Updated 01/09/2024
Recently we had multiple reports of all currently supported versions of AutoCAD Electrical either freezing on the splash screen or if it did open the interface would be blank or frozen. Some users would see the splash screen frozen on “Loading” or more often it would freeze as shown below.
Note: This information is current as of the publishing of this document. Solutions may change as future updates occur.
Checking the Task Manager would often show results similar to the following:
Causes:
This issue appears to be related to Microsoft updates that were recently released and due to inconsistency with how those updates are applied, some users would experience the problems while others did not.
Solution:
Troubleshooting efforts yielded mixed results as the successful solutions varied by environment. With that in mind I am going to provide the list of potential fixes that have worked for our clients so far. Autodesk is aware of the issue and is investigating at the time of this article’s publishing.
- Download and install the Access Database Engine 2016 (accessdatabaseengine_X64.exe) from Microsoft website: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=54920
- Rollback to the old Office Update with Monthly Enterprise Channel, Version 2309 (Build 16827.20278) which are released on 14 Nov. 2023 by the following link https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-to-revert-to-an-earlier-version-of-office-2bd5c457-a917-d57e-35a1-f709e3dda841
- Switch Office Update to Current Channel, then update to the last version (Office version 2311, Build 17029.20108), by https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/deployoffice/updates/change-update-channels
- Make sure the AutoCAD Electrical update is installed.
You can obtain this from your Autodesk account or directly download it from the link below.
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- For AutoCAD Electrical 2021
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- For AutoCAD Electrical 2022
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- For AutoCAD Electrical 2023.
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- For AutoCAD Electrical 2024.
- Make sure your Registry path is set to an old path for the ACEOLDEDB.DLL. This is discussed at the bottom of the following blog.
To check this, open the Registry Editor, as an administrator, and navigate to the path below:
“Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{3BE786A0-0366-4F5C-9434-25CF162E475E}\InprocServer32”
Check the Default Key path. Right click on Default and select Modify to change the path to the old path below:
“C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE16\ACEOLEDB.DLL”
In a few cases a reboot was needed after making the suggested edits.
For further information regarding this instance of the issue, please see the following AKN article for additional steps that can be taken to help mitigate this issue:
https://www.autodesk.com/support/technical/article/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/AutoCAD-Electrical-hangs-on-Loading-in-the-splash-screen-window.html
Warning! Problems caused by improperly editing the Windows registry could render your computer/operating system unusable. Microsoft provides a wealth of critical information that you need to know about the registry in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Use the Microsoft® Registry Editor only at your own risk and only after backing up the registry as well as the system.dat and user.dat files as outlined for your operating system in the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Additional information about the registry is also contained in the Help topics in the Microsoft Registry Editor.
If none of the solutions above resolve the issue for you, please reach out to our team at support@rand.com and we’ll be happy to assist you.
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