I can open .hlp files, but not .chm files

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

I get a strange error dialog when I go to the .chm files and try opening
them. If I try to click on Help from within most programs, I get the
hourglass for one second, then nothing.
 
..CHM files require the program HH.EXE to run.

See if it is on your system - should be in the \Windows folder.

Also, Control Panel > Folder Options > View and scroll down to .CHM and see
what program is used to open them.
 
One of these suggestions may help.

Clear the Temporary Internet Files
=======================

Close all Internet Explorer windows
Type INETCPL.CPL in Start, Run dialog
Click the Delete Files button
Select Delete all offline content and click OK
Click OK to close the dialog

Clear the contents of the TEMP folder
==========================

Type %TEMP% in Start, Run dialog. Select all files in the Temp folder and
delete them. Some files in the TEMP folder may be in use. If so, ignore the
error and continue deleting the remaining files in that folder.

Register the core modules using these commands
=================================

regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx
regsvr32 itss.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 mshtml.dll /i
regsvr32 jscript.dll
helpctr.exe -regserver

Another step, suggested by Pete Lees [MVP]
=========

You could try deleting the file hh.dat, which should be in this directory:

%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\HTML Help

Hh.dat is a database file that saves such session information as the window
position and favorites for the HTML Help viewer. The database file is
automatically updated every time the HTML Help Viewer is used. If the
database file does not exist, it is re-created. When updating the HTML Help
viewer, the information in Hh.dat is not necessarily compatible with the new
viewer, which can cause it to become corrupt.

Additional references:

PRB: HTML Help Viewer Causes Access Violation:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=235405

PRB: Hh.exe Causes an Access Violation When Opening .chm Files:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=235062

Reboot, and then try opening a CHM file.
Type in Start, Run: %Windir%\Help\access.chm

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com


I get a strange error dialog when I go to the .chm files and try opening
them. If I try to click on Help from within most programs, I get the
hourglass for one second, then nothing.
 
Thanks for these thoughts. I appreciate your help. After posting, I thought
of them myself also, and did check both of these things. They were as
expected.

The error dialog is:
Cannot open the file: mk:@MSITStore:C:\WINDOWS\Help\access.chm

I think I will try the suggestion of deleting the hh.dat file next.
 
After deleting the file hh.dat, I still can not open .chm files. hh.dat is
not even created.

However, after registering the core modules using these commands
regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx [tried before, still not working]
regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 itss.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 mshtml.dll /i
regsvr32 jscript.dll
helpctr.exe -regserver

Finally, I can open any .chm file. Thanks.
 
Excellent! thanks for posting back, CyberDragon.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


After deleting the file hh.dat, I still can not open .chm files. hh.dat is
not even created.

However, after registering the core modules using these commands
regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx [tried before, still not working]
regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 itss.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 mshtml.dll /i
regsvr32 jscript.dll
helpctr.exe -regserver

Finally, I can open any .chm file. Thanks.
 
This really helped out a problem I had which did not have the same symptom
but possibly the same cause. However in all the discussion group and
knowledgebase articles there was nothing that simply described the problem
that I had.

This problem was that I could no longer see the detail of my help files in
many applications. The left hand pane would show the contents but the right
hand pane would not show the detail. Instead there was a "This page is not
available" message.

I assumed that the help detail was in a remote file and there was an
internet connectivity problem but this happened too often.

I trawled around for solutions and stumbled across references to chm files
and similar problems but until I came across this script from Ramesh nothing
was within my capability, it was too technical.

Thanks for this Ramesh.

Ramesh said:
Excellent! thanks for posting back, CyberDragon.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


After deleting the file hh.dat, I still can not open .chm files. hh.dat is
not even created.

However, after registering the core modules using these commands
regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx [tried before, still not working]
regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 itss.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 mshtml.dll /i
regsvr32 jscript.dll
helpctr.exe -regserver

Finally, I can open any .chm file. Thanks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott


Ramesh said:
One of these suggestions may help.

Clear the Temporary Internet Files
=======================

Close all Internet Explorer windows
Type INETCPL.CPL in Start, Run dialog
Click the Delete Files button
Select Delete all offline content and click OK
Click OK to close the dialog

Clear the contents of the TEMP folder
==========================

Type %TEMP% in Start, Run dialog. Select all files in the Temp folder and
delete them. Some files in the TEMP folder may be in use. If so, ignore
the
error and continue deleting the remaining files in that folder.

Register the core modules using these commands
=================================

regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx
regsvr32 itss.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 mshtml.dll /i
regsvr32 jscript.dll
helpctr.exe -regserver

Another step, suggested by Pete Lees [MVP]
=========

You could try deleting the file hh.dat, which should be in this directory:

%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\HTML Help

Hh.dat is a database file that saves such session information as the
window
position and favorites for the HTML Help viewer. The database file is
automatically updated every time the HTML Help Viewer is used. If the
database file does not exist, it is re-created. When updating the HTML
Help
viewer, the information in Hh.dat is not necessarily compatible with the
new
viewer, which can cause it to become corrupt.

Additional references:

PRB: HTML Help Viewer Causes Access Violation:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=235405

PRB: Hh.exe Causes an Access Violation When Opening .chm Files:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=235062

Reboot, and then try opening a CHM file.
Type in Start, Run: %Windir%\Help\access.chm

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the feedback, Ade. Glad that info helped.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
Windows® Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


This really helped out a problem I had which did not have the same symptom
but possibly the same cause. However in all the discussion group and
knowledgebase articles there was nothing that simply described the problem
that I had.

