# [SOLVED] Paint Shop Pro: Layers palette kills program



## D_Spider (Jun 10, 2007)

Hi, everyone--

I've joined this forum because I've gotten lots of good advice reading posts as a guest. Now I need more specific help for a very strange problem.

I'm using PSP5 on a mostly-new WinXPproSP2 computer. Everything was fine (new install of XP after new MB & CPU) till yesterday. When I activate the Layers Palette by moving it, or putting the pointer over a layer (this results in a yellowish-white box instead of the image of that layer), PSP stops responding. Nothing like this has ever happened before (in ten years! I've not installed newer versions of PSP because v5 is so stable).

I uninstalled the anti-malware program that had updated itself just before/as this problem occurred, but it is innocent. And I played around with layers in PSP using the menu bar, not the layer palette, and the layers behaved properly: I copied, pasted as a new layer, modified the new layer, merged/flattened, saved, used clone tool from one layer to the other, etc., and nothing bad happened. But if I bring out the layer palette and so much as touch it, PSP stops responding.

I use TweakUI to get focus-follows-the-pointer (X-Mouse), but turning off this effect does nothing for the problem; PSP still goes non-responsive when I use the Layer Palette.

I uninstalled and re-installed PSP (with upgrade patch), but that didn't help, either.

After the next non-responding incident, I restored my computer to how it had been right after that re-install, but that didn't help. 

Before or around the time the non-responding occurred, something (?) removed my custom icon from the Program Files folder, and changed a path in my launchbar-app from a normal ...\LavaSoft\Adaware\ad-aware.exe to what looked like a CLSID[string]\uninstall... (and I changed it back and stupidly didn't copy all the info there).

Possibly related are:

(1) I opened SysInternals Registry Monitor (Regmon), then PSP, then the layer palette, and it noticed this activity when PSP got unresponsive:
"PSP.EXE:1216 OpenKey HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes SUCCESS Access: 0x20019
PSP.EXE:1216 QueryValue HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes\Tahoma NOT FOUND
PSP.EXE:1216 CloseKey HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes SUCCESS"
[But the Tahoma font is in the installed Fonts folder, uncorrupted. What is a "FontSubstitute"?]

(2) Twice when the not-responding happened, Windows' Event Log noticed:
"ERROR EVENT ID 2 ParVdm PAR_CANT_FIND_PORT_DRIVER
Unable to get device object pointer for port object.
ParVdm depends on previous naming conventions for identifying parallel ports, and in this case it cannot find a port with a name that matches. Port names can be changed by the user or in response to basic input/output system (BIOS) settings."

Does anyone have any idea what's going on in my computer? Or has anyone ever heard of something like this happening? I have a feeling this is very idiosyncratic, and I'd love some help before I start uninstalling program after program. Thanks in advance.

D_Spider


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## D_Spider (Jun 10, 2007)

*Re: Paint Shop Pro: Layers palette kills program*

I found out how to fix my problem, though why it happened is unclear. Turns out that with PSP7 (the earliest version PSP support lists in their FAQ), if one lets XP do fancy fades on tool tips and drop-downs, the layer palette does what mine did. So I got rid of all those visual effects and I have my layer palette back. But... I could swear that I've used PSP5 on other new installs of XP before I got around to getting rid of fading tool tips, and nothing bad happened. Magic, I suppose...

D_Spider


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## Inactive (Apr 11, 2005)

*Re: Paint Shop Pro: Layers palette kills program*

hello d_spider,
we appreciate that you posted back with a solution. i've often found XP to work very different on similar pcs, which i put down to bad programming (imo).

i personally disable that fade effect on win2k immediately after a new install. i also remove/disable any transparency/other special effects that the graphics card supports while running windows. these operations are labour intensive on the system and if you are trying to run a complex program, like photoshop or 3dstudio, the pc needs all the resources it can get without wasting time on these routines to please the user!

anyway, sorry we could not be of any assistance, but maybe next time we will.


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## D_Spider (Jun 10, 2007)

*Re: Paint Shop Pro: Layers palette kills program*



freddyhard said:


> hello d_spider,
> i've often found XP to work very different on similar pcs, which i put down to bad programming (imo).


That's good to know. My backup drive is a WDPassport, and my husband's XP computer detects but cannot read it. Thing is, the MB & CPU of his computer used to be in mine--they put the initial stuff on that drive!

D_Spider


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## Inactive (Apr 11, 2005)

*Re: Paint Shop Pro: Layers palette kills program*



D_Spider said:


> That's good to know. My backup drive is a WDPassport, and my husband's XP computer detects but cannot read it. Thing is, the MB & CPU of his computer used to be in mine--they put the initial stuff on that drive!
> 
> D_Spider


i'm not really sure what the question is here. is it just that you want your husbands pc to be able to use the external HD or is there info on it that cannot be got? i assume both pc's are using XP PRO?
what is the error he gets when he tries to view it using windows explorer?


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## D_Spider (Jun 10, 2007)

*Re: Paint Shop Pro: Layers palette kills program*



freddyhard said:


> i'm not really sure what the question is here. is it just that you want your husbands pc to be able to use the external HD or is there info on it that cannot be got? i assume both pc's are using XP PRO?
> what is the error he gets when he tries to view it using windows explorer?


It wasn't a question, just an observation. What you said--XP acting differently on similar computers--could explain why my husband's XP pro computer can't read my external drive. But it doesn't need to. I appreciate your offering to help, though.

D_Spider


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## Inactive (Apr 11, 2005)

*Re: Paint Shop Pro: Layers palette kills program*

ok, although it was software i was more referring to that i noticed XP can behave very differently between XP installed pc's as supposed to win2k.

but the external HD should be accessible regardless to the OS (XP and win2k) it is connected to. the first thing i'd check is the permissions his pc has. so if the HD is assigned a drive letter in windows explorer when connected to his pc, right click on it and select 'sharing & security'. then select the security tab. in the group or user names pane, either 'add' who ever he logs on as in there with full access or you can assign 'everyone' to full access.

obviously setting 'everyone' to full access might not be the most secure option, but i don't know that external HDs are the first choice for security anyway.


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## celia785 (Dec 18, 2009)

*Re: Paint Shop Pro: Layers palette kills program*



D_Spider said:


> I found out how to fix my problem, though why it happened is unclear. Turns out that with PSP7 (the earliest version PSP support lists in their FAQ), if one lets XP do fancy fades on tool tips and drop-downs, the layer palette does what mine did. So I got rid of all those visual effects and I have my layer palette back. But... I could swear that I've used PSP5 on other new installs of XP before I got around to getting rid of fading tool tips, and nothing bad happened. Magic, I suppose...
> 
> D_Spider


------------------
Hi I just had to join to let you know that your answer solved my problem.
Today I enabled the "fancy fade" option on my pc. Never would I have have connected that to what happened when I opened my psp and tried to use my layers palette. When my psp was unresponsive several times I re-installed my psp and to my horror the problem still persisted. :4-dontkno

Of course the next thing was to google and try to find a solution and yours was the first post I saw concerning this that solved the problem.

Thank you so much!!! :wave:
Celia


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