I’ve got a Lotus Notes Client (7.0.1) giving me fits. When I try to start up the program, the splash screen comes up for say, a minute or so, and then closes with no sign of the program opening. Then, when you try to run the program again, it generates an “An error was encountered while opening a window” error. I use nsd -kill and killnotes and the cycle just repeats again, with no sign of the client program opening.
I’ve tried updating (as it was originally happening in 6.5), uninstalling completely and reinstalling, etc. to no avail. Are there any registry edits to make, or a full uninstallers guidelines to follow? I’m really at a loss here and would hate to have to format this PC to get it working.
Subject: Client will not start
Hi Tony-Ctrl-Alt-Brk will show you the processes that you need to close, which are: nlnotes.exe,. ntaskldr.exe
You might consider renaming nsd.exe to nsd.bak (stops that from coming up again, for sure)
Now, to fix your client install… find your notes.ini… do a search through your C drive (all folders) and make sure you have only one! Check the filedate… the one most recently modified is the one Notes.exe was using. Rename all but one… the one in the same directory as notes.exe
Then look at the first few lines… they should tell you the filepath of your data dir…
This is the start of mine… notice my data dir is on my D drive? Don’t ask me why, you’ll get me started talking about our ‘wonderful’ outsourced IT department’s policies.
[Notes]
KitType=1
Nice_Directory=C:\Program Files\Lotus\Notes\Data
Directory=D:\Profiles\suptagra\Local Settings\Application Data\Lotus\Notes\Data
Anyway… make sure this path is valid. Start Notes again… and be patient… it might take a few minutes to open the 1st time… it’s got alot to do.
If it still hangs, use the 3finger trick mentioned above and stop the processes… then return to your notes.ini and copy it. Now your gonna edit it and remove all the but 1st 8 lines… then when you startup notes… the wizard will help guide you through configurating your client (building your notes.ini again). If things get worse you can restore your notes.ini with the copy you made (you did make a copy like I said?)
This should fix you right up.
I’m betting you have multiple notes.ini’s and the one that’s being used is invalid path to your data dir.
Stan
Subject: RE: Client will not start
Stan – I really appreciate the thorough and prompt response. Unfortunately, none of that was able to solve my problem. I have two notes.ini files (one in C:\notes and one in C:\Windows ), and the information in there appears correct. I’ve tried playing around with the ini files, but the farthest I got was having the program start up, saying it connected to our notes server on the bottom left, and then just exiting to the desktop abruptly (right before where it would typically prompt for a password).
Subject: RE: Client will not start
“I have two notes.ini files (one in C:\notes and one in C:\Windows )…”
So this was once an R4.x install, eh?
“the splash screen comes up for say, a minute or so, and then closes with no sign of the program opening.”
Sounds like a corrupt bookmark.nsf. Delete and restart.
Subject: RE: Client will not start
I don’t believe it was, but it’s not entirely impossible.
I tried removing the bookmark.nsf file and restarting and the same thing happened. Still no luck.
Subject: RE: Client will not start
Tony,
If you still haven’t fixed it, you may have to remove the data directory before the re-configuration. It’s a messy fix, but is the only thing that does the trick at times.
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You need to back up the id file, current names.nsf, bookmark.nsf, archive and any other local databases the user may need.
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Then re-configure that notes profile from scratch. I delete the users “notes\data” folder to start the configuration from scratch. Put it to the recycle bin if you are unsure. Next time you start notes, it will create a new “notes\data” folder for that user profile during the configuration.
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*** Here’s the key***. Do not OS copy the names.nsf back into the user’s notes\data folder. The configuration created the names.nsf file with information about the server, etc. If you need to copy the contacts from the old names.nsf: Open the names.nsf in notes - side by side - with the new names.nsf. Cut and paste the contacts/groups from one address book (names.nsf) to the other.
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If they really need their bookmarks, you can replace the bookmark.nsf in the user’s notes\data folder with the notes client logged off. If you mess that up (and it happens), delete bookmark.nsf and it will be re-created when notes restarts.
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You can also add any other local databases they may need back into the user’s notes\data folder. Just be careful when you replace existing local databases that the notes client created during install.
This should fix that client. If not, you may have to perform the above steps and include removing and re-installing the notes client. : (
Hope this helps.
Subject: RE: Client will not start
“I delete the users “notes\data” folder to start the configuration from scratch. Put it to the recycle bin if you are unsure. Next time you start notes, it will create a new “notes\data” folder for that user profile during the configuration.”
Careful! This will only work on a machine on which Notes has been installed in a multi-user configuration. Pull this trick on a standard, single-user install machine, and you will be reaching for your installation media to start over. Not that a re-install might not help in this instance.
The overall process of optionally backing up local files before breaking down the client to run the configuration wizard is a good one, as detailed in the (first) post by Stan in this thread. Note that you can delete all of the local NSF and NDK files you want (preferably storing backups first), but you cannot delete the INI file; you must edit it down to the first four (or five, in the case of a multi-user config) lines as Stan’s post details.
The editing of the INI file is the only step that will cause the setup wizard to run again; it is both a necessary and sufficient condition to launch the wizard. Deleting other local dbs such as bookmark.nsf, log.nsf, and headline.nsf is optional.
“Do not OS copy the names.nsf back into the user’s notes\data folder. The configuration created the names.nsf file with information about the server, etc. If you need to copy the contacts from the old names.nsf: Open the names.nsf in notes - side by side - with the new names.nsf. Cut and paste the contacts/groups from one address book (names.nsf) to the other.”
This is an excellent resolution for a corrupted personal address book – unless the user is configured as a roaming user, as this will break the sync with the pernab up in the roaming directory on the server. (Also, if you store replicas of the pernab on the server for backup purposes – which is, of course, an unsupported practice with interesting gotchas of its own – that will be broken as well.) In these scenarios, you can try moving an OS copy of the pernab to another, working Notes client and replacing the design of the database there, or replacing the design on the wounded machine from a DOS box using nconvert or ndesign. And of course running nfixup, nupdall, and ncompact as well…
Subject: RE: Client will not start
Bruce,
That disclaimer is spot on! It was only for a multi-user configuration and to definitely be careful when you are deleting data folders.
We don’t roam or replicate the pernab, so I’ve been lucky enough not to get burned.
…thanks for the tip about fixing the pernab. : )
Subject: RE: Client will not start
Bradford – that did the trick (well, deleting the contents of the actual data folder, not the data folder itself). It asked for some files it could not generate on its own, like pernames.ntf and such, but after that, the client started up.
Thanks a lot, man…and thanks to everyone else who offered assistance.
Subject: Client will not start
Hey Tony, my guess is that you still have some Notes processes running. Change the Task manager and look for nnotesmm.exe, nnotes, ntaskldr. Usually anything that starts with “n”. Check the notes.ini and see where the data directory is pointing to and ensure that is correct. Alos check the Notes icon and make sure that is correct as well.