Corel Painter has encountered a problem. Please reinstall from the original source.

#1

Dear Corel, I want all the time back that I’ve wasted both troubleshooting your unstable product as well as time lost from having to clunk around your horrendous 1995 user experience. Get with the program.

What follows is the solution to the infamous Corel Painter 11 “reinstall” bug :banghead: for Mac OS X artists, i.e.,

“Corel Painter has encountered a problem. Please reinstall from the original source.”[left][font=Georgia,serif]I’m an author of a PS and Painter book published by a major publisher, and Painter 11 absolutely drives me NUTS with its crashes. (Mac OS 10.5.5,6,7 and now 8.) The worst is the one that happens every few times the program opens, where it says “Error: 18 - Corel Paitner has encountered a problem. Please reinstall from the original source.”[/left]
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[left][font=Georgia,serif]The obnoxious thing is that is has NOTHING to do with the installation and you can reinstall until the sun burns out without changing a thing. The REAL way to fix it, which Corel has said NOTHING about, is to use the “get info” command while the application’s name is selected in the finder. Click on the box “Open using Rosetta,” then restart Painter. Enter your serial number as it restarts. [/left]
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[left][font=Georgia,serif]So you don’t HAVE Rosetta loaded, like many Mac users? THEN you have to google and download the latest 10.5.(insert latest update number)combo update, which upgrades the entire system (and you thought the automatic upgrade control panel was doing that, didn’t you silly?). [/left]
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[left][font=Georgia,serif]Once it starts using Rosetta, you can then use Painter, but it’s slower. So close Painter, uncheck the box and restart it, plugging in the serial number yet again.[/left]
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[left][font=Georgia,serif]Several days later you’ll probably be doing it again. And again. And again.[/left]
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[left][font=Georgia,serif]I -really- dislike Corel’s lack of fixing their bugs.[/left]
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source: http://natashapage.blogspot.com/2009/03/absolutely-peeved-corel-painter-11.html

#2

You can avoid the repeated re-entry-of-the-serial aggravation by going into your root/Library/preferences folder and duplicating the “nTitles Product Licenses IV” file, AFTER you have painter running properly. When you switch to rosetta and relaunch, painter changes this file which triggers the serial entry prompt. So just delete the nTitles file, delete the “copy” text in the duplicate’s name and painter will launch normally.

It’s a good idea to keep a master backup of that nTitles file somewhere safe and always use a copy.

Note; this is for Painter X. I don’t know if they changed this with version 11, but it sounds like they did not.

#3

Man, we really need a fix for painter 11 on Mac. :curious:

#4

Here is the REAL fix!

Wait until April of 2010 when Adobe comes out with CS5.

You see … back in 2006, an obscure gentleman named Nelson Chu previewed a program called Moxi which is based on Chinese brush painting at the ACM conference.

It was a smash hit and was quickly bought up by Adobe. That was 2006 … everyone thought Adobe was just going to sit on it and allow it to fade into obscurity. Nada!

If you do a search on Adobe CS5, you will come across some of the features that will be included … paint brushes is one of them and I suspect it is based on Nelson’s work.

If you do a search right here in CG Society Forums using the search terms “Moxi” or “Nelson Chu”, you will be presented with a delicious array of samples of how his program works.

Corel has, for way too long, allowed its users to languish with broken software and fixes that just never quite make it to market (like the one discussed in this thread). It makes outrageous claims about some of what Painter can do with little evidence of results. And as in this instance, it seems to treat its users with disdain.

And for quite some time, they’ve been the only show in town. There used to be a skit on Saturday Night Live that highlighted the telephone company. It concluded with the punch line, “We don’t care, we don’t have to, we’re the phone company!”

So … maybe Corel needs to begin listening a little more closely to its users? They might be about to lose their monopoly in this market?

#5

I’m not surprised to hear this, I had the trial go bust after 2 days and they told me, that if I wanted help on this matter I needed to pay $15.

#6

That’s quite a bug, how could they ship the program like that? It’s a fatal flaw, really hard to understand the reason behind Corel’s decisions.

#7

It’s easy… the flaw didn’t show up in their testing.

Internet posters like the one quoted above freely use phrases like “every time” and “all the time” as if their experience is something all other users will have when they haven’t really checked with all other users to confirm it.

