MetaQuotes cant open charts "contains incorrect path"

Greetings to all who pass this way ......

I am having an awful time with my MT4 application. I have been using Vantage.com software and have had no trouble with there MT4 in the past several months.

Today however I find a blank screen and no charts will open and I get this error message ....



I hope some one can help me sort this out. I have uninstalled Vantage MT4 and re-installed and it and get the same problem !?

My understanding is that Windows does not allow a '>' sign in a folder or file name:
If you can find your MT4 folder (804178F05358D0DFE1028115526A9E97 according to your screenshot), then drill down to the 'profiles' folder, you should be able to see the names of the profile folders that have been created. That should hopefully tell you what the name of the profile SHOULD be (without any illegal characters):

I'm only guessing here, but if you load the 'lastprofile.ini' file into an editor like Notepad, check to see whether it contains any illegal characters ('>'). If so, try replacing it with the INI file inside the ZIP that I've attached (get a tech specialist to help you, if necessary). Then restart MT4. Provided that this is the only instance of the illegal profile name that MT4 is referring to, it MIGHT fix the problem. But I can make no promises -- TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK, if you feel you have nothing to lose -- it's merely my best guess, as I've never attempted to troubleshoot this type of problem before. Good luck.

I will try to explain myself better........

When MT4 (re)starts, it automatically retrieves the last profile that you used in your previous session. How does it remember? I assume that it gets the profile name from the lastprofile.ini file. The name of the profile is also a folder name which is where it stores all of the details of the profile (in files named chart01.chr, chart02.chr, etc which are the MT4 charts within that profile).

So if the last used profile name somehow had an illegal character, then when MT4 asks Windows to open that folder, Windows will recognise it as an illegal folder name, supposedly causing an error message like the one that you were getting.

Hence what I'm trying to achieve is to get a legal filename inside the lastprofile.ini file. That should at least enable MT4 to start up. The file that I supplied inside the zip file has the profile name 'Default', which is the starting profile in every MT4 installation (therefore I assume that MT4 will accept this profile name). After you subsequently restart MT4, then if it opens correctly, it should open with the default profile, but you should hopefully then be able to switch to any profile that you wish.

Hope this makes sense.
____________________________

[EDIT] I see somebody has already downloaded the file that I attached. For goodness sake, unless you have the same problem that fairwind is describing, DON'T TRY TO APPLY A RISKY FIX TO SOMETHING THAT IS ALREADY WORKING PROPERLY!! As I said, TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK -- if you wreck your MT4, then don't expect anybody to try to help you, for you have only your own STUPIDITY to blame!!!!!

Hello Hanover

Thank you for your response ..... apologies for not getting back sooner, I had a fall on my 80th birthday when I was out walking for my regular heart health !

I searched very carefully thro' my files and I just cannot find that "illegal character". I double checked all my efforts and it is just not there. I am confident about wandering around inside my PC and am very careful not change or delete anything without being absolutely sure I am doing the right thing. I was using Vantage demo because it allowed me to keep using it without having to re-register every month. I am currently using Pepperstone demo A/c which is behaving perfectly.

I will uninstall Vantage and re-instal and see what happens, and let you know how it goes .....

By the way, I love your posts in FF and have read most if not all of them, thank you for all your posts here as well ....

David ... aka fairwind

Did you ever fix this?

If this helps anyone, I found when I named a folder with an incorrect character (such as / ) this error would appear. Simply naming a folder without using the illegal character's allowed me to resume opening charts.

A