Scipy.optimize dll load failure on Windows 8

Question

I am trying to import scipy.optimize using Python 3.3.1 in Windows 8. I am using scipy-0.12.0. When I try to import, Python returns the following error:

>>> import scipy.optimize Traceback (most recent call last): File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module> File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\scipy\optimize\__init__.py", line 146, in <module> from .optimize import * File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\scipy\optimize\optimize.py", line 34, in < module> from .linesearch import \ File "C:\Python33\lib\site-packages\scipy\optimize\linesearch.py", line 16, in <module> from scipy.optimize import minpack2 ImportError: DLL load failed: The specified module could not be found. 

I believe this is an operating system error because importing scipy.optimize succeeds when using the same version of Python and scipy on a computer running Windows 7.

I would be grateful for any help.

Thanks.

Answer 1

This may be a problem using an incompatible version of Numpy. We solved this problem on a computer running the Numpy-MKL build from Christoph Gohlke . This solved our problems on computers running Windows 8, because builds for Scipy from his site require the build of Numpy MKL.

Answer 2

I really recommend you install SciPy and NumPy with the following packages:

• Python (x, y)
• Anaconda
• Enthought

Otherwise, you will encounter all the strange error, because these packages are mainly based on the C libraries that they need to compile, and usually a standard Windows installation does not have a suitable compiler.