Composer HE crashing

[ScottGA]

I've been using Composer HE on my Mac using Parallels Desktop 8 for about 6 months now without any problems. About a week or so ago I started not being able to run the program.

Composer HE appears to open okay and load 416 out of 416 drivers. Then I get to the screen where I select the option to Connect to a Director on a Local Network. My Director is properly identified as an option so I click on the Connect button. And that's when this nasty dialog box that pops up and says:

Composer: Fatal Error

A fatal error was detected and logged. Composer will be forced to exit. Would you like to restart the application?

I have uninstalled Composer HE and reinstalled it at least 5 times. I've uninstalled and reinstalled Parallels Desktop. I've rebooted my Director a couple of times. I even download VM Fusion today, setup a new virtual machine and I still get the same error message.

Composer provided a log file, but I don't see any clues about what the issue might be. I've copied the log below. I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions anyone has on how to correct this problem.

Thanks,

Scott

---------------------

(LOG FILE FROM COMPOSER)

Exception: System.NullReferenceException

Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Source: Control4.Client

at Control4.Client.Controller.PerformChallengeResponse()

at Control4.Client.C4System.ConnectToController(String ipAddress, String filename, String systemPassword)

at Control4.Client.C4System.ConnectToController(String ipAddress, Int32 port, String filename, Boolean useSsl, String systemPassword)

at Control4.Designer.DesignerForm.ConnectToController(String uuid, String ipAddress, Int32 port, String filename, String username, String password, Boolean useSsl)

at Control4.Designer.DesignerForm.ConnectToController(String uuid, String ipAddress, String username, String password)

at Control4.Designer.DesignerForm.ConnectToLocalController()

at Control4.Designer.DesignerForm.ShowStartup()

at Control4.Designer.DesignerForm.ShowStartupOnFirstRun()

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbackDo(ThreadMethodEntry tme)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbackHelper(Object obj)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.runTryCode(Object userData)

at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)

at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallback(ThreadMethodEntry tme)

at System.Windows.Forms.Control.InvokeMarshaledCallbacks()

[RyanE]

Does your version of ComposerHE match the version of the Director you're connecting to?

RyanE

[ScottGA]

Hi Ryan. Yes, they both are running 2.4.0.227470.

[RyanE]

Do you have 'SSL only' setup on your project, or have you changed the project password?

I don't know a ton about Composer exceptions, but it appears to be failing during the connect to the controller, as the log files indicate.

RyanE

[ScottGA]

I used Composer HE on an old laptop and looked at my project file. SSL is not activated and there is no password on the project.

Just for yucks, I loaded a project file from a couple of months ago (when I know my C HE was working on my Mac Pro) and I tried running Composer again on my Mac. It still crashed. :-(

[Matthewjocko]

I used to have this issue on Parallels for mac and know the headache it can cause. I ended up installing a fresh copy of windows 7, previously having XP. This solved the issue for me.

[ScottGA]

Thanks. I actually just resolved the issue and ran the Composer 2.4 in XP compatibility mode (inside Windows 8) and that did the trick. Not sure why, but it's working now. Thanks for all the posts!