painter IX.5 error message

Has anybody else had this message?

Long story short, I upgraded to painter IX.5 and bought the 2 year download "insurance" - which is due to expire in May - and last year, after using the program a number of times in the previous week, I found I could not open Painter and got this message. I contacted by phone and e-mail (as I say, long story short!) and, after removing Painter as per their instructions (roughly 5 times to date - regedit the lot!) got a download link that produced the same error and a zip archive that was empty!

The main person I've been dealing with has twice said she'd get back to me and hasn't. She has also "suggested" that I did not get the program from Corel (which annoyed me immensely, but I kept my cool) and I sent confirmation last November but have not heard anything since.

Sorry to post here about this but I'm getting nowhere with customer services. They are not helping at all. Quite the opposite I think. I was going to let it go but I paid for the original program and the upgrade .... why should I just forget it?? I'm being fobbed-off and I don't like it:mad:

Sorry again. Trying not to get heated :) :o

Is there anything to be done?

Thanks in advance

John

Assuming that you are on a PC - did you reboot the machine after uninstalling? Some elements do not get completely cleared unless you reboot.

Have you tried installing to another machine and/or disk drive?

What OS version? Have you upgraded anything else about the time this happened?

Christine

Hi John

Trying the software on another machine as Christine suggests is a very good way of indicating whether painter is at fault - which, since it is genuine Corel, is probably not the most likely cause.

Again - what has been recently installed needs to be looked at - antivirus needs to be checked and run - hardware needs to be checked too.

Frankly a problem like this, pretty unspecific, might take a bit of tracking down.

Some possibilites:

A dll or other conflict with recently installed software
A false positive on antivirus that has disabled something in error
A virus that has infected your machine
A hardware fault that has caused a corruption

Any problems with anything else?

EDIT: one thing you can try: after updating your antivirus and scanning with it, disconnect from the internet, disable the antivirus, and then uninstall/reinstall painter. Give it a quick test and then reinstate antivirus and internet. Sometimes antivirus programs interfere with installation. The same goes for antispyware and 'system tweak' programs, which if running in the background can also cause problems. If you are not running antivirus software, oh dear, thats a problem in itself.

Hi Christine and Steve, thanks for replying :)

I'm on Windows XP Home SP2, have AVG and Spy Sweeper (not at same time) and a firewall. PC clear of bugs - regular sweeps, checks with Everest for systems faults, HiJackthis and PC Optimize logs, etc etc. Only thing I did last year was raise RAM to 1 GB (it's now 3 GB with an Nvidia Ge Force card with it's own 500 MB RAM and system professionaly checked - still no joy with re-installing). No problems with anything else whatsoever (including Corel office, which I've now had to uninstall completely as well in case of lingering shared dll's etc).

Painter was working for a couple of months after this upgrade (and wouldn't have worked at all if the original had been corrupt in some way**). When I first contacted them they suggested I uninstall and they sent me a mail including detailed instructions how to do this along with a link to download the program again. No joy. Tried again (after going through uninstall process again) with no luck. Person I was in contact with sent link to a ZAP, which had no mention of Painter but on her insistence I used that - reinstalled, no joy. Person said I was trying to install trial and sent link .... to same trial download (!!). She realised this was wrong so sent new mail - with same link! She said she would get back to me ASAP. One month later (me being a patient chap normally and having a heart condition I try to avoid stress) I phoned again, got different person who, when I told her the first person had hinted I had not bought from Corel, spent 30 seconds finding the evidence that I had done. This person sent me link to a ZIP file, which on download contained absolutely nothing. Sent link to me again - same nothingness!

I sent e-mail to 1st person, who sent same uninstall instructions and same duff link. She also said I had not bought from Corel. I replied with a copy of the confirmation mail they had sent, pointed out that person 2 had had no trouble verifying my purchase and I told her (very politely) that I didn't like the implication, especially in the face of evidence. She replied that 'they' were only trying to help and she would get back to me. That was in the last week of November.

No disks, all downloads. Including the 2 year download insurance thing that allows me to re-download the program if needed, which person No1 realised from the first.

Since I've started using TG I've noticed the Corel forums but didn't think you'd want all this :) Only because it's getting near the end of the 2 year period have I, out of desperation, tried posting here. I apologise for what probably sounds like a whinge but the more I think of it the more aggrieved I feel at what I perceive to be Corel's baulking (links to trial software - more than once - and empty ZIP files) and the fact I cannot use any of Corel's products I have (all paid for and legit!)

