Fixing problems with ClaroRead or WordRead starting up

This applies to ClaroRead, ClaroRead PLUS, WordRead PLUS and WordRead 2.

Symptoms

"I try to start ClaroRead or WordRead but it only gets to about 75% of the progress bar and the form never actually appears."
"ClaroRead just won't start: it flashes then disappears."
"Nothing happens when I double-click the ClaroRead icon."
"ClaroRead or WordRead crashes with a message about LHCOM02w.dll."

Diagnosis

Run ClaroRead, will not start up.
Download and run SAPI4Test.exe, get error message "Component 'Xvoice.dll' or one of its dependencies not correctly registered: a file is missing or invalid." or one or more voices do not work.

Cures

Cure 1: Use the SAPI4 Engine Manager to remove the problem SAPI4 engine.

Try using our SAPI4 Engine Manager to remove faulty voice engines that are preventing ClaroRead from loading

Download the SAPI4 Engine Manager tool
Run the tool. If you are on Vista then you will need to click 'Allow' on the UAC dialog box that pops up
Click any of the installed engines on the left hand side then click the Remove button. You will notice that the engine has moved to the Removed Engines list. The most common engine to remove which fixes this is "Scansoft Standard v2".
Try to run ClaroRead. If it works then the last engine you removed is the broken one so select the others one by one and click the Add button to restore them. If ClaroRead still doesn't work then return to the previous step
If you have removed all the engines from the Installed Engines list and ClaroRead still does not work then restore each engine using the Add button and contact support for assistance

Cure 2: Fix SAPI4

SAPI4 is the old speech synthesis system from Microsoft that was used in Window 2000. It can have problems with some voice engines, or combinations of voice engines, and this can stop applications that support it from working.

Latest versions of ClaroRead (3.1.18 onwards) dropped SAPI4 support and so reduced this problem. However, SAPI4 problems can still prevent ClaroRead from starting up. You may be able to fix this by uninstalling SAPI4, but you will have to remove the SAPI4 engine and possibly other applications (e.g. Dragon NaturallySpeaking) that uses SAPI4 so this may not be suitable.

Run SPCHAPI.EXE from the Support folder of your Claro Software CD or download from the Claro Software support website. Try running ClaroRead or the SAPI4 Test program.
Remove SAPI4 voice engines from your machine. You can uninstall them from Add/Remove Programs, but some will come with other programs you do not want to uninstall, such as Omnipage or Dragon.
You can remove SAPI4 voice engines from your machine manually using the registry editor.
1. Click the Start button and select Run.
2. Type regedit into the Run box and press return. If you are on Vista you will have to confirm opening Regedit.
3. In the tree on the left-hand-side navigate to My Computer > HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Voice > TextToSpeech > Engine:
4. The values on the right-hand-side are all the installed SAPI4 voice engines. You can delete them by selecting them and pressing the delete key. You may want to leave MSTTSSyn (Microsoft Sam) and/or L&H TTS3000 (Lerner & Housie), or you can simply delete engines until ClaroRead works.

Cure 3: Fix Data Execution Prevention

Try turning off Data Execution Prevention. This is a protection mechanism introduced in Windows XP Service Pack 2, but only active on some machines where the hardware supports it.

Click the Start button and select Control Panel.
Select Performance and Maintenance.
Select System to open the System Properties applet.
Click the Advanced tab.
Click the Settings button in the Performance section:
Select the Data Execution Prevention tab:
Either select "Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only" or, if ClaroRead is visible in the list of all programs protected by DEP, check the box next to ClaroRead.