Is Adobe Premiere Crashing on you, Can't Fix it?? - Solution to almost every cause...

[John A. Preston]

I posted this in another forum, and it got alot of hits so I thought I post it somewhere that might show up on google, yahoo, etc. I've been trying to fix this problem of mine, and I've found that countless people have had the same problem with previous versions of premiere and still do with even the more recent versions. I'm going to be posting this on multiple forums to help out. Well, I might be being a little cocky saying that I have a solution to every case of Adobe Premiere not working, but I will give as many solutions as I know starting with my problem, which I've had happen multiple times, and then go through the possible solutions to other countless people's errors that I've seen while trying to fix my problem. It might almost seem like it's not worth it to go through all of my steps and instead just format your hard drive, but some people have too much stuff to have to copy off the drive to do that so that is why I'm posting this. For example, I myself have over a Terabyte of music on my computer =/.


PREMIERE PROBLEM CRASHES


When I would click on Premiere, no matter what version ( I only tried Adobe Premiere 6.5, Pro 7, and CS3 but I'm sure it would've been the same for all ) it would pop up as it usually does and then it would crash ( for search provider purposes I'm going to put every word I can think of ) lock up, freeze, shut down, close out, not work, wouldn't start, doesn't open, won't run, can't load, etc. Premiere 6.5 for example would say "Initializing" and then give a send or don't send error message. Similar thing for CS3 except it didn't say "Initializing" it said something else, but it would only say the first thing it would try to do and then the same error messages every time. This seemed to be an unfixable problem I've had multiple times with adobe premiere and I've tried the following possible fixes but none worked: System restores, uninstall and reinstall, uninstall all audio and video codecs I can find, Delete every adobe premiere file that exists on my computer including documents and settings / my documents / windows / program files / temp files / prefrence files / application data / etc., also going into my regestry editor and going to HKCU... as well as HKLM / Software / Microsoft / Windows / CurrentVersion / RUN and RUN Once and deleted any proccesses I knew I didn't need on startup, I've also tried unchecking Load Startup Items under the Selective Startup section using "msconfig" in the run command and then restarting without those background programs running and then tried Premiere, and I've even tried to do a repair install of Windows XP, but not a single one of those things in any combination would do the trick!!!


POSSIBLE CAUSES


The problem actually started after doing a system restore, maybe undoing something I wasn't aware of even though the system restore itself was only created a few days back so I'm not sure how that could be, none-the-less the problem started just after. It might have also had something to do with a new program I had installed to clean my registry. I don't believe that was the problem because after cleaning my registry and before the system restore the program worked just fine, but maybe the combination of the two things caused the problem this time. A few other problems I've heard of as possible causes / solutions are...

· Conflicts with Audio Codecs such as - Lame Mp3 / Ra-Audio codec12 / RC3 / etc.
· Conflicts with Video Codecs such as - Ligos, ffdshow, Darim Vision, Moonlight WinDivX, WMP DVD Playback, Core Video, Matrox, Fraps, etc. etc.
· Malware, Viruses, Spyware, bogus Registry Cleaners like RegCure, Pirated Software ( big no no), and other vulnerabilities.
· Prefrence files that needed to be deleted like: Prem60.prf, Premiere 6.5 Prefs - in C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserNameHere\Application Data\Adobe\Premiere, and a few other pref files I can't really remember.
· QUICK TIME, you should uninstall quicktime (which might have been my problem) and delete all files associated with it including Apple Software.
· Start Up proccess conflicts. Use Msconfig in the run command line to bring up msconfig, then under General / Selective Startup, uncheck Load Startup Items and restart your computer. If after restart Premiere doesn't work read on...

· Ace Mega Codecs Pack: This one can cause a lot of conflicts... Here's a screenshot of what your Ace MCP settings should be on through a Custom install, or you can use your control panel to modify an already existing install... http://frankreu.ipower.com//AceSettings.jpg


MY SOLUTION ( to possilby every case of Premiere crashing )


This is a very good solution to have so that you don't have to try all the other things first, I guarantee this is the best solution and it will take a little courage on your part but does the trick without having to format your Hard Drive. The first thing I did was uninstall all versions of Premiere, then Ace Mega Codecs pack v5.93.8971, I also uninstalled all extra audio codecs I could find, and uninstalled any extra software I didn't need on my computer while I was at it which might be causing the conflict such as Fraps, Growler Guncam, and any other little programs I didn't need and could reinstall. Even going as far as looking through the Program Files for things I didn't recognize, and if I were anyone else I would google it to make sure it is not a necessary file, and then delete all the folders to programs I had already uninstalled that were left over or other folders to things that I didn't need. If you're going to do this make sure you go into your My Computer folder, then at the top select the Tools tab and click on Folder Options, then on the view tab make sure that Show Hidden Files and Folders is selected and click apply. Then I went into C:\Documents and Settings\ (Every different account there was) and looked through the Application Data folders and the Local Settings folders for left over Adobe Premiere files and folders and deleted them all. I also cleaned out every temp folder I could find by selecting the files and pressing shift + delete to skip the recycling bin proccess. If you come across any files that say "cannot delete" due to file permissions just look on google for the program called Unlocker 1.8.7 and download it for free, here's the current link http://ccollomb.free.fr/unlocker/unlocker1.8.7.exe. After installing it, should only take seconds, you can right click on any file or group of files and click unlocker, then select the delete option and press the Unlock All button. If the process winlogon.exe or svchost is in the list of processes you are going to unlock do not do it, this will freeze up your computer. After deleting all those left over files you should use your Search command in your start menu to look for anything with the name Premiere in it, make sure you select Advanced Options and then put checkmarks next to Search System Folders, Search Hidden Files and Folders, and Search Subfolders. Delete all those files, but make sure they are related to Adobe Premiere and not something else. Then, and this may not be a necessary step so don't panic, I ran Uniblue Registry Booster to clean out my registry files of all unecessary entries and also did a registry defrag. Uniblue is software you have to pay for though so you might want to fish around on the internet for a good free registry cleaner, do not use RegCure though that one's a scam.


