A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned -ACID Product Family

ACID Product Family

Subject:A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Posted by: solar28 Date:11/19/2004 2:53:23 AM Hey All I'll try to be brief. I own Acid Pro 4.0f. I've been close to upgrading to Acid Pro 5. But I figured I'd download the demo first and give it a whirl. WHAT A MISTAKE. I'll say at the outset that I've already searched this forum in ten different ways and none of the answers or suggestions helped. I also searched the knowledge base on Sony site and nothing there helped either. I've also already emailed customer support. (with a ten page version -- detailing 6.5 hours of work trying to dig Acid out of a hole). But I think it's VERY WORTH it for folks to check out what happened to me. In a nutshell, after installing the trial of Acid Pro 5, I went to add some effects and noticed that there were no direct x plugings at all (there were vst plugins), including the Sony XFX that comes w/ Acid. Worried, I shut it down. Then opened Acid 4, they were all there. I also opened my Sonar 4 and they were all there as well. So I realized I was a beta tester. Can't even add Sony effects. So I uninstalled the Acid 5 trial. Then the nightmare hit. I opened acid 4 and NOW ALL THE PLUGINS WERE GONE FOR THAT. That's right, not ONE plugin available. Opened Sonar -- and all the direct x plugs, including the Sony ones, are still there! And they work fine within Sonar. They just don't work in the application that Sony (well honestly, Sonic Foundy) wrote them for. So, not really panicking yet, I uninstalled my Acid pro 4. Rebooted, re-installed, re-booted (as the installer asked me to do), patched to 4.0f. Still the SAME problem. So that's when I started browsing the forums and the knowledge base. Searching for terms such as "directx" "missing plugs" "no directX" etc etc. Found some folks w/ relatively similar issues. I tried all the suggestions -- like running the "Migrate" utilities, "register directx plugs" etc. Still did not help. So I uninstalled again. I also deleted all "sonic foundry" and "Sony" folders from my system (as I don't own any other sonic foundry or sony products). Reinstalled (I'll leave out the details, just know that there's a couple re-boots, a patch, entering serial, registering, etc etc) each time. Still did not help. I found a knowledge base article forcing a re-scan of all directx plugs by deleting a registry key. Guess what? The instructions they gave in the knowledge base article -- aren't even correct. They tell you for instance to look for a Sony Pictures Digital key, and underneach that find a DirectXCache folder (or something; search the knowledge base for DirectX if you want to see it). These keys don't exist at all -- I searched my entire registry -- for "Sony Pictures Digital" and "Sonic Foundry" and "Acid" and "Sony" and the dmn key they told me to look just WAS NOT THERE. I guess I should add at this point that I'm a computer programmer by trade. I know my way around the windows registry. My final straw and hope (and I hate doing this because it takes forever) was to go ahead and do a full uninstall. Then delete all related directories left over from my HD. Then rid my registry of all instances of "Sony", "Sonic Foundry", "Acid", since I don't own any other sony software. This took a couple hours on it's own. Of course I found 30-50 entires ALL over the place in my registry related to this ONE DMN program. But I actually had some hope because a number of those instances were pointing to the xfx .dll files that of course no longer existed because the thing had been uninstalled. After deleting, I did a re-install. Still the same damn issue. No direct x effects at all available within Acid Pro 4.0f. AND I can still see the damn sony plugins when I fire up Sonar (after a reinstall. I made sure after an uninstall that the Sony plugs were gone from Sonar, which they were, and as should be expected). Note -- everything was fine w/ Acid until I installed this trial version. I was actually using Acid Pro 4 earlier today w/ no problems. So it's not me, it's not my machine, it's not some other software I installed, etc. Actually check that -- my acid pro 4.0f worked perfectly until I UNINSTALLED Acid Pro 5. Now my Acid Pro 4 is HOSED. And Yes -- they install into separate directories. Now I can't really continue work on my projects when all my effects and EQ (track EQ etc) are all gone. I really think Sony owes me money for my time on this crap. I just want Acid Pro 4 to work. AND -- yes everything was going into the default directories. BTW, the only suggestion I didn't try was to create a new user account. I'm the computer administrator, and there's only one account on my machine. There's no WAY in hell I'm going to potentially f*ck up a host of other programs that may or may not be installed for all users because of this software. I don't have all the hours to migrate everything and deal with that crap. BTW -- this is also the worst experience I've ever had, EVER, with installing software (natch, uninstalling). I can't believe it. You can count me lucky, but I avoid problems 5,999 times out of 6,000 because I know what I'm doing. I make my money programming (and much less doing music), building computers, etc. I've installed at least 800-900 programs over my career. All the Microsoft Dev products (as a programmer, this is visual studio, .NET, sql server), tons of games. I own Sonar 4 producer, Project 5 1.5, Reason 2.5, Recyle, Cubase SX 1.06. And I've never had a crappier experience than this. Any suggestions btw are welcome. And for those that survived my rant, BE FOREWARNED. Thanks if you read this far.
