I couldn’t see them earlier - the Watching didn’t notify me. I’ll check that out ASAP.

[github4moses]

@andrecool-68 These updates are not on my machine. Windows even does not propose them among the 169 important and 10 optional updates. My machine has only KB2621440, KB2534111 and KB976902. Sorry

[github4moses]

@Ekopalypse I did it in a slightly different sequence. I downloaded the ZIP. Then I uninstalled the previous Notepad++, deleted its folder from the program-files directory and deleted its folder from %APPDATA%\Local (that was anyway empty). I backed my registry (full of notepad++ stuff) up and downloaded Ccleaner 5.72. It installed three programs on C:\ (!) - the app, an upgrader(?) and an uninstaller. I started the app. It ran for a while and exited without asking a single question. Even elevated, it never said anything.
I restarted the PC, unpacked the ZIP and started Notepad++. Immediately appeared the well-known Win32Exception window with just the different address 0x013FA46B that I had to close. This time, no further error windows popped up. Elevated operation did the same.
Obviously there is no hope for Notepad++. So I started Ccleaner’s uninstaller. It shouted: “NSIS error: Error launching installer.” And “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Ccleaner. Please contact your system administrator.” Ironically, this is me, having tried this procedure elevated too.
Apparently, to get rid of the Ccleaner, I have to re-install my system-image backup. Sorry

[Terry R]

@github4moses said in All versions crash at startup:

So I started Ccleaner’s uninstaller. It shouted: “NSIS error: Error launching installer.” And “You do not have sufficient access to uninstall Ccleaner.

Are you sure you want to trust Ccleaner? Have a Google about it. Whilst not completely bad some notes on the web suggest it may be similar to malware. And the cleaning it does isn’t warranted anyways.

I’d be very dubious about using it.

Terry

[andrecool-68]

@github4moses
Make a full scan of the system for viruses!
I suggest using all these programs:

Dr.Web CureIt!
Dr.Web LiveDisk
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware
Malwarebytes AdwCleaner
Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit

[github4moses]

@Terry-R & @andrecool-68: Thanks a ton. I’ll try that.

[github4moses]

I did as promised.

@Terry-R To get rid of the useless and sticky Ccleaner, I installed a System without it.

@andrecool-68 None of these tools found anything bad. LiveDisk is N/A. Anti-Malware isn’t available anymore - replaced by MBsetup. I found a 5 years old good Anti-Malware that crashed at the update attempt. AdwCleaner stopped at startup.

Fed-up with all wrong experiments, I installed a bare-bone 32-bit Windows 7 to test all available versions of the 32-bit Notepad++ from 3.8 up to 7.8.9. Bingo: The old ones were perfect, the recent ones a total failure. 6.6.9 was still fully clean, 6.8 started to crash GUP, 7.0 added 2 Exception pop-ups before opening the editor, 7.5.6 added 3 pop-ups and failed on Close. With 7.8.9, nothing at all works anymore.

I decided to stick with the watershed 6.9 as the most recent version that makes sense: Its editor started trustfully, just GUP fails that doesn’t make sense anyway.

Thanks for all your help, and stay healthy!

[Terry R]

@github4moses said in All versions crash at startup:

Fed-up with all wrong experiments, I installed a bare-bone 32-bit Windows 7 to test all available versions of the 32-bit Notepad++ from 3.8 up to 7.8.9. Bingo: The old ones were perfect, the recent ones a total failure. 6.6.9 was still fully clean, 6.8 started to crash GUP, 7.0 added 2 Exception pop-ups before opening the editor, 7.5.6 added 3 pop-ups and failed on Close. With 7.8.9, nothing at all works anymore.

These older versions of Notepad++ have all passed through thousands of happy customers so we can still suggest Notepad++ by itself isn’t the issue. I would suggest the issue is something to do with your system. I know you have a brand new installation with hardly any added S/W other than Notepad++ of various versions. I presume the hardware is ALL the same as before the new Windows was loaded?

It might seem like this has been a failure but I would say otherwise. At this point it must be solely the interaction between later versions of Notepad++ and your (almost clean) Windows system. About the only thing left is the video driver and the additional AV/anti-malware apps. Do you have a discrete card fitted or is it a builtin graphics adaptor (maybe within the CPU as with the i5 & i7). Can you provide details of the graphics card and driver version?

For a truly clean system I would have JUST installed Windows, had the installer for the Notepad++ version on a USB stick and installed from it, without having the clean system touch the Internet. Although Windows does like to “authenticate” you can run it for a period “offline” without any problems.

The next experiment would be to replace the video card and install a new driver and repeat the different Notepad++ versions tests.

Terry

[github4moses]

@Terry-R The hardware seems to be the culprit. So far, it wasn’t changed. So I replaced the graphics card (a certain Nvidia Geforce on an AGP) - to no avail again! (The graphics driver always comes from Windows as WDDM only. The antivirus could be switched off for a while too.)

So I’m looking for a mother board. This takes time. Thanks a ton for your patience …

[github4moses]

@github4moses Here I am again, having swapped the motherboard into one with a better CPU that can SSE2 now. The board takes all Windows Updates (that the previous one crashed upon) and runs even the most recent Notepad++ now. So I’m happy with the working tool and have to thank all the contributors having tried to help me.