PSP X4 Clone tool crash

[arturox]

It's a new day, Sunday 29th Jan, and I've been working away again at these PSP X4 problems since 5:00 Am and it's now 8:45 as I write this.

One thing has become apparent since Corel bought PSP and re-worked it to suit their agenda... It has become a fragile thing that the slightest wobble seems to upset.
I'm sure if I farted on the keyboard Corel PSP would crash.

Anyway, moan over, back to business...

I have, it appears, cured the problem, whereby the Clone brush, and various other similar tools would not work, but brought forth an empty script window, freezing PSP, and eventially crashing out every time.

Now I suppose you want me to tell you what I did... Huh! You really don't want to know the tedious, boring work done for elimination processes.

Suffice to say, making sure there are absolutely no Brushes files in "C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Documents/My Documents/Corel PaintShop Pro/14.0/Brushes" solves that problem.

I have a collection of PspScript and PspBrush files I've collected over the years, and whenever I get a new PSP they get taken from central store and put in the PSP Brushes directory of the new version, where-ever the idiot programmer of the day has decided is the default place for them this time.

When I can find some more time to waste on this rather pointless exercise (*) I'll return the brush files in small batches the directory and see...
1) If X4 can tolerate any external brush files at all.

2) If it can, try to weed out those that are causing the problems, so I can still use the rest.

I'll report back if I find any specific examples.

(*) Is because X4 is so unreliable it cannot be trusted and used for any serious work, so back to 9.01

Now we get to part two of the errant X4, that's getting the damn thing to Run in the first place.
I've identified a couple of thing, but they all lead back to the cache file in "C:/Documents and Settings/Dave/Local Settings/Application Data/Corel PaintShop Pro/14.0/Cache"

Those couple of things are to do with the Organiser and Navigation, in that, if the Organiser and Navigation (Filer tree) are never used, then PSP can be double clicked to run without problems.
Once Organiser and Navigation have been used then two new cache files are created in the cache directory, and thereafter PSP will not Run, but fails at the the place in the Splash screen, Updating Cache files.

Starting with empty cache directory.
When first run, the following are created and PSP will run, and providing only those 7 file exist PSP can be quit and re-Run okay.

CMD.PspCache
Gradients.PspCache
LastDBFilter.PspCache
Patterns.PspCache
PSPPLCachV8F.PspCache
Swatches.PspCache
Textures.PspCache

If the Navigator and Organiser are used, then two additional cache file are created, thereafter PSP cannot be re-Run as it freezes at the Splash Cache point.
The two new files are:
LastDBTreeSel.PspCache
USE.PspCache

First though was, just delete these two new files from the cache and then PSP will re-Run okay, unfortunately not so.
Once those two new cache file have been created, something must also get written to one or more of the other cache files, as it now requires them all to be deleted and thus allow PSP to re-Run.

On that matter, I've gone about as far as I can as it now requires someone with a knowledge of the inner working of PSPX4 to get a handle on the cache file creation.

My Brain hurts.
Ax

[arturox]

Continuing with the Clone Tool and Brushes...

There were two errant files in the collection of brushes, I'm not sure how they got there and how I didn't see they shouldn't have been in there anyway... Not seeing forest for the trees joke I guess. :-{
They were...

Preset_PaintBrush_amc_Clouds.PspScript
Preset_PaintBrush_amc_VerySoftTexture.PspScript

Which should be in the Presets directory along with a few other amc PspScript files.

Obviously now sorted.

Ax

[df]

Continuing with the Clone Tool and Brushes...

There were two errant files in the collection of brushes, I'm not sure how they got there and how I didn't see they shouldn't have been in there anyway... Not seeing forest for the trees joke I guess. :-{
They were...

Preset_PaintBrush_amc_Clouds.PspScript
Preset_PaintBrush_amc_VerySoftTexture.PspScript

Which should be in the Presets directory along with a few other amc PspScript files.

Obviously now sorted.

Ax

It would be interesting to find out just how those found their ways into the wrong folder.

[arturox]

The date stamp on the files is 2003/4 a bit too far back to remember, but I guess it must have been me sometime in the past when I've been moving stuff into the storage Dirs on the NAS.

Funny thing is, this situation has existed for years and didn't bother PSP 9.01 or even X2U, it came to light in X3 and X3U but that was such a rubbish release it was only installed for a short while before being dumped.

Now what I really want to know is how to get over this cache problem, remembering it exists on both the XP-SP3 Desktop and the W7-SP1 Laptop.

