Java Error! Please help

[cash]

I was a very happy Sage TV user until I installed some automatic updates on my win XP (Professional edition) box that I was using with Sage and it abruptly stopped working.
I am getting the following error message from java every time I try to run Sage:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Malformed \uxxxx encoding

I have tried reinstalling Sage, Win XP, Java RE multiple times and the problem does not seem to go away.

I would appreciate any help I can get at this point. Thanks in advance.

cash

[tealcomp]

Hi Cash:

Did you do a restore porint before you did the updates; or are you familiar with the System Restore feature in XP? It may be possible to restore prior to the update that kabashed your Sage install. Was this the latest slew of updates that just came out this week? I am about to do a reboot; will report back if anything strange happens

-Dan

[cash]

Unfortunately I did not set a restore point on XP. I just looked up the help on how to do that.. Yes this is the latest slew of updates that are coming out.. Good luck with your updates.

cash

[kny3twalker]

make sure to delete the java folder and any temp folders after uninstalling java
then reboot and reinstall
make sure SageTV is uninstalled as well
and then reinstall it
you can delete the Frey folder but save the properties files and wiz.bin
so you can restore your settings easily

[tealcomp]

Hi Cash:

Updates did not appear to cause any system instability Let us know how your situation goes..

-Dan

Originally Posted by cash

Unfortunately I did not set a restore point on XP. I just looked up the help on how to do that.. Yes this is the latest slew of updates that are coming out.. Good luck with your updates.

cash

[Opus4]

I think I had a situation where there were 2 java installations after a java update & things didn't work right. Did you make sure you only have 1 installation? If not, uninstall them all & reinstall java.

- Andy

[mbrown3]

YES, having two Java versions installed causes problems with Sage. And the default Java installer does not automatically remove any older versions. Manually remove older versions (until there is just one remaining) and if that doesn't clear things up, remove all of them and re-install only the most recent.

[cash]

I think I may have ended up with 2 installations of Java on my box. But even uninstalling everything and installing just one instance cleanly does not seem to have helped. I am going to uninstall a lot more things and try again.

cash

[kny3twalker]

did you bother deleting the program folder for java?

[mbrown3]

Definitely a must. You have to remove all remnants of prior versions of Java. If it still seems to not be working, try a reinstall of Sage (after most current Java is up and running) and see if that helps. You still should be able to copy over your properties file.

[cash]

Thanks a lot for all the people who responded for my question. The problem went away after doing a clean install of java and a clean install of Sage.

cash

[DFA]

I always look forward to MS updates and the wonderful improvements that they bring. Yes, sarcasim intended.

DFA

[mseiter]

I tried the clean install, and copied over the files detailed in the Clean Install FAQ, but still, the same error appered.
The fix for me was to delete the Sage.properties, and let the system re-create it. My favorites and current files were still there, just I had to remap the remote/config tuner cards.
Hope this helps anyone else that sees the problem,
-Matt

[Sunkman]

Originally Posted by mseiter

I tried the clean install, and copied over the files detailed in the Clean Install FAQ, but still, the same error appered.
The fix for me was to delete the Sage.properties, and let the system re-create it. My favorites and current files were still there, just I had to remap the remote/config tuner cards.
Hope this helps anyone else that sees the problem,
-Matt

I would like to thank you oh sooo much.

After running SAGE as service for about 8 months it decided to hang on the "SageTV is initializing". After investigation I found that it could not start the service. I went into Services and set SageTV to manual, rebooted, and then it came up with the "java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Malformed \uxxxx encoding" error.

Based on your post I renamed my sage.properties to something else and waa-laa Sage is operational again. Thank You for the tip and saving me all the uninstall/re-install garbage.

I am still unsure how this happened. The only thing I can think of is that while watch a VIDEO_TS DVD it got hung on a certain part and I needed to do hard boot. This hanging happened once before and I needed to go through my complete setup again...seems this time it caused more damage.

[acrowe]

I just had this happen out of nowhere tonight...

Looking at the properties file I had a bunch of junk after the zzz line.

deleting that fixed the startup prolem

Thanks!

[lakeman]

Same thing here but a power outage seemed to be the culprit. I checked the bottom of the properties file and found several hundred lines of garbage. I cleared it out and all is well now.

Thanks

[scat]

Originally Posted by DFA

I always look forward to MS updates and the wonderful improvements that they bring. Yes, sarcasim intended.

DFA

This last weeks updates trashed my Sage server, I had to system restore back to 2-8-09 and rescan all qam channels, Windows update is turned off now, this has happened a few times now.

Scat

[mmandersonii]

This is why I love the forums. Been running Sage for just over a year and just saw this error. A quick search led me to look at my sage.properties file and sure enough the first part of the file was complete and utter garbage. Luckily, the autobackup version was fine and just replacing the properties file with that version solved the problem.