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Hi All,
Trying to get VA running under Windows Vista Business on a Toshiba Sat Pro laptop.
had a few shaky starts with VA in the past, then figured out that the Bluetooth was the main culprit, as I had turned it off, not having used it for a while. Simple enough to switch it on and get VA operational. It's been running well for a few weeks.
Now, when VA starts up I get the black RO boot screen, but it doesn't run its full course. Then the RO splash screen appears and it all hangs there.
I recently downloaded the full gamut of VA_RPC SE upgrades, 1 or 2 of which didn't fully load. But VA did run very well since then.
I have tried various combinations of main network stuff being switched on/off: Bluetooth/Wireless etc. But nothing seems to kick start the app.
Even tried replacing the HostFS txt file as suggested by the VA site.
And yes, before you ask, I've turned it on and off again - several times.
Aaron advised me before not to uninstall then reinstall VA.
So, over to you....

many thanks

Peter

On the presumption that something in the RISC OS boot-up sequence is causing the hang-up, I suggest pressing the <Shift> key as soon as the black RISC OS screen first appears and keep it pressed.

This should either bypass just the Desktop file, or bypass !Boot altogether, or take you to the Boot options menu.

Whichever. But it should get you to the desktop where you can start hunting for a cause. For example, put VirtualRPC into a window, select Tools -> Options -> HostFS and make sure the hard disc settings are correct. Or disable all lines in the Desktop file, make sure RISC OS starts up OK, then re-enable each line item selectively until it hangs up. That might highlight the problem area.

HTH - and good hunting...

Mike Nicholl
pp T.O.M.S.

TOMS,
Thanks for the prompt reply. Tried booting VA with Shift key held down, to no avail.

VA creates a window, with the familiar black RO boot screen.
Reads
RISC OS 4.02 32MB
ARM 710 Processor

then it hangs showing the RO splash screen, that's it!


Can't even open the Tools\Options\ drop down menu as it then offers an Windows error screen
An invalid argument was encountered

I assume that's because the app hasn't run through enough of its setup.
Thanks.

P.

In that case I would suspect a VirtualRPC file has become corrupt, preventing proper start-up.

If Aaron has recommended not to uninstall/reinstall from scratch, in your position I'd be inclined to install a fresh, *back-up* copy of VirtualRPC from the CD somewhere convenient, taking care not to overwrite your existing folder. So when it gives the default installation address "C:\Program Files\VirtualAcorn\VirtualRPC-SE", change the last bit to (e.g. but without the quotes) "VirtualRPC-SE(BackUp)".

You will then find the newly-installed default copy of VirtualRPC in the parallel VirtualRPC-SE(BackUp) folder.

Open this up and, from the contents, try copying the following folders/files from the BackUp folder to your working VirtualRPC-SE folder- one at a time and testing VirtualRPC each time before proceeding to the next:

- The Models folder.
- The Plugins folder.
- The VA file.

If all goes well, hopefully one of these should do the trick. Once things are up and running, you may need to reconfigure things, e.g. screen mode.

Fingers crossed, HTH.

Mike Nicholl
pp T.O.M.S.

I suspect that the problem has been caused by you donwloading and installing "all" the updates. This may well have courrupted the VirtualRPC, especially if some of them didn't install. In order to work out wich updates are needed (if any) you need to check which update(s) apply to your copy of VirtualRPC. The instructions are on the top of the download page.

My advice is to delete this VirtualRPC installation and re-install.