PainterFactory.com

I just upgraded my computer (XP64) from  8GB of ram to 16GB of ram and now
Painter X will not load. It starts to load, then gives me an error message.
Without the extra 8GB it works just fine. Has anyone else had this problem
or found a fix. I emailed Corel but they will not help as it's an academic
version. Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Mitch 

Hi Mitch,

This is something we have found with some users. We are working to fix this issue for 64bit users with more than 8GB of Ram. So in short to answer your question 16GB is too much.... for now.

Please let me know if you have any other concers or issues with the 64bit OS, we are looking for feedback to implement into the next version.

Thanks,

Rob

 Thank you for at least letting me know it's a known problem. Now, my next question (obviously) is any idea of a fix date or new version date? I really miss Painter but I don't want to pull ram out of my computer every time I want to use it.

It ran just fine with the 64bit OS prior to the ram upgrade. There weren't any bugs or issues that I could tell you to watch out for on the 64bit compared to the 32bit.

Thanks,

mitch

I would also be interested in learning more about a planned fix.  I use Vista Ultimate 64 bit on a box with 2 Xeon quad cores and 16GB or RAM.  I was disappointed to learn that I can't use Painter X now.

 Mitch:

If you don't want to have to physically remove half of the 16GB RAM, what you might want to consider doing is having a special version of C:\boot.ini (which controls how Windows XP boots up). You can add a parameter to the

For example at the end of this message is the contents of the c:\boot.ini on my machine (which is configured with two bootable partitions so I can choose either WinXP 32 or WinXP 64 -- I've marked in bold face the one parameter of interest to you -- the /maxmem=8192. This limits the amount of memory that WinXP 64 will use and you'll find that you can then run Painter X ok even with 16 GB of RAM (WinXP "lies" about the amount of memory available when Painter X asks).

The full documentation on boot.ini is at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb963892.aspx.

It is just a text file, so you can have different versions of the file (with different file names), and you can just copy the variant you want on top of boot.ini and restart the machine.

It means that you can keep the 16GB of RAM in the machine all the time and just reboot when you want to run say, Photoshop, and use all of the memory.

The limitation that Painter X has is the first known case of software agoraphobia I have ever seen. Mind you, I've only been a systems programmer since 1963. <grin>

Regards

Andy.

---sample boot.ini ---

[boot loader]
timeout=5
;****** to change the default Os Change \*/ to 1 for x32 or 2 for x64
;******                                  |
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /maxmem=8192
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /PAE /3GB /maxmem=4096

Well memory limits have been around every version of Painter I've known. Older versions will give you an "out of tiles" error.

I really hope that a "Version" upgrade is not the official answer, and they'll issue a patch for those with Painter X, some people are not aware the new version may come out next year and may not be happy with paying for a version upgrade on top of it just to solve this problem.

I don't know why there's a memory limit every version, it seems to be an odd thing to put in.

 Thanks Andy!! I appreciate your time to help me out. I will give it a try and see if that works.

 Hi Andy,

I tried changing the boot.ini file to exactly what you said but it didn't work either. If it works correctly will windows still show 16gb or 8 gb on the 'system tab'. maybe i didn't put the line in correctly but it does match exactly what you gave me an example of to try. If you have any other ideas I would love to hear them!!

Thanks...mitch

 Could you try posting your boot.ini file as an attachment to a message here? (Check under the Options tab at the top of the message window -- it looks like you attach a file).

If that doesn't work, please send me an email message to ajohnsonlaird@gmail.com with your boot.ini file as an attachment.

Regards

Andy

Hi Andy,

Here is my boot.ini file i used. I renamed it so it was the only one but saved my original just in case i mucked it up.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect/maxmem=8192

I couldn't find the attach file button so I just copied and pasted. I hope this works. I'm excited to hear back if i screwed it up and it will really work. sure would be a lot easier than pulling ram out of my system!!  :)

Thanks!  mitch

Hi Mitch:

I think you need a space after the "/fastdetect" and before the forward slash in "/maxmem=8192"

Just FYI, the attach button appears when you are composing a new message and you click on the "Options" button, just to the right of the "Compose" button -- look for the text in large green letters "Reply to an Existing Message"  -- the Compose/Options/Related/Preview buttons are underneath that.

Hope that helps.

Andy.

 Hi Andy,

I gave it another shot today and it still does the same thing. When I go into the task bar / system  -  xp still shows 16 gb of ram. so i'm guessing it's not working. Painter gives me the same error. I really appreciate you trying to help out!! You've already done a 1000X more than Corel has tried (nothing).

If you have any other suggestions I would love to give them a try.

Take care my friend.....mitch

That's odd. It works fine for me (don't you hate it when people say that?) <grin>.

Can you send your current boot.ini file to me again at ajohnsonlaird@gmail.com please?

Regards

Andy

 Sorry to post to an old thread, but the situation is still the same.

After about 4 exchanges with tech support, they (finally) told me that my 16GB system wouldn't work.  No promises when it would be fixed.  No FAQ mentioning it.  System 'requirements' do not mention this problem.

In short order all of my x64 boxes will have 8gb or more - hope the Corel team applies some effort on this one.

 I hear you on this!! It's very frustrating that Corel has chosen to do nothing on this issue. I'm sure it will get addressed in the next version but when will that come out? I'm disappointed with the current response, but then there are just a few of us who have over 8 GB of ram so I'm sure Corel put this way down on the list to deal with. I've gotten much more support from nice people on this list than I ever got from Corel. It feels good to vent a little sometimes......sorry about that.......:)

Mitch