Sigma PhotoPro 4.0 crashes

[otumay]

The title of this thread may look familiar to Sigma veterans, as older versions of this dedicated software for Foveon sensors were prone to freezing frequently.

I was relieved to find the latest version to be relatively stable, but now I see that it started crashing again. This maybe due to my recent upgrading to Mac OSX 10.6.3 from 10.5.6.

The worst part is this: Once it starts crashing, it always does it, no matter how many times I restart my Mac. Has anyone experienced this problem with version 4.0?

Thank you for your attention.

Osman

 

[Will]

Have you tried repairing disk permissions?

 

[otumay]

No, Will. I'll do it immediately. Thank you.

 

[otumay]

Update: Repairing disk permissions did not help unfortunately. This confounded thing resists me

 

[Streetshooter]

Have you removed the older versions?

I had problems with my Mac's before and after removing the old, the new worked fine....
shooter

 

[otumay]

I did remove the older version. Usually shutting the computer down does the trick, I shall do it shortly.
Thank you for your attention.

 

[smokysun]

bad luck, osman. i'm on vista 64 and have had no problem. however, sometimes the updates do screw things up and programs won't load. i've had it happen a couple of times. check with sigma to see if they have a patch. (they're certainly slow about everything. i think they focus on lenses to pay the bills.) you may have to go back to pro 3. you might want to go back to the older mac version.

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

ps. an update to adobe acrobat messed up my computer last week and i found they did have a new patch. it solved the problem.

 

[busch63]

bad luck, osman. i'm on vista 64 and have had no problem.

I´m on WIN-PC and Win7 x64 Ultimate. Only sometimes I have the Message "Converting Error" but except this no probs at all. SPP4 ist much faster and more "real" with the colors.

 

[Don Ellis]

I have exactly the same problem, beginning about a week ago, on Windows 7. It was working fine for a while and then started freezing. I uninstalled, rebooted and reinstalled -- to no avail. Like you, I discovered that once you have the problem, you have the problem.

Here's the work-around I discovered... It only freezes when I try to close the conversion window, not the main program. So I just never close the conversion window. You can do this two ways:

1. Selected Photos -- If you are converting random photos, just click on one in the main program and it will open in the conversion window. Convert it and leave that window open. Go back to your main program and open your next photo and it will replace the one in your conversion window. Keep doing that until you're finished and then close your main program and both windows will close.

2. All Photos: Click on the first photo in the main program to open it in the conversion window. Then just then go through them in the conversion window using the Right Arrow button in the upper-left of the screen. When you're finished, close your main program and both windows will close.

Cheers,
Don

 

[raywest]

I'm running win XP. I've been 'with computers' for over 40 years. I contacted Sigma UK wrt this being the 'flakiest' software I've ever used. I've asked them to escalate my complaint to the authors. I can not define where it crashes - different places different days, but it does not close down properly either.

I would respectfully request that if you have a problem with the software that you send an email to your local Sigma office. I would expect the authors will fix it quicker the more complaints and information that they receive. Unfortunately, I know of no other software that can handle the dp1 raw files properly.

Best wishes,

Ray

PS, one thing that puzzles me here - the foveon sensors are larger then the area of 4/3s, and there is quite a following here, so why are they lumped in with the small sensor stuff?

 

[smokysun]

thanks, ray. i'm keeping my fingers crossed. did about 500 conversions in the last two days and no problems. running vista home 64.

as for size, i think we relate it to the smaller cameras and there are not enough users for a thread. plus, almost all dp1 users have other small sensor cameras and they post a lot. i feel comfortable here.

wayne
www.pbase.com/wwp

 

[Streetshooter]

Osman,
Any luck?
I might download the new version just to see if it works on my 2 Macs....

 

[otumay]

Don, Streetshooter, Ray, a million thanks.
Don, the method you've kindly described for 'all photos' is the one I'd been using since the beginning. I never close the conversion window and navigate through the right and left arrows. But the method you've advised for 'selected photos' gives me hope. I shall open the first photo and leave it open, then go to the browser window and open another conversion window for each and every other photo, if I understand correctly.
I shall give feedback today.
Best,
Osman

 

[Don Ellis]

But the method you've advised for 'selected photos' gives me hope. I shall open the first photo and leave it open, then go to the browser window and open another conversion window for each and every other photo, if I understand correctly.

Hi Osman,

You don't need to worry about "window clutter" -- there will only ever be one conversion window open. SPP4 doesn't open a new conversion window for every new photo -- it just keeps replacing the old photo in a single conversion window with the next photo you want to convert (thank goodness).

Cheers,
Don

P.S. And when you're finished with your session, close the main program window, not the conversion window. When you do that, the conversion window will close along with it. If I try to close the conversion window itself, it just hangs up and must be forced to close... which is a time-consuming nuisance.

 

[otumay]

Update!
Don, I regret to say that I was unsuccessful. I guess SPP attaches a flag or something to the X3F file, causing it to invoke crashing even when it is opened by a different computer.
So, until Sigma fixes this, I shall resort to PS CS4 for those 'crasher' files.
Thank you all for giving a hand in this.
Best,
Osman

 

[Don Ellis]

Hi Osman,

If you do this:
1. Open SPP4 and double-click an image.
2. It opens in a Conversion Window.
3. You ignore the Conversion Window and go back to the Main Window and close it.

Even then it crashes?

 

[otumay]

Don, when I close the main window, i.e. by clicking the red dot in a Mac window, SPP4 quits, closing the conversion window as well.
By the way, the images that cause SPP4 to crash (at least a third of the files) cannot be opened in the conversion window, because when double-clicked, the conversion windows tries to open, then the yellow animated progress bar on top right freezes and SPP4 crashes.

 

[D upton-Hackett.]

otumay.
Just a thought have you tried remove and reinstall. not had any probs myself but i did this with another prog and it worked.

Apologises if you have done this already.

 

[otumay]

No, Derek. I'm seriously considering it.
Thanks,
Osman

 

[Kofronj]

Osman,

I have five versions of SPP running on my old (G5) iMac, with nary a problem. Including the latest and greatest...

What I'd suggest is the following:

1. Trash the program (drag to trash, empty trash).
2. Reinstall and try again.
3. If you still have problems, there are a couple preference files that you can trash---let me know and I'll find them tonight on my system (I'm sure one is in your library folder).
4. If you're still unsuccessful, you can create a new user account for yourself and see if you can run it under that user without issues.
5. Check the "Console" program (under utilities) to see what it's telling you when it crashes. There may be clues...

I just fixed an issue with this iMac of mine---I was having problems where spotlight was no longer working well AND at times file types were becoming 'disassociated' with the file type database, so the finder would take forever to recognize any file types when you clicked on it. I did all the standard troubleshooting, and some non-standard stuff as well to get spotlight back (deleting the V100 directory, etc). Nothing really fixed the problem. With the errors I was seeing in the console, I could Google around and I came across a small mention of one of my addons (iStat Menu) causing an issue for someone. Uninstalled it---and everything works perfectly!