ai Starter crashing

[Ricky Carter]

One of my students says he keeps getting the message:  The ai starter program has stopped working.  From app inventor he gets a message about re-installing. He has done that sequence several times  - but it seems aiStarter does start up but then crashes.

I have attached a jpg - a screen shot from his machine.....He is running windows.

Any thoughts?

-Ricky

Dr. Richard Carter
Associate Professor Technology in Education
University Hall 2-123
Lesley University     617-349-8156 or 800-999-1959 ext 8156 (office)
29 Everett St. Cambridge MA 02138    email: rca...@lesley.edu

We envision a world in which everyone can be engaged with learning as a creative process.

[SteveJG]

Most likely, the student has an issue with his Project code.  Has he/she every successfully run a Project in the emulator?

Can he/she do this successfully?

 Create a new Project; perhaps call it emulatorTest.    Drag a button on to the Designer screen.  That is the entire project; now run this Project.. Connect > Emulator.   Does the student see the button on his/her emulator screen after 10 or 15 seconds?    If true, the emulator software is working properly and the difficulty is probably a coding issue in his/her Project.

If the small project does not emulate there are many possibilities why the emulator is not rendering:

1) Companion is out of date.  Connect > Hard Reset and follow the instructions on the screen pop ups.  If he/she does not see the popups, close the AI2 browser and try to run the simple Project again...the pop up should show on this run.

2)  Change browser from chrome to FireFox or the reverse.

3) Clear the browser cache.

4) It is possible the student accidentally is running multiple copies of the emulator software ...restart the computer.  Walk away happy perhaps.

Try some things.  If the project does not load, here are a pile of reasons/remedies:  https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/mitappinventortest/fLiMEfPh09Q/1Ia0AaQEXogJ  

Need more advice, you are in Cambridge so perhaps consider: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!category-topic/mitappinventortest/Qiky3Oikrg8  if you are not already certified.  Talking to these great guys might be very useful.

Regards,

Steve

[Ricky Carter]

Steve, thank you for all the detailed advice (you ae such a great resource and respond so quickly - a gift)  - but, as I understand it,  he cannot get the emulator to start. It crashes before it opens. (and re: project - he is doing his first: Hello Purr - so I don't think it is the project...)

Here is the equipment he is using:  a Lenovo YOGA 12 tablet laptop, it is a new laptop ....[it is a school machine]  It runs on Windows 8.1.

-Ricky

[SteveJG]

OK ...   "he is doing his first: Hello Purr - so I don't think it is the project...)" ... why not?    If he/she does not code the app properly, it will fail.  If ports 8001 and 8004 are blocked on his school laptop, the emulator might fail.  Depending on the network is is running on, it might fail...

Without more info..impossible to guess.  Have him do the simple test and you will know more.

[Ricky Carter]

Steve - attached is a word doc with a lot more detail about Jason's problems with the emulator and what he has tried (He tried all the things you suggested - that I sent to him).

See if what he describes makes any sense....

As ever thank you so much for your attention to these issues - it makes such a difference for the students and me..

-Ricky

I have also pasted the contents below but do not know if the pictures will show up:

Dear Ricky,

 

I have tried to troubleshoot and do the App Inventor & aiStarter Emulator on my second laptop at home.  I've come to realize that it will only work on the very first attempt, if I try to run the emulator again, I would get the same error and the App Inventor would crash not recognizing the aiStarter.  Therefore, to get it to work each time, I must restart my computer.

 

Nonetheless, it still did not work on my home laptop computer.  I have tried to follow all of the troubleshooting steps that the technician has presented, both in Chrome and Firefox.

 

What happens first is the emulator runs (seems to be successful), and shows a "Companion Version Check" Update message in App Inventor with a "Sorry!" screen on the emulator.  I click on "OK" to get the update started:

 

 

The App Inventor then shows some instructions to get the Software Update, but the emulator does not seem to successfully catch the update from the Inventor.  It gives me a "Parse Error: There is a problem parsing the package".  This then forces me to click on "OK" in the emulator:

Note that I have done this by restarting my computer and trying in both Chrome and Firefox a couple of times with the SAME result!  It does not catch the update successfully.

 

After I click on "OK" to the Parse Error screen in the emulator, it just looks like the emulator is on Standby.  I am unable to load or Connect again afterwards.  The emulator screen acknowledges that it is running the emulator but is waiting to get blocks?  Which I am confused about, what are the blocks?

 

 

Is it possible to have their team send me the most updated emulator without having me to have to update it myself?  If I can bypass that step, perhaps I can get it to work.  It would save me lots of frustration in trying to troubleshoot this product.  I am thinking it could possibly be region related issues since I am in Taiwan?  Do they have a version that works internationally outside of the States if that is so?

 

Thanks again for your help Ricky!

Jason

 

[SteveJG]

@ Jason.

It is not clear whether you have every created a Project Jason; for the emulator to run, you have to create a Project.  Did you attempt to start the emulator using  Connect > Emulator without first creating a Project on the Designer screen?

I believe there may be several ways to fix this problem. 

This might be the easy way and it sometimes works:

Your emulator requires an update.  You currently have version 2.11 of MIT Companion installed; you require 2.36.

You should be able to fix this by    Connect > Hard Reset , then following the instructions on the pop up that should appear.   All the setup tools provide version 2.11 of Companion, this version needs to be replaced to the current version when you set up the emulator.  This happens everywhere, even in Taiwan.

If after running Hard Reset, you do not immediately see the pop up instructions; close the AI2 Browser; then restart it and    do  Connect > Emulator   to load your current Project.

This is the longer way, but I expect it will fix your issue:

You got a parse error message.  A  type of parse error may occur while attempting to update the emulator:  You got the "parse error" message in the emulator, you can fix it by..

- uninstalling the aiStarter setup tools via the Control Panel

- rebooting

- re-running the install file, but this time by right-clicking on it and running the install file as an administrator.

 or these more detailed advice To update the setup tools, perform these steps in order:

1. Go to the Program Files directory and find the unistall program in the AppInventor Setup directory (installed with the previous setup software), and rununinstall.
2. Reboot your computer. (Important!)
3. Download the new Windows installer package.
4. Install the new software you just downloaded. Do not change the installation directory from the default that the installer picks.
5. Logout or Reboot your computer. (You should now see the aiStarter program running).

Hope this information helps Jason.

Regards,

Steve