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: Rednroll Date:11/19/2004 7:36:46 AM Thanks for keeping it "brief". Do you feel better now? Since you're a programmer and build computers and all that good stuff, I bet you're smart enough then that you do proper house maintenance on your PC and keep all your saved project data on a seperate hard drive than your OS? Ok good. Now reformat the hard drive that your OS is on and then reinstall with a fresh OS. Then download any Windows updates and hardware driver updates. Make sure you have no IRQ conflicts and all that good stuff. Now reinstall all your software. You obviously have something Fubared in the registry, or the windows direct X software programs. Start fresh and move on with your life. In about the same amount of time it took you to write that short novel above, you could have been done and up and running on a fresh registry PC.
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: Rockitglider Date:11/19/2004 8:40:56 AM Red, How can you give people advise like this, Are you a tech that can advise like this? I think you have an attitude in this and other forums, Like Sonar. Just my opinion and observation. See ya, Rockitglider
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: solar28 Date:11/19/2004 2:38:58 PM Thanks you guys for the replies. Yes actually I do feel a lot better -- I did that in the middle of the night after hours going through all that. It peeved me to no end. Yes all my data is backed up. Etc etc. All my projects are on a separate drive, no irq conflicts etc. You will have noticed that I said that I'd been using Acid 4.0f earlier during the day no problem. It wasn't until after uninstalling the trial version that my plugins got hosed. I really hope that someone here or Sony customer support can help me. I know doing a reinstall of everything will fix it. But it would take a couple days -- it's not just music software, but programming software, database installations, etc. Installing .NET dev env alone is a 3-4 hour process. And doesn't it sound rediculous that I should have to reformat my whole system because of this? I don't have any other problems elsewhere on my system. Doesn't it sound a bit f*cked? Sorry for the long posts! Thanks.
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: Rockitglider Date:11/19/2004 3:52:28 PM Hello Solar28, I would suggest if you are local enough to call Sony, That's what I would suggest, because they might be better able to help with your seemingly complicated problem. Sorry I don't have any thing better to offer. Rockitglider
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: Rednroll Date:11/19/2004 3:55:16 PM "How can you give people advise like this, Are you a tech that can advise like this? I think you have an attitude in this and other forums, Like Sonar. Just my opinion and observation." You know what Rockit, maybe I do have an attitude or maybe, I've spent a lot of time through research, practice and putting in the blood, sweat, and tears. I've put a lot of hard work into getting to the knowledge level of experience that I have......so yes, that gives me a lot of attitude....confident attitude. So when I come in and see people whining about a little problem, just to whine, then my sympathy radar kicks in and I say, "boooo...hoooo........booo...hoooo." Cry me a friggin river ok? Instead of cryin like a baby among your peers, take it as a learning experience and move on. Some of us have gone through a lot more than this, but it's all part of the learning curve. If you can't handle the learning curve then get the f**k out of the business and start paying someone who can. Solar28 obviously realized he probably went over the deep end with the whining and complaining due to the circumstances and probably over reacted a bit. I just pointed this out to him in a non insulting way. Sorry, if you've got a problem with the way I post.....deal with it....and I'll learn to deal with your viewpoint. I don't get paid anything for offering my advice that I've learned from my time well spent. Once you start putting a paycheck in my hand, then I'll start to give you advice, in the manor you feel suitable. Thanks for caring, Red
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: Rednroll Date:11/19/2004 4:13:01 PM "I don't have any other problems elsewhere on my system. Doesn't it sound a bit f*cked?" Yes it does. Live and learn....maybe Acid is the problem, maybe it isn't. The real problem is if you have that much software and have to spend a lot of time getting back to square one if something goes wrong, then it's your problem that you didn't create regular system backups to get you back on track. Hey, I learned the same way that you did, except I decided to install a PC game on my system one time. After I uninstalled it, I had all kinds of problems with my audio software.....I didn't call up the video game company and scream at them. I just took a day to reformat and clear my system up, so I didn't have to spend a lot of time trouble shooting. Ever since then, I use software to create images of my hard drives so that I can get back to square one within a manor of minutes, when I make changes like installing new software on my PC. Norton Ghost among a lot of other software was written just for this reason. So yes, it may have been Acid 5.0 demo that caused it, or was just the extra nudge to put it over the edge. Also though, you have some responsibility of being careless. If the stuff on your PC is really that important and valuable to you, then you need to take care of it like it is and be cautious with backups.
