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I run Win 7 Enterprise 64bit, SP1. MiKTeX was working just fine until I run Update (Admin) and the update stopped midway saying "internal error". Since then, MiKTeX stopped working: I could no longer open a TeX file, update package repository, run any update. So I uninstalled MiKTeX, rebooted, run CCleaner just in case, and installed MiKTeX 2.9 from scratch (basic-miktex-2.9.6161-x64). The installation was suspiciously quick, I remember in the past spending some good 10-20 min watching folders flying from left to right in the update screen... anyway, once the install was over I decided to run Update (Admin), but only one package could be selected, MiKTeX2.9 (or similar), if I tried to select any other package i would get the message "to install any more packages, close the update and then try again". So I update that one package, then launch the Update again... and I get the usual "internal error". So I am back to square one. Any idea how to fix this? I am not an expert user so please try to be clear if you attempt to answer this question!

If I try to update formats under Settings (Admin), it starts running and then it stops. The log shows:

2016-12-30 15:34:02,801-0500 INFO  miktex-makefmt - running 'initexmf --quiet --update-fndb' to refresh the file name database
2016-12-30 15:34:05,406-0500 INFO  makex - Creating the etex format file...
2016-12-30 15:34:05,422-0500 INFO  makex - Running miktex-pdftex.exe...
2016-12-30 15:34:05,469-0500 FATAL miktex-makefmt - miktex-pdftex.exe failed on etex.ini.
2016-12-30 15:34:28,329-0500 INFO  miktex-makefmt - running 'initexmf --quiet --update-fndb' to refresh the file name database
2016-12-30 15:34:30,918-0500 INFO  makex - Creating the latex format file...
2016-12-30 15:34:30,934-0500 INFO  makex - Running miktex-pdftex.exe...
2016-12-30 15:34:30,965-0500 FATAL miktex-makefmt - miktex-pdftex.exe failed on latex.ini.
2016-12-30 15:34:36,871-0500 INFO  makex - Creating the pdfetex format file...
2016-12-30 15:34:36,887-0500 INFO  makex - Running miktex-pdftex.exe...
2016-12-30 15:34:36,918-0500 FATAL miktex-makefmt - miktex-pdftex.exe failed on pdfetex.ini.
2016-12-30 15:34:38,663-0500 INFO  makex - Creating the pdflatex format file...
2016-12-30 15:34:38,663-0500 INFO  makex - Running miktex-pdftex.exe...
2016-12-30 15:34:38,694-0500 FATAL miktex-makefmt - miktex-pdftex.exe failed on pdflatex.ini.
2016-12-30 15:34:40,038-0500 INFO  makex - Creating the pdftex format file...
2016-12-30 15:34:40,048-0500 INFO  makex - Running miktex-pdftex.exe...
2016-12-30 15:34:40,078-0500 FATAL miktex-makefmt - miktex-pdftex.exe failed on pdftex.ini.
2016-12-30 15:34:40,940-0500 INFO  makex - Creating the tex format file...
2016-12-30 15:34:40,950-0500 INFO  makex - Running miktex-tex.exe...
2016-12-30 15:55:11,097-0500 INFO  miktex-makefmt - running 'initexmf --quiet --update-fndb' to refresh the file name database
2016-12-30 15:55:13,642-0500 INFO  makex - Creating the etex format file...
2016-12-30 15:55:13,658-0500 INFO  makex - Running miktex-pdftex.exe...
2016-12-30 15:55:13,689-0500 FATAL miktex-makefmt - miktex-pdftex.exe failed on etex.ini.
Frank
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    I wished people wouldn't get directly in the deinstall/reinstall frenzy. How should anyone now know in which state your system is? Try if you can start the package manager (admin), synchronize and then try to install as many packages as possible. – Ulrike Fischer Dec 30 '16 at 21:28
  • I forgot to mention that before I decided to uninstall the old installation, I got the message "the file MiKTeX209-log4cxx.dll is missing. Try reinstalling the program to fix the problem" or something like that. – Frank Dec 30 '16 at 21:40
  • What message you got before the reinstall no longer matters. – Ulrike Fischer Dec 30 '16 at 22:31
  • You are absolutely right. What I meant is that uninstalling was not a frenzy, more like a last resort after trying several things and after that the program itself suggested this as the fix ... which clearly did not work. – Frank Dec 30 '16 at 22:59
  • Ok. I installed nearly all of them. I can open TeX files now it seems. Thank you!Shall I venture into Update (Admin) or shall I stay away from it now and in the future? – Frank Dec 31 '16 at 01:10
  • No you shouldn't stay way from updates (admin and user!). Problems with smaller, regularly updates are easier to handle than problems with a large update. But read the advice about critical updates: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/108490/2388 – Ulrike Fischer Dec 31 '16 at 10:43
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Frank Dec 31 '16 at 14:45

0 Answers0