X3 not giving back memory

[bigfatron]

Well it probably is a frequently asked question.

Which reminds me I had meant to call their hotline about this very problem. I mean I still have those two advanced tech support tickets I'm allowed to use.

Do let me know if you want the ticket number for the original call that I placed as reference.

[bigfatron]

Last ticket still open but still no useful response. Seriously unimpressed.

[Truelight]

I've reluctantly submitted a refund request to Corel for PSP X3. The "upgrade" from PSP X2 just isn't working out for me and I don't have the time to waste working on images that after a few editing steps will not save due to an "Insufficient memory" error. Bringing up the same exact file in PSP X2 and doing the same steps - no problem. The "enhancements" in PSP X3 aren't worth the headaches, I find Picasa oh so much faster and easier to deal with than the lame "Organizer". I'm really sorry Corel as I've been a loyal user of PSP since the Jasc days and version 3, but this time you've really broken it. I will continue to use PSP X2 as it seems to get the job done for me, but sadly (and unfortunately at a much higher cost), I think I will need to take a move I'd avoided all these years and look to Adobe for my image editing software.

You might also want to take a hard look at your online support. Twice now when I've been in "chat" support, the tech has been very slow to respond with any real answers and eventually he just stopped replying altogether and disappeared, the online equivalent of hanging up on me.

You'd have done better not to release PSP X3 at all rather than release something that is clearly not ready. If you need to beta test a product, release a free beta and let users test that, don't charge people only to aggravate them. I hope that I do not find that in addition to not giving back memory, you are also poor at giving back money.

[LeviFiction]

Even with it's problems I prefer PSP to Adobe's Photoshop Elements (which is all I can afford). If I could afford Photoshop itself I'd jump on that bandwagon in a second. But I can't and PSP is awesome...even when it crashes because I forget that I can't grab the text tool and have the background material set to transparent. Yeah it's that bad and I'm still sticking with Corel. But that's me. I'm odd.

They may be working on this, maybe it's not a problem that can be fixed with a response. But I would still prefer a response.

[StaceyBlue]

So glad I didn't hold my breath for a fix for the problem or that I didn't buy X3. I'm still using PSPX2.

[bigfatron]

Well after 2 weeks of deliberation they finally replied with the following stock reply.

Dear xxxxxx,

After carefully reviewing this incident it is recommended that you call into our technical support center for further assistance. E-mail is an alternative option for technical support on resolving minor issues. Due to the nature of this particular issue, and the need for interaction, contacting Corel directly via telephone will provide you with a quicker and more tailored solution for the issue you are facing.

Please Note: A fee per support incident may apply when calling. For information on pricing and contact information, please visit:

UK - 0800 376 9271
Other - www.corel.com/contactus

Best Regards,
??????
Corel Customer Support Service

14 days and I get a cut and paste. And once again they prove that they don't actually seem to read the tickets in the first place. I'd swear it was an automated process if it didn't take 14 days to respond.

My reply was along the following lines

I have already clearly stated twice (once in this ticket and also in the previous one) that I work during your support hours and would therefore be unable to access the PC with the software installed on it. I have also clearly detailed the error and steps required to reproduce it.

I'm also not keen to have to spend my own money to log a support issue which will hopefully fix a glaring error in your software when i've already provided you with full details of the issue.

I find your inability and/or unwillingness to read and comprehend what I have previously reported to you not only frustrating but also frankly insulting. And I certainly will be taking this incident into consideration when evaluating whether to buy any of your products in future.

I'm also curious as to why it took 14 days to send me that previous stock reply.

[bigfatron]

They may be working on this, maybe it's not a problem that can be fixed with a response. But I would still prefer a response.

A simple "thanks for the details, we'll try it at our end and come up with a fix if we can reproduce it" would be just fine.

Anyone would think I was causing them an inconvenience by trying to help them improve their products

[LeviFiction]

I think I"m getting through to them. Haha

I'm starting with the live chat online, they've already had me try restoring to factory defaults and making sure I installed the patch. I'm wearing them down, boys, I'm wearing 'em down. They disconnected me. Haha. But I prepared for that, I finally have the time to call them myself so here's to hoping. I'll edit this post with any updates.

EDIT: Okay I called technical support. And I love this guy, very straight forward calm voice. No accent. No offense to people with accents, but my hearing is terrible so when the technical support person has an accent it's half an hour of miscommunication and "What was that?" So we were able to communicate quite well, and they responded in a timely manner. No waiting for 20 minutes online with that horrible taunting voice "all representatives are currently busy, pleas stay on the line."

After explaining my reported numbers and bigfatron's he admitted that he was seeing the same thing using the procedure defined. And he promised to report it to the engineering guys. What happens from there is up to them, at least technical support is finally doing their job.

[Simone Corel UK]

This was the first request by bigfatron:

"I'm working with 16 bit TIFF files (about 100MB a piece). What appears to be happening is I open PSP X3, work with half a dozen images, then close them but PSP X3 still shows a high amount of RAM resources in Task Manager"

To be honest, I wouldn't open even in Photoshop 6 pictures à 100 MB:
6x100 MB are 600 MB (compressed)!

