PhotoImpact v.11 Constantly Crashes

deco2 · Post by **deco2** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:18 am

I have just upgraded (and may be downgrading again soon) to version 11 from v. 5 Bundled Edition. My problem is that v. 11 keeps crashing after editing only a few photos. The crashes are varied, sometimes I get an error message such as "instruction at 0X7301d1107 referenced memory at "0X000000004", the meomory could not be read". Other times I am attempting to save a photo and begin to type in the name of the file and the program just disappears, I am left staring at my desktop. Still other times I just receive a message that PhotoImpact has encountered a problem and has to shut down. Arggg! I have been fighting with this two days now: I've removed all my temp files, closed EVERY other application, did a clean reinstall, tried only opening a few photos at one time and nothing seems to help. I get a few photos (read, maybe 5 or 6) done and *BAM* *CRASH* I have 2G RAM and have never had this sort of nonsense with version 5. With the crashes occurring with simple photo editing I wonder what would happen if I tried to use the .gif animator or special effects? I love some of the features in v. 11 but I'm about to have a splendid bonfire with it! Can anyone help? (Please excuse if this has been posted before, I did a search and did not find anyone having this sort of frustration...)

Post by **Ron P.** » Thu Apr 24, 2008 12:40 am

I have PI-11 hang while launching every now and then, and also do a disappearing act. However once I launch it again, no problems for quite awhile. While I still have PI-11 installed, I confess that I don't really use it much any longer, since having versions 12 and X3.

Have you installed the update patch for VS11? If not you can download it from HERE.

You might also go HERE and download the latest MS Direct-X drivers. The most current is dated March 2008. It seems to fix several problems with VideoStudio. Some have reported not having any problems running the programs, then out of the blue they have a variety of problems, that once they have updated DirectX, the problems went away. I'm not sure, but this could be due to windows updates, messing up files, that worked previously.

deco2 · Post by **deco2** » Thu May 15, 2008 6:31 pm

Thanks for your suggestions, vidoman. I downloaded one VS11 patch but decided not to pursue the other dll file as it was modified earlier than the one I had on my system (a February vs March date & time). I have taken your suggestion and downloaded the latest DirectX. We will see if it helps. After my last posting I had to do a complete system restore, it seems some of the temp files I deleted took their toll. Since then I've installed and uninstalled VS11 twice with mixed results. I have installed it one last time (perhaps the fifth time's the charm) and if it keeps misbehaving after the updates, it's out of here.

One curious thing, in PhotoImpact 5 I can open up well over 100 images with no ill effects whatsoever but VS11 flakes with only 5. What's up with that? Also, you mentioned using VS12 and X3, are they superior (in your opinion) to version 11? If you had to choose only one, which would you go for and, are you having any problems (however small) with either of them?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu May 15, 2008 11:30 pm

Like vidoman I don't use PI 11 at all anymore. It has been cumbersome at best and, after I got it, I kept using PI 10 for anything other than photography work with RAW files. It got canned after I got PI 12 and now I use predominantly PI X3.

I know this doesn't help you at all but it is meant to be an encouragement to upgrade to a later version. PI 12 is a lot more stable than PI 11 and PI X3 is better still but has lost a few of the bundled programs of earlier versions. PhotoExplorer has been replaced by MediaOne and Gif animator has been removed from the bundle. You can, however, keep PEX and GA from earlier versions working on your machine.