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Nathan Adams · Oct 20, 2005, 08:09 AM

Not sure what is happening with those other threads - I post them up and they come up blank...
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I was hoping someone here could lend me some help.
I'm not sure if this is a recent thing, or been happening since I got this new Mac a few months ago because I haven't needed to use Flash at home for a while now - so could be either (and for the record, Flash was originally brought over by the migration assistant, not freshly installed on this machine when I bought it).

Every-time I open Flash MX, it goes through it's whole start up sequence with the splash screen, loading various things, and toolbars and palettes appearing in the background behind the splash screen. But the, as soon as (I assume) the start-up has finished and you'd expect to be able to start working, Flash MX crashes.

I've tried installing a trial of MX 2004, and exact same problem. I've tried creating a new user and opening Flash from that account, same problem. I've tried removing Flash from my system, including every preference file and associated I could find, and re-installing it - same problem. Tried repairing permissions and forcing all the other OS X maintenance - same problem.

I'm at a loss as to why it can't make it past that point. Flash is the only program doing this, none of my other Macromedia programs (Freehand MX, Fireworks MX, Dreamweaver MX) have any issues.

I've saved one of my crash logs, which you can view here: http://nathan-adams.net/shoebox/flashcrash.txt

Any suggestions / solutions would be much appreciated.

JKT · 09:09 AM

Looking at the log* I notice that you have the DivX codec installed on a 10.4.x system, and an outdated version at that. The stable releases of the DivX codec are not compatible with 10.4 or Quicktime 7.x.

Perhaps that has something to do with it. You may also find that removing it will solve some other issues you may be experiencing such as duplicated Help menus in some apps and crashes in Quicktime if you are having any.

* I don't even remotely understand them, btw, but it is useful to see, from the list of frameworks, what a person has installed such as any haxies that may be a problem...

JKT · Oct 20, 2005, 08:58 AM

Also, have you tried validating your fonts - launch Font Book, wait for it to load your Fonts and then select them all. go to the File menu and select Validate Fonts. Once finished, scroll through the list to see if there any problems with any of your fonts (<rant>and I sincerely hope that Apple improves the interface for this soon so that you can actually sort the list to move any issue fonts to the top/bottom rather than having to manually hunt them down... <end rant>)

Nathan Adams · Oct 20, 2005, 09:08 AM

thanks, I wasn't aware about that issue with DivX

I've removed the plug in, and validated my fonts. Only one dodgy one - Fang Song, which I removed.
Flash is still crashing though. I've updated the crash log I linked above (it no longer mentions DivX anywhere)

It seems to be when Flash creates a blank new document or opens a flash document that it crashes.

JKT · Oct 20, 2005, 09:14 AM

Are there any updates to Flash MX that you haven't installed yet? Other than that, I can't think of anything else... it must be something conflicting with it in the /Library folder (or System/Library folder) as it is also occurring in the other user account - are you absolutely sure that you un-installed *everything* related to Flash/Flash MX before re-installing? Unless someone can help you with the log, I don't know what else to recommend.

On the fonts front, have you installed any different versions of Helvetica to that of the default Apple font? This can also cause problems, but they tend to occur in many other apps too...

JKT · Oct 20, 2005, 09:15 AM

N.B. Did you restart after removing the DivX plug-in? You probably need to to deactivate it...

Nathan Adams · Oct 20, 2005, 09:25 AM

yeah, did a restart. I've also tried running it with all but the core system fonts disabled.

as for uninstalling Flash, I went through the Preferences and Application Support folders in all 3 Library folders, and deleted anything Flash MX related.
Updates wise, Macromedia have no updates for Flash MX. I'm inclined to think it isn't that though, because I tried the trial of MX 2004, fresh off their website, and it had the exact same problem.

JKT · Oct 20, 2005, 09:39 AM

Taking another look at your log, it seems that the thread that crashed is to do with your mouse actions - are you using a third party mouse and a driver for it? And that really is the limit of my help on this one...

P.S. Are the crash logs all identical - that is, the thread that has crashed - is it the same each time and the events that are listed the same?

Edit: My bad, I hadn't realised you had in fact updated the original log posted, and I can see that it is the same thread etc each time...

Nathan Adams · Oct 20, 2005, 09:42 AM

I'm using a wacom graphire tablet. I'll try disabling the tablet and see how it goes

and thanks for helping till your limit, at least we're eliminating possible causes

Nathan Adams · Oct 20, 2005, 09:45 AM

BINGO!!

uninstalled the wacom driver, and Flash launched fine.
thanks heaps mate.

now for my new challenge, getting the wacom and flash to play nice with eachother.... might go hunting for an older driver me-thinks (since they used to always work fine together)

JKT · Oct 20, 2005, 09:50 AM

Well, there you go... maybe I understand these logs a bit better than I thought!

Glad I could help... obviously you probably should inform both Macromedia and Wacom about this issue (or check to see if it is a known one for both).