My PE2 stopped working on my E-Mac

[Chae Song]

Hi can someone help out there ?
I have E-mac with 768 MB RAM. My PE2 has approximately 5400 pictures and I have been tranferring this pictures to "picture" program in my Mac, so I can store it into CD.

It was working fine, then it suddenly stopped opening up the program. I cannot get any pictures, it just freezes and I don't get any response to see the files. Not only that it shuts itself (PE2) off.

Thanks for the help....

[Barbara Brundage]

Chae Song, PE doesn't actually store any files itself, so it can't have 5400 pictures in it--it just has thumbnails of the files you stored elsewhere.

Hopefully all that is wrong is that your preferences are corrupt. Try launching the program again, and hold down command +shift + option as soon as you click the icon. You should get a message asking if you want to delete preferences. You do.

If nothing happens from the dock icon, launch the application from your applications folder and try again there. Let us know what happens.

[Chae Song]

Thank you for the help Barbra,

It got little better by responding with more windows, but it still won't open up, its got that little running disc spinning like its going to open up those thumb nails, but it quits itself again.

I just don't understand it when it was working fine previously.

Please don't give up on this subject, help me...

[Barbara Brundage]

Which os are you running, X or 9?

EDIT Also, can you explain a little more about what you mean by this:

got little better by responding with more windows




Do you mean the program launches but won't open your files?

[Barbara Brundage]

Hi, Beth. Yes, I do vaguely remember that, but I couldn't find it either.

[Beth Haney]

OK, Chae, after thinking about this, I have a couple of ideas.

The way PSE is set up, the Browser automatically reopens the last folder you were looking in. I'm assuming by your description of the symptom you had one open that contained all or most of those 5400 pictures. With Elements closed, locate that folder on your hard drive. The goal here is to trick Elements so it can't find those image files and try to load all of the thumbnails during start up. There are a couple of ways you could do this, so pick something you feel comfortable with.

First (and best) would be to transfer the image files to a CD and remove the originals from the folder.

Another idea would be to rename the folder they're in, hoping that Elements won't recognize it anymore and not even try to open it and generate thumbnails.

Or, you could duplicate the entire folder (and any subfolders), rename the new folder and trash the old one.

Personally, I'd regroup the image files into new, renamed folders and burn each folder of pictures to a CD. That would get you a back up copy to CD and accomplish the goal of hiding them from Elements.

Once you've moved the pictures, if you're still having trouble, it will be easier to troubleshoot for other problems. I suspect, though, that Elements will start opening properly again.

And let us know! It's really helpful to find out when suggestions work - or not!

[Barbara Brundage]

But Beth, thinking about this--wouldn't truly trashing, as opposed to resetting, the prefs accomplish the same thing? If Elements doesn't remember the last folder you opened, it can't try to open it anymore. That was why I was asking for the os, so that I could give exact instructions on what to ditch.

[Beth Haney]

Yup. It could be done that way, too. Much simpler than my method. But if I'd thought of it right away, I wouldn't have had all that fun thinking of other ways to trick PSE! :) (Although, Chae, you've still gotta remember not to leave a huge folder open in the Elements Browser!)

[Barbara Brundage]

Although, Chae, you've still gotta remember not to leave a huge folder
open in the Elements Browser!)




Yep, I completely with Beth's suggestions for rearranging/backing up your images, Chae Song.

[Chae Song]

Thank you guys for all this helping suggestions.

First of all I am running the PSE in OS 10.1.2 .

when this program was working fine, I would put the program in "browse file" and it would open up the thumbnails automatically, but later on , I would have to double click to open up the thumb now.

Last thing I was doing was opening up this thumbnails and sending it to Mac's "picture" program so I burn the cd. Then I would delete this thumbnails in PSE.

tahnk you guys again for any helpful advises....