After install VA improperly shuts down unless speech recognition disabled

[Zeddikus]

Found out this is the program I need for VR in Elite Dangerous. Bought Code through website (paid tax because hey fellow Texan!), installed, set up mic, began training speech recognition in windows 10 and by the time I finished VA crashed. Restarted, crashed again. Disabled Speech recognition on the safe mode screen that popped up, VA opened fine, but without speech recognition it is pointless. Closed program, opened again, immediately crashed again after 5 seconds. Uninstalled and reinstalled. No change. Loaded windows speech recognition newest runtime files etc. No change. Searched Voice Attack improperly shuts down unless speech recognition disabled, and found nothing specific to that query, just others with different problems. Saw one where they asked if a text file was created with an error, I am not seeing that file in my folder. Not sure what to try now. Running windows 10 pro ver 1803, switched it to run in admin, to no avail. Please advise.

[Gary]

Howdy, Texan!  Up here near Dallas

Are you running any plugins by chance?  Like EDDI or HCS?


Also, that fault file (VoiceAttackFault.txt) would be located in your installation folder - usually C:\Program Files (x86)\VoiceAttack 


Something else to consider is if you are running any type of antivirus that may be interfering.  You'll want to turn of antivirus or put an exception in for VoiceAttack.


Also - are you using a bluetooth headset?  That seems like a popular issue lately.

[Zeddikus]

Not running EDDI or HCS or anything Bluetooth (I do have bluetooth headphones but they are not connected and the dongle isn't plugged in). Yeah, VoiceAttackFault.txt isn't in my install file folder. Not sure why it isn't being created.  I put in an exception for VA in Avast (and even suspended it for 10 minutes). I gave access to VA in windows firewall. Not sure what else to do, and I apologize in advance because I am probably just an idiot somehow. Also Dallasite, and I raise a deep ellum ipa in salute to your help!



Like the program itself won't actually open without disabling speech recognition. It will get to the info window that says close after the initial window says it didn't shut down properly do you want to try disabling things or whatever. If I hit no, the next screen pops up but I can't click close or the hyperlink. It just freezes at that screen and closes a few seconds later.

[Gary]

Wow... very strange. 

If you run VA with CTRL + Shift down, you'll get the familiar, 'Load Options' screen.  From there, click on 'Disable speech recognition' as you have.  Go into the options screen (the little wrench icon) and then go to Recognition.  What do you have listed as the speech engine?



I am out in far northeast Garland

[Gary]

Also - If something is crashing VA so that the fault file is not able to be generated, there's a good chance there is info located in the Windows Event log.  You'll want to take a look in there to see if there are any events that stand out.

[Zeddikus]

Far East Garland, we relatively close. I'm near 80 and Collins just a few miles away!

It says the speech recognition is MS speech recognizer 8.0 for windows .

OK, I found the windows logs... I get 3 different errors.

Application: VoiceAttack.exe
Framework Version: v4.0.30319
Description: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.
Exception Info: exception code c0000006, exception address 5E1C1808
Stack:

and

Faulting application name: VoiceAttack.exe, version: 1.7.3.0, time stamp: 0x5bf1e60a
Faulting module name: spsreng.dll, version: 8.0.17134.1, time stamp: 0xcaaa43bb
Exception code: 0xc0000006
Fault offset: 0x000a1808
Faulting process id: 0x2fc8
Faulting application start time: 0x01d4b115aabcf1ff
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\VoiceAttack\VoiceAttack.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\Speech\Engines\SR\spsreng.dll
Report Id: a70bd856-8543-499a-ae95-0a64e987cdc8
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

and strangely

Windows cannot access the file C:\Windows\Speech\Engines\SR\en-US\l1033.ngr for one of the following reasons: there is a problem with the network connection, the disk that the file is stored on, or the storage drivers installed on this computer; or the disk is missing. Windows closed the program VoiceAttack because of this error.

Program: VoiceAttack
File: C:\Windows\Speech\Engines\SR\en-US\l1033.ngr

The error value is listed in the Additional Data section.
User Action
1. Open the file again. This situation might be a temporary problem that corrects itself when the program runs again.
2. If the file still cannot be accessed and
   - It is on the network, your network administrator should verify that there is not a problem with the network and that the server can be contacted.
   - It is on a removable disk, for example, a floppy disk or CD-ROM, verify that the disk is fully inserted into the computer.
3. Check and repair the file system by running CHKDSK. To run CHKDSK, click Start, click Run, type CMD, and then click OK. At the command prompt, type CHKDSK /F, and then press ENTER.
4. If the problem persists, restore the file from a backup copy.
5. Determine whether other files on the same disk can be opened. If not, the disk might be damaged. If it is a hard disk, contact your administrator or computer hardware vendor for further assistance.

Additional Data
Error value: C000A2A7

[Gary]

Whoa...  yeah, it looks like you've got something going on behind the scenes regarding the speech engine.  I've actually never seen these types of errors before.  It looks like you're using the platform sdk 11 speech engine.

Try this, if you would - Launch VA holding down CTRL + Shift - that will bring up the Load Options screen.  Then, disable the speech recognition (first option).  Go into the Options > System Advanced screen and select, 'Use Built-in SAPI Speech Engine'.  Click ok.  Close VA.

Then, take a look at this thread (ignore the title):  https://forum.voiceattack.com/smf/index.php?topic=64.0
Follow the instructions in there.  Run VA and see if that works.



Also, Have you tried running a system file scan (along with the checkdisk the error had suggested)?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026529/windows-10-using-system-file-checker

Sometimes that can find stuff that's not so evident.

[Zeddikus]

I just went ahead an nuked it. I couldn't figure out how to undo what was on there, and though a little drastic, it had been years so a fresh install was due. Thanks for you help, wouldn't have figured it out otherwise!

[Gary]

Was wondering what that noise was o_O

Yeah... I can understand that a reinstall would be quicker than trying to pick this thing apart.  MS does not provide much in documentation on how to fix (or even what makes up) the speech engine

I hope you have better luck this time around and I hope you enjoy the software!

[Gangrel]

Just to chime in: I have been having VA force shutdown randomly resulting in the "improper shutdown" warning when it starts up again

Faulting application name: VoiceAttack.exe, version: 1.7.3.0, time stamp: 0x5bf1f2d3
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.17763.194, time stamp: 0xf3450dbf
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x000e0e23
Faulting process ID: 0x22ac
Faulting application start time: 0x01d4b1a59617e154
Faulting application path: E:\SteamSSD\steamapps\common\VoiceAttack\VoiceAttack.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report ID: c7a085a8-aff6-47a0-83ee-8b673fafae50
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

[Gary]

Is this with or without the HCS pack running?