Author Topic: my load button stopped working  (Read 66966 times)

dasonger

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my load button stopped working
« on: April 12, 2013, 05:03:43 PM »
I have version 2.5.13 and have absolutely loved the software!!! I have a problem that just developed today when I tried to access the tournament that I will be hosting tomorrow. The load button from the game tab doesn't seem to work anymore- all load functions seem inoperable, including loading any prior saved tournament, prior blind templates, and event templates.  Prior stats from 20+ tourneys are still found, as is the database of 200+ players. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Doug Songer

dasonger

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #1 on: April 12, 2013, 09:53:36 PM »
I will reply to myself as I was able to fix the problem with much effort. I had recently updated to windows explorer 10- uninstalling this update permitted tournament director to return to its former glory!!! Hope this will help others who have similar problems in the future.

Corey Cooper

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #2 on: April 13, 2013, 02:25:07 PM »
This is a new issue that started to appear a few weeks ago, likely spurred by a recent Microsoft Windows update.  Thus far you are one of only 6 or 7 people that I am aware of that have hit upon this problem.  I have been working on replicating the issue so I can determine what is causing it and hopefully fix it, but I have been unsuccessful in making it happen.  I am continuing to work on it because I feel it will likely continue to affect more and more people as PCs are updated with Microsoft patches.

I'm glad you were able to get things working again.  One other person that I am aware of fixed the issue in the same way, by uninstalling Internet Explorer 10 (and going back to IE9).  In fact, here is that thread: http://www.thetournamentdirector.net/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=9647

I'm making this topic sticky so others experiencing the same issue can find it, and I'll update it as new information is found.  If anyone else is experiencing this issue, please reply to this thread and I'll add your name to my list, so when a solution is found I can update everyone.

Scotty K

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #3 on: April 13, 2013, 05:04:18 PM »
Well, Corey, add my name to the list...

I discovered this today (I'm starting a touranment in less than an hour!) when, for some odd reason, something possessed me to print out a receipt from a prior tournament, and found that it printed incorrectly.  I went to the source file and it was rendered incorrectly on screen as well.  Then when I tried to load the tournament I had previously created for today, I found that I had the same problem that Dasonger reported earlier.  Not only could I not load, I couldn't save, save as, or find any of my templates, plus my receipt count went back to 1.  Soooo, I went back to IE 9 too, and all is well.  I also copied my preferences file from a previous backup.

FYI, I run on Windows 7.  Thanks for all of your hard work!  (and now I can run my tournament today, and hopefully win!)

Corey Cooper

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2013, 10:08:55 AM »
The bug is affecting the Active-X control used by the TD software to show file dialogs, font dialogs, and color dialogs.  When the TD attempts to call the various dialogs, nothing happens.  This is why it appears as if the Load, Save, and Save As... buttons don't work.  The TD calls on the file dialog, and since it doesn't work the TD gets back a "null" value, which is what it gets back when one presses Cancel on a file dialog, so the TD assumes that you've canceled your action.  Thus, nothing happens.

As far as I know, it shouldn't have any other effect.

Quote
... or find any of my templates, plus my receipt count went back to 1.

OK, two different issues, but they could be related.  First, the TD software will never, ever delete any of your saved templates or tournaments, or anything else.  It just won't do it.  So, either your templates are still there (somewhere) or something else deleted them.   Based on the second part of your statement, it sounds like your preferences file was reset.  I honestly cannot see how this could be related to the main issue.  Regardless, if your preferences were reset then your receipt count would go back to 1, and if you're using a different Data Store than the default Data Store, it's possible your Data Stores configuration was reset, and therefore pressing "Load Template" on one of the various tabs would, by default, show a different folder than you were previously using to store your templates, which would make it look like they've gone missing.  Of course, since the main issue here was affecting you, pressing "Load Template" would not have done anything, so you must have been looking for a template some other way...

Corey Cooper

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2013, 10:10:57 AM »
Is there any chance you (anyone being affected by this) have additional Internet Explorer add-ons installed?  Since IE10 has been pushed to a lot of people by now, and this is still affecting only a few people, maybe the common factor is some third-party add-on that is installed?

Scotty K

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #6 on: April 16, 2013, 04:06:03 PM »
Sorry I haven't been able to follow up on this for you, as I've been quite busy these past few days.

...or find any of my templates, plus my receipt count went back to 1.

