Creo Won't Launch

[Mattye01]

Hi,

It seems I am encountering the known problem of Creo failing to launch. When I double click on the Creo Parametric Icon the loading indication begins, however stops approximately one second later, with the program appearing and disappearing within Task Manager as well.

I've tried disabling my graphics cards and starting the program, as well as adding "graphics win32_gdi" to the end of the config.pro file, with no success. Although I was not sure which config.pro File it should be added to as there are three, however I tried them all. I'm also about to attempt another reinstallation.

I require Creo for University Study, and have already wasted too much time trying to get the program to work. Can anyone offer any advice or a solution?

Regards,

Matt

[MartinHanak]

Just note ... also non-standard network cards (for example virtual ones) can cause problems. Check ipconfig /all command output and disable suspicious network cards.

[Mattye01]

Martin,

Thanks for your reply however unfortunately I'm not sure what your referring to. I don't have any VPNs activated, nor do I really know what a suspicious network card would look like within command prompt ipconfig. I've gone through disabling all but the required network for internet access, with no success.

I also disabled both Display drivers which changed nothing.

I've reinstalled a third time however still with no success. During install it wouldn't accept the original Licence Code anymore, so I had to use one of the previous Licence Documents that I was emailed. Could this cause another problem?

I've also noted that now xtop.exe doesn't show in the Task Manager during launch (the Creo Application is still showing).

Do you have any further ideas?

Could you also provide some detailed instructions for adding graphics win32_gdi to the config.pro file so that I can confirm that I did the correct things?

Regards,

Matt

[MartinHanak]

Hi,

in your license file you can find HOSTID=PTC_HOSTID= string. The value following it is physical address of network card. Therefore you have to enable network card with physical address specified in license file to be able to launch Creo. Also this network card must be connected to network.

Adding graphics win32_gdi to the config.pro file ... I suggest you add this line into "system" config.pro. In Creo 2.0 it is located in CREO2_LOADPOINT\Creo 2.0\Common Files\Mxxx\text directory.
In my case it is C:\PTC\Creo2_M070\Creo 2.0\Common Files\M070\text

[dgschaefer]

I'm a bit doubtful that a network card is the issue.  That would allow Creo to launch, but you'd get an error about not having a valid licenses file and then you'd have to close Creo.

Regarding the config options.  The config.pro files are simple text files that you add options to, one line per option with a space separating the option name and the value.

Your config files will be in one of 3 places:

1. The text folder in the load point.  In a default Creo 4 install, it should be here: C:\Program Files\PTC\Creo 4.0\M020\Common Files\text, where M020 is the build you are running.
2. You user home directory as defined by windows environment variable.
3. The "start in" folder as defined by the properties dialog box for the shortcut used to launch Creo.

The files should be named "config.pro", with one exception. Be careful if you have hide extensions for known file types turned on, you may have it saved as config.pro.txt and not realize it. There is a special config file named "config.sup" that must be in location #1. It's loaded first and any options in it cannot be changed by later files.

Creo loads these files in that order.  Options present in later files override those in earlier ones, except those in the config.sup.

That said, there is a special help area for the student edition under the main menu at the top left > Education > PTC Academic Program Discussions.  Or here:

https://community.ptc.com/t5/PTC-Academic-Program-Discussions/bd-p/PTCAcademicProgram

There may be something specific to the student edition that folks there can help you with.

[Mattye01]

Thanks for your reply, but I'm really having no luck at all.

Should I be concerned that I have to use one of the existing Licence Documents? Why is the Installer now rejecting the Code provided by my University?

Should I be concerned that xtop.exe doesn't appear in the Task Manager ("Creo Parametric 4.0 M030 from PTC (32 bit)" still appears briefly).

Given that everything seems to indicate that this is a Graphics issue. Why if I put graphics win32_gdi into the config.pro file, is this still not working? I also found a help document which included a download of the config.pro file with two text alternatives, none of which worked.

I have noted just now that it states 32 bit (as above) at the end of the application that launches in Task Manager, whereas my system is 64 bit. Could this be the problem?

For additional information; my laptop is an Asus, with an Intel i7,  Intel HD and Nvidia Graphics, and running Windows 10.

Regards,

Matt

[MartinHanak]

Hi,

I am sorry I can't help you because "I'm not sitting at your computer" 😞

I can't guess what is going on.

[Mattye01]

Can you provide response / advice in relation to my questions above?

[MartinHanak]

Note no.1: Creo 4.0 is 64-bit only. 32-bit version does not exist.

Note no.2.: In Windows 10, Creator Updates can cause problems ...

[LukaszMazur]

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@dgschaefer wrote:

I'm a bit doubtful that a network card is the issue.  That would allow Creo to launch, but you'd get an error about not having a valid licenses file and then you'd have to close Creo.

---

Not necessarily.  I've recently dealt with similar problem. It started similarly to OP, where Creo 4.0 didn't even load xtop.exe and nothing was helping (switching to win32gdi, removing configs, clearing cache etc.). Then I found something in PTC's KB that got me thinking maybe my VPN client is causing problems, so I removed it and Creo started to load, just to throw fatal error with traceback.log file at startup.

In the end it turned out Creo had some problem with virtual ethernet cards installed by VirtualBox. When I removed VB, Creo started to launch again. What's more, after installing VB again, problem didn't return 😉 Apparently there was something botched with network interfaces which caused problems with Creo 4.0. On the other hand, on the same machine I also have Creo 2.0, 3.0 and 5.0 and all of them worked perfectly, it was only Creo 4.0 that had problems.