The more likely reality is that the bug is unusual enough that Corel’s dozen (hundred?) or so beta testers didn’t encounter it and perhaps still haven’t encountered it so Corel can see it happening and identify why it is there at all.

#8

Just ignore workbench, he’s mr. negativity. He’s been on my ignore list for ages. I think he get’s paid to dis Painter.

#9

robcat2075: Ok, but even so a bug fix hasn’t been released. I’ve checked on Painter’s own board and it seems common enough to warrant one.

dbisme: haha that’s rich, you have a wild imagination and maybe try to grow up a little? This is just a program not a soccer team.

#10

adobe never had bought moxi up, they had a very limited permission to use it;
and it looks like we will never see actual moxi release, I suspect there’s some sort of fight between Nelson and university he was working as moxi developer -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYWSUYdeQx0 (check his comment there)

If you do a search on Adobe CS5, you will come across some of the features that will be included … paint brushes is one of them and I suspect it is based on Nelson’s work.

yep, it’s based, however, he could push it further -
http://indeptharts.net/showthread.php?p=29111
I’m not sure if that next generation paint technology is in works right now, or he isn’t allowed to develop it.

So … maybe Corel needs to begin listening a little more closely to its users? They might be about to lose their monopoly in this market?

I bet they are listening. Have you ever heard about any bugs with painter photo-tracing tools? No, you probably didn’t - they have polished it so the dedicated photographic manipulators will pay their money and be happy with that.
It also has some filters to convert photos into fine art, how come you say corel isn’t listening to its audience? ;p

#11

Hi there haleonearth (great name by the way) Can you contact me… robert.macdonald@corel.com (yes that is my direct email address) I want to get more info from you. I am the product manager for Painter.
Just to let everyone know, we WILL have a patch coming out before the December holidays. It will be for both Win and Mac.
thanks,

rob

#12

Will the patch address the 100% single core CPU usage, Rob? - I’ve still got P11 sitting idle because of that! :frowning: And the cut & paste too?

#13

A patch to do what?
I’ve used Painter for a long time before it became a Corel product (stopped at 9, because of stability problems and countless others discussed in the forums).
Have downloaded demo of 11, but frankly am reluctant to go for that upgrade.
Like many others, I do illustration for a living and am seriously hoping that Painter gets its act together, or Photoshop pulls in some of the painter type abilities.
At this point, my money is on Adobe… you guys need to be a bit less ambiguous about what you’re doing… we are paying for your product, so treat us accordingly, please.

robert.macdonald@corel.com (yes that is my direct email address) I want to get more info from you. I am the product manager for Painter.
Just to let everyone know, we WILL have a patch coming out before the December holidays. It will be for both Win and Mac.

#14

I’m also stuck at Painter 9.5 because I’m wary about upgrading to a problematic Painter 11. Are there any Mac users having no issues with the latest Painter release? I’m tempted to upgrade now, because of a good sale (until Nov. 23) and the upcoming “patch”. Am I being too optimistic, or does Corel have a good track record of fixing bugs. I’m also wondering if I should just wait until Painter 11.5 is released (whenever that may be)?

#15

As I mentioned in the second post, I have Painter 10 [X]. But now I am holding out for Photoshop 12 [CS 5]. It is supposed to have some amazing new brushes based on the Moxi engine. Real ink bleed :smiley:

Linky

#16

I’ve been using painter 11 since it came out and with a new mac and 10.6 i’m experiencing no real problems. A little sluggish once in a while, but that’s the way corel always seems to be. I’ve been using Painter since version 8 and I like 11 the most but It does need considerable work compared to other products. It always seems to be only about 80% done. The only real issues I have are related to OS 10.6 and my Nulooq Navigator that I use while painting.

Also their is a promised patch coming out mentioned in another post by the project manager Rob MacDonald. The date of the patch is projected to be by the end of this year. Not holding my breath on that.

#17

Thanks, dvillus. Good to know you’re having no real problems with Painter 11. I use a Wacom tablet, so there could be other issues with using that device and Painter.

#18

The wacom tablet works fine it’s the navigator that doesn’t work quite the way it used to.

#19

Hi Rob, how’s the Corel Painter 11 Patch going on? released yet?? we’re waiting for long long time, P11 load my CPU over 50% each core in idle under Windows 7…

#20

Look at Rob’s update about the upcoming patch here. It’s supposed to be released on 6 January.