SPSS Statistics

 View Only
Expand all | Collapse all

SPSS stopped opening on some computers

  • 1.  SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Wed March 15, 2023 12:20 PM

    Hi, I am an IT administrator at a University. We actively use versions 25 (patch2) and 28. We've used the software for a long while, but noticed issues within the last couple of weeks. I am not sure exactly how long this issue has been happening though. Both of our software installations use separate license servers, which seem to be operating normally and giving out licenses.

    The explanation of the issue is: When clicking the shortcut, the icon in the taskbar shows for 1 to 3 seconds and then disappears. No application window is displayed. We mostly use Windows 10 version 22H2, note that we've only recently been upgrading from 20H2 and 21H2. I haven't yet determined if the working computers are specific to a particular Windows build number though. Some computers work fine, but some do not work, seems about 50/50 at the moment but we are trying it on more. I am wondering if it could be our anti-virus (SentinelOne) blocking the Java? I've also opened a case with them to check also.

    Does SPSS use it's own Java JRE? So would us having a manually installed JRE installation effect it? In many cases we've stared to use the OpenJava.
    Also the c++ redistributable, we have the newer 2015-2019, and all the newest previous versions installed. Will SPSS have problems with the latest version of the main C++ releases?

    The event viewer does show some interesting information:

    Faulting application name: stats.exe, version: 28.0.1.1, time stamp: 0x61efa7c4
    Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.19041.2130, time stamp: 0xb5ced1c6
    Exception code: 0xc0000374
    Fault offset: 0x00000000000ff6a9
    Faulting process id: 0x6b8
    Faulting application start time: 0x01d9529d39ff8473
    Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\IBM\SPSS Statistics\stats.exe
    Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
    Report Id: f3892807-3ff4-40ba-b26a-e10bbf517227
    Faulting package full name: 
    Faulting package-relative application ID:

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

    Ross



    ------------------------------
    Ross McGibbon
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Wed March 15, 2023 05:28 PM

    Hi @Ross McGibbon,
    Each version of IBM SPSS Statistics comes with it's own VC++ redistributable, should there not be one present.  For Statistics 29.0.0.0, look in "C:\Program Files\IBM\SPSS Statistics\VC14".  This doesn't mean that this is the one an only applicable version, just the version we shipped with the product.

    The latest available VC+++ I was able to find was the 2015-2022 All in one


    If VC++ really is your issue, you might be better served removing all of the older ones and installing one or both of these two.

    Please let us know if you find a solution.



    ------------------------------
    David Dwyer
    SPSS Technical Support
    IBM Software
    ------------------------------



  • 3.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Thu March 16, 2023 06:42 AM

    Thank you for the reply. I did some more testing and I have some interesting results. I went into 1 of our labs which have identical builds. 

    Out of 28 computers, 16 worked and 12 did not work. 

    Do you know of any advanced way to troubleshoot, such as getting debug information \ log files? 

    In the mean time I am getting security software removed from one to rule out AV blocking.

    Cheers,

    Ross



    ------------------------------
    Ross McGibbon
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Thu March 16, 2023 10:39 AM

    Hi @Ross McGibbon ,
    Are you able to log a Support ticket?  We could then really dig into this from all angles and perhaps bring in other resources as needed.
    https://www.ibm.com/mysupport/s/?language=en_US  

    See the "Open a case" in the blue box in the upper right of the browser window.

    Problem description: When clicking the shortcut, the icon in the taskbar shows for 1 to 3 seconds and then disappears. No application window is displayed. 

    - Do you see the same behavior when you click the executable itself from the installation directory?
    - In the "Utility" directory is a file "spsstrace.properties". Copy this file into the main Statitics install directory.  Now each time you launch you should see a trace log file in %USERPROFILE%.  This file will be called "statistics_client_trace_file0.log"
    - You might also try launching the product from command-line with stats.com and collect any exceptions/errors echoed to the console.

    > We actively use versions 25 (patch2) and 28. 
    If vc++ were an issue, I'd maybe expect a conflict between to the ones required for each version of Statistics.  But if both were present, I'd think such a conflict is low probability.

