Troubleshooting
Some Easy Fixes

Ballistic Explorer is of the highest quality, but there are external causes that can result in the program not working correctly or at all. Most of these external problems can be fixed if you have some familiarity with the version of Windows® you're using. Things you'll need to know are how to open the Windows® Control panel, open Windows® File Explorer (was Windows® Explorer prior to Windows® 8) and navigate to where Ballistic Explorer is located, and finally, know how to Right mouse click to open pop-up menus. Other than that it's just clicking on links, buttons or tabs in various dialogs. This guide shows how various dialogs look in Windows® 10, but they are very similar in Windows® 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and XP.

The external problems fall into the categories shown in the following directory.

Printer Issues

As Ballistic Explorer is starting up it needs information about the printer. If it can't find a printer or if what it finds is not ready, or really a printer then it gets an error and doesn't properly initialize. The improper initialization causes many other problems in the program. If the program does open after displaying such a message, close it and solve the problem before trying to use Ballistic Explorer.

The fix is to select a default printer. Even if you don't have a printer, there needs to be a default printer selected. However, it doesn't need to be a physical printer as Windows® provides some options that work in place of a real printer. Open the Windows® Control Panel as shown in the image below.

Look for the Hardware and Sound group and click on the View devices and printers link to open the following dialog.

Depending on your version of Windows®, there's some indicator showing which device is selected as the default printer. In Windows® 10 that indicator is a green circle with a white check mark in it. However, if you are getting printer related error messages when Ballistic Explorer is starting up then usually there's won't be anything set as the default printer. To set a device as the default printer Right mouse click on the icon for that device to open a pop-up menu and select the option to set that device as the default printer. If you don't have a real printer, set either the Microsoft Print to PDF or the Microsoft XPS Document Writer as the default printer to fix the problem.

If there is a default printer set and you are seeing printer related error messages when Ballistic Explorer is starting up then select a different device as the default printer such as either the Microsoft Print to PDF or the Microsoft XPS Document Writer.

Index And Divide Errors

These errors are most often the result of the restart file being corrupted. Often this happens as a side effect of the printer error explained in the prior section. If you only see errors when you click on a display to calculate downrange data then you may be able to fix the problems by loading the Traces windows with known good values from the Trace catalog.

If reloading the Trace windows doesn't resolve the problem or you are getting other types of errors or conditions such as the screen colors are wrong, then either delete or rename the restart file. If the program can't find the restart file it opens with default settings, such as when the program was first installed.

Close Ballistic Explorer and then open File Explorer (called Windows® Explorer prior to Windows® 8) and navigate to Ballistic Explorer's Restart.bxw file as shown in the next image.

Right mouse click on the Restart.bxw file to select it an open the pop-up menu. You can either Delete the file or Rename it. Once that's done start Ballistic Explorer and open the Trace windows and open the Examine display. If there are no errors than the problem is likely fixed, but to make sure, close and reopen Ballistic Explorer. If there are no errors then you can set up Ballistic Explorer as you like.

Back to the Problem Directory

Program File Corruption

Corruption of Ballistic Explorer's program file can cause almost any kind of error. A file can be corrupted (changed) a number of ways, but the important point is that it's easy to check for. Open File Explorer (called Windows® Explorer prior to Windows® 8) and navigate to Ballistic Explorer's Bexw.exe file as shown in the next image.

Right mouse click on the Bexw.exe file to select it an open the pop-up menu, and then click the Properties option to open the dialog shown in the image below. Click on the Digital Signatures tab, and then click on Dexadine, Inc. under "Name of signer" to select it. Then click the Details button. Windows® will check the Bexw.exe file's digital signature before opening the Digital Signature Details dialog. The process can be almost immediate or take a minute to complete.

If the Bexw.exe file is unchanged from when it was signed it will say "This digital signature is OK" near the top of the Digital Signature Details dialog. If you get a message indicating it's invalid, then the Bexw.exe file has been changed and you'll need to run the setup file to reinstall Ballistic Explorer. You don't need to uninstall Ballistic Explorer first, just run the bexsetup.exe file. You can always get the newest version of Ballistic Explorer from the Dexadine download page.

Note: You won't be able to check digital signatures in Windows® Vista and XP as Microsoft has increased the digital signature security beyond what those older OS versions support.

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Program Won't Upgrade

If you ran the bexsetup.exe file for a newer version of Ballistic Explorer and upon checking Help > About found that it's the same version you had before it's likely because Windows® won't allow the Bexw.exe file to be deleted or replaced. This usually happens because Ballistic Explorer was not closed before the bexsetup.exe file was started. However, sometimes Windows® fails to release the lock on a file when it should. You can test for this by trying to delete the program's file manually. Open File Explorer (called Windows® Explorer prior to Windows® 8) and navigate to Ballistic Explorer's Bexw.exe file as shown in the next image and manually try to deleted it.

If you get a message indicating the file can't be deleted, then make sure Ballistic Explorer is not running (maybe it's window is minimized), but if that's not the case you'll have to shut down and restart Windows® to force it to release it's lock on the file. After restarting Windows®, manually delete the Bexw.exe file and then run the bexsetup.exe file for the newer version of Ballistic Explorer to complete the upgrade.

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