Issue being caused by trying to open the game manual

[zacklaws]

Today I discovered that I was unable to open any PDF files on my computer using Adobe acrobat reader including the game manual. After repairing Adobe acrobat reader and able to open PDF's on my PC including the game manual, I tried to reopen the manual through the startup page for AB but it would not work. (It used to work up till yesterday). Then when I tried to open any other PDF, I found that I was unable to so I have presumed that trying to open the manual through AB startup page is doing something to crash Adobe acrobat reader.

I have now repaired Adobe acrobat reader three times now to work, but if I use the startup page for AB to open the manual, it damages Adobe acrobat reader and eventually it flashes up "Acrobat failed to connect to a DDE server". I then have to repair the reader again on my PC.

I am not sure what is happening and if it is connected to what I was finding yesterday (Wednesday) with the AB forum, but the forum yesterday was hardly accessible for me and at most, I would have only a minute or two to look at it or try and post anything without it locking up and freezing which eventually would result in a "502" error message (I think it was "502" or "504"). I actually began to think there was a DOE attack on the forum.

As a precaution I have done an anti virus and malware scan but cannot find anything amiss.

Anyone else experiencing the same?

[CapnDarwin]

Matrix started a holiday sale yesterday and that crashed and slowed their servers. Your PDF issue should not be tied to that unless the game launcher was getting messed up not being able to pull info to the launcher and that corrupted the PDF launch. If you go to the folder, can you launch the PDF directly?

[zacklaws]

If you go to the folder, can you launch the PDF directly?

If Adobe Acrobat reader has been repaired and working, I can open the game manual PDF stored on my my hard drive or any other PDF with no issues. But, if I attempt to open the game manual via the game launcher it will not and eventually I get the error message pop up. If I then try to open the game manual stored on my PC or any other PDF, I am unable to do so and likewise get the same error message. It is only after I repair the reader and reboot the system that I can open a PDF file again.

I have narrowed the issue down a bit more now. After using the game launcher and it preventing me from opening PDF's, I do not have to repair the reader, I only have to reboot the PC and its back to normal, until I use the game launcher again to try and open the manual and then, once again, I'm unable to open any PDF.

[zakblood]

then your pc isn't making the default reader for the required program, just add the correct reader in windows to the correct file type, again a permissions issue, mostly caused by a 3rd party app over taking or altering the said permissions of a given app or program, easy to fix, just go into windows, or the said program and make the default associate to the correct file format, then it will be read by the right program each and every time

[zacklaws]

ORIGINAL: zakblood

then your pc isn't making the default reader for the required program, just add the correct reader in windows to the correct file type, again a permissions issue, mostly caused by a 3rd party app over taking or altering the said permissions of a given app or program, easy to fix, just go into windows, or the said program and make the default associate to the correct file format, then it will be read by the right program each and every time

Nothing to do with that, adobe acrobat is the default reader and associated with PDF files and works perfectly until I try to open the manual using AB games launcher then I cannot open any PDF as I have mentioned previously.

Following on, I have now used the game launcher for two other games linked to Matrix games in the same manner and both games manual open perfectly. But tryimg AB games launcher it all stops working again.

Just to check the games launcher has not become corrupted I'll do a reinstall when I have time.

[kevinkins]

Matrix started a holiday sale yesterday and that crashed and slowed their servers.

Had a feeling that' what was happening. I hoped they crushed it - sales that is.

[zakblood]

i couldn't reproduce the error, and it opens in the browser, eg Microsoft edge on windows 10 pc, and google chrome is set to my default browser btw

Code: Select all

file:///C:/Program%20Files%20(x86)/Matrix%20Games/Armored%20Brigade/Manuals/Armored%20Brigade%20manual%20EBOOK.pdf

and on my other test pc with windows 10 also on it with adobe free reader on it, the latest version for windows 10, Version 2019.008.20081 it opens fine with no issues, and on that pc it is set to the default PDF reader, previous version of adobe wasn't all windows 10 compatible, but also have no idea either on what O/S even your running, as it's guess work from what is only mentioned as an error, so sometimes get the guess right and other times wrong[:(]

[zacklaws]

I'm using WIN 10 and Google Chrome

Looking further into the issue, I have discovered that trying to open the PDF manual through the launcher was opening two occurrences of Adobe reader which were not opening correctly but just running in the background and also linking to the manual installed in the AB manuals folder. And as to why Adobe reader was trying to connect to an online server, I do not know.

Anyway after an uninstall and reinstall, its now running as it was when first installed. It looks like something got corrupted.

[zacklaws]

Unbelievable, went to bed last night everything working perfect after a reinstall.

This morning, tried to open the game manual through the game launcher, and the issue has returned again. Only this time not getting the "DDE server" error message.

Confirmed the game manual opens if I open without using the launcher, ie, just clicking on it, so that rules it out being corrupted.

Its not a major issue, but, something is amiss somewhere, is it the game launcher or something on my PC or a mixture of the two?

[zakblood]

Code: Select all

https://helpx.adobe.com/uk/acrobat/kb/failed-to-connect-to-dde-server.html

adobe or pc error, not game related, either try there suggestions or do a repair on adobe, btw are you using the free version or a server version?

Solution 1) (This error occurs when you have more than 1 process of Acrobat running)

1) Go to the task manager by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del
2) Go to the processes in Task Manager
3) End all processes related to Acrobat
4) Launch Acrobat again.
Solution 2) Open Acrobat navigate to Help menu & Repair the installation.

Solution 3) Check the file association on your system.

Solution 4) Navigating to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\acrobat\shell\open\ddeexec\application and changing the Key "AcroviewA11" to "AcroviewR11.



Also check what the Log On properties of the Remote Procedure Call service, on the workstation giving this error set to.

I've seen users resolving the issue by setting the 'Log on as' to 'Local System account' with the 'Allow service to interact with desktop' checked.

[zacklaws]

I had tried everything up to solution 4 yesterday asI had seen that myself as well. I have just tried or had a look at the rest of the solutions now with no avail. The Remote Procedure Call service, all the controls are greyed out and inaccessible to do anything and I cannot find a way to access them. As for the registry, I have nothing like that setting in my registry at all. But, I do have an "acrobat2018" with "AcroviewR19", so thats probably a newer version than the one in the solution.

The version I am using is the fee version which I also uninstalled yesterday and redownloaded it again yesterday and installed afresh.

But as I say, its not a major issue, I can access all PDF's the normal ways, its only an issue if I use the AB game launcher to try and open the manual and then no PDF's can be opened thereafter unless I reboot the system.

What I will do is just leave it as it is, try it periodically and it may sort itself out but at least others who experience it will know they are not on there own and then the issue may be pinned down to the game launcher. In fact, already this morning, I saw in another thread some one else with the same issue along with being unable to run AB.

Many thanks for the help so far, and if anything else crops up linked to the issue I will post it here as a follow up.

[Gknight1]

I seem to have the same issue. It is very irritating. Is there anywhere else to go for the AB manual?

[jason oates]

Hi All

I have the same issue now as well

[Veitikka]

ORIGINAL: zacklaws

But as I say, its not a major issue, I can access all PDF's the normal ways, its only an issue if I use the AB game launcher to try and open the manual and then no PDF's can be opened thereafter unless I reboot the system.

On my system, if I use the Matrix launcher to open the AB manual then no other .pdf files can be opened as long as the AB manual .pdf is open. The other files start as Windows processes but are not seen in the Adobe reader.

If I start the Adobe reader by opening a .pdf file outside the Matrix launcher then everything works fine.

The AB manual .pdf can be found in the game 'Manuals' folder.