    > Does SPSS use it's own Java JRE?
    - Yes.  IBM SPSS Statistics 29.0 uses openjdk 11.0.15

    ```
    C:\Program Files\IBM\SPSS Statistics\JRE\bin>java -version
    openjdk version "11.0.15" 2022-04-19
    IBM Semeru Runtime Open Edition 11.0.15.0 (build 11.0.15+10)
    Eclipse OpenJ9 VM 11.0.15.0 (build openj9-0.32.0, JRE 11 Windows 10 amd64-64-Bit Compressed References 20220422_352 (JIT enabled, AOT enabled)
    OpenJ9   - 9a84ec34e
    OMR      - ab24b6666
    JCL      - b7b5b42ea6 based on jdk-11.0.15+10)

    C:\Program Files\IBM\SPSS Statistics\JRE\bin>
    ```

    Your external java should not make a difference.  Statistics should be pulling from the JRE in its own install path.  Perhaps check your %PATH% environment variable.



    ------------------------------
    David Dwyer
    SPSS Technical Support
    IBM Software
    ------------------------------



  • 5.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Fri March 17, 2023 05:48 AM

    I will create a ticket thanks, to answer you questions:
    - Do you see the same behavior when you click the executable itself from the installation directory? Yes

    - spsstrace.properties copied to program root, run software, was unable to see the log in %USERPROFILE%- stats.com, I run it from cmd then typed echo %errorlevel%, this is the resulting error: -1073740940



    ------------------------------
    Ross McGibbon
    ------------------------------



  • 6.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Fri March 17, 2023 10:22 AM

    Hi Ross and David,

    I'm following this with interest as we're now experiencing the exact same error across multiple Win PC's running various SPSS versions (v21-v26).  We're a Medical Research Institute with approx 12 SPSS users who use the app intensively.

    We're seeing the exact same error and initial troubleshooting incl SFC and DISM on the OS have not been successful.

    It would be helpful if you could continue to post any discussion and progress here for the benfit of others?

    Regards

    James 



    ------------------------------
    James Brien
    ------------------------------



  • 7.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers
    Best Answer

    Posted Fri March 17, 2023 11:56 AM

    I believe I've discovered the issue. What AV do you use?
    We use SentinelOne, it's managed externally. We instructed our cyber team to contact the vendor and disable the protection. Then without even restarting I was able to open the software on about 10 computers so far, which were previously not working. Disabling the AV is a temporary solution so that teaching can take place, but we aim to put in a permanent fix, either by adding the .exe files to a white list, or the entire IBM folder. But this is likely to be worked on as of Monday.

    I hope you manage to solve your issue too.

    Cheers,
    Ross



    ------------------------------
    Ross McGibbon
    ------------------------------



  • 8.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Fri March 17, 2023 12:35 PM

    Hi Ross,
    We've seen part of this (albeit without the appcrash) when the end user has 2-Factor Authentication enabled for their IBM ID. Set this, change this at https://myibm.ibm.com

    Please see Known Issue DT178259 and apply the Statistics 29.0.0.0 Interim Fix 008

    Overall, we do have a technote regarding which processes need to be allowed through your firewall/AV.  For IBM SPSS Statistics 29.0.0.0, I would attend specifically to the 'stats.exe' and 'jcef_helper.exe' processes.

    I hope this helps!



    ------------------------------
    David Dwyer
    SPSS Technical Support
    IBM Software
    ------------------------------



  • 9.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    IBM Champion
    Posted Fri March 17, 2023 12:41 PM
    I use the built-in Windows Defender AV without any problems, but there is another issue with it to consider.  This probably applies to other AV's too.

    With Defender in its default settings, SPSS Statistics take 14 seconds to launch on my pretty powerful PC with an SSD.  After I excluded (whitelisted) its installation directory, the launch time dropped to 4 seconds, so whitelisting has a significant benefit.

    If Statistics is installed in the default directory under Program Files, that directory requires Admin permissions to write to, so there is minimal risk to whitelisting it.

