the memory dump file could not be found

Question

I'm using MiKTex on Windows 8. Using the simplest tex file would bring about the error.

pdflatex.exe: the memory dump file could not be found.

\documentclass{article}
    \begin{document}
        Hello world.
    \end{document}

I've already tried suggestions in this forum as follows.

Start-> MikTeX 2.9 -> Maintenance -> Setting -> Open General tab -> maintenance -> update format -> I got a Permission denied in C:\Users\Kevin\AppData\Local\Temp .
Start-> MikTeX 2.9 -> Maintenance -> Package Manager -> Repository -> Synchronize -> I got a Permission denied in C:\CTEX\UserData\miktex\somewhere

Is is a permission problem in Windows 8?

Restart your computer and try again. I know it may sound like a non-solution, but have you tried it? Give some feedback as to whether that resolved the problem or not. — Werner, Nov 07 '12 at 03:40
Also Windows 8 is very new. Don’t forget, that many people still running Windows XP, but the most Win users have Windows 7, I guess. In short: If it is specific for Windows 8, all these cannot give help. — Speravir, Nov 07 '12 at 03:47
Christian Schenk, the MiKTeX developer, tested about one year ago the preview of Windows 8 and seemed not to have encountered any problems: MiKTeX on Windows 8. So abit more information by you is necessary: Where did you install? Take a look on user permissions because: For me the answer to your question in the moment is “Yes”. — Speravir, Nov 07 '12 at 16:22
I tried restart computer as well as reinstalling MiKTeX. It seems the permission issue indeed. I figure it out myself. Hope to help anyone else. — Kevin Tong, Nov 08 '12 at 06:58
Same problem occurred to me in windows 7. I actually installed TexStudio and Miktex in F drive. After loading a new windows 7 OS in c drive, I change the path environmental variable and it worked fine. But now showing 'the memory dump file could not be found' error. I tried it in administrator mode, but the same problem is there too. — , Aug 28 '13 at 03:06

Kevin Tong · Answer 1 · 2012-11-08T07:00:58.107

Ok. I figured it out my self. It seems that permission is more strict in Windows 8. Or to say the default user is not the administrator.

I change the permission of user group in C:\Users\Kevin\AppData\Local\Temp and C:\CTEX\UserData\miktex\ to full control.

Every thing is sovled

If you want to solve it easily. You could run the text edit ide and MikTex as administrator or close your UAC once and for all.

Less secure is what it takes to get more convenience.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 24 '15 at 22:33

I have MikTeX 2.9, and here is what I did to fix this problem on my computer:

I gave full control to the installation folder, in addition to the Users****\AppData\Local\Temp folder;
Start-> MikTeX 2.9 -> Maintenance -> Package Manager -> Repository -> Synchronize;
Try 3 times to compile the Hello World file listed above [1st time yielded a blank pdf; 2nd time, found a missing package; 3rd time was OK]
Compiled my file about 5 times, until it stopped finding new "missing" packages. [IMPORTANT: this next step yielded no results until I did the step above]

After all packages were installed, the document finally compiled properly. YAY!

IMPORTANT: Running LaTeX compiler under "Run As Administrator" is NOT an alternative to the steps above. In particular, I still get the same error on my computer when running the compiler under the "Run As Administrator", even when it works fine running as a regular user, without escalation.

Thanks to Kevin Tong for the hint; hope this works for someone else.

score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 09 '16 at 04:59

1

I use TeXnicCenter. On the menu go yo Build -> Define Output files and then highlight LaTex => pdf. Click remove and then use the wizard button to restore it. That works for me, I hope this helps.

answered Oct 09 '16 at 04:59

M Ephrem

11

This worked for me. In particular, using the wizard to overwrite the exiting output profile did not work, but deleting the output profile and re-creating it with the wizard did work. – Ubiquitous Jan 14 '19 at 10:42

Peter Jones · Answer 4 · 2015-06-02T15:02:03.320

0

It is a permission related to Windows 8. It is not necessary to make the user less secure. Right click on the application you need to run. From the context menu select "Run as Administrator." For instance if you are using TeXnicCenter for compiling your TeX, right click on its shortcut you might have on desktop or Windows 8 apps style alternative and run it as administrator.

Not doing this might create some more complicated errors not easily seen such as "memory dump." They could delete hyperref (bookmarks), bibl data, and so on.

edited Jun 02 '15 at 15:02

answered May 05 '15 at 14:10

Peter Jones

719

I am using TeXStudio and this does not fix the problem. – bb94 Aug 17 '15 at 03:25

score -1 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 02 '17 at 06:40

I have seen the log file

2017-01-01 22:54:17,850-0500 FATAL miktex-pdftex - The memory dump file could not be found.
2017-01-01 22:54:17,850-0500 FATAL miktex-pdftex - Info: fileName="pdflatex.fmt"
2017-01-01 22:54:17,850-0500 FATAL miktex-pdftex - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\TeXAndFriends\texmfapp.cpp
2017-01-01 22:54:17,850-0500 FATAL miktex-pdftex - Line: 649

The line fileName="pdflatex.fmt" tells me, the bug is the program forget created the file fileName="pdflatex.fmt" and try to use the file hence I just manually created the file pdflatex.fmt. This file's path should be like this:

C:\Users\kevin\AppData\Local\Temp

where kevin is my computer usr that should be change to usr in your computer.

This did not work for me. – Roman Luštrik Oct 05 '18 at 19:16 — Roman Luštrik, Oct 05 '18 at 19:16

the memory dump file could not be found

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