Everyone on TG is so nice and helpful - I don't want you to think I'm having a go at you on the Corel branch because I'm not. I wouldn't have whinged on here if I could get 'customer support' to do their job. Just want a working program.

Thanks for listening :)

John

ps I noticed in some posts on here that 2 years ago people were having trouble with the upgrade download. Their problem was 'resolved' thru Steve Szoczie as I mentioned in the PM to you Christine. Is he still about?

pps Did re-install etc with av and firewall off. Tried one uninstall/reinstall in safe mode.

** Having checked back through my e-mails I think that originally I did not go past the Painter IX trial version but I took advantage of the May 2006 offer of buying the IX.5 upgrade at a reduced price. This means the program was working for about 17 months. Didn't use it regularly [not as accessible as Xara!] but use it I did. Please don't get me wrong, at first I would've quite happily accepted that the something wrong was my doing (though sure in myself it wasn't something I did wrong), but it strikes me they don't want to fulfill their obligations re the download insurance. Sorry, but that's how I feel.

John,

Yes, Steve Szoczei is still around, and you can contact him via e-mail at:

steve.szoczei@corel.com


Good luck! It sounds like you've been through far too much.


Jinny

Hi Jinny

Thank you very much for that :) I've sent a mail so we'll see what happens.

As I said, I'm not one for confrontation as a rule but banging my head against a brick-wall ain't fun either :rolleyes:

Much appreciate your time

John

Good Luck John - whatever it is hope you get it sorted soon.

Thanks Steve :)

John

John

Do let us know how you get on with this.

Christine

Will do :)

John

I had that same message about a year ago, after changing my hard drive (I'm using XP by the way). But it was my copy of Painter X, not IX.5 (which I also have, but worked fine and wasn't affected).

Same as you, no amount of uninstalling and reinstalling did anything to fix the problem. After long sessions of searching the net, I found some advice HERE (see bottom of the page).

Which was basically search for and delete all registry entries called "Protexis" (I think I found 2 entries), being carefully not to touch anything else by mistake and so wreak your registry. (back up your registry before hand just in case)

There is the second option on that page, but frankly I didn't know what that was on about and since the first fix worked, I went no further.

I hope this works as well for you as it did for me. :)

Thanks very much for that Fes :) Appreciated. I'll have a go.

It's reassuring actually to know that other people have had the same problem with the program and with 'customer services' - it's not just me!

Thanks again .... I'll post any results :)

John

Good luck! ;)

No joy :( Same error message. There were two entries for protexis so I wouldn't be surprised if Corel has other things lurking .... it's as bad as Norton to kill!

I think the main problem is the links I have for the download are for trial copies. If Corel would just send the program itself the problem would be sorted, but as you know from my posts above, when they sent that the ZIP was empty.

Ah well, thanks for trying :) You'll hear the shout if/when that Corel chap responds

PS I don't know what that other fix means either :confused: Think I'll give that one a miss!

John

Sorry it didn't work for you. Fingers crossed that Corel sort it out.:confused:

You'd better cross them hard. From the previous descriptions, Corel Support don't seem too swift.

You're dead right there Keith. I'm hoping to circumvent the 'customer services' by contacting that guy. Worked out I've spent £400+ on Corel programs and they sent me a nice e-mail today trying to sell me some more because I'm a 'valued customer' :rolleyes:

Live and learn, eh?

John

Maybe a whole system restore is the only thing to get rid of whatever is wrong/corrupt. What a pain. Don't suppose you have an old system backup handy (that reminds me... must do a system backup)?!

Dunno if you've read THIS thread, which also suspects the Protexis licensing issue, but gives another possible solution.:confused:

If it is something to do with Protexis (which is not automatically uninstalled when you remove Painter) maybe try removing it - note that other Corel programs are/maybe linked to this licensing program and by removing it they may also stop working too. When you reinstall Painter, it will/should also reinstall Protexis (which runs PSIService.exe). You can't uninstall Protexis via the Add or Remove Programs function, cause it doesn't appear there. Here is a link to their website (see bottom of page) that tells you how to uninstall it. I haven't tried this and it's a complete guess on my part whether it will hinder or help - so it's up to you.

Corel Paint Shop Pro also seems to have this error issue... HERE is Corels solution for that program, but goodness knows if it also works for Painter.:rolleyes:

John

as a painter IX.5 user in the past, now X , I have been following this thread but have nothing really additional to add except it may be that Fes is right about the system restore :(


however one thing occurs first - did you install the trial version - does it work - can it be activated/re-registered?

