DC Pro Release 5 crashes often with Panther, Mac OS 10.3!

[brett]

In the most recent upgrade to DC pro (R5), when using the job manager, DC Pro crashes and quits when selecting an image in the job manager and then pressing the edit (pencil) button. It crashes every time you try to do this. I have tried rebooting my mac, reinstalling DC pro, running disk utilities and nothing has solved this problem. This problem only occurs with release 5. I still have a copy of release 1 and it works fine. Can anybody explain this?

[LSI_Noack]

Dear brett

please try if deleting the prefs folder (while SilverFast isn't running) might be a remedy to this issue.

On a Mac OS X, the SilverFast prefs are located in /User/(your username)/Library/Preferences/LaserSoft Imaging/SilverFast.

On a Windows 2000 or XP machine, it is to be found at /Documents and Settings/(your username)/Application data/LaserSoft Imaging/SilverFast.

[Junebug]

I'm having the same problem and will try your suggested fix right now.

Thanks,

Jb.

[brett]

Hi.
I have tried deleting the preferences folder several times with no effect. In fact I have even tried hard deleting all silverfast/lasersoft related software both invisible and visible; then rebooting; then running disk utilities from apples mac os 10.3 install disk as the booting disk; then rebooting again; then reinstalling freshly downloaded software from lasersoft's website. None of this has solved the problem. I have sent emails to your technical team and as of this date (9 days later) still no response.

As I stated previously, this problem only manifests itself with release 5. I would love to have a copy of the previous releases since they all worked fine and because I erased the copy of DC pro release 1 that I had while accomplishing the above procedure. Could you provide a site where users could download previous versions of DC pro until you get release 5 fixed? I am severly backlogged with thousands of images stacking up because of this problem. Very unhappy....

Brett

[brett]

I would be happy to email copies of the crash managers report that records what it is that is causing DC pro to crash. After looking at the reports, it is evident that DC pro is conflicting with the OS software somewhere, but because I'm not a programer that is the extent of my knowledge. If I could just get in touch with someone on your technical team, I'd be happy to send them these reports. We really need to get this fixed, it is a real hamper to my workflow and severly handicaps this program. And it appears that it is not just happening to me.

Brett

[brett]

Okay, don't belive me?

Try this:

1. Load several RAW images into the job manager.
2. Click on one of the images.
3. click on the edit (pencil) button. silverfast will now perform the raw file conversion.
4. make any desired change to this image in silverfast and click the save button.
5. Now hold down the shift or command key while clicking on any other images in the job manager that you wish to apply these same changes to.
6. Now click the copy (page) button in the job manager to apply the edit changes to the new images. You will be presented with a checklist asking you which features you wish to copy to the new images. Click as many of the features as you desire and then click "OK".
7. Now click on the "Save" button.
8. Now exit the edit function on the job manager by clicking on the edit (pencil) button again.

Silverfast will pause for a moment, then crash. You will then be presented with a menu from the operating system telling you that silverfast has just crashed and would you like to send a message to Apple reporting this bug. If you select "submit report" the crash manager will list a detailed report of just what went wrong.

This happens every time you try the afore mentioned steps, without fail, whether you have just recently deleted your preferences files or not. And it does not make a difference of how you launched DC pro, whether from within photoshop or as a stand alone program using SF Launcher.

All of this assumes of course that you are running the current version of Panther (Mac os 10.3) and the current version of silverfast DC pro (6.2.1r5).

This is a major bummer for people like me who depend on Silverfast. So far, response from the technical team has been abismal, as in none. And my guess is that if you called the technical team at $0.95 per minute, they wouldn't have a fix for this either. That's assuming of course, you can actually find someone to receive your call.

And if the moderator's suggestion of deleting your preferences files really worked, (it doesn't) who wants a program that you have to "fix" before every time that you use it!

javascript:emoticon(':x')
Brett

[Junebug]

I trashed the Lasersoft Prefs and now DC Pro is working fine again.

I did lose my favorite settings and now will go back and read the dox - set them up again and this time record what I did.

Sorry you're having a problem Brett.

I've had consistant and outstanding output from Lasersoft products.

Albeit I've had to do my home work and really read the manuals.

Glitches on the Silverfast end do get responded to and repaired.

Best wishes,

Jb.

[brett]

Junebug,
Glad to hear your having sucess. Before this latest release, my Silverfast stuff was working very well. Yes, I've read all the manuals and documentation too, including Taz Talley's book.

So here the latest: Finally gave up and called silverfast support. The number 1-888 number listed would not connect after 10 attempts. So I called the main office number and talked with the operator who acted as a intermediator. She said that the tech guys in Florida suggested either: a. deleting all your albums or b. placing the main silverfast folder on the desktop. So I did this.

Result: It worked well for about 5 minutes and then began crashing again.

