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Avoid Mathematica INTERNAL SELF-TEST ERROR: DataTypes|h|254 ?

My Wolfram Mathematica recently got upgraded (I have no administrative privileges on my computer) to version 11. My noteboks and packages were all created in Wolfram Mathematica 8.0 and most of them work fine when opened by Mathematica 11.

However, when opening this notebook, this message appears:

INTERNAL SELF-TEST ERROR: DataType|h|254

Click here to find out if this problem is known, and to help improve the Wolfram System by reporting it to Wolfram Research.

Mathematica says the notebook is open, however there is a blank window, this error message "vibrates" in the message window and Mathematica stops responding.

I reported the problem, but besides helping improve the Wolfram System, I would like to have someone help me open the file and continue my work. I did send an inquiry to their technical support but while waiting for their answer maybe you have any ideas which don't include me having administrative privileges.

So far, I tried the following

  • opening Mathematica while holding Ctrl+Shift (didn't work because it required me to sign in with Admin credentials)
  • moving the file to another folder
  • renaming the file

Any suggestions on what may be causing this error would be greatly appreciated, as well as ideas to solve it and successfully open the file.

Cheers, Maja

POSTED BY: Maja Gacesa
10 Replies
Posted 6 years ago

I got the same error on a Notebook I created that worked fine last month. I'm still on 11.0.1.0 for Windows. Had the same vibrating error message you described too!

Guess I need to get my IT dept to let me upgrade; hopefully that will solve the problem.

POSTED BY: Kelly Lowder

It seems that this error is somehow related to printer drivers for Windows. I know it does not make any sense, but after reinstalling the printer drivers the error vanished. I hope this helps!

POSTED BY: Maja Gacesa
Posted 6 years ago

Thank you so much Maja. I deleted an old printer driver for a big copier that has long been disconnected, and now I can open the notebook fine. Weird that the issue didn't show up until now.

POSTED BY: Kelly Lowder

I know, it is totally weird. I am so glad it helped, it is sooo frustrating! :D

POSTED BY: Maja Gacesa

With a help of a colleague I managed to open the file. I am posting it here in hopes it will help someone.

I sent him the file, he managed to open it on his system. Has the exact same hardware as me, the same operating system and the same version of Mathematica (sic!). Saving it as another .nb on his computer had no effect, because when I tried to open it the same thing happened. However, when the notebook was saved as .m, I managed to open the file on my computer and then save it as a .nb, which currently works.

I am still waiting for the technical support answer as I am very curious about what is actually the cause of this problem.

Cheers! Maja

POSTED BY: Maja Gacesa
Posted 7 years ago

You can try to Get the low-level Notebook code and then display it programmatically:

nb = Get["/path/to/myNotebook.nb"];
NotebookPut[nb];
POSTED BY: Alexey Popkov

I tried it, but it does the same thing.

POSTED BY: Maja Gacesa
Posted 7 years ago

If the above still produces the error, you can display only a part of your Notebook, for example the following will display only first 3 cells (or cell groups) of the Notebook:

NotebookPut[Take[nb, {1}, {1, UpTo@3}]];

Using partial rendering you can finally find which part of the notebook causes the error.

POSTED BY: Alexey Popkov

Did you try to open the NB in Notepad and copy paste the code in a new NB? Worked for me once.

POSTED BY: l van Veen

See below, I tried something similar, but with a help of another computer. The file itself opened in notepad, so now, looking back, I assume that maybe changing the file extension could have solved the issue.

POSTED BY: Maja Gacesa
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