Digital Workshop

Hi

I wonder if any other users are having problems with the new v6 service release just added to the support downloads? I've separately written to DW Support for help but think it would be helpful for any others having similar or different issues to share their experience, if any.

Running OEM Vista on a quad machine, I installed the new SR today. First isues I noticed were that previously unlocked test pubs on my computer were now displaying the evaluation dialog showing number of days left and asking for an unlock code. I entered the unlock code generated by the key generator, the pub said it now was successfully unlocked. Next boot up of the pub, and it was again showing the evaluation dialog box and asking for an unlock code.

A second problem was that the usual desktop Opus icon for the shortcut was no longer displaying. The Windows standard substitute was shown instead.

Various attempted remedies failed. I tried to uninstall the full v6.01 (that's the new name with the SR added). The Opus folder after the uninstall was still full with all files. A second try at uninstall and it failed immediated with an error display of "INSTALL.LOG" can't be located. The start menu under Opus v6 showed "empty," but the program folder for Opus v6 was full, and the program still ran in spite of being "uninstalled."

Since DW Support had sent the full v6 new version link today, I tried installing this, hoping it would overwrite. It installed, even to a new folder that I chose, but all of the issues described above (evaluation unlock, icon missing) were still there. Somewhere along, I also noticed that an .imp publsihed with the new 6.01 took "forever" to boot when clicking on the .exe version and, had the same unlock issues.

I did make a few try's at system restore to see if I could run the machine back to yesterday before the installation of the SR. The system restores would not restore saying an "unspecified error" had occured. Some may be tempted to say the issues are with the machine or restore function, but the machine is running fine other than Opus and has been smoothly restored several past times, without incident.

I also tried ctrl and alt to clear the Opus registry. While the registry was cleared, it didn't help fix anything.

Not being a skilled troubleshooter, I would guess that registry keys for Opus v6 are corrupted and need a remedy. Beyond that, I can't guess. Meanwhile, I can't use Opus v6.

Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Hi Stephen,
Sorry to hear about your problems. Can you reinstall the full Opus v6 again over the top then uninstall it afterwards to do a clean up?

Paul

Hi Paul

Thanks for your kind thoughts. I'm afraid that I tried that as well. When I reinstalled the second over the first and then did the uninstall, I noticed that the Opus v6 folder was still full. So, I'm not sure if anything was removed. And the problems remained with further installs.

It appears that the uninstall utility is either not working properly or doesn't have a log to use for removal of the first copy.

Lest others think this is a Vista issue: I also tested the new SR on an older XP desktop machine and unfortunately got the same problems. A system restore on this machine also failed to restore.

An old XP notebook is temporarily (and very, very slowly) serving successfully: I installed an earlier copy of v6, vintage January, 08, which although having some challenges which the latest SR is designed to fix, is atleast working. The exported pub is OK and the eval function working smoothly. So, I suspect the latest SR (and its incorporation in the latest full release) is the most likely cause.

Kind Regards,

Hi,

It certainly seems wise to make a system restore point before installing the new SR. I also encountered some problems, like not showing (mpeg1)video's in 32bit color mode and a disappearing cursor in F5 preview mode. The artefacts an jittering in 32-bit color mode have disappeared though.
regards,

Ad

I can install the update ok over the June 07 release of Opus pro v6, and then uninstall Opus normally on both Vista and XP.
I'll try it over the v6 January 08 release and see what happens on my Vista and XP computers.

cheers
Paul

Hi

Thanks for you replies, Ad and Paul.

Ad: I had a system restore point set for last evening when I had done another/different software install, plus there were 2 more restore points in-between for Windows updates. None of the 3 restore points would work to take me back before the new Opus. I'm a firm believer in having a pre-install restore point of one sort or another.

Paul: having never tried to uninstall the January, 08 full v6, I don't know if that had an uninstall log to utilize. When I uninstalled it along with its update inserted today via the new SR, it failed to uninstall properly. After viewing the program folder as still full, and Opus v6 still able to be booted up, I tried to uninstall a second time and got the missing log message.

At one point I finally deleted the program folder for Opus (also tried to install a full version to a different folder, so deleted this entire folder too). Nothing helped, leading me to think corrupted Opus registry settings may be part of the problem.

