Certain tools lock up after RAW conversion

[John Buffin]

Hello,
Just joined now before I start pulling my hair out. Adobe has been unable to help with with this glitch in PSE6. Machine background: Athlon XP 2600 pc with 2gb ram running WinXP SP2. Recently upgrading from PSE3 to PSE6.

If the crop tool is selected in the editor, and I go to open a CR2 file from my Canon 20d, as soon as the RAW file is opened to the editor, the crop tool is locked to whatever settings I had before the RAW conversion. Here is a screen shot of a before and after, before I go any further.

http://www.pbase.com/frsty50/image/91857005/original.jpg


In the top half, you can see that the width, height, and resolution boxes are dark gray, and I can edit those numbers by clicking on them and entering new figures. The ratio and pixel/inch drop downs still work too.

Now in the bottom half is the screen shot after a CR2/RAW file conversion. The width, height, and resolution boxes are now the same color as the background and are locked. Also the drop downs are locked in place and fixed at those settings.

I've been back and forth with Adobe support for about a month and they cannot reproduce my problem. Resetting the tool or pref's file does nothing except clear those numbers and leave them blank with no way to add figures to them. There are a few other tools that do this after the RAW conversion as well, like the marquee tool. I'm sure there are others, but those are the tools that do it every time if selected before opening a CR2/RAW file.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
John

[John Buffin]

I just ran thru PSE6 again with different tools selected before RAW conversion, and any tool that has a drop down tab or boxes where you have to directly enter figures (such as pixel dimensions), will lock up after the image opens into the main elements editor.

Maybe that helps?

John

[Juergen D]

John,
Just a shot in the dark: Are you using the latest version of ACR, 4.3.1?

Juergen

[John Buffin]

Thanks. Yes I am. Every version of ACR has done the same thing.

John

[jo]

Another shot in the dark -- at the bottom of the ACR screen you can choose 8-bit or 16-bit. 16-bit leaves you with fewer options on the filter menu at least. And it will continue to use 16-bit until you change it back to 8.

[John Buffin]

Thanks for the idea, but no, it's not in 16bit mode.

Another update. I thought since others have been complaining about Norton software being the cause of a lot of weird problems, that I uninstalled all the Norton AV and replaced it with the McAfee software from Comcast. In between I did a complete uninstall and reinstall of PSE6. Still having the same problems.

The last thing I asked Adobe support was if they would swap out my PSE6 for PSE5. I'm beginning to think that might be my only hope. I can't find any reason why I'm losing the ability to change parameters in those tools after a RAW conversion.

John

[John Buffin]

I was playing around, more than anything, but I found a way to make the tool properties re-appear without rebooting PSE6.

By going to "EDIT...PRESET MANAGER", and doing nothing more than clicking "DONE" or even the X in the upper right corner, the parameter boxes and drop downs start working again. It's worked 6 times in a row after locking up the tool during the RAW conversion.

Now while that's hardly an end all solution, I thought it might help you if there's something that can be done if those tools are controlled by the preset manager.

I hope the added info helps. As soon as Adobe support page comes back from it's down time tonight, I will update my technical support case. Maybe they might have something to offer.

John

[Jeff Perry]

John, I have been having the same problem with crop tool dimensions, but have been unable to isolate what is making the lock-up occur. Everything starts out fine at the beginning of an editing session, and then at some point along the way, you reach for the crop tool and the dimensions are locked, and to date only a re-start solves the problem. I look forward to trying out your reset technique tonight.

I work almost exclusivley with JPGs and although I sometimes process them with ACR before editing in PSE6, that is not the usual case, and I don't think that is what is causing my problems (happens on two seperate laptops, incidentally).

If I uncover the "trigger" that is causing my problem to occur I'll be sure to pass it along.

Jeff