MATLAB R2007b on T61 with Vista

A week or so ago, I tried to install MATLAB R2007b. The program seemed to install without a hitch, but when I went to run it, the splash screen would pop up for a fraction of a second, then it would close, and the program would not be present in memory. I tried many things to get it to work, none of which were successful. The people at the computer help desk also had no idea how to get it to work. The good news is: I just figured it out.

The solution is to install MATLAB R2007b, then uninstall both Java 6 and Java SE Development Kit 6, restart the computer, then re-install them. This will usually require re-downloading the installation files.add an environment variable called "MATLAB_RESERVE_LO" with a value of "0" (zero). After doing that, MATLAB R2007b should run perfectly well.

I hope that someone finds this useful. The computer I'm running on is the Lenovo ThinkPad T61, issued by RPI.

Update (Oct 31, 2007, 01:23 EDT): Apparently my initial solution was a fluke, and only worked by some random chance for me. After I rebooted, it no longer worked. I found this new solution from a thread where someone else was having the same problem. Apparently, it affects "Centrino" processors, which I expect means that it affects Intel's mobile processors newer than, and including, the Pentium M. I would not be surprised if the problem also affected the desktop Core 2 Duo chips as well. One would think that they would catch these things during testing before they ship, since the setup is so common.

Update 2 (Oct 31, 2007, 01:39 EDT): MathWorks, the company behind MATLAB, has an official bug report and work-around. Unfortunately, you have to create an account to see it, but the same solution (though without an explanation) is provided both here, and in the thread I referenced earlier.