Lost Silver Efex Pro 2

[Davejl]

I bought Silver Efex Pro some years ago, on a CD which I still have. Shortly afterwards I upgraded to Pro 2, via a download (I still have a note of the key number).

Recently I was silly enough to download all the free Nik filters from Google, which did not install because (having read the system requirements too late!) my versions of PS and PSE are too old!
No harm done...no such luck. I have now lost my original SEP2 (it appears in the PS filter list but won't work) and now, having re-installed just the old (frustratingly basic) version from my CD, it seems to be working until one comes to press save, at which point there is no b+w version to be seen!

Currently my laptop is running Vista 32 bit, so unfortunately upgrading to the current version of PSE doesn't seem to be an option.

(What misled me into downloading all the Nik filters in the first placewas the fact that I had no difficulty running SEP2 on my system).

Any suggestions (beyond sending me to stand on a chair in the corner)?

[Shadowman]

Have you tried using the SEP2 help section?

[Black Pearl]

I'll put this out there on the understanding that you have already purchased the software and that it is now given away FoC so while i don't condone this process it may help...

Have you tried looking on the torrent sites to see if the specific version you need is still knocking about?

[MrB]

Have you tried running SEP2 as a stand-alone editing program using its exe file?
(C:\Program Files\Google\Nik Collection\Silver Efex Pro 2\Silver Efex Pro 2.exe)

Philip

[davidedric]

I have a download of the Nik plug-ins from Nov 2013, seems to be version 1.107, which I could find a way of getting to you. Could that be of any use?

Dave

[Davejl]

Have you tried using the SEP2 help section?

Thanks John. I did look but it all seems to be geared up for its new life as part of Google and as part of the entire suite of Nik filters.

Dave

[Davejl]

Have you tried running SEP2 as a stand-alone editing program using its exe file?
(C:\Program Files\Google\Nik Collection\Silver Efex Pro 2\Silver Efex Pro 2.exe)

Philip

Thanks Philip. I did try this but didn't have any luck. Probably just my lack of computer skills

[Davejl]

I have a download of the Nik plug-ins from Nov 2013, seems to be version 1.107, which I could find a way of getting to you. Could that be of any use?

Dave

Hi Dave,

That would be great if you don't mind, but I'm just wondering how I would get it to work on my computer. Would it not require a key number to activate it, I wonder. Or maybe the key I was sent by Nik to activate my original download, would work? I'm not really au fait with how these things work. I'd be happy to let you have my email by private message if that's the best way to send it.

As an aside, I am not surprised that the Nik stuff from Google wouldn't work with my equipment, but I am surprised and rather annoyed that trying to install it managed to wreck my perfectly functional version. But this probably just demonstrates my rather limited grasp of computer technology.

Dave

[george013]

Thanks Philip. I did try this but didn't have any luck. Probably just my lack of computer skills

Can you tell us what happened?
I think this plugin is a 64 bit plugin. It doesn't work on a 32 bit pc. You should get a warning like "this isn't a valid 32bit program".

George

[davidedric]

Hi Dave,

That would be great if you don't mind, but I'm just wondering how I would get it to work on my computer. Would it not require a key number to activate it, I wonder. Or maybe the key I was sent by Nik to activate my original download, would work? I'm not really au fait with how these things work. I'd be happy to let you have my email by private message if that's the best way to send it.

As an aside, I am not surprised that the Nik stuff from Google wouldn't work with my equipment, but I am surprised and rather annoyed that trying to install it managed to wreck my perfectly functional version. But this probably just demonstrates my rather limited grasp of computer technology.

Dave

I just thought it might be worth trying, with your original key. We could do an electronic transfer with Dropbox or similar (tbh not quite sure how to do that), or if you pm me your address I could burn a CD and pop it in the post.

Dave

[Davejl]

Hi Dave,

I will get in touch via PM (I'm not sure about Dropbox either).

Thanks,

Dave

[Davejl]

Can you tell us what happened?
I think this plugin is a 64 bit plugin. It doesn't work on a 32 bit pc. You should get a warning like "this isn't a valid 32bit program".

George

I clicked on the download button and downloaded 429Mb, doubled clicked on that and got a wizard. a box appeared which gave the option of installing the plug-in to a particular program. I suppose I should have realised something was wrong at this point, because if things had been working properly it would have automatically installed it to PS. I myself specified PS.

I don't recall seeing a specific message during the running of the wizard warning of 64 bit/ 32 bit incompatibility, and the wizard closed and seemed to imply that installation was successful.

I have to say that it was my own stupidity in not reading the fine print properly which was the cause of my woes. Hopefully Dave's offer of the original version will get me up and running again.
I have not mentioned here before (for the sake of brevity) that I did try finding the specific files for SEP2 amongst those downloaded, and manually moved them into the PS plug-ins folder. I then deleted all of the other downloaded files, eg Viveza etc. I actually got the normal PSE2 to display on the screen. It seemed slow, and then I lost it after closing it. But presumably there is simply no way it would work on my machine in its present state?

[george013]

I clicked on the download button and downloaded 429Mb, doubled clicked on that and got a wizard. a box appeared which gave the option of installing the plug-in to a particular program. I suppose I should have realised something was wrong at this point, because if things had been working properly it would have automatically installed it to PS. I myself specified PS.

I don't recall seeing a specific message during the running of the wizard warning of 64 bit/ 32 bit incompatibility, and the wizard closed and seemed to imply that installation was successful.

