software freeze-up/no drop down box for "fill flash"

NK
Posted By
Nic_Korte
Dec 13, 2003
Views
195
Replies
4
Status
Closed
I’ve used elements for ~2 years (dell Inspiron 8200 with XP). Today when I pulled in a photo and hit "fill flash" I didn’t get the drop down box and could do nothing but go to Task Mgr and kill the program. With experimenting, I found the "adjust backlighting" drop down box is off the edge of the page but I can pull it up. The "fill flash" and "brightness/contrast" boxes don’t appear but once clicked on the menu, they freeze the screen until I kill it with Task Mgr.

I decided to uninstall/install. That all seemed to work fine, but when I opened Elements again, the same things happened: no drop down box for fill flash or brightness contrast, adjust backlighting at the edge of the screen where I can barely pull it up and having no way out of the no-drop-down-box dilemma but killing the program with Windows Task Mgr.

The drop down box for "color" appears in the middle of the screen as always.

What is going on?
Related Tags
box down fill flash freeze software

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BH
Beth_Haney
Dec 13, 2003
Try deleting the Elements Preference folder, which is often a good fix when something that used to work – quits.

With Elements closed, click on the Elements start up icon and then make a quick grab for the Control, Alt, and Shift keys. Hold all three down until you get a screen asking if you want to delete Settings. Say Yes. The Preference folder will rebuild as Elements continues to launch.

For future reference, even when you do an uninstall, this Preference folder isn’t removed during the process. If it is corrupted, the problems will continue even after an uninstall/reinstall.
NK
Nic_Korte
Dec 15, 2003
This fixed the problem. Thank you very much.
RC
Richard_Coencas
Dec 15, 2003
Most of you know this, but it might be good to note for those that don’t that the uninstaller does not remove user specific folders like the prefs. That is why it is better to try deleting prefs before going to the trouble of a new install, and also explains why a reinstall often does not fix problems like this one.

Rich
BH
Beth_Haney
Dec 15, 2003
You’re welcome. Keep this one filed somewhere! 🙂

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