ms press cd test engine no questions

[yanqui]

Wow--was that subject line descriptive? Let's see:

I have two books published by Microsoft Press for a certain certification, and the problem is exactly the same for each one; Microsoft Press says the solution is the same, and teh troubleshooting steps I've taken are the same and the results are the same. Each book comes with a test assessment CD. I installed each test engine. I got an error message that there was a script error, do I want to continue to run scripts. With either answer, yes or no, I am taken to the start of teh test engine, but no questions show up. Microsoft PRess has provided a patch that is supposed to fix the problem , but they have identified the problem as being a hotfix problem with XP. I'm running W98, so that shouldn't be an issue. After installing the patch and restarting, I get exactly the same results. I have uninstalled each program, reinstalled, reinstalled the patches; same results. I'm running IE6.0 with scripting enabled.

Any ideas? As a big surprise, several emails to Microsoft PRess support detailing the steps I have taken have resulted in being pointedly ignored.

 

[stuuked]

big shocker, what the exact error message

 

[yanqui]

I'm not at my computer at home, I'll try to remember, something to the effect of javascript encountering an error, null object or something like that. The kind you get on some web pages where you can go ahead and run the web page, it's the same sort of error message. The program then goes to the test, but with no questions. It's like the script to tell the program to get the questions from teh question file isn't pointing to the file. The file is there, it's included. But the program shows a test screen with no question showing up, and at the bottom where it would show "Question XX out of 50" it shows "Question out of ". Is it possible that the patch only works on XP systems, since MS thinks that only XP systems are having the problem? (YEah, I know, nobody runs W98 anymore, but mine isn't broke so I'm not replacing it.)

 

[jrbarnett]

I've had this as well with my 229 Readiness Review CD on Win2k Pro SP4 with IE6 SP1 and all current critical updates, still trying to find a solution.

I've tried disabling my popup blocker and adjusting the IE options to permit debugging in IE scripts. Neither fixed the problems.

John

 

[yanqui]

I just got this from the tech support at mspress:

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Learning Support.

I have tested the patch on a Windows 98 machine with the Network + Electronic
Assessment/Readiness Review software installed. The patch successfully
resolved the issue.

Please make sure that you have followed the instructions correctly:
How to Install the Patch (

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;885674)

After downloading the file,
1. Double click on patchqs.exe, which is a self-extracting file. You will be
directed to unzip the files to the same root folder where you have installed
the electronic assessment engine. Example of where the assessment files would
be installed by default:
C:\Program Files\MCSE Readiness Review\70-228
C:\Program Files\Faster Smarter Electronic Assessment Engine\Network+Cert
NOTE: if you have multiple assessments (also known as Readiness Reviews)
installed, you will need to run the patchqs.exe file for each title that you
have an electronic assessment installed.
2. After unzipping the files to the root folder, run the patchqs.bat file.


You may also want to try to run the software and patch on a different computer
to see if this is a machine specific issue.

Regards,
Xin
Microsoft Learning Support

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/support

I hope this response was helpful. If you have comments about our support, write
to us at mspts@microsoft.com. Please remember to include the subject line from
your original message. Thank you.


Question for the forum: What constitutes "root folder"? From their example, C:\Program Files\Faster Smarter Electronic Assessment Engine\Network+Cert,
Is it C:\, or Program Files, or Faster Smarter Electronic ASsessment Engine, or is it Network+Cert? I've been putting it in Network+cert, so that may be where I"m going wrong.

 

[yanqui]

I am going to try a different AV product to see if NOrton is causing problems. I've heard that Norton products kind of have a tendency to take over your system a step at a time and you don't often see it. I've been running NOrton System Works for a couple of years and I've never had problems that I could trace back to it. So I'm going to try one of the freeware AV programs and a freeware firewall. I'm going to do an uninstall of all the Norton stuff, and follow it up with a manual uninstall check of the files and registry (shudder). Then I'm going to see if that does it. If not, it's probably time for a reformat anyway, it's been a couple of years and there are things I can do with this reformat that I've never been able to do before because I'm better educated and better equipped this time around.

 

[yanqui]

I think I don't have SP1 for IE6; there are some symptoms that sp1 fixes that look like they could be the same thing I'm talking about. Going to try that tonite. Registry is clean, I just ran Registry Mechanic on it, I did have 131 errors, but when they were fixed, the program still didn't pull the questions off the disk like it was supposed to. There could be a couple of other reasons for this, so I'm still looking.

 

[yanqui]

UPDATE:

I think it was in the registry, and that it was related to Norton, and here's why:

I had several norton registry entries that a registry mechanic found. When I tried to uninstall norton, it didn't do a good job of getting itself out of there. It wasn't a clean uninstall. So it probably wasn't a clean install either.

I upgraded from W98 to W2k, and one of the first things I wanted to know was Do those CD's Now Run? and the answer is yes, the program will now pull the questions in off the CD. In addition, the system is running better as well.