buffer overrun

[chuckv]

Do any of you experts out there know how to correct buffer overrun in Elements 5.0 ?

[JEGavlas]

Sorry, but most of us probably have no idea. This is not a common error and is hardware related. You mentioned that you had plenty of memory but what is the age of you computer? What operating system are you using?

It is irritating to have a unsolvable problem but that is what some computers are all about. In your case it could be the CPU:mad:.

[gcherry]

Can you post the exact error message you're getting?

[ATR]

You really do have to give a lot more details for speedy suggestions to be worthwhile, like what you are doing when you get the message, your operating system, etc.

But, I did come up with a link that may or may not be of interest:

This one has to do with Photoshop Elements 3.0, but probably applies to the 5.0 version as well
Check out 4 of 11 and what follows about buffer overrun.
http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bbadeac/3

To be continued

ATR

[Barb O]

ATR

Usually I agree with your analysis. However, this time I do have some disagreements.

I think that it is becoming increasingly risky to conclude that this thread response for a previous version will apply for PSE 5; especially if it is PSE 5 running under Vista - but even iif it is PSE 5 running under Windows XP.

A specific - the name of the thumbnail cache is PSE 5 is different - thumb.5.cache

Now the old cache tn.x.cache (where x is one higher than the version number) will usually (or always, not sure) exist if a previous version of PSE had been installed on that PC/laptop and the catalog was upgraded from a prior version.

I can't speak for everyones PC or laptop configurations, but based on limited experiments on my PC,

-- the activity done in PSE 5 seems to only update thumb.5.cache.

-- A catalog that was newly created in PSE 5 only has a thumb.5.cache: it does not have a tn.x.cache.

However, if this is Vista, there are potentially permission issues on folders as well as a different folder structure.

More info from the submitter would certainly help - like did he already do a File > Catalog > Recover (by command or by holding down the Ctlr key)? Which version of Windows, did he convert from a prior PSE version, did it ever work on PSE 5, exactly what was he doing when it failed ?

ADDING BY EDIT

I thought to go look at prior posts by chuckv and I found that
he is running Windows XP, he upgraded from PSE 3 but it seems that it is no longer installed, he has not yet done a Catalog Recover, but will do that.

[ATR]

BarbO

We are in agreement that more information was needed to be given here. But, I would ask you to re-read my response and note that I did make any conclusions, take anything for granted, or whatever. The initial mission accomplished was (a) ask for more information (b) give the person who posted an idea how other people have tackled a buffer overrun issue, duly noting a different program was involved. Conclusion time was coming only after the person posted back with more details. My approach is to define the limits of my comments which I believe I do (did).

As they say, moving forward. As always, I am glad to see you sharing your great experience with the Forum users. Thanks for doing the homework on the person who posted. What did you mean by “he has not yet down a Catalog Recover, but will do that”? Are you working with the person via PM? If so, I would hope that someone would report the outcome to avoid a cliff hanger thread.

If that is not the case, when the requested info is posted here, we can all jump back into the discussion and troubleshoot further and learn as we troubleshoot. The bottom team line is always, the final response…problem solved.

ATR

[Barb O]

ATR,

That conversation about the Catalog Recover is in another thread of his on this site. I went and found all of the thread originator's posts in order to see that other thread. I did not use a PM.

[ATR]

Barb O

Thanks for clearing that up and going the extra mile to dig deeper into background that should to be given when someone wants feedback on problems.

Before making any additions to threads, I give the thread a re-read. That is when I noticed the following embarrassing typo. In my last comments to you, I left out an essential "not" where I was trying to point out that I did not make any conclusions yet. It has been a long day.

ATR

[ATR]

Chuckv apparently posted his problem at least twice:

8/3/07 in the Photoshop Elements 5 Questions and Answers Forum, title "Elements 5.0 Organizer" to which BarbO contributed. I did not see that entry until today.

http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26880
and

8/5/07 in the General Elements Forum, title "Buffer Overrun", the thread we are in now.

Chuckv gave more details of the situation in the 8/3/07 thread than here. So to close the loop, I have cited 8/3/07 link above for anyone following the problem/solution route.

