Unable to open any version of Musescore

• Nov 3, 2015 - 00:23

I have been an enthusiastic user of MuseScore 1.2 for several years, using it first with Windows Vista, then with Windows 8, and most recently with Windows 10. Suddenly today I was unable to boot the program. when I tried, I received this message:"mscore.exe has stopped working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly. Windows will close the program and notify you if a solution is available".
thinking it might be a compatibility problem with Windows 10, I installed Musescore 2.0.2, but had the same problem. I tried opening with factory resets, but to no avail. I'm feeling desperate! Any ideas out there?


Comments

Hi salalman, if I understand it well, you installed MuseScore 1.2 first on Windows 10. It ran successfully for some time. Then, I suddenly stopped working and you didn't get it started ever since.

* Do you know whether there was a Windows update for your computer recently?
* Could you try to start MuseScore as administrator? (right click and Run as administrator)

In reply to by Thomas

Thanks for your response. I just tried running MuseScore 2.0.2 as administrator but encountered the same error message. I originally ran 2.1 on Vista, but it worked fine both on Windows 8 and Windows 10 up until today. I'm not aware of any new Windows updates. Also, I just tried using the Compatability troubleshooter which I accessed by right clicking on the application--still the same problem.

In reply to by Shoichi

I have tried uninstalling and re-downloading multiple times; I have tried the portable version and I've tried the restore. all to no avail.
if I do a restore point, is this something I do from an outside program? I have a system backup on a external hard drive in a program called Backup Now EZ

In reply to by Thomas

well there were three "Critical Updates" from Windows at the end of October which may in fact be the problem. Windows System Restore window says: Musescore typesetter 1.2.0 might not work properly after restore and might have to be reloaded".

so...if I restore to this point, and Musescore DOES work, will it continue working after the Critical updates get re-installed (something I think happens automatically in Windows 10)?

Also, why am I having a problem with Windows 10 if other people presumably are continuing to be able to use various MuseScore versions in the Windows 10 environment.

In reply to by salalman

Operating systems are incredibly complicated pieces of software, and the specific device drivers needed for each particular computer can differ, leading to different behavior on different systems. Unfortunately, while msot things just work, there will always be situations where things go wrong, and it's usually tough to diagnose what is happening.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

thank you so much for your responses, Marc.
So....moving forward, and very anxious to get my old friend, MuseScore, back up and running again, I need to decide what strategy to follow at this point. I am nervous about using a Restore Point in Windows, going back to the time of the Critical Windows updates that were done in late October, and which may have caused my problem.
My concern is that I would then be vulnerable to whatever security issues Windows was concerned about when they created the update. Also, if I then proceeded on to getting the updates after a (hopefully) successful re-install of MuseScore, wouldn't the same thing happen all over again?

Is it possible that the my current problems with re-installing MuseScore is related to incomplete uninstalls of the old programs? (I used the uninstall utility in the Control Panel/Programs and Features to do the uninstall.) And if that is the case, do you have any recommendations?

In reply to by salalman

Anything is possible, but it does not seem likely this is a problem having to do with uninstalling of MuseScore. Seems much more likely it is a problem with a device driver or other hardware-specific aspect of a recent OS update. As for how to proceed, unfortunately I am not enough of a Windows expert to say.

So, I just ran a Restore Point through the Windows utility, going back to a date in late October at the time of the first of 3 Critical Windows updates. Alas, this made no difference. Kind of at an impasse now.

One other option I have, since I have no earlier Restore Points set in Windows than the one I just tried, is to do a restore using the program that came with my portable hard drive, called Backup Now EZ. My only hesitation, is that there is nothing that tells me exactly what will happen during this backup, although I'm assuming that I would then be able to do a Restore Point in Windows, that would get me back to today, if something too weird happened.

Any more thoughts would be appreciated!!

I also have been unable to run MuseScore for a couple of weeks now. I have done a factory reset, tried running it with the -w and -e options, and have downloaded the Portable version. When I try to run the Portable version, I do get the MuseScore 2.0.2 portable splash screen, for about 1 second, then it disappears. I opened Task Manager, and clicked on the Details tab. When I try to run MuseScore, I see the MuseScorePortable.exe process start, then the MuseScore.exe process start. After about 1/2 second, MuseScore.exe disappears, then MuseScorePortable.exe disappears about 1/2 second after that.
I have enjoyed MuseScore for several years, and now I have lost a wonderful friend!!!

In reply to by KennZAney1

sounds like you have the identical problem that I have. I too am worried about losing my wonderful friend...this is a particularly inconvenient time for this to be happening since I preparing to give a concert of my original music, written on Musescore! I'm going to try the sound card install/uninstall next, and then maybe get somebody more computer savvy than myself to look closely at the Windows registry for problems.

Good luck to you. I will continue posting progress and hopefully eventual success overcoming my problems.

In reply to by KennZAney1

Have you tried to run MuseScore from the command line?

This would not solve any problem per se, but usually should / could give some system error message which could be useful to diagnose the problem.

I have stopped using Windows during the Win XP era, so I cannot give precise instructions about how to run from the command line on more recent Windows versions, but I assume this is an info easy to find.

I don't know if was the good folks at MuseScore--Marc et al--or if it was the latest Window update, or if what divine providence, or what---but, this morning when on a whim I decided to check to see if Musescore would open---Prest-o, change-o, it started!! no error message!! my good friend is back!! Hooray!
hope the same is true for others out there who have had similar problems!
and thanks to all who offered to help me up to this point!

In reply to by salalman

Just curious...
Do you keep your computer turned on 24/7, or perhaps use the sleep/hibernate mode when powering down?
Sometimes, a complete shutdown (e.g. power off or unplug) is necessary to completely flush any residual problematic files loaded in the system memory.

I am running Windows 10, with no problems exhibited by MuseScore whatsoever.

Regards.

In reply to by Jm6stringer

I typically shut down my computer completely once a day at least. I first became aware of my problem suddenly about 3 weeks ago, and then as I stated above, after turning it on today and once again opening Musescore from a shortcut on the Windows desktop, it started working. the only thing I'm aware of changing is that I just downloaded a new Windows 10 update the other day...I think there must have been some evil, anti-music ghost that had temporarily taken over my machine that finally got tired of messing with me!....or maybe it was just the update....Quien sabe?

I'm writing now to say how grateful I am to Marc Sabatella and all the people who have developed the amazing tool that Musescore is (and by the way, Musescore is back and running again for me). Before I first installed my first version (Musescore 1.1) a few years ago, my musical composition output was about one new tune every 2-3 years. Once I had installed Musescore, my output suddenly jumped to about 1 new tune or more every other month! Kind of a "build it and it will come" phenomenon!
In any case, I just saw that there is a new book by Marc which looks to give a comprehensive guide to using Musescore. The sales of the book serve to support the past and ongoing work by the developers. I enthusiastically support their effort, and just purchased the book. I hope that this post will inspire others to purchase the book as well, whether or not they actually need the technical help, as a way to give back to this most worthy of causes!
Salalman

In reply to by salalman

Thanks! For the record, the main developers of the program are Werner Schweer and Nicolas Froment (lasconic); they deserve the lion share of the thanks. But lots of others (including me) have contributed along the way as well, so it has been a true community effort.

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