This problem was that I could no longer see the detail of my help files in
many applications. The left hand pane would show the contents but the right
hand pane would not show the detail. Instead there was a "This page is not
available" message.

I assumed that the help detail was in a remote file and there was an
internet connectivity problem but this happened too often.

I trawled around for solutions and stumbled across references to chm files
and similar problems but until I came across this script from Ramesh nothing
was within my capability, it was too technical.

Thanks for this Ramesh.

Ramesh said:
Excellent! thanks for posting back, CyberDragon.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


After deleting the file hh.dat, I still can not open .chm files. hh.dat is
not even created.

However, after registering the core modules using these commands
regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx [tried before, still not working]
regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 itss.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 mshtml.dll /i
regsvr32 jscript.dll
helpctr.exe -regserver

Finally, I can open any .chm file. Thanks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott


Ramesh said:
One of these suggestions may help.

Clear the Temporary Internet Files
=======================

Close all Internet Explorer windows
Type INETCPL.CPL in Start, Run dialog
Click the Delete Files button
Select Delete all offline content and click OK
Click OK to close the dialog

Clear the contents of the TEMP folder
==========================

Type %TEMP% in Start, Run dialog. Select all files in the Temp folder and
delete them. Some files in the TEMP folder may be in use. If so, ignore
the
error and continue deleting the remaining files in that folder.

Register the core modules using these commands
=================================

regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx
regsvr32 itss.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 mshtml.dll /i
regsvr32 jscript.dll
helpctr.exe -regserver

Another step, suggested by Pete Lees [MVP]
=========

You could try deleting the file hh.dat, which should be in this directory:

%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\HTML Help

Hh.dat is a database file that saves such session information as the
window
position and favorites for the HTML Help viewer. The database file is
automatically updated every time the HTML Help Viewer is used. If the
database file does not exist, it is re-created. When updating the HTML
Help
viewer, the information in Hh.dat is not necessarily compatible with the
new
viewer, which can cause it to become corrupt.

Additional references:

PRB: HTML Help Viewer Causes Access Violation:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=235405

PRB: Hh.exe Causes an Access Violation When Opening .chm Files:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=235062

Reboot, and then try opening a CHM file.
Type in Start, Run: %Windir%\Help\access.chm

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
You're welcome for the feedback, you deserve it - I had spent hours looking
for a solution and it was a complete fluke that I stumbled across your post.
The microsoft knowledgebase seemed to recognise the problem but the solution
it proposed meant nothing to me, fortunately it mentioned .chm files - of
which I had not heard until then - and it gave me a few more keywords to
trawl for a solution.

I do wonder what caused the problem - mine seemed to date back to the
installation of IE7 - or possibly even Windows SP2. I certainly have no idea
why your script worked but I am glad it did. Many thanks again!

Ramesh said:
Thanks for the feedback, Ade. Glad that info helped.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows Shell/User]
Windows® Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


This really helped out a problem I had which did not have the same symptom
but possibly the same cause. However in all the discussion group and
knowledgebase articles there was nothing that simply described the problem
that I had.

This problem was that I could no longer see the detail of my help files in
many applications. The left hand pane would show the contents but the right
hand pane would not show the detail. Instead there was a "This page is not
available" message.

I assumed that the help detail was in a remote file and there was an
internet connectivity problem but this happened too often.

I trawled around for solutions and stumbled across references to chm files
and similar problems but until I came across this script from Ramesh nothing
was within my capability, it was too technical.

Thanks for this Ramesh.

Ramesh said:
Excellent! thanks for posting back, CyberDragon.

--
Regards,

Ramesh Srinivasan, Microsoft MVP [Windows XP Shell/User]
Windows® XP Troubleshooting http://www.winhelponline.com


After deleting the file hh.dat, I still can not open .chm files. hh.dat is
not even created.

However, after registering the core modules using these commands
regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx [tried before, still not working]
regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 itss.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 mshtml.dll /i
regsvr32 jscript.dll
helpctr.exe -regserver

Finally, I can open any .chm file. Thanks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scott


Ramesh said:
One of these suggestions may help.

Clear the Temporary Internet Files
=======================

Close all Internet Explorer windows
Type INETCPL.CPL in Start, Run dialog
Click the Delete Files button
Select Delete all offline content and click OK
Click OK to close the dialog

Clear the contents of the TEMP folder
==========================

Type %TEMP% in Start, Run dialog. Select all files in the Temp folder and
delete them. Some files in the TEMP folder may be in use. If so, ignore
the
error and continue deleting the remaining files in that folder.

Register the core modules using these commands
=================================

regsvr32 ole32.dll
regsvr32 hhctrl.ocx
regsvr32 itss.dll
regsvr32 msxml3.dll
regsvr32 mshtml.dll /i
regsvr32 jscript.dll
helpctr.exe -regserver

Another step, suggested by Pete Lees [MVP]
=========

You could try deleting the file hh.dat, which should be in this directory:

%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\HTML Help

Hh.dat is a database file that saves such session information as the
window
position and favorites for the HTML Help viewer. The database file is
automatically updated every time the HTML Help Viewer is used. If the
database file does not exist, it is re-created. When updating the HTML
Help
viewer, the information in Hh.dat is not necessarily compatible with the
new
viewer, which can cause it to become corrupt.

Additional references:

PRB: HTML Help Viewer Causes Access Violation:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=235405

PRB: Hh.exe Causes an Access Violation When Opening .chm Files:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=235062

Reboot, and then try opening a CHM file.
Type in Start, Run: %Windir%\Help\access.chm

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User

Windows XP Troubleshooting
http://www.winhelponline.com
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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