AutoCAD 2009 crashes when opening any file

Just thought I'd put this out there in case anyone else has this problem.

Our office is running AutoCAD 2009 (for the most part) and Windows 10. Everything's been fine even though 2009 is not officially supported on Windows 10 (heck, it's not even officially supported on Window 7 :-P). However, just this past week or so a problem has cropped up. I'm assuming it's related to a Windows update since nothing else has changed.

If you click the "Open File" button on the Quick Access Toolbar, or use Ctrl-O, the first file opens fine. As soon as you do it a second time (with a drawing open) it causes a fatal error and crashes AutoCAD. It's been immensely frustrating to everyone. Open files through Windows explorer does not cause a problem.

I've narrowed it down to a problem with the Ribbon - some of the computers have AutoCAD 2009 service pack 3 installed, and as soon as I turn off the ribbon the Open button and Ctrl-O works fine. The computers without any AutoCAD service packs installed crash whether the ribbon is open or not. Most people use the ribbon so closing it is not really a viable solution.

I'd love to know if there is a fix or workaround for this, though I'm not really expecting or even hoping for one at this point. I'm also curious if anyone else can reproduce the problem.

Getting anyone to reproduce the problem would require a computer that is running the latest OS (Win10) and a version of AutoCAD that was officially released back in 2008. The chances of that happening are going to be fairly slim...at best. Any chance you can roll back the system to a date prior to the Windows update?

Probably. Would be a good test. But even if that is the problem, it'll probably just crop up again in a subsequent Windows update. Maybe I should just force everyone to stop using the ribbon. I seem to recall it having problems back in Windows 7 too. Waste of screen space and pointless. Let me get down off my opinionated soap box now. :-D

Like I said, I am mostly curious if anyone else had this problem. Not expecting a fix to exist ever. And it's not making AutoCAD unusable, just annoying. Well, more annoying.

Your fear of the Ribbon is misplaced. I've been running Win7 since it was introduced and have used it with several versions of AutoCAD and have yet to encounter any problems. Given your company's penchant for running older software on a new OS I'd surmise any problems were self-inflicted.

Not afraid of the ribbon, I just think it's inefficient and pointless. And yes the problems are self inflicted. I'm not complaining. Like I said, I'm just curious if anyone else has experienced this.

I'm also posting here when/if someone else has the same problem, they'll find another instance of it on the internet.

What troubleshooting steps have you taken thus far?

Have you tried a REPAIR of the installation (NOT the same as an Uninstall/Reinstall)?

Neglected to mention that. I did run the repair utility, but it did not fix the problem. Though, it was on a non-service-pack-updated install of AutoCAD 2009, not one of the ones with SP3. That would certainly be something to try on one of the SP3 installs. I'll post an update with the results.

Are you running in compatibility mode?