In hope and desperation

[Donald]

I have just joined the Adobe support forums for the sole purpose of posting the following. I am posting it here in the hope that someone might know what the error message that I'm getting means and what I should do about it.

My message on the Adobe forum was:-

"In common with a lot of people around the world, I have been unable to get the NIK Silver Efex Pro 2 plug-in to operate effectively.

NIK European support in Hamburg told me that I had a memory issue (which my computer supplier says is nonsense) and to reduce the amount of allocated RAM down to 40% via Elements/Preferences/Performance.

I tried it out of desperation to try and get SEP2 to work better (it didn't work, as expected) but now every time I try to open the Editor in Elements 7 I get a pop up window stating "Runtime Error. The application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for advice."

And all that they tell me is that they no longer support Elements 7 and to use the Adobe forums (do you ever feel you're on one of those treadwheels that you get in a hamsters cage, and you can't get off?).

So, can anyone advise a not-very-technically-minded person what to do about this?

Thanks."

[Dizzy]

".... (do you ever feel you're on one of those treadwheels that you get in a hamsters cage, and you can't get off?)."

I have no direct experience with the Adobe software in question, however if you will look down and to your immediate right, you will see a well-worn path on the same wheel; made by my tired old feet as I plodded through the maze of removing Norton Anti-virus from every artery, vein and cell of my computer.

Software problems just make me want to , so don't feel as if you are all alone out there..many have trod that same wheel!

Mike

[RockNGoalStar]

I had the demo and installed it in CS5.

the first couple of times I used it, it worked fine. But after that it crashed Photoshop everytime I tried to apply the changes. This annoying issue, that I've read a lot about online, is what will stop me from buying this software.

[Sunray]

Hi Donald,

is this output the only thing you get or are there any kinds of error codes displayed?
What operating system do you have? Is it 32 or 64 bit?
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w...t-32-or-64-bit
What revisions of adobe elements and SEP2 do you have?
You can found these normally under "help" > "about".
I suggest posting these informations also in the adobe forum.

bye
Robert

[Donald]

Robert

Many thanks for posing these questions for clarification

is this output the only thing you get or are there any kinds of error codes displayed?

This is the only one

What operating system do you have? Is it 32 or 64 bit?

32 . Windows XP

What revisions of adobe elements and SEP2 do you have?

I have Elements 7. And I have Silver Efex Pro 2 and the original Silver Efex Pro plug-ins

[Sunray]

Hello Donald,

maybe it is a MS C++ fault. I think SEP2 uses Visual C++ 2008. I am not sure and I do not have it installed.
You can check it under "System Settings" > "add/remove programs". Just take a look if Visual C++ 2008 package is installed there. You can easily reinstall Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86). Just download the package and start the .exe file.
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en...s.aspx?id=5582

If it is an older version (Visual C++ 2005) you can get it from there.
Do not messup the files, both versions have the same name for their .exe file but are totally different.
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en...s.aspx?id=5638

If you have both versions installed on your windows you can update/reinstall both of them.

I do not know if this will help, but it is (re)installed easily without the risk of crashing your system.

bye
Robert

[jiro]

SEP 2 is a totally different software compared to SEP 1. It is memory hungry and it uses the CPU harder. Try to check with NikSoftware if your Graphics card is compatible with SEP 2, Donald. If it is, you can go and click the SETTINGS button on the lower left corner inside SEP 2 interface and select the GPU options and check the box that says "Enable GPU processing." My old dell desktop graphics card (NVidia ) does not meet SEP 2's requirement so my system uses the CPU to process the images. Most of the time it does hang up on me specially if the images I am working on is bigger than 5MB in size. Since I don't have extras cash to upgrade my graphics card, I'm content to use SEP 1. I just wish that NikSoftware would be kind enough to really help you out since I know that SEP 2 is really a great software to work on.

[Donald]

Unfortunately Willie, I cannot get as far as SEP2, or even SEP (original) because I cannot open Elements, because of the problem above.

I have tried what Robert suggested, but this does not seem to work.

Given that I have the product key codes for both SEP and the free update of SEP 2 for which I qualified, if I was to uninstall and reinstall Elements 7, I should be able to re-load the SEP plugins. Is that correct?

If ,my thinking is correct in this, I am wondering if that is the best course to pursue.

[jiro]

Given that I have the product key codes for both SEP and the free update of SEP 2 for which I qualified, if I was to uninstall and reinstall Elements 7, I should be able to re-load the SEP plugins. Is that correct?

If ,my thinking is correct in this, I am wondering if that is the best course to pursue.

I always do that whenever I encounter issues with some softwares that I am testing. Is Adobe charging you a lot if you upgrade from Elements 7 to Elements 9? Maybe Elements 9 is more "stable" to work with SEP 2. Just an idea. Or, if you are a bit bolder, you can ask your tech friend if he can help you clean out your system registry once you uninstall Adobe Elements 7 on your PC. I do this only on my problematic programs. You wouldn't believe how deep some programs imbed themselves on a Microsoft OS just to operate. Without the help of the internet I wouldn't be able to do it myself given the cost of paying a tech by the hour to do it for me.

Keep us posted on the possibilities to solve this issue.

[Sunray]

Hi Donald,

if you are going to uninstall and reinstall Elements you should uninstall SEP2 before that to cleanup plugins. After reinstallation of Elements I would check if it does really start without any SEP2 installation. If it won't start maybe some plugin folders have to be cleaned manually.
A complete different approach. If you know someone who is good at PC related stuff she/he could do remote service on your PC. All you need is a remote service software, e.g. teamviewer. We use a licensed copy in our company for doing service on customer systems. The software is a great product. It is free for non-comercial use. http://www.teamviewer.com/en/index.aspx. All you need is a working internet connection on both sides.

bye
Robert

[jiro]

Very good point, Robert. You have to uninstall SEP 2 plugin first before you uninstall the host program Adobe Elements 7.

[Donald]

Thank you guys. This is all very helpful.

Here goes. Wish me luck. I'll report back from the other side!

[Donald]

Phew! Made it. Reasonably unbruised.

Elements is fine. And SEP is back in as well.

Thanks for all the advice.

[jiro]

Phew! Made it. Reasonably unbruised.

Elements is fine. And SEP is back in as well.

Thanks for all the advice.

Congrats. Now, go and make a system restore point for your PC. In case it fouls up again, you can revert back to this working condition without reinstalling a lot of stuff.

[Katy Noelle]

Phew! Made it. Reasonably unbruised.

Elements is fine. And SEP is back in as well.

Thanks for all the advice.

I'm relieved for you, too! "Phew!" is right!

[Donald]

I'm relieved for you, too! "Phew!" is right!

But the 'problem' now is:

• Elements loaded back up with SEP2 (which was a free downloaded upgrade) fitted in; i.e. I didn't have to reinstall it. It actually is working slightly better, but by no means perfectly.
• But the original version of SEP, which I bought on disk, won't load because it's telling me that my Product Key is no longer valid. I've written to NIK support telling them this. SEP2 isn't working well enough fro me to say I no longer need the original SEP.

So, we're partly back on the road, but still got one wheel in the ditch.