Adobe Premiere Elements 7 With Worthless Error Messages.

Question

I have been a programmer since 1984, and if I saw a programmer in my team wrote these worthless error messages, I would go into my office and kill myself.
I Googled them, and I found them discussed; but the responses were of no use to me, mostly.
1. The error message I got that brought me to the edge of a cliff is: "Sorry, a serious error has occurred that require Adobe Premiere Elements to shutdown. We will attempt to save your current project."
Then it crashed.
When I was taking Operating Systems in my computer science class, a crash means you will get no more than 60 (out of 100). At IBM, a crash is always a SEVerity 1 issue. There is no way around it. Crash means the program is worthless.
I Googled it, and Adobe suggested it could be some drivers using virtual audio. I uninstalled everything I could find, and this problem is not going away. I looked at the sound device configuration, and it's using physical audio, not virtual audio.
I uninstalled Premiere Elements 7 five times and reinstalled them. They still failed. Finally, I reinstalled it at a different location, and it managed to "Found default catalog. Trying to open the  default catalog." Then crashed.
If I wanted to use the default catalog, I would have said so. If I knew where they are, I would have set them on fire.
Anyway, I have a project due this afternoon, and I am stuck with these worthless Adobe Premiere Elements 7 error messages. No wonder Steve Jobs banned Adobe Flash. They are pretty worthless.
Sorry I am so upset, because none of you need to read my frustration; but I am up to my neck with Adobe. Once I get my project done, and I am switching to SONY Vegas.
But, for now, would someone tell me how to get rid of these problems so I can get the video edited? Thank you.

Answer 1

I noticed these errors were reported years ago, and Adobe has done NOTHING to improve it.
Go back to my little list of how problems, crashes and errors sort out. That was how it was way back with Premiere programs, and how it still sorts out.
Even the patch for PrE 8 was mainly to get it functioning with nVidia and ATI graphics cards. Yes, those "fixes" probably straddle the line between Bugs and system, with a nod towards Bugs. I know that Adobe takes their Bugs very seriously, and work overtime trying to find fixes for those, that do exist. Though it took a bit of time, as they gathered info, still Adobe had a patch, and that is rare for PrElements, due to the normal lifespan of that program.
I provide some of the same answers today, that I did years ago, to fix the problems. In nearly every case, things sort out per that list. As "system" is both #1 and is also by far the largest segment of causes, that is where I begin looking. With PC's, there are myriad configurations, and most are not suited for video editing. Too many load up their e-machine and expect to edit HD material. Obviously, that is not the case here, but there could still be equipment incompatibilities, or just some tweaking needed. I see similar in the PrPro forum, as the Mac-users put the program on their MacBook Pros, with one tiny HDD, and a very weak CPU, and things go horribly wrong. If PrE was ported for the Mac, we'd have the same issues here. Usually, my first question will be about the I/O sub-system, i.e. the HDD's, their size, speed, free space, controller type and how they are allocated. Video editing is highly I/O intensive, and most computers are not even close to being able to efficiently handle it. I recommend a minimum of 3x SATA, physical HDD's, and suggest that they be setup to spread the I/O workload over all three. Some manage with a 2x I/O, but that is below MY minimum, and is the real minimum from Adobe. A single HDD I/O is just going to cause bottlenecks, and there is no way around that.
Once, it was more the domain of the PC, that one had system issues, as Mac's were so limited and controlled. Now, as they have gained the ability to expand beyond the absolute control of Apple, those users are finding out that systems DO matter.
Notice #2 - Assets. Not all AV material is meant to be edited. Some, like AVCHD (a consumer format) will require a pro-level computer, just to get smooth playback! The second most common issue is trying to edit material that has something like the Xvid, or DivX CODEC.
Number 3 - Project, is very important too. One must match their Project Preset to their source footage. If not, then there will be problems. The failure to do this match is one of the biggest causes of issues, though usually not crashes, or hangs.
Number 4 - OE, is when a user decides to push a button, and expects something else to happen, and often because that's how it worked in another program. Many argue with me that #2 and #3 are OE too, but I am much more lenient, than they are.
Then, there ARE the Bugs. PrPro CS4 had a bunch. CS4.1 fixed a few, but broke some other things. It was not until CS4.2, that things got corrected, mostly, with that version. Then, CS5 hit, and seems quite good, but has a few Bugs too. Some were left over from CS4. A new update for CS5 is coming, and soon. Will it also fix those lingering Bugs? Only time will tell. Will it be a perfect program? Doubtful, but I'll bet that it'll be a "better" program.
Think back to when you started programming. You were writing apps. for the majority of the install-base. However, what happened if the user had Extended Memory? What happened if they had Expanded Memory? What happened if they had both, and a software manager to handle those? Most still had 640KB. By that time, I had 2GB, though my MoBo could only handle 1GB with the managers. How could you write for me? I was 1:1000000, or maybe even less. I had to do my programming on the fly, and often had boot discs for different programs. It's not that much different now, except that I would not be such a rarity any more, but hardly mainstream.
I'll bet that we can sort much out, by tackling the "Big 3," and then working down, if necessary.
I like doing test Projects, keeping things simple, and testing as we make them more complex. That helps isolate the issues in most cases. In another thread, the poor user says that all Project Presets, all formats and all Export setting yield issues. My first thought is to isolate on one Project Preset, one set of Assets, and see if it's a system issue.
Sometimes it's easy, and that is good, 'cause the user gets to editing and not fritzing so much. Just nailed one in Encore, but the poster gave me all the data necessary, and my memory did not fail me (maybe it was not "wine-thirty yet?). One post, and one correct answer. Life is good. Sometimes, it takes days, and many posts, to narrow things down. In but a few, there is an answer. In those (like the PGC error in Encore) one never does really solve the issue, and the only hope is to get the OP to start over, do everything by the book, and hope for the best, this time around.
Good luck, and be assured - I do feel your pain. If I have not had one of THOSE error messages, believe me, I have read of them too many times.
Hunt