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: Iacobus Date:11/19/2004 5:02:56 PM I can say that I really haven't had any problems like solar has. I've had both ACID Pro 4 and ACID Pro 5 installed at the same time and moved on to ACID Pro 5 exclusively. When I uninstalled ACID Pro 4, it also removed the ACD file association with ACID, which was remedied by uninstalling/reinstalling ACID Pro 5. DirectX plug-ins were fine all along the way. Maybe Sound Forge 7 had something to do with that, I don't know. But it does sound something went wrong with solar's setup at some point. solar, you might want to delete any Sony folder residue that's possibly left over. If you have more than one Sonic Foundry or Sony program other than ACID, uninstall them all, then reinstall them once you delete any (possibly) orphaned folders from the uninstalls. What I always suggest is that if nothing else works, then nuke it. Employ a brute force method and format your system. (ACID should be one of the first things to install once you get things going.) This may sound like work, but if one does his chores and performs backups, it's not bad at all. Iacobus ------- RodelWorks - Original Music for the Unafraid Pre-order Instant ACID My ACIDplanet Page Guitars 4 Kids
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: DKeenum Date:11/20/2004 8:41:46 AM Could all of this have something to do with the sonic foundry and sony folders? I can't see how, but I thought I'd throw it out.
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: solar28 Date:11/20/2004 3:49:20 PM Hey you guys, Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to mess around more w/ installing Acid 5 and see if I can't somehow get past this. I have tried deleting all instances of Sony/Sonic Foundry/Acid from registry and HD. But the trick is to find something that is still hanging around somewhere causing the problem. If I can't find it, and/or Sony can't help me, then I'll be needing to do the nuke. Rednroll -- I did over react a bit. I guess I owe a thanks to everyone who plodded through my so-called brief post. In the morning once I'd calmed down a bit I definitely wished I'd kept the anger to myself. Anyhow -- I do do most the things you suggested. I have two external hard drives where all my critical data is backed up to -- stored, audio, databses, etc etc. Also of course 30-40 CDs and a few DVDs of the last couple years finished work. It's really an issue of time. If I have to reformat my system, I will -- and it really will take a couple of days to get everything on track. I just checked out Norton ghost -- I'd stopped using it awhile back when I was still on win98. But since it works w/ DVD drives and external hard drives, that's something else that I'll be getting -- as that'll make it quick and painless. Also -- this is the first time I've truly regretted having System Restore off. I killed that to squeeze some more performance out of the system, I'm a bit obsessed with it. But that is one instance where it would have saved my ass. Peace all -- thanks.
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: H2000 Date:11/20/2004 5:11:32 PM Honestly, I hope you solve it. I think Sony should be involved since this has happened to at least one other person too. I have the demo installed, and will probably not be upgrading (thanks for Rewire - too bad Vegas doesn't have it yet!). I am not really interested in experiencing this problem myself! Question: has anyone uninstalled AP5 without this problem affecting AP4???
