Anybody ever got an error code -999 from OIPI?

The only time I remember myself was when my program did a dodgy TERM 2 after encountering an exotic bug in 16-bit OIPI. (That was in 1998, and the bug has since been corrected.) I don't know the exact reason - if TERM 2 had anything to do with it. Anyway I stopped using TERM 2 altogether.

But now I have a client who reports she gets this error code. She runs an app that uses 16-bit OIPI, and gets an error message with this code whenever she tries to print. I don't know the details yet, but I'm pretty certain it's an original OIPI error code and not an error code from my own programming.

My preliminary theory is that OIPI didn't get properly installed (even though the installation process seemingly went well), causing some OIPI message, e.g, INIT, to fail with -999.

Be it so or not - I'd like to hear from you about -999.

And no cheap jokes about 999 being the number of the Beast upside down, please.

Anyway I beat you to it.

- Oystein -

Hi Oystein,

Yes, -999 is an OIPI error code. First, check to make sure this client is using the latest 16-bit OIPI – version 4.01 Standard, because older (pre 3.8) versions returned this error code under several conditions. The latest (4.0 and later) version only return -999 if the INIT message found the OIPI.EXE running, but could not send a message to it. This should never occur, but in the past it usually was a problem with the OIPI installation (your original guess). It is probably one of the support DLLs, so I would recommend running the setup program again, and make sure this client is not running any other programs during the installation process. If the problem continues, then you can take the more drastic approach, and have this client manually install the OIPI.

Tony Splaver

Hello Tony,

I'm very pleased to see you're still hovering in the wings.

I think what my client's got is OIPI 3.8, so I'll try your advice of having her install a newer version (4.01).

Also I'll make sure she's checked no other programs are running during installation.

We (my clients and I) have always managed to avoid manual installation of OIPI. A few times we had to do single files - that's all.

- Oystein, Member of the OIPI Appreciation Society -

Tony et al,

We lost contact with this client for a while, but now we've picked up the thread, trying to sort out her problem.

The problem (i.e, 16-bit OIPI 3.8 seemingly installing OK, but failing at runtime with an error code -999) occurred at my client's on three different workstations - one with Win98 and two with Win2000.

Installing the newest version of 16-bit OIPI (4.01) solved the problem on the Win98 computer.

The two Win2000 workstations had the MS Office menu running. Removing that (and installing the newest version of 16-bit OIPI) solved the problem on one computer but not the other. We'll have another look at the processes listed in the Task Manager to see if there is something else lurking besides the Office menu. The case is still open.

The main reason I post this message is the following: We know the problem with the OIPI installation and the Office menu from other clients. But earlier we always got some error message during installation. At least I think so. There was none in this case. So I wonder if the absense of an error message has to do with Win2000, with Office2000, the new 4.01 version of OIPI, or whatever. I'd like to hear some educated opinion or about the experiences of others.

- Oystein -

For what it's worth …

We had a strange problem (I think it was -999 error) some while ago which wasn't cured by reinstalling. In the end Tony Splaver suggested it might have been a registry problem and he told me how to clear the registry entries as well as manually uninstalling OIPI.

OIPI was then reinstalled and has worked perfectly ever since.

I see Tony's in on this thread so maybe he'll advise.

Richard,

I've got the instructions for manually de- and reinstalling OIPI, but it's quite a list of steps, so I'll save it for last. (If only I could do it in person. But it will have to be done over the phone. My client and I are about a hundred miles apart from each other, almost at opposite ends of the country.)

But did you say you did a manual uninstall, followed by and a normal programmatic installation? That could of course save some time, not having to do everything by hand. How did you (Tony) know there was a registry problem? Could a registry dump reveal anything?

I won't hear from my client until Monday earliest.

- Oystein -

Did I say one hundred miles? I meant one thousand.

- O -

Hi Oystein,

This issue is very strange and it does not seem to be consistent across different computers. You have done an excellent job finding ways to make the OIPI work under these conditions. There must be a problem with the installation of the OIPI, because that is the only reason that you would get the -999 error code. The OIPI setup is based on an old 16-bit VB sample setup program that I modified to handle the OE portion of the setup, and I would not be too surprised if it does not consistently install the 16-bit OIPI and support files on the newer OSs.

Your suggestion to make sure nothing else is running by checking the Task Manager, and then running the setup again is a good idea. However, if this fails, then I would suggest manually installing the OIPI. You can skip most of the steps, because I think the problem is with the support files – so you can follow the steps that copy in the DLLs and OCXs to the System directory, and see if that fixes the problem.

Tony

Oystein,

I do not remember what I had Richard do, but I would start with the manual installation steps for just copying in the new support files. If that does not work, then you can manually uninstall the OIPI, and then run the normal install.

Tony

Hello Oystein:

]I've got the instructions for manually de- and reinstalling OIPI, ]but it's quite a list of steps…

Could you post those or send them to: [email protected]

I'm getting the same 999 error code and am ready to tackle this manually after trying everything else suugested here.

Thanks,

Mike O.

Looking up my notes on my lengthy exchanges with Tony, the guts of it appears to have been that I upgraded from OIPI 3.81 to 4.0 here to make sure before upgrading any clients and got the -999 error.

Uninstalling and reinstalling, etc. didn't fix the problem. In the end it seems I ran REGSVR /U for VSVIEW and then REGSVR for VSVIEW, SSUTIL & OC25. Then I installed OIPI4 using the SETUP.EXE and it all worked.

When I got to client sites the upgrade worked without any problemns straight from the SETUP.EXE.

Hope this helps. If you want me to read through all the emails with Tony and try to be more precise please email me [email protected] and I'll see what I can dig out.

Good luck!

Richard, Tony,

This case progresses at a glacial pace. My client is out chasing reindeer most of the time.

Well, I made up that last statement. And we've identified another running process we suspect fouls up installation - some PageKeeper program. We'll see tomorrow if we found the culprit.

Báze dearvan!

- Oystein -

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