Cannot start Power BI Desktop (various messages)

[Kelin]

Dear PBI community,

I have been unable to open Power BI Desktop for about a month and the IT support of my employer cannot solve the problem (uninstalling and re-installing), so I am hoping that somebody may have an idea. My colleagues do not have a same issue.

Specifically: we are using the Windows Store App "Power BI Desktop", a fairly recent update, but the problems started already before the latest update.

• When I open the app directly, the error message is "We weren't able to create an empty database in the model.". The detailed message has following interesting (?) sections
  << [...] PowerBINonFatalError:
  {"AppName":"PBIDesktop","AppVersion":"2.104.941.0","ModuleName":"Microsoft.PowerBI.Client.Windows.dll","Component":"Microsoft.PowerBI.Client.Windows.Storage.FileOpenError","Error":"System.InvalidOperationException","MethodDef":"HandleError - PFE_TM_INVALID_OBJECT_NAME_EMPTY","ErrorOffset":"201"}
  InnerException0.Stack Trace Message:
  ExecuteXmla failed with result
  [...] 
  InnerException1.Stack Trace Message:
  The name for the Culture is empty or not specified.[...]>>
• When opening an existing pbix file, the error message is "Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object.". The detailed messages shows among the stack trace
  <<Feedback Type:
  Frown (Error)[...]
  PowerBINonFatalError:
  {"AppName":"PBIDesktop","AppVersion":"2.104.941.0","ModuleName":"Microsoft.Mashup.Client.UI.dll","Component":"Microsoft.Mashup.Client.UI.Shared.UiExtensibility.UiExtensionHost","Error":"System.InvalidOperationException","MethodDef":"LoadModules","ErrorOffset":"0"}>>

What information may help?

• My peers are not suffering from the same issue, even though the apps are distributed by Microsoft Intune
• Previously, I had two versions installed: the aforementioned Windows Store app, and the regular application but just a July 2021 version (used for our on-premise PBI server). For a while, the old one was still working
• The issue may correllate with me installing the Power BI Report Builder package and/or DAX Studio. But now all else has been uninstalled and the Power BI Desktop app has the same issues

I presume there are some lotering objects somewhere, either Registry stuff or... somewhere maybe somewhere in the Local or Roaming section.

N.B. I do not have local admin rights

Thanks a lot for any tips!

[Kelin · Accepted solution]

Update: solution has been found. The exact problem is not clear, but we have narrowed to down to two most likely candidates:

1. I had also installed some other packages Power BI Report Builder, Radacad's Power BI Helper, Tabular Editor 2. One of these may have overwritten some library which "corrupted" the main Power BI Desktop installation. Uninstalling these other applications did not solve the problem though and re-installing Power BI Desktop did not solve it.
2. It seems that the regular uninstaller does not clean out properly. We used Revo Uninstaller combined with Local Admin repeatedly and reinstalling. The first three attempts attempts failed: we also tried installing the EXE-version both in English (my system language) and German (company's default system settings), wondering if that may be the reason for the error message <<The name for the Culture is empty or not specified.>>

It might be a combination of these two or something else, but long story short: Microsoft should improve their error logging and don't call it "PowerBINonFatalError" if one cannot even get past the splash screen 😉

Small hint: if even with local admin you cannot view the content of C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\ , just open a command window and list the packages there. This does not work without admin rights

[amitchandak]

@Kelin , Check any window update/pending patch. If there is any first do that

Clear windows tmp file/folder and install it again. if you are not the admin of the machine, then make sure it is installed to have access to all users 

[Kelin]

Hi @amitchandak,

thanks for your answer an apologies for my late feedback.

Regaring update/patch: it is all centrally managed, I have the same as my colleagues and always update the same day a patch gets pushed.

Unfortunately, it was insufficient to delete the temp folder content.

It seems to me that there are some corrupted files lying around somewhere, be they libraries and other. The uninstall does not completely purge the registry either.

Are you aware of another folder/registry directory where files could be written to? Here, in particular for the "Windows Store" version of Power BI Desktop (installed to protected folder "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Microsoft.MicrosoftPowerBIDesktop_2.104.941.0.....")

Thanks a lot!