I didn't mean to imply that TD made any of these changes; I do indeed understand that it will not do that.  Plus I was able to find all of my saves and template files when I went outside of the program.  The problem was occurring when I tried to access those files from inside the program.  Nevertheless, it did indeed happen, but I did make something of a discovery today.

I was trying to recreate the conditions by which all of this started to happen, and in so doing I recalled trying to load up a previous tournament by loading it up directly from my saves file; that is, instead of launching the program and then loading, I would click the saved file and then the program would launch.  What I discovered is that when this method was used, apparently these saves files were associated with version 2.6.b5, which of course is no longer valid.  When this failed to launch, I then went back to launching TD 3.1.1 from my desktop shortcut, and apparently this was where the preferences file was altered, or more likely, was now going to a default preference file?  Naturally, this now had all of my settings reset, and my receipt counter was now showing 1 again.  So at least now I know that I have to reassociate my saved tournament files to TD 3.1.1

Is this making any sense at all?

I think I'm going to try to reload IE10 again and see what happens when I have the time, as I still have to see if my receipts will render correctly.

Corey Cooper

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #7 on: April 16, 2013, 06:18:09 PM »
Quote
I didn't mean to imply that TD made any of these changes; I do indeed understand that it will not do that.  Plus I was able to find all of my saves and template files when I went outside of the program.  The problem was occurring when I tried to access those files from inside the program.  Nevertheless, it did indeed happen, but I did make something of a discovery today.

No worries.  I just wanted to be sure you understood the software wouldn't delete things out from under you.  And I also wanted anyone else who might be reading the thread to understand that, too.

Quote
I was trying to recreate the conditions by which all of this started to happen, and in so doing I recalled trying to load up a previous tournament by loading it up directly from my saves file; that is, instead of launching the program and then loading, I would click the saved file and then the program would launch.  What I discovered is that when this method was used, apparently these saves files were associated with version 2.6.b5, which of course is no longer valid.  When this failed to launch, I then went back to launching TD 3.1.1 from my desktop shortcut, and apparently this was where the preferences file was altered, or more likely, was now going to a default preference file?  Naturally, this now had all of my settings reset, and my receipt counter was now showing 1 again.  So at least now I know that I have to reassociate my saved tournament files to TD 3.1.1

Is this making any sense at all?

Complete sense.  When 2.6.b5 loaded, it probably did not understand the preferences file (some new type of object was added in 3.0 or 3.1 or 3.1.1) and therefore reverted back to a default version of the preferences.  In other words, it reset all of your preferences.  I just wish there was a way for you to get your preferences file back.  It should rename the current preferences file (the one it can't understand) before creating a new preferences file.  That way it isn't lost.  I'm going to add that to the to-do list.  Of course that wouldn't help this situation since we can't go back and add this to previous versions, but might save some headaches going forward.

And I wonder why Windows still had .tdt files associated with version 2.6.b5.  The install of 3.1.1 (and/or 3.0 and/or 3.1) should have updated that association.  I'll have to look into that.

Corey Cooper

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #8 on: April 16, 2013, 06:34:26 PM »
For anyone experiencing this issue and willing to help out a little:

  • Click the following link and save the file to your Desktop, or some other place you can find it: http://www.thetournamentdirector.net/support/getRegIEPlugins.wsf.  You'll probably get a warning, but you'll have to trust me that the script is safe.  :)
  • Double-click the downloaded file to run it.  The script will simply extract a few keys from your Windows registry that are directly associated with IE plug-ins, toolbars, and extensions.  And nothing else.
  • After running, Notepad should automatically open, showing the extracted information.
  • In Notepad, right-click and select Select All then right-click and select Copy.
  • Send an email to support@thetournamentdirector.net and paste the copied information into the email (right-click and select Paste).

And thank you.

* Edit: You'll likely get a bunch of permission request dialogs saying "Do you want to allow the following program to make changes to this computer" with "Program name: Registry Editor".  Say "yes" to each one.  It won't change anything, it's just running "regedit" to dump registry information.  I tested this script on a PC with UAC disabled, so I didn't get any of these dialogs and thus I forgot to mention them.
« Last Edit: April 16, 2013, 08:14:01 PM by Corey Cooper »

Scotty K

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #9 on: April 16, 2013, 10:54:44 PM »
I just wish there was a way for you to get your preferences file back.

No worries here, as I still have a copy of an older preferences file from prior to 3.1.  I just copied and pasted and viola, all is well.

