Hello Bill,

There is no possibility to turn off OpenGL in the CCC

There is also not a possibility in Windows (via Control Panel etc.).

It happened two times now that PRE9 hangs due to atioglxx.dll.

Both times were after switching on the pc and then starting up PRE9.

When I start up again PRE9 there is no conflict.

But it can also happen after switching on the pc that there is no conflict with that dll.

I have repeated the starting up proces of PRE9 sometimes more than 20 times, but no conflict.

It is very strange.

I checked with HWmonitor the voltages and temperatures. On the face of it there is nothing strange.

I can see with that monitor that the mean value of the CPU current is about 5 Amps and during some moments at startup of PRE9 this current

can increase till about 16 Amps for a short time. I hope this is a normal behaviour.

I have also used the GPUSNIFFER in a dos command window. It is used by PRE9 to determine to which type of video card PRE9 is communicating with.

Is PRE 9 also using some facilities of the videocard on basis of the data GPUSNIFFER collected (such as other ADOBE apps. are doing)?

My ideas for investigating the issue are gradually exhausted.

By the way, during these investigations I do not use AntiVirus software or Firewalls, because the PC is not connected to the internet.

It is so hard to find, because the crash happens so random.

Thank you Bill and Nealeh,

Thank you for your help so far.

Meanwhile I have again installed Windows XP+updates+newest hardware drivers etc.

I also installed the update for Premiere Elements 9 to 9.01

I found also a newer driver for the video card and installed it (AMD version 11.4)

All these actions did not lead to the solution to avoid that Premiere Elements 9 (PRE9) crashes randomly.

With the Trial version of PRE9 the same result

By the way to quit PRE9 I used  Alt+F4.

But accidentally I pressed Windows(Start)+F4.

This action causes that the Project Name menu pops up (not mentioned in the Help File of PRE9). In fact PRE9 returns one step back.

And that is more convenient than to start every time the program by clicking on the PRE9 icon for  investigating this issue.

So I could immediately answer this "New Project" window by clicking on the OK button.

I do not give it an other name so I answer YES on the "Overwrite"question and PRE9 finalises the starting up procedure.

When PRE9 does not crash I use Alt+F4 to quit the program.

Then to try I used only F4 and I saw that it creates the same effect as Windows(Start)+F4.

So I could rapidly repeat between the "New Project" window  and the moment that PRE9 has finished

the starting up procedure by only using F4 on the keyboard.

And it is still the case that when PRE9 is crashing for the first time after having switched on or rebooted the computer , then PRE9 freezes for about 7 ...10 seconds before it crashes. But eventually next crashes happen immediately.

Besides from my experiences somebody else for me have tested this issue on a HPMEDIACENTERPC with Windows XP SP3 etc. and  with a video card with the Radeon HD 3600.

And he experienced  exactly the same crash with PRE9. Also a conflict with atioglxx.dll.

But he scored a succes by deleting all ATI files, but only installing the displaydriver and not the Catalyst.

So if that helps is it worth to put this issue to AMD for further investigation?

And is it known to you that F4 is causing to open the "Project"window in PRE9?

Thanks a lot for your reaction.

Kees

Hello Neale,

Sorry I was not completely clear about F4.
The keys F4, F5 and F6 on the Microsoft keyboard have also the text "New", "Open" and "Close" respectively.
With the F-lock key you may choose between F4 or New (file).
In this case the New (file) was chosen and so within Premiere Elements 9 (PRE9) the "New Project" window opens. Also Ctl+N.

And I already had installed Catalyst version 11.4 as I wrote in the 4th line of my previous message.
But in the meantime I have done some investigations.

First I used a clean, reformatted partition C: with all newest drivers / updates exept the video driver, so the standard Microsoft driver was used.
Installed PRE9 and started it up. No unwanted quit of PRE9.
Then I used the "NEW" to reopen the New Project window etc. No unwanted quit of PRE9.
I repeated this more than 30 times. No unwanted quit of PRE9.
Then I installed the Catalyst driver from the Gigabyte CD (CCC+display driver 8.741 dated 27-05-2010).
PRE9 was started up. No unwanted quit of PRE9
Then I used the "NEW" to reopen the New Project window etc.
You can read in the table below after how many times "New" is used before PRE9 quited due to module atioglxx.dll. See column F4A
Then I started PRE9 again up to 25 times etc.

Then I installed only the display driver out of Catalyst version 11.4.
Test as described above but repeated 7 times. See column F4B

Then I also installed the complete Catalyst 11.4
Test as described above but repeated 3 times. See column F4C

PRE9 started    F4A   F4B     F4C
1st time             7       21        8
2nd etc.             4       25      12
3                       2       63      71
4                       5       11
5                       6       16
6                       1         5
7                       1       17
8                       2 
9                       1
10                   27
11                     1
12                     3
13,14,15,16,17   1
18                     5
19                     3
20                   19
21                     5
22                     6
23                     6
24                     6
25                     1

So it makes no difference if you install only the display driver itself or the complete package.
And you can see that newer drivers are a bit more stable but not without errors.
And I have the information from a complete other PC as I have written, and also with unwanted quits of PRE9 and also due to atioglxx.dll!
I may suppose and conclude that there should be more unwanted quits of PRE9 on other PC systems with Windows XP and a ATI based videocards
with Radeon HD 3000 series or 5000 series. They use the same Catalyst drivers!

Cheers,

Kees