PRE 11 crashes constantly

[mfl1]

I recently purchased PRE 11. After today's substantial batch of Windows updates, I find that I can't use PRE 11 for more than a couple of minutes without crashing. I'm using Windows 7 on a Lenovo W520. Each of Windows Update, PRE 11 and QuickTime is current. I ran disk cleanup, defrag, CCleaner and memory diagnostics. I disabled my Norton antivirus software. Nothing has worked.

I'm trying out a test project before investing the time to make the final two-hour project I have in mind. The test project is no more than 10 minutes long, and has snippets of different types of files, including primarily .avi, .wav and.jpg. There are also one .mp3 and one .wmv file. There is no pattern to the crashing. Sometimes, the program crashes as soon as I open it. Once or twice it crashed as I was importing media files; once when I was rendering; and a couple of times I got as far as trying to burn a DVD to a computer file before it crashed.

Obviously, I'm reluctant to commit to spending any more time on this project -- or this software -- until I can get this under control. I saw elsewhere on these forums that another program is slightly less user-friendly but more stable. Stable is good, but I've invested a ton of time learning this program -- thanks in part to Steve's excellent book and Lynda.com lessons -- and I'd hate to lose that.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions.

Thanks in advance,
Marvin

[Dave McElderry]

After today's substantial batch of Windows updates, I find that I can't use PRE 11 for more than a couple of minutes without crashing.

It sounds like you've already diagnosed the problem. I'm not sure why you're blaming the software if the problem began after today's updates. If it was working before the updates, and now after the updates it's constantly crashing, you need to uninstall today's updates. You can either uninstall one at a time to see which one is causing the issue, or uninstall them all and then try reinstalling them one at a time.

[mfl1]

Thanks. That occurred to me, but the updates were presented as necessary to address "multiple vulnerabilities." When a layman like me sees language like that, I don't feel comfortable disregarding it. I'm not competent to determine which of these I really need and which I can safely ignore.

So you may well be right, but I'm not sure where that leaves me and other amateurs in my position.

[Peru]

Do a System Restore to a point before the updates. Disable auto updates. Try Pre El 11. Manually install each update one at a time and then try Pre El 11 to see which is the problem update.

[mfl1]

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[mfl1]

[ Post made via Mobile Device ]

[Steve Grisetti]

I suppose it's possible that it's the Windows Updates -- but probably not.

Where are the AVIs in your project from? Were they captured from a miniDV camcorder over a FireWire connection? As you know, there are thousands of AVI codecs out there, and a great many of them (including video from FRAPS and MJPEG-AVIs from still cameras) are not a good fits for Premiere Elements.

So my first thought is to consider your source footage. WMVs do not make good source video and MP3s don't make audio. They'll work, but they can give you pretty ugly performance. And I assume your JPEGs have been sized to no larger than 2000x1500 pixels in size.

So let's start with some basic troubleshooting. Does the program open a new project okay and does it crash randomly before you add media to it? If you add some 2000x1500 JPEGs to it and a WAV file, does it crash then?

And tell us more about these AVIs. Where do they come from and what codecs do they use? (You can find out by opening them in MediaInfo or the G Spot Video tool.)

[Steve Grisetti]

Also, please don't try to post from your mobile device. As you can see, that does not work.

[Steve Grisetti]

FYI, I just installed all of the Windows 7 updates, rebooted and opened a Premiere Elements 11 project. No problems.

So I'd recommend we start by troubleshooting your source media. Add a little at a time until we see what messes things up.

[Dave McElderry]

I would certainly agree with Steve that it seems unlikely that a Windows security update would cause problems with PrEl. But your original post did specify a direct cause and effect. Having said that, the apparent connection between these items may just be a coincidence. A few weeks ago I received a batch of Windows updates and at the same time an NVIDIA graphics update (direct from NVIDIA). I began experiencing Blue Screen Of Death problems. Concurrently, I had just began experimenting with Firefox and had installed some plug-ins. It took nearly a week of gradually eliminating plug-ins, Firefox, Windows updates, and finally the graphics driver before proving that the BSOD was caused by the NVIDA update. After rolling back the NVIDA driver and having no problems for a week, I reinstalled all the Windows updates, Firefox, and its plug-ins and found that the problem has not returned. As Steve says, don't rule out anything.

The biggest problem with some of these issues is that they're sometimes particular to the specific combination of software and hardware on your system. 10,000 other people may have no trouble with a particular update and PrEl V11, for example. I really doubt that very many people had the trouble with NVIDIA's update that I did.

[mfl1]

Thanks. I suspect that what happened is that I added additional media at about the same time as the Windows update, and it's the former rather than the latter that's causing the problem. When I'm home tonight, I'll try taking out some of the clips that have been identified as potentially problematic and see what happens. I appreciate all the help.

[Dave McElderry]

Thanks. I suspect that what happened is that I added additional media at about the same time as the Windows update, and it's the former rather than the latter that's causing the problem. When I'm home tonight, I'll try taking out some of the clips that have been identified as potentially problematic and see what happens. I appreciate all the help.

If it should turn out that you do isolate the issue to particular media, be sure to post back your findings. There are several folks here, including Steve, who are good at figuring out why PrEl may have problems with it. Someone is likely to be able to help you find a workaround.

[mfl1]

Thanks for your suggestions, I think this problem is solved (and now on to other problems). As Steve surmised, the problem seemed to result from one clip. Every time I tried to import that clip into a new project (on two different computers), the program crashed. No other clip caused a crash. So it seems pretty likely that that was the issue.

The clip had been downloaded from the internet. When I opened it in MediaInfo, the result was "video stream: MPEG-4 Visual (XviD)(Simple@L1). (I believe that's the information you were asking for, Steve, but if not, please let me know.)

Again, I appreciate all the help.

Marvin

[Bob]

XVID is an mpeg-4 derivative. It's considered a distribution codec and isn't optimized for editing. In addition, it implements some compression methodologies that aren't implemented and supported by all playback devices and software. Consequently, video encoded with those methodologies may cause instability. That's a known problem with XVID encoded video. This may very well be the issue with the footage you are using.

[Steve Grisetti]

Glad we could help you locate the problem, Marvin!