ATR

[chuckv]

I hope I'm in the right forum now. I can't believe the myriad of forums dealing with Photoshop Elements 5.0. Anyway here is my latest post which may or may not explain my situation. I'll comment again at the end of this paste of thread in apparently the wrong place.
Topic
PSE 5.0 Organizer Buffer Overrun

Charles Vogeler - 03:26pm Aug 18, 2007 Pacific


This my third and last time to try to find a solution. Sorry but I cannot locate my previous two threads on this same topic. I'll start with my hdwe & software. I'm running PSE 5.0 on a HP a820n WIN XP Home SP2. 3.2gh Pentium processor. 2GB Memory, 1.96 available. Two years ago purchased PSE 3.0 and found it reliable and good edit tool, no problems. This past year upgraded to PSE 5.0. Ran with both programs for a few months then uninstalled 3.0 as I felt it was redundant program. 5.0 was operating fine until a month ago when I encountered the "Buffer Overrun" problem with the 5.0 Organizer. Here's the exact error msg: Buffer overrun detected.
Program: PhotoshopElements5.0\PhotoshopOrganizer.exe
A Buffer Overrun has been detected which has corrupted the
Program’s internal state. The program cannot safely continue
and must now be terminated."
I have spent several hours searching MS Knowledge Base. Google and this forum for solution. Google returns only references to hacker exploitation. MS has nothing of use. Photoshop forums has hundreds of inquiries that appear to cover almost ALL PSE programs from Starter Album to PSE 5.0 and advanced Photoshop programs with absolutely no concensus on cause and none on solution and fix. One would think that by now Adobe would have issued some kind of fix or service advisory on this problem considering it's magnitude. What is more disconcerting is that it appears the "Organizer" imbeds itself in an operating system to the extent that an uninstall is imperfect and one must begin screwing around with the registry to get a clean uninstall. Not a desirable situation. If I had know the extent that PSE imbeds itself in a system I don't believe I would have purchased it. My last try for a fix was the cntrl key hold down while opeining Organizer. I've gone thru two uninstall and reinstall with no change. I was able to restore a recently downloaded set of pix but immediately after the Buffer Overrun error msg appeared. The Organizer remains useless so I now have an expensive program that offers editing only and some simplistic album and view programs. Judging by the forum entries this problem has been around for the past two or three years and the problem still persists. If there is anyone in this forum that can offer a solutioon that does not involve completely overhauling my entire O/S I'd sure appreciate hearing from them.
Perhaps I'm oversymplifying but the problem is "BUFFER OVERRUN". The error message began after I had deleted the catalog to save on disk. I've since added pix directly from my Cannon XTI 400D and they transferred to the PSE 5.0 Catalog, however. the next day on re-entering the PSE 5 opening the Organizer resulted in another Buffer Overrun error message. Why is it as I noted in my pasted last thread that this problem has been around for three or more years there is no simple statement as to just what Buffer Overrun means related to PSE. I just can't see why there no simple answer to correcting the problem. I believe the best route may be to just forget the "Organizer" and just restrict my use of PSE 5 to editing. Maybe I should just junk Adobe PSE altogether and go to DXO. I'm sure not going to reinstall my O/S just to get the Organizer to work.
Chuckv

[cats4jan]

Chucky

I can offer no help, but your frustration is palpable and I can truly empathize with your frustration.

I have Pinnacle 10 sitting on my shelf. I cannot get the darn thing installed no matter what I try. $100 gathering dust. I just don't have the energy to solve the install problem.

As for your problem? Stick with this group - give them a chance to work it out for you.

If you can spare 10 minutes multiples times per day - to keep the dialogue flowing - answering their questions as they come up - they probably will resolve your issue. The people on this forum are incredibly bright and they are also incredibly helpful.

Good luck.

[jlwilm]

Chucky,

Have you tried creating a new Catalog to see if this solves your problem?

If you cant get into Organizer without having the problem, use Windows Explorer and go to

C:\documents and settings\all users\application data\adobe\catalogs

(it should be there)

and rename the existing catalog to anything else – junk.psa


If you can get into Organizer, try a File, Catalog, New and navigate it to My Documents/My Pictures and give it a name of My New Cat.

This will create a new catalog and store it far, far away from the possibly corrupted catalog.

Now change Organizer to Folder Location view (lower left corner) and navigate to wherever your pictures are (My Pictures). You use the Folders view pretty much like windows explorer. Once you get there, do a right click, add unmanaged files to catalog and Elements should start to rebuild your catalog.

Once done, change your view to whatever you prefer and, hopefully, all will be right with your world.

[NickLewis]

Hi Chuck,

I'd certainly try Barb's suggestion of a Catalog Recover, followed by John's suggestion of setting up a new catalog.

However, before starting renaming files to get a new catalog, try holding down the Shift key while opening Organiser. This will bring up the Open Catalog dialogue. Exit that without choosing a catalog, and the next dialog box will offer you the chance to set up a new catalog.

Also, can you give a little more information on what exactly you did prior to the problem arising? You've said you "deleted the catalog to save on disk". What steps did you follow to do that? Did you delete your images as well? Or the thumbnail caches?

As background, a buffer overrun is a general type of software event in which a program attempts to write data into a part of memory it shouldn't be accessing. (This type of problem can be exploited by the guys with the black hats to execute malicious code, which is why you are finding Google references to hacking, but is not necessarily the result of malicious activity.) Also it isn't necessarily a programming error that can be patched or corrected by Adobe or anyone else. For example, it can be caused by incompatibilities or inconsistencies between the data a program is using and what it was expecting - which is why I ask what exactly you did to delete your catalog.