And I wonder why Windows still had .tdt files associated with version 2.6.b5.  The install of 3.1.1 (and/or 3.0 and/or 3.1) should have updated that association.  I'll have to look into that.

I think I might have an answer for this; it might be something that I did myself.

Within the last couple of weeks, a friend of mine ran his own tournament.  As the tournament progressed, I couldn't help but question the effectiveness of his blinds schedule; at some points it just didn't make sense to me.  I asked him to send me a copy of his tournament file so that I could take a look at it and perhaps make some suggestions on how to improve it.  What I forgot about was that he was running an earlier version of TD (2.6), so when I opened the file directly (outside of TD, of course!), this file had an association to 2.6.  Is it possible that perhaps then all of my tournament files now would have their associations reverted back to 2.6?

For anyone experiencing this issue and willing to help out a little:

Consider it done.  You should have my email by now.

dullgeek

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #10 on: April 17, 2013, 07:28:24 AM »
I just wish there was a way for you to get your preferences file back.

Offtopic, but one of the advantages of using dropbox as a datastore is that it saves 30 days worth of revisions to all files. So that if I accidentally delete something or make a change that I can't remember what I did, I can get back the previous version.

Is there a way to change the default location of preferences so that I could store that on dropbox as well?

Corey Cooper

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2013, 09:46:52 AM »
Quote
What I forgot about was that he was running an earlier version of TD (2.6), so when I opened the file directly (outside of TD, of course!), this file had an association to 2.6.  Is it possible that perhaps then all of my tournament files now would have their associations reverted back to 2.6?

I don't think so.  Windows just knows "TDT=Open with C:\Program Files\The Tournament Director 3\TD.exe".  With 2.6.b5, it's likely it was still set to "C:\Program Files\The Tournament Director 2\TD.exe", since version 2 and 3 install in different folders.  Any install of the TD should reset this association.  Looks like it just didn't do it for you, for some reason.  You can always change it yourself.  Right-click on a .tdt file and select Open with, then select Choose default program, then you'll probably have to use the Browse... button to browse to "C:\Program Files\The Tournament Director 3\TD.exe".  Make sure the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file checkbox is checked.


For anyone experiencing this issue and willing to help out a little:

Consider it done.  You should have my email by now.

Many thanks!

Corey Cooper

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2013, 09:52:11 AM »
I just wish there was a way for you to get your preferences file back.

Offtopic, but one of the advantages of using dropbox as a datastore is that it saves 30 days worth of revisions to all files. So that if I accidentally delete something or make a change that I can't remember what I did, I can get back the previous version.

Is there a way to change the default location of preferences so that I could store that on dropbox as well?

Yes, in version 3.2 (in beta right now, but very solid).  It's even documented in the user manual: section 39 "Advanced Customization".

That's a great idea, by the way, storing those files in your Dropbox.  Especially since they'll never get big enough to even make a dent in the storage limits of Dropbox.

benny

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #13 on: April 19, 2013, 09:29:44 PM »
thank god this thread is here. got people showing up very soon and couldnt get the load or save as working i could go into data and load manually but not save.

unistalled ie10 and its working again

Scotty K

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Re: my load button stopped working
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2013, 12:28:09 PM »
OK a small update...

I had some time today, so I thought I would try downloading IE10 again.  One thing that I noticed was that at the start of the download I was asked if I would like to download a version that included "Enhanced for AOL".  This had me thinking that perhaps this might be where the problem might reside.  I proceeded to download the enhanced version (which was the version that I had downloaded previously) just to see what happened.  As I expected, the result was the same as the last time, as I was again unable to use the "Load" or "Save" or "Save As..." buttons.  So, I went back and downdated to IE9, but this time I updated to IE10 without the enhancements, hoping that this time it would work.  Well, I'm afraid that the results were the same as with the AOL enhancements, so I'm guessing that the problem was not limited to those enhancements as I had hoped, but rather that there is a broader issue at hand here.

As a side note, the other thing that I had noticed is that my receipts were rendered differently when I used IE10.  I'm guessing that during the update the source file now reads the code differently (I have a couple of cells that use rotated text); perhaps the code that I used is now outdated under IE10, and I would need to figure out how to change it so that it will render the way I want it to (I know that TD is not responsible for any of this; I just thought that it might be useful to mention it just as a heads-up to others who might be interested in this.).