PaintShop Pro X and PaintShop Pro X5 freezing

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I have both Paint Shop Pro versions X (with all patches) and X5 (patched) on my Windows 7 computer. Both have worked fine up until a couple of weeks or so ago and now both freeze soon after opening the programs. I have not installed any new software or anything and think there may be a problem with a Windows Update as that’s the only change I can remember making to the computer with the exception of reinstalling my Wacom tablet. The tablet and software have always worked well together though and I can’t imagine that being the problem.

Has anyone else experienced this freezing or know of a solution?

Thanks for any help!

J

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Hi JanCee,

It sounds to me that the most obvious suspect is a dinged Windows Update. Just lately I seem to find myself having to unwind more Windows Updates on customers systems than I can ever recall in the past. The following may help you diagnose the fault:

Turn WinUpdates to ‘Search for updates but notify before downloading’.
Uninstall your Wacom tablet software completely using Revo Uninstaller free (set on moderate).
System Restore back to the point before the suspect Win update.
Check out PSPX & X5. If they work OK, then fine. Re-install the Wacom. If still fine, it’s the Win update.

If PXPX & X5 are not OK then uninstall both and the Wacom using Revo Uninstaller. Then re-install them again.

You’ll most likely find it was the WinUpdate and, if so, I’d give thought to only updating occasionally and having a close look at just what really needs updating. My view: ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

I know I’ll be branded a heretic by the zealots but as I work on 12 to 15 dinged systems a week, most of them with Auto Updates on, and I compare their fritzy behaviour with my own rock solid, never infected or failing systems – all with updates turned off, then I reckon theory does not match the practice.

Unequivocal fact: The customers I see the least of are the ones I’ve managed to convince that turning Auto Updates off is not the Cardinal sin it’s claimed to be. Stand back – incoming!

Best of luck with curing PSP.

Cheers, Chris

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Hi JanCee,

It sounds to me that the most obvious suspect is a dinged Windows Update. Just lately I seem to find myself having to unwind more Windows Updates on customers systems than I can ever recall in the past. The following may help you diagnose the fault:

Turn WinUpdates to ‘Search for updates but notify before downloading’.
Uninstall your Wacom tablet software completely using Revo Uninstaller free (set on moderate).
System Restore back to the point before the suspect Win update.
Check out PSPX & X5. If they work OK, then fine. Re-install the Wacom. If still fine, it’s the Win update.

If PXPX & X5 are not OK then uninstall both and the Wacom using Revo Uninstaller. Then re-install them again.

You’ll most likely find it was the WinUpdate and, if so, I’d give thought to only updating occasionally and having a close look at just what really needs updating. My view: ‘If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

I know I’ll be branded a heretic by the zealots but as I work on 12 to 15 dinged systems a week, most of them with Auto Updates on, and I compare their fritzy behaviour with my own rock solid, never infected or failing systems – all with updates turned off, then I reckon theory does not match the practice.

Unequivocal fact: The customers I see the least of are the ones I’ve managed to convince that turning Auto Updates off is not the Cardinal sin it’s claimed to be. Stand back – incoming!

Best of luck with curing PSP.

Cheers, Chris

Thanks so much for the reply, Chris.

I really think you’re right in that the Windows update disrupted something and I’m also with you on not auto updating Windows. I do have it set to notify me before installing any updates. However, I’m not real up on exactly what needs to be updated and what doesn’t so I only install “important” updates if I can’t determine what exactly the other updates are for. Windows makes it really difficult for the non-techie to understand what they are but my philosophy is “when in doubt, don’t”. So maybe I should have updated something that I didn’t!!!!

I got really frustrated and uninstalled PSPX and PSP-X5 seems to be working fine now. I’m wondering if it were a glitch between the 2 versions but I don’t really think so because I’ve been using them both for quite some time (since the fall of 2012) without problems. Maybe at some point I’ll reinstall X and see if there’s still a problem but I’ll probably just continue using X5 or PS Elements as they’re fulfilling my needs at the moment and I don’t want to rock the boat.

Thanks again for responding!

J

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I think Chris is right on with his update philosophy.

I’ve been working in the IT industry for over 45 years – on all types of platforms (IBM Mainframe, Mid-range systems running AIX, UNIX, Linux, Windows Server, and desktops running both Linux and Windows – and the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy is one that has been adopted my most large scale enterprise grade IT departments – and it applies to hardware fixes as well as software.

While I’m certainly not the Super Tech I once was, I’ve always subscribed to the “let someone else test the fixes first” attitude. For my own personal Windows 7 computers (I have 3 of them, not counting my wife’s and my at home domain controller) I will always “age” updates for at least 75 days after release on the not always valid assumption that if something goes wrong with an update, Micro$oft will fix it quickly.

Again, Chris is right on !!!!!!!

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Hi JanCee and TheRedBaron,

Ah well, someone else agrees with me at least. Got to be a first in our house!

I think everyone has got hooked up on the scare stories of the media pundits, who basically need to find something to earn a buck writing about. Sure, we all know the vulnerabilities are genuine and there but are we really all that visible behind a decent firewall and antivirus? I’m no longer even insisting on the latest state of the art protection but Steve Gibson’s Shield’s Up test say’s he can’t see me at all, so that’s good enough for me.

Of all my systems, the one I never get any problems with is – guess what? WinXPpro, and the last update it had was SP3. Last week, doing some virus research but feeling lazy, I took it to a couple of places I’d normally leave to Linux. At the end of that session I thought I’d better run a full AV and several Malware tool scans, something it hadn’t been treated to for weeks. Clean as a whistle. Nuff said?

As to driver updates, I recently re-installed a Windows7 system using the original driver disk and everything worked fine. Feeling guilty about the age of the driver disk I ran a very well respected driver update scanner, which found 20+ ‘critical’ updates. I let it do its stuff. Result? Absolute mayhem – totally busted the install. System Restored back to my own post install endpoint and tranquillity resumed.

On a relatively new Win8 laptop, that I’d just finished servicing, WinUpdates prompted me to update to Win8.1. Nine hours later the only real difference that I could see, apart from a Start button, was that 3 devices were now listed as ‘unknown’ and Updates couldn’t find them.

As to PaintShopPro, I’ve got PSP8, PSPX and PSPX4 running side by side on my main system without any adverse interaction. That was why I was pretty confident it was a WinUpdates problem.

Regarding Windows updates to be cautious of; I don’t want to corrupt you into my own heretical practices. Nevertheless, I usually work along these lines:
1) As I recommend never using IE now, I see no point real point in updating it. Others will disagree.
2) As most of the heavily infected systems I see have Windows Defender installed I consider that to be about as much use as a chocolate teapot.
3) Likewise Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool.
4) The .Net framework is one of the greatest abominations Microsoft ever inflicted on us and .Net updates regularly leave a trail of destruction behind them. I tend to update .Net when I’m told something must have it. That seems to work ok for me.

Cheers, Chris

Sorry for the delay in responding – I’ve been on hols.

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