I don't have pictures with that size but a 2.4 MB (compressed) picture takes in my PSP/Photoshop versions 17.6 MB = 7.3
If I open a 24 MB picture in PSP/Photoshop, it increases the picture's RAM to 306/298 MB = 12x

Let's be optimistic and take the factor 10 (though it's higher with bigfatron incredible 100MB files): 6x100=600 600x10=6GB

Regarding: "then close them but PSP X3 still shows a high amount of RAM resources"

As somebody already wrote here, the mediacataloger.exe is running in the background. After closing PSP, the mediacataloger.exe should stop automatically, if you have disabled this setting:

cataloger.jpg (36.69 KiB) Viewed 5494 times

Please don't misunderstand my answer: I only wanted to inspire you to open your Calculator.exe as part of each Windows OS and to take a look in the settings, before you do things like this in any photo editing software. Normally, I take £10 paid support for questions like this.

@LeviFiction: Obviously, you have called the UK support line. The UK support is part of the European and South African support. Therefore we have to speak more than English and most of us are Europeans. As a German, I can't speak English without accent.

[LeviFiction]

I only called the number provided on the Corel.com website. If there is a number specific to USA it is not properly labeled on the support page. I know Corel is not based in the USA and deals with other countries. I was simply thankful I was able to get someone with whom I, with my limited capabilities, was able to understand and get the problem reported sufficiently. Corel isn't the only company that I have had problems like this with, nor does a USA based company guarantee that accents won't occur. So the fact that Corel deals with the UK as well makes no difference at all. The comment was completely unnecessary.

However I don't understand the rest of your response. Sure you're pointing out that such large images are dangerous to open that many at a time to begin with but it also offers nothing else. Even if he opened them one at a time it wouldn't change the result. PSP, while it's open, does not return the memory used by the open image, if the image is edited and saved, when you close the image. So it would still build up...and your point becomes moot. Oh by the by, turning off that setting didn't change a darn thing to effect this problem. Not that I expected it to, your description says that this will stop the organizer when PSP closes. But closing PSP is not the issues here. As clearly stated numerous times throughout this thread.

Also your calculations are interesting. You're assuming the TIFF files are compressed. And that a size of 10x is required. Looking at the numbers bigfatron posted on the second page your conclusions didn't seem to match up with the results given. So I decided to try it myself on a machine that only has 3GB of RAM and is running a 32-bit operating system. Obviously if 6GB were required I could not open all six images.

After opening six 100MB Tiff files that I downloaded, the size of actual physical memory used up jumped by 100 MB for each file. Now that's actual memory. So with the example given I'm not reaching anywhere near 6GB you calculated. So, no offense, but I'm not feeling too confident in your calculations without knowing for sure if they are compressed or uncompressed.

Though I do often miss the obvious, so I admit I could be way off base here.

[bigfatron]

To be honest, I wouldn't open even in Photoshop 6 pictures à 100 MB:
6x100 MB are 600 MB (compressed)!

This is the size of output file you get from an 18MP RAW file as I use CaptureOne for RAW processing (sorry but the RAW support in PSP really isn't very good in comparison) and 16 bit TIFF is the best intermediate format for me. What i'm doing isn't that unusual a workflow for people working with images shot in RAW.

Let's be optimistic and take the factor 10 (though it's higher with bigfatron incredible 100MB files): 6x100=600 600x10=6GB

Its an uncompressed format, so actually a 100MB image is still 100MB in RAM.

As somebody already wrote here, the mediacataloger.exe is running in the background. After closing PSP, the mediacataloger.exe should stop automatically, if you have disabled this setting:

As I already wrote here, this has nothing to do with the issue. Nor does auto-preserve, undo settings or any other setting as I stated in previous posts I have tried turning almost everything off in the software. I have provided clear steps to reproduce the issue. Others have also reproduced it. I myself have reproduced it on two totally different systems. I have also shown that PSP X2 does not have the same problem.

Please don't misunderstand my answer: I only wanted to inspire you to open your Calculator.exe as part of each Windows OS and to take a look in the settings, before you do things like this in any photo editing software.

I have no idea what you are saying there.

Normally, I take £10 paid support for questions like this.

Perhaps you need to get your employers to take a look at how you provide your support then. You have a support line that only takes calls during the hours the majority of us are at work, you make users pay for the support calls and offer no way of users reporting issues to you without putting their hand in the their pocket.

Now is it at all possible you can take this issue on and/or bring it to the attention of one your colleagues? I will provide the email support ticket numbers if you need them, and anything else you need. Believe it or not, I am actually trying to help you improve your software here.

[Simone Corel UK]

@bigfatron:
Could you send me your PIN number (log in into your Corel account and you will find it in "Your account") as private message? I then would write to you how we can test your machine's and PSPX3' behaviour.

[bigfatron]

Just to keep the thread updated i'm pleased to say that i've passed some information onto Simone and shes been able to reproduce the issue and has raised the matter with Corel's developers.

[LeviFiction]

Sweet. With Simone reporting, and hopefully the guy I talked to reporting (he said he would) we might see some results.

[bigfatron]

Sweet. With Simone reporting, and hopefully the guy I talked to reporting (he said he would) we might see some results.

Yes indeed, fingers crossed this gets sorted and hopefully Simone's presence (who was very quick to get things turned around once we finally got the ball rolling) on the board will prove to be fruitful in terms of getting issues identified and raised and also Corel being able to improve their product as a result. A big win all round i'm sure you'll all agree.