I have tried even intializing a new hard disk with Mac OS 10.3 and then installing nothing else but DC pro. No change. Still crashing.

Here's the point. Release 5 works if you want to go into each image, wait for the conversion process, edit it and then add them to the job manager. But that is a huge waste of time. If you have several images of similar exposures that you want to enter into the job manager, and then just edit one of those images and then apply the changes to the other images in the job manager, release 5 crashes like a shot duck. In previous releases (1 - 4) editing and copying in the job manager worked fantastic.

So my point remains: What happened? I thought new releases were supposed to fix old bugs, not create new ones! I want my old silverfast release 4 back!

Still waiting for an email response from the technical team... 10 days and counting.

Brett

[LSI_Noack]

Dear Brett

I am truly sorry about reading you're still waiting for an answer from US SilverFast support staff (answering requests from both Americas).

I did contact my colleagues to find out about your email request, as none was received here at "rest-of-the-world SilverFast support", at least not if you were using the same email address as for this forum.

However, I did not have any trouble using both, DC Pro 6.2.1r5 and r6.
Still though, I am going to let the testing center have an in-depth look into this.

Kind regards
Sonny Noack

[Guest]

Dear Sonny,
I only have one email address and I sent a copy of the email that I sent to tech support to myself as well and I got the copy just fine.

You said that you had no problems using r5 or r6. What do you mean r6? I have been checking for new releases every day and the website says that latest release is r5.

Again, I'd be happy to send copy's of the crash managers log report to someone, if that would help. I will send you a private message with a copy of the email I sent to your tech team along with one of the crash managers reports. Perhaps you can pass these along to someone who can figure this out.

Still having problems
Brett

[LSI_Noack]

Dear Brett

support is been managed from our US office for both Americas and from Germany for the everyone else. Thus your email should have been routed to my US support colleagues and I cannot find out about it.

Sorry if I have been confusing you - the r6 of the DC Pro was just an internal release. Nevertheless, the r5 proved unproblematic to me as well.

Kind regards, Sonny

[brett]

As of this writing, I have given up on using DC pro. I have yet to receive any response from the emails that I have sent through the techinical support web site (20 days and counting).

I have upgraded to the latest edition of Adobe Photoshop CS: it does everything that DC pro will do and more, in addition, it doesn't have any problems handling metadata or IPTC descriptions and you can copy those descriptions from one file to another easily. Also, Photoshop CS will forward those descriptions plus complete metadata information to the final conversion image (DC pro only produces an abbreviated file) and batch image processing is a breeze with no obscure job manager to go through. And did I mention it's much faster than DC pro? And did I also mention, it NEVER crashes?! And did I mention that the upgrade version is less expensive than DC Pro? And did I mention that it comes with built in training and help? And did I mention that you don't have to buy somebody else's book (Taz Talley) to try to interpret a manual that was a rough translation of the original German version? Are you getting the picture?

DC pro still crashes regularly and I can't take it anymore. This is without a doubt the worst technical support for any product I have ever used. I am not one who makes a habit of flaming forums or websites with tirades about various products, but this is rediculous!

When I purchased my BMW, their customer support department called me the next day and a month later to see how I liked their product. They also provided a 4 year 50,000 mile warranty plus free service calls for the life of the warranty. Compare that to buying the BMW of software, Silverfast. First, it's a relatively high priced product like the BMW. But, after they've got your money, "hasta la vista baby"! If you have a problem with the program, a phone call to technical support will cost you $2 per minute. (Which didn't help. Their solution was to drag the Silverfast folder on to your desktop.) Or you can send an email that will never get answered. Or you can leave message in a forum such as this one where someone in Germany will claim that this is an isssure that guys in Florida, who are too busy playing on the beach, should have handled! Frustrating? You bet!

I am in the process of writing a letter with all of my documentation to the president of Lasersoft imaging requesting my money back. Since he is a fellow aviator maybe he can put an end to this nonsense.

Exasperated,
Brett

[brett]

Guess what sports fans. I have good news. If you've been reading this thread, you'll know of my exasperation with customer support and DC Pro crashing on my mac G-4 running panther os 10.3.

Well, over the past year I have not used silverfast dc pro at all. And I really haven't missed it. But....

I kept getting customer emails from Lasersoft and feeling bad about all the money I have sunk into this program, I decided to give in another try. I upgraded to the latest version (v6.4.2r5d) and guess what....? It works! It doesn't crash. The job manager actually does what it says it's going to do without crashing. You can actually edit your files in the job manager and it will actually allow you to do it without crashing.

Yeah! It only took a year, but they finally got it right. Not only is the job manager working correctly, but someone must have figured out a speedier way to convert Canon Raw images as well because the program is much faster. This is what this program should have been a year ago.

Now if we can only do something about lost customer service emails.....

Brett