I'm running Dragon Professional Individual 15.61.200.010 on Windows 10 Business 21H2 OS build 19044.2486.

1) I'm encountering a dictation problem, which started when I moved to my current laptop.  This problem did not exist on the previous PC (previous was Dragon professional individual v15.3 on Windows 10 Pro).

I can be in the middle of successfully dictating.  After I finished dictating a sentence.  I pause for a few moments.  But when I resume talking, Dragon no longer accept dictation.  It does nothing in response to my speech.  It does not present ???  to indicate that it did not understand my speech.  It ignores me and acts as if it did not hear anything.  (Dragon is still on and my microphone is not muted.)

(i) I've had this problem when the Dragon microphone stayed on in between the last successful sentence and the next 'ignored' dictation.  (ii) It's also happened where I completed my previous dictation, press the Dragon hotkey to turn off the microphone, and then later press the hotkey to turn the microphone back on; Dragon changes from Red to Green showing that it turned on.  It just still does not hear anything.

This problem is sporadic.  Sometimes it happens once every few days.  Sometimes it happens 3 or 4 times in the same day.

When it happens, I need to reboot Windows to restore normal Dragon operation.

Rather than a full reboot, I've tried exiting Dragon and then starting Dragon.  But if I try to start Dragon under these circumstances (that is, after the above-mentioned problem has occurred), Dragon spends a lot of time on the splash screen and then gives up with a message that Dragon cannot start.

You might wonder did it ever work correctly or did this problem just begin after some change on the PC?  That's hard to say I've had Dragon installed on this machine for a long time but had barely used it on this machine until now.  Consequently, I cannot say whether this problem existed since day 1 of this Dragon installation.  The problem has existed since I started using Dragon heavily.

Any ideas on the cause and how to fix it?

Or alternately, I wouldn't mind the problem as much if I could restart Dragon without doing a full Windows reboot.   So I'd be interested in ideas on how I can clear whatever is blocking Dragon from restarting.

Note this is a corporate PC where I don't have admin permissions, so I'm looking to do the least amount of experimentation.

2) By the way, I assume that I'm using latest Dragon version, but I cannot find a 'check for updates' feature to check.  At least it's not under the Help menu or About Dragon.  Is there a Dragon update I should install?

We have never seen the DragonBar Help/About Dragon menu fail to display the version number

When you lose the ability to dictate, is it just one application like the Chrome browser or other Dragon friendly apps like DragonPad, Notepad, WordPad?

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Lunis> We have never seen the DragonBar Help/About Dragon menu fail to display the version number

Sorry for any confusion.  I do get my version number displayed via Help/About Dragon.  I meant that I don't know if that's the latest version, because on my v.15.6 program (as well as v15.3 on my prior PC), there is no 'check for updates'.  I remember that my older Dragon versions, had a 'check for updates' choice under Help.

Lunis> When you lose the ability to dictate, is it just one application like the Chrome browser or other Dragon friendly apps like DragonPad, Notepad, WordPad?

All apps across the board.

I think a critical part of my symptom profile is that if I exit Dragon and try to restart, it can't restart.  I don't experience the restart problem if I exit Dragon while it is not in this "i'm not listening" state.  That fact eliminates other non-Dragon causes.  e.g., Dragon is behaving as if it is not receiving any audio input.  But if the problem were in my USB headset, audio drivers, etc, those external factors would not interfere with Dragon's ability to restart.

If it were an audio issue, you could always open the Windows sound settings and see whether Windows detects any audio at all. However, I agree that it probably is not an audio issue. Here is my educated guess.

 

To display text in an application, Dragon has to "hook" into it (their expression, not mine). It seems that in your case, the hook fails occasionally. When you close Dragon, the natspeak.exe is not fully unloaded because it's still connected to a target application (usually Word or Outlook). This may account for the slow start.

 

If you can get admin rights on your computer, you can open a Windows command prompt by pressing Windows+R and enter the following line while Dragon is not running:

start "" "C:\Program Files (x86)\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking15\Program\natspeak.exe" /fixguids

 

This will re-register the various compatibility modules that Dragon uses, and maybe fix your issue.

 

If this isn't possible, you can avoid a full restart of the computer by killing natspeak.exe through the task manager, or by pressing Windows+R and entering the following:

TASKKILL /F /IM natspeak.exe 

 

This won't make the error go away, just make it easier to deal with.

 

Hope that helps, Stephan

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Thanks for the advice.  Unfortunately the following part won't help

Stephan> you can avoid a full restart of the computer by killing natspeak.exe

When I exit Dragon (while it is in the "i'm not listening" state), it gracefully ends the natspeak.exe process.  Similarly, when Dragon won't restart, it also ends the natspeak.exe process after the splash screen and error message.

There are a couple of other Dragon related processes that are left running--like the dragon service.  I've tried killing those via process explorer (thinking perhaps the prior instance was involved with why Dragon won't restart) but they are unkillable.

Stephan> To display text in an application, Dragon has to "hook" into it.

Interesting.  Because I'm having a different Windows problem with hooks for an unrelated application.  I thought it was a separate problem, but maybe it is a single root cause.

If Dragon lost it's hook, what would be the symptom visible to me...would Dragon show the text I say in the little yellow preview box but be unable to insert it into the target app? Or would Dragon not even show the yellow preview box?  My behavior is the later...could that be a lost hook?

My unrelated hook problem is with Macro Express. That program uses hooks to intercept keyboard shortcuts as hotkeys.  I have sporadic problem--only on this PC--where Macro Express loses all its keyboard hooks.  I have to exit and restart it to restore the hooks.  I assume there is some conflict with some corporate software in the background which causes that problem.

On my Dragon, its hotkeys never stop working.  The hotkey continued to toggle the Dragon microphone status even when i'm the "i'm not listening" state.  In that respect I don't a Dragon hook problem.  But since you mentioned hooks in a different context, it makes my wonder.

As far as the Check for Updates menu going AWOL is concerned, you don't need it. Ver. 15.61 is the last DPI 15 release. There won't be anymore Ver. 15 updates or patches. The next release will be Ver. 16

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You can't kill the Dragon Service but it shouldn't cause any harm if natspeak.exe terminates gracefully. 

 

 

I am not a developer so I don't know what actually happens when Dagon hooks into an application. There are some forum members who claim to know better, so maybe they will pipe in. 

 

Macro Express is used by a lot of forum users, but I can't remember any issues with Dragon. Again, maybe someone else knows better.

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