New build - Big Box won't start

[winterwolf]

Okay, I've been beating my head against the wall for several hours trying to get my new arcade launchbox / bigbox build working and I am running into the same error message every time I try something:

I have two other computers I have tried this on, and both of them work just fine, but with this fresh install of windows, I am getting nothing but this stupid error window every time I try and launch bigbox. 

The hard drive is local and it is formatted to NTFS, so I know that's not the problem.

 

[C-Beats]

What theme are you trying to use and how did you install it?

[retrodude]

Hello.

Same issue here.

Using RetroFresh theme, installed via bigbox. Tried to use Default (changed in DATA/BigBoxSettings.xml), but did not help.

Does not seem i am able to reset Theme, tried deleting BigBoxSettings.xml, a new was generated, but did not help, maybe this is not the right way to reset, hope someone can help 

Edited September 26, 2022 by retrodude

[winterwolf]

Okay so I managed to get Bigbox working and this is what I did to get it running again:

So this install was on a fresh copy of Windows.  The first step I did was to double check that all Windows updates had been installed.

The second step was to completely disable all Windows-based antivirus protection.  I suspect that when I first installed Launchbox, Windows Defender kept some of the install files from being created properly.

Third step was to install a friendlier antivirus program. I used Avast in this case.  I hadn't originally installed this b/c this was going to be a standalone PC/arcade not used to surf the internet.

Lastly, I completely deleted the Launchbox folder, redownloaded the installer, then reinstalled the Launchbox program.

This combination of steps got my copy of Big Box working again and I haven't had any issues since.  I hope this helps someone!

[neil9000]

56 minutes ago, winterwolf said:

Third step was to install a friendlier antivirus program. I used Avast in this case. 

Actually AVAST is trash and has actively been a problem for many users of Launchbox with it actively removing files, Windows Defender is a far better choice here. I really dont think that AV was a issue in this case, i mean you re-installed Windows, that was very likely the actual cure to whatever strange issue you were having.

[winterwolf]

I didn't reinstall Windows.

I completely removed Launchbox and reinstalled it.  This was the third time I had done so in order to get this working.  I am pretty confident that it was Windows Defender that was giving me the issues.

Edited September 27, 2022 by winterwolf

[neil9000]

6 minutes ago, winterwolf said:

I didn't reinstall Windows.

OK, but this quote certainly read like you had.

1 hour ago, winterwolf said:

So this install was on a fresh copy of Windows.

As for AV, Windows Defender is actually what we recommend, very very few users ever have issues with it in regards to Launchbox/Bigbox, but these forums are full of people having issues with Avast, Norton, Mcafee and the like. Paid or third party AV are mostly never needed, they provide false positives to make you think they are finding issues and to get you to pay for them, they are unreliable at best, and outright scams at worst.

[retrodude]

I got it working with a fresh install of LB (Default theme), but have not gotten it to work on my installation where i have all my roms and media, metadata etc, not sure what to do. I tried with a few different themes, and the one i am using now i seem to get a bit further, but when i chose a game i get an error message about "TextGamesView, the default view is shown instead", but i dont see anything but back screen after closing the error message.

Even the Settings menu is dark and not showing any text. I can exit BB by pressing "Esc then UP then Enter", so it still seems to be working, i just dont see anything, just black screen.When i use the CoinOP theme i can see the menu text, but i stil get the error message when choosing platform.

 

Edit:

So i am attempting something.

I re-installed LB in different location, and am now copying data over games, emulators, images, videoes etc. Everything except bigbox related objects like themes and the bigbox xml.

Edit2:

This seemed to fix my issues, probably some broken files in my original installation?

 

Edit3:

I think i found the problem, and im happy to say i think it was my fault.

I recently moved my installation folder to X:\-=Emulation & Roms=-\LaunchBox

Seems it was one or more of the special characters that was the problem with BB, when i moved it out to X:\ it worked fine again. LB worked fine either way.

Is this a known issue or should the developers maybe be noticed of this?

Anyway, glad i got it sorted 

Edited September 27, 2022 by retrodude