wolfhound

Hi, I am going to give an introductory talk at our Club next week on AV and I wondered what members of this forum believe are the main reasons for using PTE. I know why I use it, but I thought it might be interesting to read what others have to say. Ivor

Hi Update I am quite down at the moment. I have been following all your advice and suggestions, and on Sunday night after completeing the chdsk run. I deleted all the PTE files emptied all the references I could find in the registry. I turned off all my virus checkers Windows defender Firewalls and also checked that none were not running in Task Manager processes. I then sat back full of quiet anticipation that this time it was going to work. I tried to install version 4.x that you advised Ken. It looked like it was going ok, got all the setup screens then Blue screen. I went to the Program file and looked for the installed files and tried to open the program from there. Again blue screen. So I gave up and went to bed. Yesterday I did not have the enthusiasm to try anything else. I have however found the Windows mini dumps which I understand tells you what stopped working. I also found that I cant read them. It apparently needs the installation of debug tools, I read up on this and I'm afraid that its starting to go straight over my head, and that was just the installation of the debug tool. Ivor So in reality I am no further forward. Maybe after reading through these debug installation documents a few more times I might pluck up the nerve to have a go.

Hi Ken I did I found two references in the registry, one to PTE and one to PTE 5.6 (I am speaking from memeory now as I cant look it up) Does that sound right or is there something else hiding under another name? I am running chkdsk at the moment as has also been suggested, and I think that is going to take a long time. Ivor

To answer your question 2. As I have stated previously I did. It and it still didnt work. I have not had any conflicts up till now, (if this is what is causing the problem). If Vista comes with such a good defence system why the heck is everybody advised so strongly, in every article I have read to install better ones? And before you ask yes I have tried to install PTE with the firewalls and virus checkers turned off. Ivor

Hi Ken Short answer yes I did. Second point: This is going to sound trite but yes it does and yes I could do that for a one off. But since trying to load the licence key I cannot use PTE at all on my main pc. I dont really want to work on my pictures on one pc then go through the rigmarole of copying them and moving to another machine, installing them all again and then working backwards and forwards between two pc's. Ivor

I have not forgotten your suggestion Andre. I am ofay with this as I have done it with XP. But not with Vista. This will take some serious thought. For those interested the reason is as follows: - I dont know how many people are using Vista but Microsoft Soft wrote all their own drivers use in Vista and the OS preference is to use MS's drivers rather than the bespoke drivers written by other suppliers. If you remember a bit further back in this post, I alluded to my friend who was having blue screen problems. His Monitor and Monitor software (from HP) was written to work with various video card software supplied by the various card manufacturers (I cant recall the exact manufacturer at the moment). However there was a conflict between the manufacturers software and the Vista OS. The only way to get around the conflict was to use the MS drivers, but these did not allow for the HP input. After consulting with all parties, MS, HP and the card manufacturer, over a couple of months it was decided that he had to either run the Vista software as is, or run the manufacturers software with some of the options disabled. Neither result was satisfactory as both the solutions meant that the option to rotate the screen through 90 degrees was disabled. I have read of other similar problems caused by Vista drivers. My computer gives me all I want in every respect, other than with this problem I am having with PTE, and any updates to the drivers will have been made automatically, (I am not even sure who's drivers are being used), I dont want to delete them and install drivers that might give me a mismatch or problem elsewhere. It would be different if I was getting problems with every other program I ran. This has got to be a software conflict somewhere between my version of Vista and PTE, and I appear to be the only person with the problem. Ivor

Much as I respect everyone else's expertise in this matter. I feel that we are getting tied up in the issue of downloading. I do not use the pc in question for downloading, or Internet communication. It is connected to the Internet to allow Program updates. I downloaded the PTE set up with the computer I am using to write this email, a different one, and I transfered the set program using a USB pen. Subsequently when I was trying out various alterations and settings suggested by members I did re download direct to my main pc but the result was the same. I have always been able to run PTE Shows and have on advice tried some more recently. The issues I have had with those Virus checkers have been in the past on different pc's. I did not like the way that they were taking control of my pc. Kapersky for example would not let me upload to my own web site. These checkers were in use for some considerable time and did not suit my requirements. With regard PC Guard it has been running on a colleagues pc for about 2 years and he is more than happy. I have had it running on one pc for over 6 months with no problems and on the pc in question since I bought it. I want to use PTE because it seems to be the accepted standard for Camera Clubs and other organisations throughout the world. I do sincerely appreciate all the help that every one is trying to give me. Ivor