By the way, I don't think Organiser embeds itself in the OS to any greater extent than many other programs out there. Many, if not most, applications create or amend registry entries, and regrettably not all of them tidy up fully after themselves on an uninstall.

Nick

[Barb O]

Chuck,

Since you were posting yesterday at the Adobe forum, I responded to you in that thread and I see that you have since responded over there. So I will merely place a link to that thread here.

http://www.adobeforums.com/cgi-bin/webx/.3bc4c48b/2

[chuckv]

Nick,
Thank you. I believe your suggestion to set up a new cat solved the problem. At least I now have my original cat and when I exit PSE altogether and go back in and open Organizer I DO NOT get the Buffer Overrun msg and lose PSE altogether. Between you and Barb O I believe the situation is corrected, however, I must add that I deviated from your advice to hold down the shift key since that did ot bring up the Open Cat dialogue. What I did was hold down the RIGHT ctrl key and when the Open Cat dialogue box appeared I exited it without making a selection, as you directed. The next dialogue box was the Open Cat dialogue box with three entries showing. I selected what appeared to be the first Cat I had set up when I upgraded to 5.0. at least I recognised all the thumbnails. I haven't tried editing any of them so hopefully that doesn't put me back to square one. I'm going to work with the Cat a couple of days before I close out this thread. I also want to apologize to everyone for creating so much confusion by opening threads in two different forums. You have all been very kind and helpful.

[NickLewis]

Hi Chuck,

I'm glad you seem to be sorted now.

I don't quite understand why you didn't get the Open Catalog dialog in response to the Shift key - holding down either Control key should offer you the chance to Compact and Recover your catalog and only offer the Open Catalog dialog if you decline, I believe. Odd - I still suspect the problem originated in the deletion of your catalog, but no matter.

In case you haven't realised, the Adobe User to User forums are operated by Adobe as a customer support service. This forum is an independent user group, operated under the auspices of Photoshop Elements Techniques who publish a magazine and various tutorials etc.

By the way, I don't think anyone welcomed you to the forum. So, belatedly, welcome! :)

Nick

[chuckv]

Hi Chuck,

I'm glad you seem to be sorted now.

I don't quite understand why you didn't get the Open Catalog dialog in response to the Shift key - holding down either Control key should offer you the chance to Compact and Recover your catalog and only offer the Open Catalog dialog if you decline, I believe. Odd - I still suspect the problem originated in the deletion of your catalog, but no matter.

In case you haven't realised, the Adobe User to User forums are operated by Adobe as a customer support service. This forum is an independent user group, operated under the auspices of Photoshop Elements Techniques who publish a magazine and various tutorials etc.

By the way, I don't think anyone welcomed you to the forum. So, belatedly, welcome! :)

Nick

Nick,
I've been into PSE several times now and I'm sure the problem is definitely gone. I do have one last inquiry. I'm going to use Adobe "Classrom in a Book" to get a much better understanding of PSE 5.0 and would like to start with a clean slate as far as the Organizer is concerned. There appear to be three catalogs set up now. What procedure should I use to delete these catalogs so I have a fresh start. Or should I just leave them there and open new cat(s) as the lessons demand? I should have gone completely thru the book before instead of using it as a reference and flying by seat of my pixels. Thanks again.
Chuckv

[NickLewis]

Chuck,

I'm not familiar with the "Classroom in a Book" for PSE, but I suspect you'll be better served by setting up new catalogs as and when the lessons require them. Otherwise, you'll end up with your main catalog polluted by the results of the book's exercises and have to clear that up.

That said, at some point, you may want to delete catalogs. The only reason for doing this is to save a (small) amount of disk space and to tidy up the Open Catalog dialogue boxes, however. Extra catalogs don't impinge on PSE performance, and don't take up much space - they are image databases, not the images themselves.

Adobe haven't provided a catalog Delete function in PSE, presumably for safety reasons. They are two ways to delete catalogs:

1) Navigate to the catalog in Windows Explorer and delete it. It's a .psa file, located by default in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalogs. You should also delete the corresponding subfolder in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\Catalog Folders.

2) From inside PSE Organiser start the Open Catalog dialogue, then right click on the catalog you wish to delete and choose the Delete option from the context menu. You can navigate up the folder tree and take the Catalog Folders subfolder out as well. This latter method has the virtue that it will not let you delete the currently open catalog, so if you make sure that your main catalog is open in Organiser before you start, you can delete sundry irrelevant ones with more confidence than method 1. Important if you have a plethora of similarly named catalogs.

Bu, as I say, this is housekeeping only - if you never open the spurious catalogs, they won't cause you grief.

Nick