On a Vista machine, is there any way to manually delete all vestiges of Opus v6 and start over with a "clean" full install?

Kind Regards,

This is a longshot. And may not just be the new update.

Search for install.log and copy it to the folder Windows expects to find it. For example, Program Files>>>Opus Pro 6

This next could be risky or make things worse (versus, uninstalling from Control Panel>>>Programs and Features (vista)).
Then in that folder, find UNWISE?? Right click and "Run as administrator". (might help to have your anti-virus Disabled for 'protecting Program changes' or similar). Also might help if this is done in Safe Mode.

If that works... it may not be a v6.01 issue. I may have encountered that in last couple months. Still, if I recall, even when Opus did uninstall a couple months ago, I had to rebuild my Disk from a backup disk-image (but I was also manually deleting Registry Keys for anything DW -- and that could have been my undoing [pun intended]. Somewhere in the process, I noticed a Windows error with ~"msvcrt.dll" )

Stephen,



Somewhere I read a post where DW (Lilly?) recommended uninstalls and manually deleting registry keys. etc. That is why I "tried" that back in April. In any case, did not solve my problem... or I botched it up before or durning that.

On Vista, have you ever changed User 'Type'? Admin/Standard... going back and forth? I had done that... and wonder if it contributed to a problem.

Of course, email DW support... this is not a small thing.

Hi,

Indeed I did inform DW with my findings. System restore in Vista Ultimate worked for me. Making a backup of your registry and manually deleting all keys for Opus seem the only (risky) solution. I use Winrescue to backup and restore any registry-problems. It has a fullly-working trial-version. If you have a version of Opus on another machine, so your workflow won't be compromised, you could try that.

regards,

Ad

I still think Opus a great progam and Vista a &*%

Hi All

Again, thanks for your replies and suggestions.

I have been using a specific .imp that I am working on for the testing. The one fix I had not tried was to reset the Publication ID on the security tab in the properties. OK, so I gave that a try, and using the January, 2008 v6 build, it worked OK. Then, I uninstalled that build and tried the new full v6.01. That gave me some of the previous difficulties. So, I uninstalled that (so far, uninstalling worked) and re-installed the Januray, 2008 v6. Then the v6.01 new SR.

Tried the same .imp with the Pub ID again reset (reset for every new install and testing), and I noticed an interesting issue: the published (to a desktop folder) .exe initially was missing its icon. But, I noticed that the folder was still working very slowly to complete (in Vista, a green bar creeps along near the top). Once the bar finished across, quite slowly at that, the .exe's icon appeared and from that point forward the pub booted up fine. I unlocked it, and it stayed unlocked. It ran fine.

I'm detailing this so that DW Support will have it in case this becomes a replicable issue regarding v6.01. It appears that this v6.01, via January, 2008 v6 plus v6.01 SR from today, works, but with the above mentioned publishing issue. Takes some time to complete the publishing into a desktop folder, but then the pub works OK.

I'll test some more, check if it "breaks," or I can further unravel the mystery.

Kind Regards,

Stephen

Have you taken note of CPU and memory usage from the TaskManager when Opus is 'processing' a long time?

I've killed the opus.exe process a few times when CPU was 50% and mem was 75MB to 150MB (for a 2MB pub). Maybe I did not wait long enough (30 minutes)?

Hi Larry

I hadn't looked before, but tried it now. Publishing used no more than 30% memory and generally stayed much below that. When I checked the folder's building the pub's icon (for lack of a better way to describe this, since the iconless pub is already there but it takes about 90 seconds for the icon to appear), the useage was very low (a few %).

If I had to guess, I would think the v6.01 issue has to do with compiling/publishing, maybe affects the evaluation/unlock feature, as well.
Something seems amiss, but can't quite figure what.

By the way, v6 from January, 2008 has none of these issues.

After a few more attempts to use 6.01, including a frozen screen necessitating the Task Manager to restart, I decided for now to remove it and re-install January, 2008 v6. The uninstall was only partly successful, leaving about 10 Mb in the Opus v6 program folder-deleted it.

Reinstalled v6, January build, seems to be working OK.

Kind Regards,