Andy,

Basically your user profile is hosed and there are only 2 things that you can do.

First, if you can launch DNS and load your user profile without turning the microphone on, get a copy of Joel Gould's GetWords/PutWords if you don't already have these utilities. You may need them because importing custom words into a new user doesn't always work properly. That is, when creating a new user, using the import function to import custom words that have been exported may result in the error message that no unknown words have been found. However, GetWords and PutWords get around this particular problem.

Next, if you are using one of the professional versions of DNS (Professional, Medical, or Legal), you have the option of using the Data Distribution Tool to store both your custom commands and your custom vocabulary. The data distribution tool automatically adds custom words and custom commands to any new user that is created. This is a great way to store this information if you have to create a new user because your custom words and custom commands when stored in this manner are automatically applied to new users.

However, the only thing that you can do under this circumstance aside from attempting to get your custom commands and custom vocabulary exported so that you can import them into a new user if necessary, is to go to the "Manage Users" dialog, click on the Advanced button, and click on Restore. This will restore a backup copy of your user, which 80% of the time is uncorrupted if you have retain the default option to back up your user every 5 saves. The restore function will not overwrite your original (current) user, it will simply restore a copy from the backup folder in your current user folders, which you can rename later if it is okay (i.e., uncorrupted).

The other option that you have is to create a new user and restore your custom vocabulary and custom commands. It is a simple process to restore any custom commands by simply going to the "Current" folder in your previous (original) user and copying the MyCmds.dat to your new user (i.e. same folder in your new user). Restoring custom vocabulary is a little more tricky. The first thing you should try doing is using the import function to import your custom words. However, this uses the Vocabulary Optimizer dialog and, as pointed out above, may result in DNS saying that it does not find any unknown words. In this case, you would normally be out of luck. However, using Joel Gould's GetWords and PutWords, particularly in this case using the PutWords utility, this overrides this particular problem and restores all custom words.

To explain very simply what has happened is that DNS uses a process called the Remote Procedure Call server to execute its COM programs. When your vocabulary in your user profile becomes corrupted the RPC server times out because it cannot execute the COM utility or ActiveX. control necessary for performing the operation required by DNS. After it makes several attempts to access the RPC server, the RPC server returns a timeout error and DNS cannot continue. This can be caused by a number of situations and circumstances. The most common causes are due to spontaneous shutdowns of Windows, closing windows during a delayed write to a hard drive, excessive file fragmentation resulting from failure to perform regular defrag on your hard drive, cross-linked files or file errors, which require the running of CHKDSK/f to fix these, spontaneous shutdowns of DNS without closing DNS normally, or a number of other similar and related problems and issues. Note that DNS does not normally, in and of itself, corrupt your user profile. It is usually caused by one or more of the above factors and very seldom is it caused directly by something occurring within DNS itself. The only exception here is repetitive RPC server errors which cause DNS is shutdown spontaneously. This is a bug in DNS which has been reported to Nuance development many times.

If you need any further assistance because you're not clear on the procedures outlined above, let us know. However, I am sure that there are any number of other users who, no doubt, will give you gobs of more detailed explanations as well.

Chuck Runquist
Former Dragon NaturallySpeaking SDK & Senior Technical Solutions PM for DNS

"Life's Rule #1: Once you pull the pin, Mr. Grenade is no longer your friend." (Variant of Murphy's Law - Edward A. Murphy, Jr)

Hi,

I have exactly the same problem, I use version 9 prefered and it worked fine till one morning it gave this error. I also followed your instructiions and first tried to restore the user file but still the same error. Then I restarted the pc and tried to create a new user but when it is allmost done creating the new user it gives exactly the same error E_Fail. So I can not restore, back-up or create new user (in taskbar manage users) I have no idea how to solve this ;-( Hopefully you could help me?

Many thanks!