Elements 8 Organizer

[spinner]

Asking for a friend. She got the Elements 8 for Christmas and has since installed it. Everytime she tries to use the Organizer the system crashes. She's emailed Adobe support and she showed me their answer, just gobledee gook to me. Anyone familiar with Elements has a suggestion? I've suggested maybe just uninstall and reinstall.

[picsfor]

If she hasn't uninstalled and re-installed that is a must first course of action.

Pretty much the first instruction from any help desk. Get her to try that and come back if it's still not working and try and capture any crash info from the crash message.

[Forseti]

She's emailed Adobe support and she showed me their answer, just gobledee gook to me.

I take it that gobledee gook means you don't understand it? Try putting their advice here on the forum maybe somebody speaks that language. Not me sorry, German, English and Russian only. 

[SimonW]

I've recently started using Elements Organiser - trying iut all the functions, and it does appear to be very good. But my PC is fairly powerful and I'd guess it would struggle badly on a less powerful one. All that resizing, scrolling etc of the thumbnails. Also, I think when you run it for the first time it will (unless you turn off these functions) try to analyse each photo for quality, and look for faces to recognise and so on. Your friend might like to try starting it up then leaving it well alone for quite a long time while it does all this. Maybe I was lucky in that I installed it on a new machine which only had a few photos on it, so there wasn't much initial work required, but if the machine has lots of photos already it might take ages, especially if it's not very powerful.

[picsfor]

Good thinking Batman  

She's emailed Adobe support and she showed me their answer, just gobledee gook to me.

maybe somebody speaks that language. Not me sorry, German, English and Russian only. 

For me it is English, Suffolk and Norfolk - and at a push Scouse,Cockney and West Country.

[SimonW]

I meant to add a p.s. - The current issue of Amateur Photographer Magazine (cover date Saturday 16th)  has a feature - Guide to Elements 8 Organizer which I think anyone new to it will find very useful. I recommend your friend to buy it (though it won't of course solve her current problem).

[spinner]

She's emailed Adobe support and she showed me their answer, just gobledee gook to me.

I take it that gobledee gook means you don't understand it? Try putting their advice here on the forum maybe somebody speaks that language. Not me sorry, German, English and Russian only. 

It wasn't really advice, it didn't address her specific inquiry and just paraphrased what she'd asked. I didn't not understand it, I didn't see it being relevant to the question. It's sort of like me asking you why oranges are round and you telling me that apples come from trees.

[spinner]

I will pass on the advice and hopefully she can get it resolved. I'm not sure Simon if that particular publication is available here but I'll let her know that too. 

[Oldboy]

I will pass on the advice and hopefully she can get it resolved. I'm not sure Simon if that particular publication is available here but I'll let her know that too.  

Ask her to check the errors in the Event log, as this will give clues to what is causing the problems she is having. Click the start button, Control Panel, Event viewer or if using Vista, Administrative Tools, and click on Event Viewer in the right-hand panel. Click on Windows Logs, Applications. Scroll down the list until she finds the error messages that relate to Elements and click on that to show the error message.  

[spinner]

My friend is using WinXP, this is the error message she's recieved

"Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 (Organizer) has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

Pretty generic. This is the list of possible causes she's been given

Many different factors cause system errors, including conflicts among device drivers, applications, operating system settings, hardware, and corrupt elements in specific files. Although a system error occurs only when you work with the Photoshop Elements 8 Organizer, the Organizer is not necessarily the cause. Sometimes Organizer is the only application running that uses enough memory or processor cycles to expose the problem.

Seems like a cop out to me.

[Forseti]

Here's the first method that I would try personally.

First - set a system restore point.
Second - uninstall Elements 8 via the Add/Remove Programmes panel.
Third - download CCleaner from here http://www.ccleaner.com/ccleaner-20 . It's a piece of freeware but I've been using it for a few years now without problem. Use the menus to the left and clean up the entire computer or, if you wish, just use the Registry clean-up option. This should clean up any registry entries following the removal of Elements 8. There's also a backup the registry option to revert to as as a safeguard if necessary.
Forth - if your friends system is using a NVidia graphics card visit their site here http://www.nvidia.co.uk/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-uk . Option 2 allows for the automatic scan of the PC to check the version of driver installed and advises of any updates available.
Fifth - reinstall Elements 8
Sixth - pray.  

[Oldboy]

My friend is using WinXP, this is the error message she's recieved

"Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 (Organizer) has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

Pretty generic. This is the list of possible causes she's been given

Many different factors cause system errors, including conflicts among device drivers, applications, operating system settings, hardware, and corrupt elements in specific files. Although a system error occurs only when you work with the Photoshop Elements 8 Organizer, the Organizer is not necessarily the cause. Sometimes Organizer is the only application running that uses enough memory or processor cycles to expose the problem.

Seems like a cop out to me.

Thats the error message which is displayed in Windows when a program fails not from the event viewer. Ask her to look at the event log, as I suggest above, as this will show what DLL file might be at fault. Sometimes deleting this file and restoring it might cure the problem. 

[Hinfrance]

I've never been able to get the organiser to work in either Elements 6.0 or 7.0. It always crashes. So I don't bother with it. I'm using Vista.

[spinner]

I've never been able to get the organiser to work in either Elements 6.0 or 7.0. It always crashes. So I don't bother with it. I'm using Vista.

My, that's encouraging. I put Elements 7 on my daughter's computer and she's never made any mention of issues. It runs Vista as well.

[spinner]

My friend is using WinXP, this is the error message she's recieved

"Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 (Organizer) has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."

Pretty generic. This is the list of possible causes she's been given

Many different factors cause system errors, including conflicts among device drivers, applications, operating system settings, hardware, and corrupt elements in specific files. Although a system error occurs only when you work with the Photoshop Elements 8 Organizer, the Organizer is not necessarily the cause. Sometimes Organizer is the only application running that uses enough memory or processor cycles to expose the problem.

Seems like a cop out to me.

Thats the error message which is displayed in Windows when a program fails not from the event viewer. Ask her to look at the event log, as I suggest above, as this will show what DLL file might be at fault. Sometimes deleting this file and restoring it might cure the problem. 

We're talking about a computer Neophyte here O.B. I'm not sure she can find the event log let alone get me a copy of what it says. I asked her if she knew how to grab a screenshot for me and I got the buggy eyed stare. I think I might end up getting a drink out of this. After I fiddle with her machine of course.