coolfool said:
I trade on the forex market and since a recent update for vista, metatrader
has stopped working. tried reversing updates, no go. tried reinstalling
mt4
platform, no go. Everything else works fine except the mt4 platform. I'm
thinking security block. any ideas from anyone. PLEASE HELP.
Hi Coolfool,
The short answer is: I dunno
That's not a lot of information to go on.
But here's a few ideas ...
First, what do you mean it "stops working"? Does Metatrader fail to launch?
Does it start up, but then produce an error message? Does it "kind of" work,
but with limited function? Does it start working okay, but then suddenly
crashes? Depending on the kind of problem you're seeing, different
corrective actions may be indicated.
Also, do you know which particular Windows update it was, which seemed to
stop Metatrader from working? In Windows Update, click on the "Update
History" link to see what updates were installed on what dates.
Secondly, see if Windows recognises the problem Metatrader is hitting. In
Control Panel, go to System and Maintenance, Problem Reports and Solutions,
Check for new Solutions. If there is a existing hotfix to correct a specific
problem, you will see it here. Also look under Problem History - if
Metatrader has crashed, Windows may have caught the exception and will
record some technical information about the problem. If you need to report
the problem to Metsquotes Software, or to Microsoft, they will want to see
the info (eg was the crash a 0xC0000005 error? etc).
Thirdly, if Metatrader is not fully compatible with Vista, you can try
running Metatrader in compatibility mode. Right-click the Metatrader icon in
the Start menu, and choose Properties. Select the Compatibility tab. Check
the checkbox for "Run this program in compatibility mode" and set the
compatibility to, say, Windows 95. This won't overcome all possible
incompatibilities, but it can avoid some of the serious ones.
Metatrader uses a type of inter-process communication called DDE, to
communicate with Excel and other apps. DDE is very likely to fail under
Vista. DDE is a old, Windows 3.1-era style of inter-process communication;
it is not secure or reliable, and has been deprecated by Microsoft for many
years. If you're seeing a DDE malfunction, that may be just a fact of life.
It's possible that Mettrader just doesn't run reliably on Vista. In that
case, you could either replace your Vista installation with XP; or (more
feasibly), run Metatrader in an XP "virtual machine" on Vista. The tool to
do this is Microsoft Virtual PC:
Virtual PC 2007
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx
It's a free download from Microsoft (although, you need to provide an XP
licence, if you don't already have one). With Virtual PC installed you run a
whole XP "virtual PC" in a window, on your Vista desktop. You can then
install Metatrader and other apps into the XP machine, and cut'n'paste info
between it and your Vista applications etc. This is much more convenient
than trying to dual-boot XP and Vista.
Finally, have you contacted Metaquote Software about the problem? Since
Metatrader is the only app on your system having a problem, the issue may be
more specific to Metatrader - possibly, every one of their customers running
Vista wil be seeing the same problem. Likewise, you might want to ask in the
Metatrader Users' Forum -
http://www.metaquotes.net/forum/
Even if the root cause of the problem was a defect in Vista, there will be
more people aware of it over there, than here.
Hope this helps,