PSG4 DISASTER- Crashed and took my show with it.

[ehogan]

Hi Folks,

I am in a panic...I have spent the last two week putting together a slide show for my daughters soccer team and last night, when I was almost done...PSG4 crashed. That wouldn't be so bad if it hadn't taken my entire show with it. Before you say it...yes, I had been saving the show many, many times during my editing sessions and yes, I made backups (snapshots) during that period also. None of them will load!

Basically, when I try to load the show, it runs through the .psh file and says "Some files in the show are missing, would you like to search for them?"...I answer "Yes", and it informs me that there are still 225 photos missing!!!

But, it allows me to browse the file system and tell PSG exactly where the file is...right? Well, I do that and get the message: "The file you've chosen isn't a supported image format." Remember now, this is the EXACT same file that I had used to create the original show! .... anticipating the next question... no, it was not moved or manipulated since it was first put into the show. The are regular old jpg's that I can open with no problem in Picasa.

I have tried deleting the .pxc file and having it recreated, but that didn't help.

I have upgraded to the absolute latest version of PSG4 (build 2462).

Nothing works....and the team party is Saturday!

The slideshow is one of the favorite things for the girls...I *really* don't want to disappoint them.

PLEASE help me.

Thanks,
Emmett

[Studio7Productions Profile Private message]

When you browse for the missing images etc, it is not the .psh file that you need to locate, its the folder where the original images were copied from......I always use the - collect show files - function for every show I do, at least then all the files used in that show are in the same place......not sure if you used that function.....

M

[ehogan]

Yes...I know it's asking for the location of the images, not the .psh file. I also put all the photos for the slideshow together in one place...but I've never used the "collect show files" function, I'll have to give that a try now.

As it usually happens, I "fixed" the problem about two minutes after posting my message. I had to wait while it reloaded all the images and soundtrack, and I still don't know what the problem was, but here is what I did:

1) Delete the .pxc file
2) *COPY* the contents of the directory in which I had all my photos to another drive on my computer.

That's it! Once I had copied everything, it worked fine! Now, keep in mind that I am a little strange in my filing practices, the slideshow files are actually in the same folder as the folders that contain the photos of the players. It's kind of like this:

Drive D: -> 2009 Video (folder)
|
|-> Slideshow.psh file
|-> Player1 Photo Folder
|-> Player2 Photo Folder
|-> etc.
|-> Music Folder

So, if the .psh file stores the path to the photos RELATIVE to it's location, it won't matter where it's move it. I am not sure if this is the case or not, but the fact that I didn't have to tell it where the photos were when I copied the "2009 Video" folder to my G: drive tends to make me think that.

Anyway, I am at least restored back to my last save point!

Thanks for the quick response!

-Emmett

[Studio7Productions Profile Private message]

Strange things do happen when you move things around.....I know i have paid the price many times...that's why I use the collect show files as a force of habit now.....Everything in One folder for each show........also i have found that sometimes if I store the show folder on a External Drive.....proshow does not like looking for them.

Glad you sorted out your problem, but i would advise you to try out the collect shw files option, it saves you from going grey at an early age.

Mel

[ehogan]

I could understand not being able to find the files if I moved them after the crash, but they were right there where they had been all along. The thing that worried me the most was the "supported image" error I was getting. That's why I decided to try *copying* instead of moving the files.

I had lots of crashing problems last year with PSG3, I was hoping they had been fixed in PSG4...and I must admit, this is the first crash I have had this time, but it was a doozie!

-Emmett

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Emmett

Glad you were able to resolve your problem. There are a number of people who find Proshow (Gold and Producer) will crash on them. Personally, touch wood, this has never happened to me, perhaps I am not pushing the limits.

Luckily when it does crash most people have been able to recover. In the past with v3 there was a well defined path of files to delete, with v4 two of these files do not exist any more. However you have stated one of the files that does exist in v4, that is the .pxc file, the other file is in the program directory and is proshow.phd file (replaces def.phd of v3). There does not appear to be a replacement file to cpic.opt file of v3 in v4, which was the other file to delete.

Remember also that backup copies of the .psh file are also generated automatically and can be used.

Glad it all worked out well for you.