MiKTeX and proTeXt ⇒ pdflatex.exe did not succeed

[Philal01]

Using Winshell 3.3.2.5 texteditor on MiKTeX 2.9 (32 bit version) on Windows 7 computer. Everything exactly set up as on my laptop directory-wise, where pdfLaTeX works perfectly. But here all I get is the error message: Sorry, but "C:\program files (x86)\Miktex 2.9\miktex\bin\pdflatex.exe" did not succeed.
The logfile after trying a LaTeX compilation (with the same result) tells me

2017-06-30 17:50:14,446+0100 INFO latex - starting with command line: "C:\Program Files (x86)\miktex 2.9\miktex\bin\latex.exe" -src-specials -interaction=nonstopmode 79XXYYC.tex
2017-06-30 17:50:14,446+0100 FATAL latex - MiKTeX encountered an internal error.
2017-06-30 17:50:14,446+0100 FATAL latex - Info:
2017-06-30 17:50:14,446+0100 FATAL latex - Source: Libraries\MiKTeX\Core\Session\config.cpp
2017-06-30 17:50:14,446+0100 FATAL latex - Line: 1394

Could anyone please suggest a solution? Many thanks.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Welcome to the forum!

I have seen similar MiKTeX error messages from time to time, and it often turned out to be solved after a new installation (plus this or that...). I don't use MiKTeX, so I cannot help with MiKTeX-specific errors but with any LaTeX error I could help. You could ask on the MiKTeX mailing list.

I use TeX Live 2017. That's also for Windows PCs. You could consider that TeX installation, supported by the TeX Users Group. The TeX documents themselves are independent of the choice of MiKTeX or TeX Live.

Stefan