    --





  • 10.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Sun March 19, 2023 07:04 PM

    Hi Ross, you've nailed it! I did some more testing late Fri our time too and established it was a new version of the Sentinel client too.  As soon as I disabled S1 for that endpoint SPSS was fine.

    I'm in the throes of gathering the logs to establish what it's tripping on to whitelist.

    Cheers,

    James



    ------------------------------
    James Brien
    ------------------------------



  • 11.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Mon March 20, 2023 07:34 AM

    Great news, thank you for the validation. I guess that's the beauty of sharing on forums. 
    Any chance you can confirm the S1 version you are using? My Cyber guy is asking. We are on 22.3.2.373.

    We have a case open with S1 and providing them all the information. We've been excluding the IBM folder which has helped on all the ones I've tested. But we only want this temporarily as a solution, because it's a concern to keep the folder unprotected. If S1 respond and they issue a definition update fix, then I will let you know.



    ------------------------------
    Ross McGibbon
    ------------------------------



  • 12.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Mon March 20, 2023 06:33 PM

    Yep, we're on the same client version too.

    We made contact with Sentinel and they didn't seem too inlcined to address it from their side.  They were happy to suggest we open the path.  We'll see if they engage a little more meaningfully over the next few days.



    ------------------------------
    James Brien
    ------------------------------



  • 13.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Tue March 21, 2023 09:10 AM

    We have a 3rd party and they are contacting them. We are not so happy about opening the folder as this can be targeted. Especially since we've provided names and organisation details in this forum. Anyone could put seriously compromising files on our systems that have the exception, if they were to gain access. Hopefully as more people report this issue they will investigate it properly. It would also be nice if IBM reported it themselves too. It isn't easy to test, because removing and adding back the AV can fix it. So reproducing it might not be straight forward. I will mark this thread as completed, thank you for everyone's input.

    Cheers,
    Ross



    ------------------------------
    Ross McGibbon
    ------------------------------



  • 14.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Wed April 19, 2023 04:26 PM

    Just wanted to add that we also go issues with runny our code with Java ever since the 22.3 SentinelOne update. For users that were impacted, we uninstalled and went back to version 22.2



    ------------------------------
    Smith
    ------------------------------



  • 15.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Wed April 19, 2023 06:19 PM
    Edited by David Dwyer Wed April 19, 2023 06:19 PM

    Hi @Smith 

    Is there consensus then that SentinelOne version 22.3 is the specific update where IBM SPSS Statistics is erroneously flagged not to trust?

    If you have the specifics for your failing version of SentinelOne, I'm happy to update this Known Issue (DT208153)



    ------------------------------
    David Dwyer
    SPSS Technical Support
    IBM Software
    ------------------------------



  • 16.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Thu April 20, 2023 09:11 AM

    Hi,

    We don't know about IBM SPSS but for us, the issue was with the JVM, any version above 22.3 makes us unable to load the executable. 22.3.2 or 22.3.4 as of this date.
    I agree with @James Brien and @Ross McGibbon.
    Hopefully more people will report this issue.

    And sorry for reopening this ticket David.

    Have a great day.

    Patrick.



    ------------------------------
    Smith
    ------------------------------



  • 17.  RE: SPSS stopped opening on some computers

    Posted Fri April 21, 2023 11:01 AM

    Hi @Smith 
    If you are saying you have trouble with JRE 22.3, then perhaps you have a different problem than the one originally discussed on this thread.   That one was specific to SPSS Statistics Subscription not launching/opening because SentinelOne was not allowing it to execute in the customer environment.

    If you are having trouble with the JRE in IBM SPSS Statistics, please go ahead and start a new thread. 
    A caveat - IBM SPSS Statistics ships with its own JRE and really shouldn't be paying attention to any other JRE you've put on your system.

    The JRE that ships with the just released IBM SPSS Statistics 29.0.1.0 is version 17.0.6



    ------------------------------
    David Dwyer
    SPSS Technical Support
    IBM Software
    ------------------------------