Then, and this is where you have to be kinda brave, I went into the registry editor by pressing the start button on my tastbar and opening the run command I then typed regedit.exe, or just regedit, to open the system registry editor. First you should make a backup of your registry before going any further by clicking the File / Export button, and saving the registry to your My Documents folder or somewhere else you will be able to find it. I would then use the Find command with all options checked to look for Adobe and then Premier seperately to make sure I found every place that had Premiere entries in it and then deleted those entries. Make sure you start from the top by having My Computer selected. Some would only say Prem~.exe and things similar to that, so that is why you have to look for Adobe as well to find all the entries. Once you click find, you can press F3 to do a find next and continue the seach after each value you delete. If a folder contained only a value with an Adobe Premiere property in it I deleted the whole folder. I then searched for the following words and began the same proccess with them: Ligos, Matrox, Fraps, Quicktime, and during the search if I saw any values I wasn't sure of because they didn't seem to be what I was referring to I left them alone. I also deleted any entries that I knew I nolonger needed in there such as Apple Software, and refrences to game demos or other programs I knew I had already uninstalled. Be carefull with that though, you should be absolutly sure before deleting anything from the registry. You have a back up so don't get too scared if you damage it, just double click your backup of the registry, then reboot and start over. Worst case is that you might have to do a windows repair install if you mess up.


Anyway, after you're done in the registry create a system restore point and then restart your computer. Once it loads up again try reinstalling Adobe Premiere and make sure you cross those figers, that's the most important part. Viola, that's my solution. If it doesn't work for you, well, most likely you have some serious malware or a trojan that just doesn't like Premiere. I myself use Panda Titanium 2009 as well as Uniblue PowerSuite to keep my system clean. If you can't afford that try Lavasoft Adaware freeware + Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool and see if they don't catch anything. Good luck, and I really hope that I help at least one person with all of this lol.

[Jiri Fiala]

Basically, stay away from all that codec pack nonsense. If you need DivX/whatever playback on your editing computer, use GOM Player or mplayer. Those have codecs built into their executables and do not plague the system. I`ve been telling this for years to everyone who complains to have mess in their computers.

But Quicktime is a different beast. In video production, it`s the only cross platform AV framework the whole industry is built upon. Many of us rely on QT. One rule applies here as well: if it ain`t broke, don`t fix it. The worst possible tip that every single software vendor except Avid gives, is that you should update everything to the latest version. That`s simply nonsense, because in many cases (and with Quicktime all the time), these are components built deep into the system, and any minor incompatibility can unleash a world of pain. If your current system works, don`t update. You WON`T gain any significant performance/feature boost.

[Jon Shohet]

staying awaing from codec packs is obviously a no-brainer, but for what it's worth I have to say that I have never had any problems with having divx, lagarith, lame, ffdshow and the likes installed on my editing machines, as long as you're installing the official standalone codec and not some super-crap-filled-megapack.

[John A. Preston]

"If your current system works, don`t update"

Exactly, I really think that this is what happened. I prefer the old Adobe Premiere to the new one and some update might have caused the problem. I've had that happen with Flash before.

"not some super-crap-filled-megapack"

Well, you're right a lot of the codec packs are crap, but when you install these mega-crapodec packs you can try out which codec is the best for what you're doing. Pluss they can always be uninstalled, or you can deselect which codecs you don't want in a custom install. It's true, if a mega codec pack was my problem I would say stay away, but this mega codec pack comes with a lot of plugins for different video players such as sasmi2k and others that I like too so it's worth it for me and a lot of usefull utilities as well. Also, I don't think my problem had anything to do with ACE even though I have seen it cause problems with other people who don't know the right configuration to install it with. If you don't know what you're doing stay away from the codec-megacrap-packs and if your system works with what you've got, make sure you create system restores and backups if you plan on upgrading regularly.

Just to throw something in, I use a little freeware program called NanVue. It uses ffdshow and ffmpeg with Xvid and DivX to compress and does so with multiple settings so you don't have to lose quality. A lot of times, I've managed to use this program to bring a 600 mb video down to around 10-20 mb without losing quality :O! It's also really quick and simple to use, if you get it you can uncheck boxes in the first settings when you drop a video in if you want it to run automatically instead of it having to wait for your input, then it's really handy. You can drop 30 vids in there and cut the size down to 20% of what it was before compression in under an hour, sometimes even under 30 min.