PSP X3 freezes on start up

[prodrumman]

Bought Paint Shop Pro X3 from Amazon a week ago. Installed on my computer, it will not start. Start up screen comes up then freezes. I have installed all up dates etc. I have tried the manual uninstall as per the instructions on the site and a fresh install to no avail. Tried this process again this morning and now I get this message,"This copy of Paint Shop Pro has been damaged or illegally modified. Please reinstall from your original source."
I am tired of messing with this, I have spent many hours this week doing the install /uninstall and have gotten nowhere.
Please Help!

[Ken Berry]

Was the version you bought second-hand or did it come in original-looking packing with cellophane seal?

[Ron P.]

This copy of Paint Shop Pro has been damaged or illegally modified. Please reinstall from your original source."

I've seen this error caused when their anti-piracy utility, Protexis Licensing, is not allowed to run. It must be running at the time you're going to launch PSP or VS. Check your task manager to see if Protexis is running. On the Processes tab of task manager, it will be called PsiService. If not you need to start it. Right-click on your My Computer icon, select Manage. Then go to the Services section, scroll down until you locate Protexis Licensing, then click on the Start.

Edited
I just checked this, by stopping Protexis, and trying to launch PSPP X3. I got the exact same error. Just had to start Protexis again, and PSPP launches fine.

[Tim Morrison]

I think there are two possibilities.

The most likely is a problem with certain NVIDIA graphics drivers on systems with dual core processors. Your graphics chip would seem to be the right age to have come with one of the problem drivers... version 81.95 was very common, but all versions from 80 to 83 will cause the problem. The solution is to update the graphics driver. See this Corel Knowledgebase article.

The second possible cause is an old Organizer database left over from an installation of either PSPP XI or Snapfire. The solution is to delete both the X3 and XI Organizer databases. (The X3 database is the same as the X2 one and is found in the same place).
There are two Corel Knowledgebase articles that give instructions for this - Paint Shop Pro Photo freezes on "Updating cache settings"and Saving files is very slow in Paint Shop Pro Photo X2.

As for the PSP is illegally modified error, you might cure it by doing a clean reinstall as set out in the topic at the top of this forum (http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=38064), but I suspect you will have to contact Corel Support - see item 5 at http://www.corel.com/supportoptions. It's possible that PSP's inbuilt anti-piracy component has misinterpreted your multiple install attempts as attempts to install on many computers using the same serial number.

[teknisyan]

Hello prodrumman,

If you are getting the message "This copy of Paint Shop Pro has been damaged or illegally modified. Please reinstall from your original source." the problem is with the installer that you are using. The best solution for this is to call our Tech Support and tell them that you are getting that error message. I would suggest that you keep the receipt, installer disc, the sleeve where the serial number is printed and box handy, since they will be asking for a scan copy of those items.

[prodrumman]

Finally got a chance to call customer service this morning since I have the day off. Was on the phone 3 different times before they closed for the holiday. Still no resolution. Here is what took place this morning;

Updated display driver
deleted and re-downloaded service patches 1,2 & 3
re-installed service patches 1,2 & 3
Still nothing-Was then told to do the complete manual un-install as per the instructions on this board
Did the manual un-install for the 4th time!
Re-install-Tried to start and got-"This copy of Paint Shop Pro has been damaged or illegally modified. Please reinstall from your original source."

Yes, This was a brand new disc, came in a sealed box purchased from Amazon when they had it as their deal of the day a couple of weeks ago. Protexis is running properly, customer service also verified this.

I must say that I have never encountered more difficulty with a program. I consider myself pretty proficient on a computer but this has me baffled and extremely frustrated. My next step may be to toss it all in the trash!

Any help or suggestions at this point would be greatly appreciated. Thanks and Merry Christmas

[harrid4]

I have been having the same exact problem. I purchased this program about a month ago and have never been able to get it to run since installing it. I have tried many things, but still no joy. For me it freezes on startup when the startup screen says "Initializing Command Manager". I hope we get this resolved soon/

One added piece of info, I am running Windows XP Media Center Edition.

[prodrumman]

Same here, my work hours aren't in sync with their customer service hours, so it is hard to call. I am going to try again this evening to contact CS after work. I will post any results.

[harrid4]

Same here, my work hours aren't in sync with their customer service hours, so it is hard to call. I am going to try again this evening to contact CS after work. I will post any results.

Did you have any luck with this?

[prodrumman]

Finally we have success! Yesterday morning I decided to take half a day off work and get to the bottom of this. Up to this point I had done at least 10 install/uninstall cycles following the instructions on this board to no avail. So, at 8:35 I called CS went through 20 or so minutes on hold. Spoke with CS about everything I had previously been through, they couldn't help so they transfered me to Tech Support. Here I was put in touch with Robert Lauzon and after some brief discussion he remotely accessed my computer and got to work. For the next 4 hours! I watched him do at least 4 install/uninstall operations. I don't know fully all of the things he had to do, but the thing he said was causing the most trouble was an outdated Windows Installer was putting some things in the wrong place. He updated that (version 4.5) and tweaked some more and finally got things running.

So, before you call Customer Service check these items.
Make sure your video/graphics card drivers are up to date(not the Windows drivers, the manufacturers drivers-ATI, nVidia etc...)
Make sure the Windows Installer is the latest version -4.5
Download the newest Corel patch #3, this came out right before the first of the year.
Back up your registry and give it one more shot...if this doesn't work...
Make a pot of coffee and get a pillow it may be a while! We disconnected from the phone after the first hour because there really wasn't anything I was doing except watching and waiting.

I would like to thank Corel CS and especially Robert Lauzon for the enormous amount of time he spent to get me up and running. I do hope they get the bugs worked out of this because it is a great program.