Wednesday, March 17, 2010

No More Flash Cartoons?

The upcoming Flash cartoon I've been working on since last summer is in suspended animation. back on schedule.
Last night Flash CS3 started crashing upon loading, and nothing I've done has fixed it.  it took a fight to fix it.
The Adobe support page was no help. I tried calling and was on hold for about an hour then gave up because my cell phone was cutting out. I spent hours on the internet searching for  suggestions, which either didn't work or weren't doable: (for example, a few sources said the Franklin Gothic Font often went corrupt and to remove from my computer. I deleted it, but seconds later the font reappeared in the font directory.)
Then I tried reinstalling. . After about 40 minutes the popup notice said it was done, and, by the way, AdobeCS3 couldn't be installed.
What finally did the trick was carpetbombing (okay, completely uninstalling)  the original and restoring it from scratch.
Arrg! My favorite toy is broken and there's no way to fix it..  Yay!  My toy is fixed.
Added- a picture of my niece throwing at fit.   I'd like I was ready to throw one too.

12 comments:

Sally said...

oh this is just horrible to read. Any backup? Have you tried posting on non-Adobe forums? Catch your breath- there may be a solution yet.

RHSteeleOH said...

Oh no!

Sally said...

I could propose more things but you are so much more computer literate than me. Just hope you find a way to retrieve things and keep a great thing going.

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Hi Sally,
I'm not too worried about my existing files. To play it safe I divided the cartoon up into a bunch of separate files so if one went blooey, it wouldn't be a total disaster.
Then again, since Flash won't let me open anything (including completly new filesets, I may be hosed unless I figure out what's wrong.)
That Flash! Tsk tsk.

booda baby said...

I side with Sally. I know this is horrible and proFOUNDLY frustrating, but CS3 is pretty stable.

Maybe there's just some whacked registry crap. Do you have the original Flash disc? And it's STILL not re-installing?

Are you on a PC or a Mac?

I bought a whole computer with the 'real' registration no's only to find out when I tried to migrate files that they weren't real at all. CS3 essentially told me: NO way. (That was such a pricey, pricey lesson.)

Anyway, a few people at the keyframer forum might be very helpful or you can twitter/email Shawn at FITC (although they're pretty busy getting ready for their big event.)

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Hi Boodababy,
I have the original disk. I tried reinstalling it yesterday in the context of repairing and overwriting the existing program. After a long time I got a message that it didn't reinstall.
Yesterday I completely uninstalled the thing and will try to reinstall it from scratch when I get the chance. Keep your fingers crossed.
I left a message at Keyframer too. Lets hope the Flash wizards will smile on me...

Linda Davick said...

That photo is very apt.

I'm so happy you're back with Flash now, and I know I shouldn't ask, but . . .

What would cause this to happen in the first place?

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Hi Linda,
I'm not sure what the problem is (it started acting up again tonight, so I'm zapping it out again for a reinstall)
It fine at lunch (at work) earlier today. Weird, huh?
There's also a somewhat buggy file that I'm a bit suspicious of. I'll stay away and see if that helps.

My third suspicion is that there's some borked-up font that's causing it problems. Some people suggested I remove Franklin Gothic (supposedly this goes bad). But each time I delete it, the damn thing pops back like it never left.

GhostBuild said...

The font is a system file, so the OS might be replacing it after it notices that the files is gone (file protection). You can read more about this idea here:

XP: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/archive/wfp.mspx
Vista: http://www.petri.co.il/unblock-files-windows-vista.htm

If you really think the font file is the cause, you'll have to boot to safe mode to get rid of it first. I recommend renaming the font file when you do this, as opposed to nuking it outright. Change the file name extension to something else so that it no longer "looks" like a font file.

Could you post a screenshot of the error?

Namowal (Jennifer Bourne) said...

Hi Ghost,
I'm sure that's what's going on with the reappearing font.
I checked a list of my fonts and none had weird sizes that would indicate something was wrong with them so I'll probably leave them alone for the time being.
Too bad there isn't some kind of "black box" mode in windows where a shell could babble about what's going on. It might help me pinpoint the problem.

RHSteeleOH said...

Oh yes!

booda baby said...

I have YET to have a computer or software malfunction that was easy to repair. Ever. There's something very suspicious about the diagnostic process - as if fingers are being crossed and eyes squeezed shut.

Point is, this is a big relief and the happiest news. Well done, for hanging in there!!