Quartus II v11 internal error

[Altera_Forum]

I'm tring to program two CPLDs (EPM7128) devices on my target board, using a USB Blaster download cable and the programmer on Quartus II, v11.  

 I can use the auto detect feature and the programmer recognizes the two devices in the serial chain.   However, when I select a device to program and try to download the .pof file for it, I get the following error message:   Quartus II Internal Error Fatal Error: unrecognized Windows Exception   After closing the window, I get a further error message:   Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library Runtime error   And then Quartus closes unexpectly.   Any ideas what all this means?

[Altera_Forum]

you should file a service request with Altera on the issue, and in the mean time try installing the 10.1sp1 Stand Alone Programmer

[Altera_Forum]

I have the exact same error with Quartus Programmer V11 (running on anything, it just doesn't seem to work), the software crashes as soon as you try to open a .POF file, regardless of whether or not the USB-blaster has been connected to the PC yet. 

 The .POF files are good as they work fine with the USB-blaster on other machines and running QUARTUS V7.0, and also misc versions of the programmer software as used by our subcontract manufacturers.  For example, if I run the programmer software and then hit the Add File button and select a file junior.pof in the root directory C: I get:-      *** Fatal Error: Unrecognized Windows Exception  Module: quartus_pgmw.exe  Stack Trace:  0x3fbad: RaiseException + 0x57 (kernel32)  0x12b0f: DMGR_UTILITY::create_device + 0x1106f (DDB_DMGR)  0x1214c: DMGR_UTILITY::create_device + 0x106ac (DDB_DMGR)  0xe6f9: DMGR_UTILITY::create_device + 0xcc59 (DDB_DMGR)  0x7ca1: DMGR_UTILITY::create_device + 0x6201 (DDB_DMGR)  0x103f2: DMGR_UTILITY::create_device + 0xe952 (DDB_DMGR)  0x1456: dmgr_create_device + 0x196 (DDB_DMGR)  0x11284: DMGR_UTILITY::create_device + 0xf7e4 (DDB_DMGR)    End-trace    Quartus II Version 11.0 Build 157 04/27/2011 SJ Full Version  [FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER WINDOW THAT I CANT EVEN COPY THE ERROR LOG FROM.....]  :(  any suggestions????

[Altera_Forum]

Try to open the Quartus II V11 "as Administrator" 

Right click on the file --> Run as Administrator

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks for the suggestion! 

Unfortunately running as administrator doesn't fix the problem, and neither does disabling UAC altogether.:( We HAVE identified that the issue that makes it crash when opening POF files is because they are rather OLD .pof files, and so we have found a work-around.:) We program a device with the rather old pof files, using another (working) copy of quartus (v7.0 subscription edition), and we DO NOT set the security bit. Then we move to the quartus v11.0 programmer PC (the one that crashes when opening the old .pof files), and we read out the contents of the device and save it again, in the new .pof file format I guess. Anyway, the v11.0 software can then read these files and it works. I guess we should be able to recompile the PALs using the new version of quartus and that might fix the issue, but it's a very old design and although Max PlusII compiles it just fine, I have yet to find the right combination of settings to force Quartus to find a 'fit' , so it just bombs out of attempted compilations complaining that there isn't enough room in the target device. Oh well, that's life I gues..... -Thanks again,