Aspire 9.10 Encountered Improper Argument

[ericschimel]

Hey all, I've been encountering this error a lot since V9 (all releases)

"Encountered an improper argument"

This happens when saving files, and sometimes when opening them... Has anyone else seen this?

[martin54]

Where are you saving your files to ? if you are saving to an external device & the device isn't plugged into the computer then you will get that error message. Only time I see it is if I have been using a USB stick to take files home to work on another computer.
Open a file saved on the USB stick when you try to save it will want to save back to the USB stick not your normal path on that computer

[ericschimel]

I'm seeing it when I save locally.... Weirdly the file saves fine, I just get that warning...

[Rcnewcomb]

Which version of Windows are you running?
Do any odd devices/files show up on your Recent list?

[ericschimel]

Windows 10. I am running it in a virtual machine though on a Mac. I have been doing this for years however with different versions of Aspire and VCarve and I've never seen this...

[ericschimel]

Also I'm not able to open any files without the same error... Or I should say they partially open... I can see only the 3D preview, nothing else...

[Rcnewcomb]

Windows 10. I am running it in a virtual machine though on a Mac.

I use VMware for running Windows on my Mac. What are you using?

[ericschimel]

VMware, which I've been using for a few years now.

[Rcnewcomb]

Likewise my VMware has been rock solid and I've been using it for years.

If I were in your situation I'd try a uninstall and re-install of Aspire. Are you using the ShopBot version or the standard release?

[ericschimel]

Yup, I already tried that. Weird thing is that this is happening in all versions of Aspire I have installed...

[ericschimel]

Update:

I installed another copy of Windows, installed Aspire and all is now well... Looks like something with my Windows installation got borked... I can't imagine what it is...

[Rcnewcomb]

Thanks for the update.
Bad karma in the registry?

[ericschimel]

It must be... It was very weird timing as it started right after installing the 9.10 update. Turns out it's happening on other programs too (something I didn't realize because I use Windows almost exclusively for Aspire)

I fixed this with the "hammer" method... Just a new copy of Windows. It's quicker than trying to tinker with the registry!

[LittleGreyMan]

I have at least 2 virtual machines in VMWare:
-the reference machine
-the work machine

The reference machine has only a clean Windows install and all the utilities software I always use (anti-malware, dito, pdf maker, …). I launch it from time to time to update it.

The work machine was a copy of the reference VM and has all the software I need. I work with it keep it up to date. IF I have a serious problem (which I never had), I simply trash it, launch the reference VM, update it, then clone it to get a new work VM and re-install the few specific software I use (including Aspire). Generally much quicker than solving a serious Windows problem. Don't tell me it's because I do not know Windows enough. It's true, by I am comparing with problems solved by Windows IT guys.

When I need testing a beta software, an old application which is no more updated or seems not very reliable, I simply make a clone of the reference VM and test with it. If the software is interesting, I install it on the work VM. Then I trash the test VM. In any case, my work VM remains safe.

Maybe the sandbox functions of Windows allow testing safely, but I prefer this solution: better safe than sorry.

In addition, all my data is on a shared Mac folder, so it is automagically backed up by Time Machine every hour. And of course, I have other back-up disks.