I was going to do a .bat file for my desktop to Delete the cache files when I double clicked it, but it's been such a long time since I did that (Wrote a .bat file), I can't remember if it would work with modern day Path/filenames with spaces in them.
?
Ax

[arturox]

Created to .bat Del file and that works okay.

In another place someone has suggested a complete uninstall using the X4 Cleanup tool, then a reinstall.
Not something I've particularly wanted to do as the PSP X4 install is not that old, anyway, I've downloaded the tool,and will do the stuff sometime today and see if it does cure the cache problem.

I'll report back when the tedium is all over.
Ax

[arturox]

So, I did the deed, I totally and utterly wiped X4 from everywhere on the computer.

Checked using other apps... Nothing to be found.
Rebooted the computer.

Installed PSP X4 14.0.0.345

Thereafter, for a while gave it a serious lot of usage and many re-Runs, no problems.

Installed SP1 taking PSP X4 to 14.1.0.5 also gave that a going over, unfortunately I'm back to where I was originally with the Cache directory emptying required to get PSP X4 running.

I have a couple more thoughts to action, after that...

Ax

[arturox]

Grief I really don't know what they've done to this poor application to make it so damn weedy.

I have sets of Brushes, Plugins, Scripts I've collected over the years and just point any new PSP at the place where they reside, or in this case, because of all the trouble, I transferred them LS&B into the X4 All Users, Documents place.

I've done this since PSP 8 and every version up to and including X2U has worked without complaint, now with this weedy version, a number of Plugins cause it to fall over at the Splash Cache point.

Also a number of Trusted and Restricted scripts cause it to fall over at the Splash Cache point.

After removing them all earlier... I've spent most of today slowly feeding back the stuff, running PSP seeing if it falls over or not, if it does, remove the last stuff put in, if it doesn't, add in the next bit, run PSP again and so on...

To say I'm bored and totally pissed off would be a vast understatement, but there it is.

Any old script that starts JascAPP will cause PSP X4 to crap itself, so unless I want to wade through them all and edit them, they are junk.

A number of .8bf Plugins that work perfectly okay on older versions of PSP, will, if installed in the Plugins directory cause PSP to fall over at the Splash Cache point.

So after all that work...
I now have a version of PSP X4 that for most of the Runs, loads correctly.

Ax

[arturox]

So...
In light of the above noted discoveries.
I thought I'd recreate from scratch one of my old scripts.
I set the PSP X4 Script recorder going and went through the processes, then Saved the script to Scripts-Restricted.

It's a very simple set of actions resize to 640 x 480 and make the Resolution 96 pix/inch.

As long as the Script exists in the PSP Filer tree, PSP X4 again fails at the Splash.
Remove it from PSP X4 sight, clear the Cache file, and X4 runs again okay, re-introduce the script and again crash at the Splash.
Remove it and X4 is okay.

Good Grief, if X4 cannot even create a simple script itself, for its own use, this really is not an application to be used for any serious work.

The more I use this thing, the more it presents as a Toy.

Ax

[df]

Yeah, I had issues with scripts as well although not until I tried to run the script.

[arturox]

The time comes when the joke has worn so thin it ceases to be even worth any effort to mention it.

Over the last few weeks I've put a lot of work into resolving this pair of PSP X4 problems the ones that have been blighting my attempts to use PSP X4, (On two different OSs) in the hope that I could progress from PSP 9.01 to a usable newer version.

While I did totally resolve the Clone tool problem, the other, PSP freezes during loading appears irresolvable.
Sure I've eliminated all sorts of things from both PSP and its external files which has improved the run-ability of X4 a lot, including a complete removal, but it still hasn't totally resolved the problem.
There seems to be no logic in the splash freeze points, in that it'll freeze in one place, then the next time it'll freeze on another different action.

The bottom line... It's still so unreliable as to be pointless trying to do any serious work on it.

I don't suppose the owners of the app care one way or the other, they've got my moneys so I might just as well f- off.

Which is just what I shall do...
As it's the first weekend of the month, its disk housekeeping time again, so I think tomorrow I'll dump it in the rubbish bin along with the rest of the rubbish that accumulates during the month.
Thanks to all who have made useful suggestions, but as far as I'm concerned this subject is also dumped.

Back to PSP 9.01
Ax

[arturox]

Plague...
I forgot to mention as a footnote...
Providing I run my Cache excising .bat file before attempting to run PSP X4 it will nearly always load without splash feezing.

An added PITA...Providing I always did that action pre-running, I was able to re-introduce some scripts etc that I'd had to excise in an attempt to get it to run on its own.

Huh!
Enuff!
Ax