Thank you Brian, It is a Medion from Aldi, It was bought when I said and it is one of a series of high spec machines that they periodically put out. It is an Intel Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.47Ghz, 3Mg DDR2 RAM, Nvidia GeForce 8600 GS Video card. I have Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 included as the OS. Bullguard was indeed available in the purchase price but I did not install or run it, as were a number of other programs I did not need. I have had issues with Kapersky, Norton and another Virus checker which slips my mind at this time. I was very dubious about getting a new computer with Vista but I found that it was the only option other than building one, plus it should have become more usable with service pack 1 included. Virgin PC Guard is free at my level of Broadband useage and to-date neither I nor any of my friends who use have an issue with it. It is certainly no more clunky than Norton. I am aware that most Virus Checkers require the use of special un-installers to correctly uninstall them. I do not quite understand your sweeping statement that my pc is completely confused and in a mess. I have only had one issue, and that is with this one Program PTE which I have tried to install. More to the point, I have subsequently installed Irfan view as was suggested as a test with absolutely no ill effects or issues what so ever. I know that you have been doing your best to try to help me and I appreciate you taking the time and effort to do so. Thank you very much. So far I have tried everything that has been suggested and I do not even want to consider wiping my machine just to install this one small program, except that I have paid for it. Ivor

1) Please tell me the Maker and Model No: of the PC which gets the 'Blue-Screen' while trying to download PTE Program ?. I have downloaded PTE ok, I am unable to install it. The PC is supplied by Medion. Model No. PC MT7, I believe they built it but I dont know for sure. I get the Blue Screen when I try to install Pte and also when I subsequently try to boot from the Program Folder. 2) Can you give me some idea of 'Purchase-Date' when it was bought ? October last year. 3) What Anti-Virus are you using on this particular PC ? Virgin PC Guard 4) Are the OE and IE settings on that PC as I had recommended ? The IE settings are as you recommended. I did not check the Outlook Express settings because I do not run emails on this pc, and Vista as far as I know, does not support Outlook Express, it has its own system called Windows Mail. Which I have never used. Ivor

Hi Brian Just come, been out all day trying to get some pictures of York Viking Festival which is on this Weekend, so I have only just seen your mail. As I said I dont use that pc (call it PC 2) for general Internet stuff, I only use the Internet to download updates. This mail is in fact being written on PC 1. However I have IE6 installed on PC 2 and all the settings are set as you described. With regard to Outlook Express, I am never going to use that on PC 2. The supplier of the pc was a Company called Medion, and as you say correctly, Virgin is my Broadband Supplier. A Number of us use PC Guard and are reasonably happy with it so far. I have tried others in the past, but I do not like the way that most of them, especially the latest versions of Norton try to take over your PC. I agree with, and understand your comment on Windows Defender. With regard to the main point regarding Administrator, I set it up and I am shown as the Administrator. I have had issues with it at times and have now disabled the Administrative rights, and I get a warning when I shut down that they have been disabled. I do not know/understand what you mean about FULL Admin Permissions. Until this issue with PTE I have always been able to install, alter or rearrange files and programs. I have had some "You do not have permission to do this" warnings but I have always got by them, often by using "Run as Administrator" option. I know this is not relevant but, I do understand that there can be conflicts, and you just have to find a suitable work around. (I have a friend who bought a different model pc at the same time as I did who was getting blue screen problems all the time, so much so that he regretted buying the computer. The problem was put down to a conflict between Microsoft and his Video Cards native drivers. The solution he has had to adopt is to use the MS drivers only. This means he cannot rotate his View Screen into the vertical mode (to view picture in the Landscape Mode) as the MS drivers havent been designed for that option.) Thanks for your help so far. Ivor

Hi Brian 1. I am logged on as administrator. 2. I Dont get a security message, when I download. On occasion I get a yellow stripe at the top of the screen but I would stress that is quite rarely. Thats the one where you can right click and run or download etc. I have recently turned off the User Account Control. 3, Yes. 4. I use Virgin PC Guard and of course Windows Defender. Ivor

Hi Peter I have not run a registry cleaner on this pc, it only 3 -4 months old and I only run programs that I am going to use on it. In other words I do not as a rule load a program just to try it out, on this pc. I have other pc's that I use for Internet and trying stuff out on. I dont play games on it just use it for my photography. Defrag is scheduled to run once a week. Ivor

Thanks JRR Have tried to install 4.49 and once again Blue Screen of death complete shut down. In fact when the pc rebooted it blue screened again. So I guess it gone to a previous restore point. I get annoyed at the Windows Pop up that says Windows has just recovered from a serious fault. (What irony) Then it says do you want Windows to check out a solution. When you say yes it happily runs away and nothing else happens. Great time wasters pc's! I'm stuck again. Ivor

Thanks Nobeefstu I've done all that. Direct X 10 no problems and no blue screen. Downloaded both shows and run them. Had a scare when they both ended suddenly, but tried them on second pc and they end in the same place. Zooms and pans were very smooth colours and sound ok the garden on was louder than pte show. This is really confusing isnt it. I got the first problem when I tried to install pte for the first time, I was sitting back feeling quite pleased with my self then Bang my pc shut down. I have subsequently downloaded two seperate versions and still no joy. Ivor

Further to my last post I have all the plugins and they seem to be working OK as and I can read my Nikon RAW files directly from the source files. I am now even more confused. Ivor