X2 v12.01 keeps Crashing. Help!

jrock28 · Post by **jrock28** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:48 am

Hey,

I am running Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 v12.01 (I did install the update patch about a month ago) on a brand new computer running windows XP service pack 2.

I bought X2 about 3 months ago. It has constantly and consistently crashed, always during the worst times. I contacted support twice about this, did what they suggested, to no avail.

I've held down the shift key during program startup, cleared the cache through program preferences, reinstalled after cleaning my registry, etc. I updated to 12.01 and it still continues to crash.

I am using Windows XP Service Pack 2, Intel Pentium 2.0GHz processor with 1 GB of RAM.

The program will freeze (usually when I'm trying to access a menu option) and I get the generic "This program is not responding" error.\

I use this program on a daily basis for work, so it's kind of important that I get this problem fixed ASAP. I don't really have a choice.

Also, not sure if this matters or not, but this computer is also running a previous version of PSP 7.0 on here.

Thanks for any and all help!

jrock28 · Post by **jrock28** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 12:54 am

Also forgot to mention the graphics card is

Intel g33 g31 express chipset family

Thanks.

Tim Morrison · Post by **Tim Morrison** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 7:34 am

There are several things that are worth trying. Some of these you might well have tried already.
Firstly, I would completely uninstall PSPP X2 using the instructions at http://support.corel.com/scripts/rightn ... qid=762149. Before reinstalling, check to see if the Organizer database has been deleted, and whether there is an old PSPP XI or Snapfire database hanging around, and if so delete them. Instructions at http://support.corel.com/scripts/rightn ... qid=762173.
Then reinstall PSP and the 12.01 patch. (Don't use any registry cleaners during this process.

Other things that could be a factor, or could help with isolating the cause of the problem:-

Is there any factor that is common to the times that the system crashes... using a certain tool, working with a file of a particular size, type or from a particular source?

Is there any set of steps that you can perform that consistently cause the crash?

Are you using Norton 360?

If you're using anything like Windows Blinds, or another program that imposes a custom look or theme on Windows, try turning it off.

Are the motherboard chipset drivers, BIOS and graphics drivers up to date?

Is anything overclocked?

Does reducing graphics acceleration help at all?

Have you got plenty of memory and hard drive space? (And how is virtual memory configured). Running a memory checking program might be worth it to test that you don't have a faulty memory module.

jrock28 · Post by **jrock28** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 3:11 pm

Hey Tim,

Thanks for the quick response. I have already done those 2 things you mentioned involving the complete uninstall/reinstallation with patch. It didn't seem to do much good as I'm still having frequent crashes almost to the point that the entire program in unusable.

The program will often crash randomly, however it happens alot when I'm trying to crop, sharpen an image, or save. Basically, it crashes most often when I try to access a menu item.

This is a brand new computer, so everything should be up to date.

I will try the RAM checker and reducing the graphics acceleration. I am also going to install a better video card and see if that helps however I think that X2 v12.01 is still a very unstable release. Hopefully Corel can get these things fixed up in their next patch.

I really prefer X2 over Photoshop, but if X2 continues to crash I will have to use photoshop.

Tim Morrison · Post by **Tim Morrison** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 3:38 pm

The drivers on a new computer might not be up to date... if fact it's very likely that they aren't. In the case of an individual piece of hardware, the drivers can often be a very early version on a CD that was created when the item was first released to the market. It's a lot cheaper and easier for the manufacturer to continue to supply the original driver disk long after those drivers have been superseded. Add to that the fact that the earliest versions of hardware drivers are usually the buggiest, and the hardware might've taken many months to get from the supplier to the wholesaler, then to the retailer, and finally to you, it's actually extremely rare that you will have the latest and best drivers.
A similar situation occurs with system builders. When they build your computer they don't install the operating system, the drivers and the other software individually. Because it takes a tiny fraction of the time, they simply copy a disk image to the new machine's hard drive. This often remains unchanged through the entire life of a particular model, or at best is updated very infrequently, because it takes a lot of time and effort to update, test and re-image everything.
So it's actually highly unlikely that the drivers on a new computer are up to date. Particularly so in the case of the drivers that are likely to cause the most problems and are updated most frequently by the manufacturer. On one system that I built, with a very newly released motherboard, the BIOS was updated about 10 times in 6 months.

jrock28 · Post by **jrock28** » Sat Sep 06, 2008 7:47 pm

Tim,

Thanks for the reply. I checked my video drivers and they are all up to date. What other drivers should I update? I have XP set to automatically download the update packs - is this what you meant?

Thanks again.