[crystaldon]

I have Win-XP with SP3. It has two programs that act like they are starting, then nothing happens on the screen. In each case, the programs are in the task manager. Each time I try to start one of them another instance of it's program shows up in the task list, but has no display. I can kill the process(s) in the task manager and try it again, but the same thing happens.

The programs are:

ACDSee
- The task manager shows ACDSee7.exe in the list.

Windows backup (start > programs > accessories > system tools > backup)
- The task manager shows ntbackup.exe in the list.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

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can you tell us what it is your trying to do ...edit photos...backup photos

[happyrock]

can you tell us what it is your trying to do ...edit photos...backup photos

[crystaldon]

With ACDSee we do all sorts of things with pictures (it's a great program!). It's our main way to view, move, minor edits, etc. But the program won't start-up, so I'm not actually doing anything yet.

The only reason I mentioned WinXP backup is that it has a very similar failure mode. They don't have anything to do with each other, other than the failure to launch.

[happyrock]

you can try uninstalling ACDSee and then reinstall it... or try Picasa...a great free program...get it here
my sister,a professional photographer for many years, used Adobe Photoshop...took me several years of browbeating to get her to try Picasa...long story short...she loves it and says she only rarely uses Photoshop now because Picasa not only loads way faster the editing capabilities do almost everything she needs to do...

[crystaldon]

Yes, I'm familiar with Picasa, but don't have much experience with it. I also use XnView, which is free from here: http://www.xnview.com/en/index.html. It's similar to ACDSee, but doesn't do quite as much.

Actually, I would kind-of like to solve this problem though. At first ACDSee didn't work and it didn't seem like much of a problem. Now that backup doesn't work, maybe I have a problem with the XP installation.

As I recall, we first noticed the problem with ACDSee just after the upgrade to WinXP-SP3. I can't guarantee that is worked before that, but it was suspicious timing. Any thoughts on this issue?

[happyrock]

did you try uninstalling ACDSee and then reinstall it yet...
if that does not help try uninstalling SP3...

[crystaldon]

Yes, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling ACDSee a couple of times, but it does the same thing. I looked at the control panel to uninstall SP3, but there's no button to remove it; I guess it's a no-going-back sort of thing.

[happyrock]

when you go to the add/remove programs in the control panel...at the top of the window make sure there is a check in the box beside show updates

[crystaldon]

It wasn't checked, so I checked it. Now it shows me all security updates, followed by SP3. But SP3 still isn't uninstallable, it's still information only.

[happyrock]

try uninstalling ACDSee and after that go to the C drive and then the programs folder and delete the ACDSee folder and then try reinstalling it...

[crystaldon]

That was a great idea, and it looked like it was going to work...but then didn't. I uninstalled, deleted all traces in "program files", deleted all traces in "Documents and Settings", rebooted, reinstalled (all went fine).

Upon startup it validated the license (OK), then looked like it was registering extension types. I don't know if it finished, but that disappeared and the nothing else happened. It left the process in the task list, just like before. If I kill that and start the program again, it does the same thing, without the license and registration boxes.

If I restart the box with ACDSee in the task list, the shutdown process complains that it's not responding. Maybe it just doesn't like this box or SP or something.

[crystaldon]

The strangest thing just happened. I did all that stuff and left it running in the task list. I moved to another PC to type up this response (well, the last one)....did a couple of other things; all tolled, it took 20-30 minutes. I look back at the WinXp box....and the program is working. Uhhhhh....what the...? Ran an update, killed it, started it...all is fine. I guess we fixed it. Thanks a million for the help! How did we fix it?

[happyrock]

MAGIC...
your welcome...and thanks for letting us know...