PE4 freezes on new laptop

[rayhopper2]

Can anyone help prevent me going mad with this ?

Scenario - PE3 works fine on my new Amilo laptop, but PE4 freezes on any of the main action screens.

Dug out an old laptop from the attic, and both PE3 and PE4 work fine, but too slowly.

Have followed all the troubleshooting advice that seems relevant in document 331968 to no avail.

Have uninstalled PE3, turned off virus protection, replaced Adobe 5 with Adobe 7 and have now uninstalled every bit of software and hardware that is easily installable - still no joy.

Apart from chip, main differences between old and new laptop are -

Centrino wireless system driven by BT Voyager ADSL router.
ATI Radeon 700 graphics (no dedicated graphics card on old laptop).

I really only want the amazing new magic extractor, as I do a lot of time-consuming extractions in my theatrical photo work. Alternative solution - is this available as an add-on/plug-in for PE3 ?

Ray

[Wendy]

Hi Ray ...

... and welcome to the forum :)

Being a Mac user I'm afraid that I can't help on this one as Adobe haven't yet made a Mac version of PSE4 ... but hopefully one of the windows users will be along soon and will be able to help you.

Its nice to welcome another UK user :)

Wendy

[MikeH]

Hi Ray,

Welcome to the forums :)

What is the Spec of your PC.. (Processor, ram, hard drive etc..)

Do you have anything else running in the background..?

Mike

[rayhopper2]

Mike,

Thanks for your interest.

I have a Fuji etc. Amilo M1437G, Pentium M750 processor @ 1.86GHz.
1 Gb. Ram, 80 Gb Hard drive. ATI Radeon 700 graphics (128Mb?).
Operating system Windows XP, service pack 2. Anything else you want me to specify?

I had no other applications running, Virus and anti-spam turned off, Wi-fi turned off, internet disconnected. The task manager shows 55 processes in action.

I just have a feeling that there's an incompatibility with the graphics card, but what do I know ??

Look forward to hearing any ideas you may have.

Ray

[rayhopper2]

No-one on this site seems able to help me.

Any suggestions of anywhere else to go? The official Adobe (European)help centre was very difficult to understand because of the poor grasp of English, and they do not seem to have any email address. Customer Service email simply told me they couldn't help.

I'm not impressed. If it wasn't for my interest in the magic extractor I'd stick to PSP !!

Ray

[Wendy]

Ray ...

Mike hasn't been around too much this week as he has been busy at work ... but hopefully he will pick up the thread when he is next here.

I suspect that the lack of response on the forum is probably due to no one having the same laptop and using it with PSE4 ....

If you can load PSE4 into another machine with no problems then the copy must be fine ... and if PSE3 loads into the new machine then we know that works.

It is starting to sound as though there could be a conflict with something in PSE4 .. I have tried an internet search but not found a similar problem mentioned..

You might try the Adobe tech documents ... here may be a place to start:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/323379.html


Wendy

[Carbone]

Ray,

Corel makes a good extraction tool, Corel Knockout 2. It's not free, but reviews are usually very positive about it.

If you can't find a solution to your problem, look for it :

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Corel3/Products/Display&pfid=1047024307431&pid=1047022702205

It sometimes sells for cheap on E-Bay :-D

Ray

[MikeH]

Ray,

As Wendy said I've been tied up with work this week...

Your laptop is a similar spec to mine... PSE4 sometimes lags on my laptop but it never freezes. Does yours freeze or lag?

If you suspect the video card, the first step I suggest is to update the video drivers.

Also ensure that you have cleaned any temporary files from your hard drive.

Let me know how you get on...

Mike

[rayhopper2]

Hoped that might bring some reaction - many thanks.

Wendy - my original posting mentioned that I had worked my way through the relevant Adobe troubleshooting documents to no avail. You have directed me to a different document which has many of the same suggestions plus some unique ones.

Mike - again, as I stated in my original posting, PSE4 freezes my system completely at start up.

Ray - you beauty ! You reminded me that I saw a review of Knockout some time ago, when it was priced at £100. I was impressed by the review but thought the price too high. However it is now on sale in the UK for £45, so I ordered a copy today - should arrive Sat. or Mon.

So my present plan is to use Knockout2 with PSE3 or PSP X, and wait for someone else to solve the PSE4 bugs.

Thanks to you all.

Ray

[Carbone]

Ray,

Have tried a system clean up and a hard drive defragment ? Just in case...

Ray

[rayhopper2]

Ray,

Yep, done both. No joy. Thanks anyway.

Ray

[MikeH]

Ray,

I suggest that you remove and re-install the software - make sure you disable all virus and adware software during the install.

Mike