Fes: thanks for your links, I really do appreciate your time :) I've just read that forum page - interesting, but I got rid of the Protexis entries in the registry and there's nothing under their name in Computer Management. I checked their website after you brought the name up but sounds a bit dodgy to me. The Corel 'fix' looks like the same one that was in the zap file customer support [HA!] sent to me. A normal system restore would be unfeasible if not impossible (problem occured September-ish) and I don't want to do a full system re-install and have to re-install all my programs and set-up when eveything else is working smoothly (fingers crossed!) - last image of system I took was about a month ago so that wouldn't be any use either I'm afraid. What worried me in that forum was the implication that once a Corel program declares itself to be corrupt there's no way it can be re-installed without a full system re-install :eek:

I did have Corel Office installed as well but I uninstalled that a while back so as to make sure (try and make sure!) all Corel bits were removed - shared dlls etc.

Steve thanks for your attention too :) - re the trial version: when things went wrong the Corel clowns (sorry, customer support) sent me a link to what turned out to be the trial version and every link I tried thereafter ( i.e. via the download insurance link ) was to the same. It installs, 50% of the time, but when I click to open the program I get that darned message. There's nothing in the install procedure where I can enter my activation code and, because it wont open, I can't validate from within the program.

What's really getting to me now is that:

a) I've had more support on here than Corel has given

b) Corel knew that there was/is a problem but their CS not only sent duff (and insulting!) links but also tried to blame me! :mad: :mad:

It's the principle of the thing now. What do I need Painter for when I've got Xara? :D Artrage and Inkscape can fill in the gaps.

Life's too short .... but I'm not letting them off the hook tho!

Thanks again guys :)

John

try artweaver - its a free painter lookalike - has its foibles - but heck so does painter :D

http://www.artweaver.de/index.php?en_version

Nice one Steve, just dowloaded it :) I'll have fun with that after my tea. At my point on the learning curve I probably won't notice the foibles :D

John

IT WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Phoned Corel this morning. Explained - as briefly as possible - and the lovely lady led me to delete regedit entries for Protexis and IT WORKED. When I tried this a few days ago I deleted those entries as part of uninstalling Corel cleanly - didn't think I'd need to do it for installation :confused:

So for the benefit of anyone else who might need it, delete the files after installation but before trying to open the program. Hardly intuitive though is it? Especially if you have never heard of Protexis!!

START>>RUN>>typeREGEDIT Search for all PROTEXIS files [two of them] and DELETE. Be careful that you only delete these files and back-up registry before messing with anything.

She was a bit bemused that I had not been informed of this fix last year - as was I .... just a wee bit :rolleyes: I had told her about posting on TG and seeing other forums that mentioned the same problem so perhaps we have to work for our program ! ;)

Anyway, thanks Fes and all. With a bit of luck this thread is now just archive :D

John

PS for JINNY: Thought you might like to know, I have had no response from that chap at Corel btw. Sent 3 messages - two returned by mailer-daemon immediately but third, in plain text only, was delivered ok.

Thanks for letting us know John - happy painting :D

Really glad you got it fixed John.

All's well that ends well, as that writer chappy said. :)

John

Hi John,

I'm happy to hear your problem is fixed!

Thanks for letting us know.


Jinny

neodeist - so glad you got it sorted at last. So it was the right prob, but you have to fix it in the right order - good grief! I'll be sure to make a note of it just incase it ever happens again!

:)

It was a relief :) Thing is though, other people have had the same problem - program working for months then it implodes [just when they're pushing painter X! Who me? Cynical? :rolleyes: ] and the files have to be deleted prior to re-installing. Just glad it's OK again - I like a quiet life nowadays :p

Thanks for your help Fes. I appreciate it.

John

No probs! ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by neodeist

START>>RUN>>typeREGEDIT Search for all PROTEXIS files [two of them] and DELETE. Be careful that you only delete these files and back-up registry before messing with anything.

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yeah, don't do that. instead delete the evil DRM service:

START>>RUN>>type: services.msc

Find the ProtexistLicensing service, stop the service, and disable it


START>>RUN>>type: CMD
type: sc delete ProtexisLicensing



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I'm not buying the next edition/upgrade of painter if it contains DRM

http://coreldraw.com/blogs/gerard/ar...g-service.aspx