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Re: JLink Problem, Fixed More or Less

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg87493] Re: JLink Problem, Fixed More or Less
• From: David Bailey <dave at Remove_Thisdbailey.co.uk>
• Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 05:57:03 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <ftkbdh$bi8$1@smc.vnet.net> <ftmttj$4mo$1@smc.vnet.net>

Kevin J. McCann wrote:
> Interesting. Here we have a related problem without the locking up of 
> Mathematica. Every time a user uses F1 to get help a strange JLink error
> message hpops up, often in a super large font that eventually reverts to its 
> usual. Happily I have ignored this without ill effect. It is annoying 
> though.
> 
> Kevin
> 
> Helen Read wrote:
>> Several months ago I reported a problem with Jlink that has become 
>> rampant on University-owned and home computers since approximately 
>> December or January. Basically what happens is that some / most of the 
>> time when launching Mathematica, Mathematica will hang, and eventually 
>> pops up an error about failing to connect to Jlink. Usually you can 
>> ignore the message and go on, but sometimes worse things happen unless 
>> you restart Mathematica. We have also had problems with Mathematica 
>> hanging when trying to open up the Documentation Center (though I think 
>> the Documentation Center issue may be a bit better with the 6.0.2 release).
>>
>> We never saw the Jlink problem until we began switching machines from 
>> Norton Antivirus to NOD32 in December/January, at which time the problem 
>> became rampant, even on quite speedy new machines. We were hightly 
>> suspicious that the problem was related to NOD32, but WRI Tech Support 
>> never was able to tell us what the issue was or how to fix it, and 
>> several people from WRI assured us that NOD32 was not the culprit.
>>
>> Well finally, the whole thing had become so aggravating that we tried 
>> temporarily disabling NOD32 on a few test machines. What we found was 
>> that the problem stopped when NOD32 was disabled, and returned when 
>> NOD32 was turned  back on. We then tried adding the Mathematica 
>> installation directory to the NOD32 exclusions, which seems to fix the 
>> problem.
>>
>> All's well that ends well I guess, and I suppose we should have trusted 
>> our own instincts about NOD32 and tested it ourselves far sooner than this.
>>
> 
I would install Mathematica on a clean Windows machine, and check that 
it is glitch free, and then add back the other software piece by piece - 
starting with the antivirus code.

I use J/Link a lot, and I have never seen any of these startup glitches, 
so I guess WRI were in the same state of unawareness when they decided 
it was safe enough to use for essential tasks such as displaying help!

David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk