PSE6.0 Organizer Repeatedly Crashes

[photobird]

Every time I open Photoshop Elements 6.0 organizer, I get a message stating that it has "encountered an error and needs to close." I've tried removing and reinstalling and I've worked through the various Adobe website troubleshooting tips.

I was wondering if this has been reported a lot before and whether anyone has posted any remedies.

Frankly, I think after the trouble I've had with this program, I'm going to act like the evolution of the software stopped at 5.0 (which works fine on my computer).

[NickLewis]

Hi, and welcome to the forum :). Sorry you're having problems.

I've seen some people report this issue, but I don't think there's a specific identifiable cause.

You didn't say what machine you're running. Presumably it meets the minimum specs, which I think are similar to those for PSE5 anyway?

The two basic things to try are reinstall without antivirus software running, and check that all Windows Service packs are installed. I noted an improvement in PSE 6's behaviour when I updated the .NET components.

Then close down all other applications and processes that you can and see if it runs.

The difficulty is that this problem is probably not in PSE6 as such, but in a conflict with something else on your PC.

Have you worked through the relevant troubleshooting guides on this page (http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/microsites/searchEntry.do?locale=LA_eng_US&publicationstatus=KCP_Publish&usemicrosite=true&cmd=search&product=SG_PHOTOSHOPELEMENTS_1_1&searchString=troubleshoot&micrositeId=MS_Customer)? Items 2-5 cover v6 under XP & Vista. The guides are pretty exhaustive, and I'd be surprised if it doesn't work at the end, but you may not want to go as far as reformatting your entire machine!

Nick

[photobird]

Thank you for the advice...the computer is a fairly new gaming computer so it ought to be able to handle PSE6.0. Moreover, it did handle the downloaded trial-version.

I tried reinstalling with the virus checking software removed, but once again, it didn't work. I am not willing to do a windows reinstall for the benefit of this program. Adobe should have beta tested this much more and made it far more robust.

I think I'm going to exchange the opened software for a sealed box and sell it on Ebay. I feel that the overriding lesson of this affair has been:

-Never buy software in a box from a store; always buy online.
-Evolution has stopped for Adobe PSE at the 5.0 version.

Bottom line: I feel ripped off by Adobe and OfficeDepot.

[NickLewis]

Ah - you didn't mention the trial version.

As far as I know, the trial version and the retail version are the same. I believe you can convert one into the other simply by entering the serial number. The trial isn't a cut down demo.

If it ran the trial, but not the retail version, then I'd turn my attention to anything else that happened on your machine between the two installations. Have you updated any video drivers for example? Installed or uninstalled any other software?

One other thing you could try is to hold down the Shift key while starting Organiser. This forces it to open the catalog management dialog before starting. Try creating a new catalog and see if it will open up then, in case your catalog is corrupted and causing difficulty.

Nick

[dj_paige]

I tried reinstalling with the virus checking software removed, but once again, it didn't work. I am not willing to do a windows reinstall for the benefit of this program. Adobe should have beta tested this much more and made it far more robust.

I think I'm going to exchange the opened software for a sealed box and sell it on Ebay. I feel that the overriding lesson of this affair has been:

-Never buy software in a box from a store; always buy online.
-Evolution has stopped for Adobe PSE at the 5.0 version.

Bottom line: I feel ripped off by Adobe and OfficeDepot.

There are indeed robustness issues with all software, and from what I have read here about PSE6 (since I do not own PSE6), it seems to have more issues than other versions of PSE.

But I do agree with NickLewis, trying to work out the problems is the way to go. Unless someone sold you a modified version of PSE6, where they have actually changed the code (which, IMHO is so unlikely that I rule out the possibility), exchanging the software “for a sealed box” won’t improve the situation, because the actual PSE6 code will be identical to what you are struggling with right now.

Thus, I can't agree with your statement “Never buy software in a box from a store; always buy online” because there is no difference between the software in a box and the software online. The bugs will be the same. I also disagree with “Evolution has stopped for Adobe PSE at the 5.0 version” because it seems like the quality control for PS might have stopped at Version 5, not the evolution.

[pdcharles]

Ah - you didn't mention the trial version.

As far as I know, the trial version and the retail version are the same. I believe you can convert one into the other simply by entering the serial number. The trial isn't a cut down demo.

If it ran the trial, but not the retail version, then I'd turn my attention to anything else that happened on your machine between the two installations. Have you updated any video drivers for example? Installed or uninstalled any other software?

One other thing you could try is to hold down the Shift key while starting Organiser. This forces it to open the catalog management dialog before starting. Try creating a new catalog and see if it will open up then, in case your catalog is corrupted and causing difficulty.

Nick

I too thought the trial and retail version were the same. That was what was stated with the trial version. But when the trial version repeatedly refused to accept the serial number provided to me when I purchased it from Adobe, since I could download a new copy as part of the purchase, I finally bit the bullet (downloading even on broadband took a considerable amount of time) and downloaded again. I was interested to note that the name of the installation file was somewhat different. I uninstalled the trial version and installed the newly downloaded version. The new version appeared to be the same but it would now accept my serial number.

It may be of interest that after convincing myself that 6.0 was running well, I had no difficulty uninstalling 5.0 (or whatever version I had since I had kept it up to date with downloads) and have not had difficulty with 6.0 either.

[johnrellis]

Every time I open Photoshop Elements 6.0 organizer, I get a message stating that it has "encountered an error and needs to close." I've tried removing and reinstalling and I've worked through the various Adobe website troubleshooting tips.

At least one cause of this problem has an easy fix. See:

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx?14@@.3c0591f3/3

[RWCastro]

I've also had the same problem with crashing in PSE 6.0, only mine usually occurs when I'm in the Full Edit mode. I haven't done that much work in the Organizer as of yet, so don't know if I'm going to have the same problems there as well. I've never had this problem before using any of the previous versions from Elements 2.0 through 5.0, but it has become very annoying when working in the current edition. I was wondering, when it asks you if you want to report this error and you reply yes, who these reports actually go to and if anyone actually reads them or even cares when there are prevalent problems such as this. I've only had 6.0 installed for a few days now and I've already sent in at least 6 of these error reports so far.

[NickLewis]

I think they go to Microsoft, because the error is issued by Windows, not PSE.

So (and this is guesswork), once they've established that the problem is a programming error by the application author, or a conflict between non-MS apps, then I imagine that's the end of the matter.

Especially if yours is report 11,258......

Nick

[Georgette Grossman]

See link below:
http://www.amazon.com/Vista-and-Photoshop-Elements-6/forum/Fx23LB3RDE1EQB7/Tx3CN5GNZ3HPIZJ/1/ref=cm_cd_dp_tft_tp?%5Fencoding=UTF8&s=software&cdAnchor=B000UKBIEC&asin=B000UKBIEC&store=software

whole link may not show... go to the Amazon.com site and look for Photoshop Elements 6. at the bottom of the page is a Customer discussion area. Check out Vista and Photoshop Elements 6

I guess it has to do with whether you have the 32-bit VISTA version (PSE6 works) or the 64-bit VISTA version (PSE6 does not behave).

How do you know which VISTA version you have (was installed on the Dell we purchased recently)? Is Adobe going to provide a fix or are they waiting for Microsoft to solve this incompatibility problem?

I have not installed PSE6 on the VISTA PC yet.

Georgette

[NickLewis]

To run a 64 bit version of Vista, you need a machine with a 64 bit processor. You can probably tell in Control Panel>System. Which Dell have you bought?

The 32-bit/64-bit "problem" isn't a Microsoft incompatibility issue. Adobe simply haven't released a version of PSE for 64-bit operating systems. Photoshop CS3 is only certified for 32-bit operating systems as well, I believe.

Nick