I'm using Dragon Professional Individual 15 to transcribe a message and every so often, during the correction phase, when I select one of the possible corrections, I would get an error message

The speech engine returned the following error. Failed

I would then have to terminate DPI 15 and restart in order to continue again.

I have never encountered such an error in previous versions of Dragon.

Patrick,

Simply because it hasn't occurred in any previous version of Dragon, doesn't mean it can't occur. It just means you were lucky.

There are a number of variables that can cause this type of error to occur, but principally it's usually a result of installing DPI 15 over a previous version of Dragon without uninstalling the previous version first. It can also be caused by an incomplete installation or not fully installing properly.

The error message is a fatal error usually indicates that there is some corruption in your profile or in the program files for DPI 15. You can try the following:

1. Go to the Windows Control Panel | Programs and Features | Dragon and select "Change". If that option is available to you, the Dragon InstallShield wizard should prompt you with the dialog that asks you whether you want to Modify, Repair, or Remove Dragon. Try selecting Repair first and see if that resolves your problem. However, make sure that Dragon is not loaded and active when you do so. Otherwise you will run into other issues that may prevent the Repair from completing properly.

2. If you don't have the "Change" option available, it means that you installed DPI 15 from a download executable. In that case, you do not have the ability to "Repair" Dragon. In that case you should completely uninstall DPI 15 while connected to the Internet so as to preserve your activations. Download and run the Dragon 15 remove utility (DPI15Cleaner.exe) making sure that you have exported your user profile before you begin the uninstall process. Reinstall DPI 15 after having run the Dragon 15 remove utility, create a fast standard new user profile, and then without deleting that profile, which you can't do anyway, import your exported user profile.

Let us know what the results are.

Chuck

"What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you." - Anthony de Mello

-------------------------

VoiceComputer: the only global speech interface.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect those of VoiceTeach LLC.

Chuck Runquist
VoiceComputer technical support

                    Welcome to the World's Most Popular Speech Recognition Forum

Just adding a smidgen to Chuck's sage advice…

 

Click DPI15Cleaner Remover to download the Uninstaller on steroids utility Chuck recommended.

If you made the mistake of installing DPI 15 over a previous version of Dragon or you are using an upgraded user profile, you might want to check out the latest KnowBrainer Installation/Training Guide which includes a pictorial step-by-step on installing, beginners, intermediate and advanced training plus a new section outlining how to avoid 3 dozen sand traps

-------------------------

Change "No" to "Know" w/KnowBrainer 2022
Trial Downloads
Dragon/Sales@KnowBrainer.com 
(615) 884-4558 ex 1

Thank you Chuck and Lunis for your detailed responses.

Indeed I do not have the Change Option you referred to and it would mean I have to completely uninstall DPI15.

Complete uninstall - that sounds scary because all I have is the WM-K81A-48000.exe and I'm believe that is just the installer that fetches the actual installation files off the internet.

I mean is WM-K81A-48000.exe all I need ? Of course I have the Serial number.

I remembered that when I bought it, there was some option to allow me to download again for a certain period. I did not purchase that as I thought it was some gimmick.

I should have bought the physical version in retrospect.

I mean is WM-K81A-48000.exe ? Is there a time limit to re-install with just the WM-K81A-48000.exe ?

Patrick, you're welcome.

you are correct in that that file accesses the Nuance FTP site and downloads and installs DPI 15 on the fly.

 

Yes, as long as you have a copy of that file, it is still current. That is, nothing is changed since you were originally downloaded that file.

 

 

No, there is no time limit to reinstall with just that file. It was current then and it is current now. You don't need to worry about it. The only thing you need to worry about is that you have the file and that it is not corrupted. Nevertheless, you'll find that out real quick anyway. Regardless, if you have a problem, you can always contact Nuance customer service and they will help you anyway.

 

It wouldn't have made any difference whether you had purchased the physical version or the download, the DVD has the same install file on it. It would've been a waste of your time and money to do so. You're much better off keeping that executable file in a safe place. Adding the DVD would simply give you a physical disk with the same install file (i.e., WM-K81A-48000.exe). The DVD does not contain the individual breakdown of files and folders along with the setup.exe. The only way you could have gotten that is if you had purchase the upgrade from Lunis.

 

Chuck

 

"What you are aware of you are in control of; what you are not aware of is in control of you." - Anthony de Mello

-------------------------

VoiceComputer: the only global speech interface.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect those of VoiceTeach LLC.

Chuck Runquist
VoiceComputer technical support

I finally bit the bullet, backuped mine various profiles, exported the various custom words. Next, I uninstalled DPI15, making sure that my Internet connection was on, rebooted, runned DPI15Cleaner Remover, rebooted again just for a good measure.

I next proceeded to install.

The installer suggested that it may take up to 30 minutes over a typical Internet connection.

The initial Installing Dragon progress box with the green progress bar took about 25 minutes (I timed it).

It then proceeded to a second installing Dragon progress box and the progress bar was a complete white. It remained white for like an eternity (approximately 15 minutes) and I thought that something must have hung.

Thankfully, the green progress bar started to show again and finally after a grand total of 56 minutes (inclusive of the earlier 25 minutes) the process completed. I rebooted again.

I next imported my profiles which was actually done rather quickly.

So far everything seems good, and I do not seem to be encountering the same crash problems yet. Hopefully it remains this way.

I will use it over a period of time and report back again for the benefit of others.

Much appreciate the advice.

Update:

I just had my 1st repeat error :The speech engine returned the following error. Failed.

But it certainly is much less frequent that it had been happening before the re-install.

Hi Chucker,

Thank you for your posts. It's now 8 years into the future, and you have helped me with an issue with Dragon 15.6. Thank you so much.

                    Welcome (See Mission Statement)

 

Note that Chuck Runquist a.k.a. “Chucker” left this forum around 5 years ago 

-------------------------

Change "No" to "Know" w/KnowBrainer 2022
Trial Downloads
Dragon/Sales@KnowBrainer.com 
(615) 884-4558 ex 1