Kurzweil 1000 Does Not Start

This article applies to:

• Kurzweil 1000

Symptoms

When the user tries to run the Kurzweil 1000, it appears that nothing happens.

Cause

The Kurzweil 1000 might be trying to start a speech engine. That speech engine might be causing the Kurzweil 1000 to crash. Alternatively, certain configuration options may trigger behavior that causes a crash.

Solution

There are a few scenarios for problems with speech engines and configuration options:

Scenario 1:

If you do not have a hardware speech device (i.e. a hardware box attached to your computer or a hardware board installed inside your computer that synthesizes speech), and Kurzweil 1000 has been configured to use such a device, Kurzweil 1000 could crash when it starts up. Also, if you have a hardware speech device, but another application is using it, Kurzweil 1000 might not be able to access it. To make sure Kurzweil 1000 is not trying to use a hardware speech device, use Windows Explorer to go to the diagnostics directory (usually C:\Program Files\Kurzweil Educational Systems\Diags). Run the program No_SSIL. A dialog will appear, asking if you want to remove your SSIL drivers. Click Yes (this will only affect the drivers Kurzweil 1000 uses; if you have other applications that use the hardware speech device, they will not be affected). A dialog will appear announcing that the drivers have been removed. Click OK.

Also in Windows Explorer, look for a program called HWSpeech. This program was added with version 7 of Kurzweil 1000. If your Kurzweil 1000 is older, it will not have this program. If you have the program, run it. Make note of the speech device and the port selection, in case you want to restore it later. Select None in the combo box. Click OK.

Reboot your computer and try running the Kurweil 1000 to see if it works. It is very important to reboot. If you do not, there might be a crashed copy of Kurzweil 1000 still running invisibly. This would stop a new copy of Kurzweil 1000 from running.  If you want to restore SSIL drivers later, you can re-run the Kurzweil 1000 install program on the Kurzweil 1000 CD. If you want to restore hardware speech, you can run HWSpeech again.

Scenario 2:

Some Windows XP systems exhibit problems with the RealSpeak speech engine. This scenario applies to Windows XP users only.

The problem can be fixed by downloading the latest patch for Kurzweil 1000. Unfortunately, if Kurzweil 1000 doesn't start, you obviously can't use its built in patch downloader. So you need to remove RealSpeak, run Kurzweil 1000, get the patch, then restore RealSpeak. A program called SAPIReg will help you do that.

In Windows Explorer, go to the diagnostics directory (usually C:\Program Files\Kurzweil Educational Systems\Diags) and run the SAPIReg application. A dialog window will appear with a list box showing the installed speech engines. In that list box, find RealSpeak and select it. Next, tab to the Remove button and click it. Finally, tab to the Save button and click it. Reboot your computer and try running the Kurzweil 1000 again. It is very important to reboot. If you do not, there might be a crashed copy of Kurzweil 1000 still running invisibly. This would stop a new copy of Kurzweil 1000 from running.

If Kurzweil 1000 runs, pull down the Online menu, select Updates..., and install any available patches.

To restore RealSpeak, run the SAPIReg diagnostic again. At the bottom of the dialog is a list of deleted speech engines. Select RealSpeak, click the Undelete button, then Save and Exit.

Scenario 3:

Kurzweil 1000 might be starting a speech engine or autoloading a document based on its configuration options. If that speech engine has a problem, or if the autoloaded document is corrupted, Kurzweil 1000 can crash. Frequently, resetting the configuration will avoid these problems and allow Kurzweil 1000 to run. To reset the configuration, run Windows Explorer, go to the diagnostics directory (usually C:\Program Files\Kurzweil Educational Systems\Diags) and run the K1KReset program. A dialog box will appear, announcing that default.ost (the file that holds the configuration settings) has been deleted. Click OK, reboot your computer, and try running the Kurzweil 1000 again. It is very important to reboot. If you do not, there might be a crashed copy of Kurzweil 1000 still running invisibly. This would stop a new copy of Kurzweil 1000 from running.

If Kurzweil 1000 still does not run, please contact our technical support department.

History

Creation Date: January 13, 2003

Last Modified: August 12, 2003