PTE Quits

[billfranklin]

I have put together a slide show of 211 slides with four files of music. When I try to play the slide show back, the slide show quits after the second song. I need to show this slide show tomorrw night, so any help would be appreciated. I have put the showj together about 6 times now and it still happens every time.

Thanks.

Bill F.

[alrobin]

Welcome, Bill

You will have to give us a little more to go on, such as whether you are automatically synching the show to the music, whether the music is mp3, wav, or midi, whether you have long transitions (check to see if any are longer than the time allotted to the image, particularly if you are synching the show), the total length of the music, and a bit about your pc system hardware, operating system, etc. Also, are you using a lot of objects along with your images?

Also what software are you using to play the music, and are you playing the show from a CD? I haven't used more than two separate music files, but I assume four will not be a problem - you might try to combine them into one file using one of the several sound editing programs such as Cool Edit, Acoustica, etc.

Another thing to check is that you have exited from all other background programs before running the show.

If you send me your ".pte" file, I will give it a cursory check for conflicting transition timing with my "Adjustor" model (I don't need the image files, or the music files - just the raw "pte" file.)

Good luck!

[Truelight]

I'm guessing here, but have you checked to see how big the created .exe file is? With over 200 slides and 4 (are they .mp3 or perhaps... gasp!.... .Wav) audio files, you could easily have a very large show. I've usually found that when a show "chokes", it is because it exceeds the capabilities of the playback machine. What is the resolution of your photos? (I find that anything over 800x600 is usually overkill for PTE shows and results in HUGE .exe files). It isn't hard with this program to build a show that many older machines will have trouble running. (You can't pull a 40-foot trailer very easily with a Volkswagen Beetle either.) Try some techniques to make your show "leaner and meaner."

-- Rick

[Ken Cox]

reboot your system to clear the temp memory files

then

try it without music

then if it is ok

try adding one tune at a time

you may have a bad tune

ken

[billfranklin]

Thanks for the replies so far. Here is some more information.

1. I have been using auto sync to create the show.

2. My pic. files with one exception, are all below 250mb.

3. Music - one wave file, and 3 mp3 files.

4. Music runs 15 min. 46 sec. -- 4.5 sec. per slide.

5. I have a Dell computer, 512 mb ram 80 GB hard drive.

6. Using windows media player for music.

7. Playing slide show from pc, not a cd. However, I do need to put it one a cd by tomorrow.

Just created another show, and this time when I ran the show, about halfway through, it froze on one slide - the music kept on playing till the end.

Also, sometimes when creating a show I get an error message - "Access violation - 004EB378 address 00000007. "

What is the raw .pte file, and where do I find it. Will send it if I can find it.

Thanks again. Bill F

[ccmanz]

Just created another show, and this time when I ran the show, about halfway through, it froze on one slide - the music kept on playing till the end.

It sounds to me like your show has

customize sync. partly done.

Cick on the customize sync and

make sure your Auto Sync is selected

This will have each picture show for equal

amounts of time.

http://216.43.119.72/photos/auto.jpg

cc

[alrobin]

What is the raw .pte file, and where do I find it. Will send it if I can find it.

Hi, Bill,

The "raw" pte file is the file you save when you "save as" after you have created your show. (I call it "raw" because it is un-compiled. The file name ends with a suffix ".pte" instead of ".exe".

[think(box)]

Hello Bill, (from another "Bill")

I have a long message thread that discusses shows far larger than the ones you are making, and in fact I've

tested them on the most wimpy systems I could find (flawless play on 150MHz P1, 72MB memory, 14,000 pic's

and 1.1GB file size). Since such large shows work fine, it is more likely that the features use are using in

V4.01, a relatively recent release, are encountering a bug. I suggest the following:

1. Use the forum search command and try to find things like "Access" or "violation" to see if other users have

reported the same - since I think this report sounds familiar. If you find that Igor has this problem in debug,

you need an urgent alternative. I suggest that as long as you aren't requiring specific features that are

new to V4.01, then you can uninstall it and try instead to install and use V3.80. Last time I checked V3.80

was still available for download. It may solve your urgent problem for now. I have used V4.01 PTE files in

V3.80 software and it works fine for features implemented as of V3.80.

2. If specific music synchronization is not necessary, try using unsynchronized music playback (with repeat).

Be sure to make a copy of your Name.PTE file so that you can go back or maybe send it in for debug when

asked. Also, test things like creating your show without music at all in order to at least have the visual show

play. You can always play the music separately while show is running, if necessary. Of course if you have

specific sync requirements and V4.01 is possibly the problem, V3.80 may be the only way to fix immediately.

3. Be sure Windows Media Player is up to date. PTE calls and uses it. Be sure your music plays successfully

(no currupt files, that is).

4. Be sure your picture files are OK, in that any viewer can view them all (not likely there is any problem here).

5. I didn't notice in your post what version of Windows - is it XP? This may be needed for debug.

Good luck! PTE is quite solid. You should be able to get past this critical issue in time, we all hope.

Cheers,

[nobeefstu]

Hello, Billfranklin

You'll find your best approach at the moment is by following Ken's previously posted comment ... and rebuild your show in stages and test each compiled version you create. Each time progressively add a new single (1) music file ... this way you will limit your troubleshooting issues. Since you are using WAV and MP3 ... best to take note ... what happens and where with each music file.

Best to test each of the pieces ... when all the pieces combined dont work quite correct.

[billfranklin]

Hi to eveyone who offered suggestions. I am back in business. The guilty party was the wave file. I converted it to an mp 3 and now everything works flawlessly.

I really appreciate everyone's help. You really have a great forum here.

Bill F.