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: MyST Date:11/20/2004 5:54:23 PM "Question: has anyone uninstalled AP5 without this problem affecting AP4???" Yes, I have. Multiple times. Mario
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: H2000 Date:11/20/2004 8:59:23 PM Good to know. Thanks!:)
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: Rednroll Date:11/22/2004 6:48:35 AM There does seem to be a problem installing the AP5 demo and then uninstalling it. Myst, I too have installed AP5 many times and uninstalled it but never the demo mode version. I don't think you installed the AP5 demo, but I could be wrong? Here's another post with the same issue: http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=334006&Replies=1&Page=0 This one is a lot more to the the point with a list of steps, without all the life turmoil added in. Solar28, I know this is a peer support forum, but unfortunately most of us here don't have the leather couch or psychiatric training qualifications, to help you relax when you go off the deep end. A short brief message with steps that caused the problem, will get you back quicker on your path to sanity, when Sony can reproduce the problem and then be able to offer advice on how to fix the problem. Until then the total nuke and rebuild is probably your quickest, safest route. I know it's time consuming, you're talking to someone who has done it probably more than 20 times on various systems. I'm getting prepared to do it again on my laptop, because a 900Mhz PC running win2K, should not be running this slow when starting up and running apps like MS Excel and Word. Something has some gremlins in it. So rather than spending more time trying to find the gremlin, it's actually quicker and ensures you've gotten all the gremlins with the total nuke.
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: Waskel Date:11/22/2004 8:07:41 AM Red, nothing personal, but there is a big difference between being confident and being arrogant. I don't recall anyone treating you so condescendingly when you were sharing about your treatment by Cakewalk (which ran considerably longer than Solar28's). No, we don't pay you for your advice, this is a forum...
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: hat3k Date:11/22/2004 9:18:02 AM RED IS RIGHT!! Hey people, do you understand anything in deep programming? or in windows's registry building? or in way of work of software? or in windows's inner parts??!! So do like he said, believe me. Its the only way to help yourselves without paying money, or learning hard! He is not opposite for you, he says the very right things!!!
Subject:RE: A very bad 5.0 trial installation ordeal, be forewarned Reply by: Rednroll Date:11/22/2004 10:24:00 AM "I don't recall anyone treating you so condescendingly when you were sharing about your treatment by Cakewalk" Waskel, what exactly is your point posting in this thread? I find it hilarious, where people come in and troll a thread, and have no advice to offer to the problem, yet find it worth their time to criticize the "way" I post. Here's some criticism for yourself. Offer, some advice in solving the problem or stay out of the conversation, because your critiques of the "way" I post helps no one. It's easy to sit by and be a spectator. Why don't you jump in the game for once, and I'll sit back too and criticize the way you post? Yes, people where condescending to me in my cakewalk thread, that's one of the reason's why the thread got so many posts, because people where too busy criticizing me for criticizing cakewalk. I dealt with it, and got results from cakewalk in doing so. Cakewalk openly admitted that they didn't handle the situation properly, which showed that I was correct in my criticism, while others where too busy criticizing me, because Cakewalk was hollier than thou and does no wrong, in their mind set. Please point out to me, where I was "condescending" in this thread. I simply pointed out the fact, it's easy for everyone to point the finger away from themselves and not take any responsibility for their actions. Instead of pointing the blame, you need to be a mature adult and point out a problem and realize you are just as responsible as Sony if something goes wrong when you fall upon hardship. This is a "forum" as you point out, a "user forum" at that. As a user, do we come in here to listen to someone whine about all the hardships they had to go thru, due to a problem? Or do we come in here more, to find out what that problem is so that we can either give advice to help, or benefit from the post and try to avoid the problem ourselves? I'm not here to read all the whining, I'm here to help give a solution to the problem, or reproduce it and help you verify your problem is not system specific. Yes, I criticized the way Sonar28 presented the problem, because he said he was going to try and keep it "brief". His definition of "brief" didn't fit my definition and I was a tad sarcastic in my response. I didn't personally attack him though, and I offered a solid solution to get him back on track. What did you do besides criticize me and the way I post? It just goes to show, some people are players in life and other's are spectators. I choose to be a player, which do you choose?

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