I have to say that it was my own stupidity in not reading the fine print properly which was the cause of my woes. Hopefully Dave's offer of the original version will get me up and running again.
I have not mentioned here before (for the sake of brevity) that I did try finding the specific files for SEP2 amongst those downloaded, and manually moved them into the PS plug-ins folder. I then deleted all of the other downloaded files, eg Viveza etc. I actually got the normal PSE2 to display on the screen. It seemed slow, and then I lost it after closing it. But presumably there is simply no way it would work on my machine in its present state?

To be sure, we're talking about the Nik Collection from Google? And they are the installed in the directory Phillip mentioned? And what happens when you click on that specific file?
The Nik collection is not a replacement for your old plugins. I don't know about the old ones, but these Nik plugins are plugins with a window interface around them.

George

ps.
I just reread your first post and saw you're using Vista 32 bit.

George

[Davejl]

To be sure, we're talking about the Nik Collection from Google? And they are the installed in the directory Phillip mentioned? And what happens when you click on that specific file?
The Nik collection is not a replacement for your old plugins. I don't know about the old ones, but these Nik plugins are plugins with a window interface around them.

George

ps.
I just reread your first post and saw you're using Vista 32 bit.

George

So I take this to mean that the plugins from Google are packaged in such a way that they will only function within PS in a newer version running on a 64 bit version of Windows

[george013]

So I take this to mean that the plugins from Google are packaged in such a way that they will only function within PS in a newer version running on a 64 bit version of Windows

I work with 2 pc's: XP 32 en win 8.1 64.
On the xp pc I can't open Analog Efex Pro,Color efex pro, hdr efex pro silver efex pro. Message: not a valid win32 application.
Dfine, viveza and 2 Sharpener pro I can open but there is no file tab on it. You must open it by dragging a file to the program, it then opens with that file.

I had no problems on the 8.1 pc.

I'm mentioning the Nik collection, don't forget that.

And from the download page, it doesn't mention the bits.

Windows:

Windows Vista®, Windows 7, Windows 8
Adobe Photoshop CS4 through CC 2015
Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 through 13 (apart from HDR Efex Pro 2, which is not compatible with Photoshop Elements)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 through 6/CC

George

[MrB]

...But presumably there is simply no way it would work on my machine in its present state?

I doubt that. As George has shown, the Nik Collection is compatible with Windows Vista, but not with PSE2. However, it should be expected to automatically install the 32-bit software version, and the stand-alone programs should work fine from wherever they are installed. Do not move the files around - Windows will probably have registered their location.

Be patient, think positive, and re-install the Nik Collection, accepting all the default options; when it gets to the plug-in window, ignore it, leave it blank and click on Install. When it has finished, find the .exe file for Silver Efex (probably in the folder path as listed in Post #4) and double click on it to open the SEP2 editing window.

Fingers crossed!

Cheers.
Philip

[Davejl]

I doubt that. As George has shown, the Nik Collection is compatible with Windows Vista, but not with PSE2. However, it should be expected to automatically install the 32-bit software version, and the stand-alone programs should work fine from wherever they are installed. Do not move the files around - Windows will probably have registered their location.

Be patient, think positive, and re-install the Nik Collection, accepting all the default options; when it gets to the plug-in window, ignore it, leave it blank and click on Install. When it has finished, find the .exe file for Silver Efex (probably in the folder path as listed in Post #4) and double click on it to open the SEP2 editing window.

Fingers crossed!

Cheers.
Philip

Thanks Philip. I've tried doing this as far as I know but I'm getting the message that "SEP2 has stopped working". (Under program files, Google, Nik collection I have all of the filters. Opening SEP2 there are two files, an 8BF file and an application file. I am double clicking the latter).

A (different) problem is that when I tried to install just the original Silver Efex, as a temporary expedient, from my CD it will not work. The folder containing the Nik Selection Tool says that it is empty. I don't understand how it can have disappeared from a read-only CD! The old program version will display in PSE7 and I can make changes to a b+w image with all the tools, but saving the result produces nothing, just the original colour image showing.

Dave

[MrB]

I tried the Nik Collection on a 2002 laptop (yes, 14 years old) running Windows XP in 1.25 GB of RAM with a 1.4 GHz Pentium processor. Not surprisingly, it didn't work.

However, a web search revealed an older version of the Nik software - it installed OK, I've just tried SEP2 (as a stand-alone program) and it works just fine, albeit (unsurprisingly!) rather slowly.

I found it here - http://en.freedownloadmanager.org/Wi...ollection.html

You might try this version on your PC - I suggest that first you properly uninstall any other Nik software.

Cheers.
Philip

[Davejl]

Hi Philip,

I will give this a try. However, I think my issue is related to having a duplicate copy of the Nik Selection Tool, which it seems is the cause (according to Nik website) of the issue of being seemingly able to create a b+w image with the program but then finding that it simply isn't saved.

Can I just ask a question? When the files which are saved in the plug-ins folder on dowloading the Google Nik collection are viewed, is there one called Nik Selective Tool? When I did as you earlier suggested and tried downloading all of the Google Nik stuff again, there was not sign of the Selective Tool file. Furthermore, I simply cannot understand why having first (AFAIK) completely removed all Nik files, I cannot re-install successfully my old SEP from the original CD. The Selective Tool file is empty when installed in this way! Surely it can't really be empty?

Dave

[davidedric]

Dave - sorry if this is obvious, but did you uninstall using the Nik "uninstall" utility?

Dave