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Help - Adobe Illustrator CS 5.1 won't launch

post #1 of 30
11/29/11 at 6:38pm
Thread Starter 
Given the confluence of a 30% off sale and the new upgrade policy Adobe has rolled out, I decided to dive in and upgrade to Adobe CS 5.5, from CS 4. I'm using the Design Standard package. Everything downloaded and installed fine -- but for some reason Illustrator won't launch. I double click the icon in the Finder, and it appears in my Dock, bounces a couple of times, and then vanishes.

I've uninstalled CS 5.5 and CS 4, and used Adobe's Creative Suite Cleaner to scrub all traces (including preferences) of pretty much all Adobe software from my Mac, and reinstalled CS 5.5, but the problem persists. I called Adobe's tech support, but they were unhelpful (and very hard to understand). They kept insisting that I reinstall the app (already have) and that I try creating a new user account and see if it will launch from that account (I did, but it won't).

Eventually, my cell phone died, so that ended that route for finding help.

I was wondering if anyone else had encountered this issue. Every other app in the installation is working perfectly, but Illustrator won't budge.

Any ideas?
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post #2 of 30
11/30/11 at 11:56am
Check /Applications/utilities/console to see if anything gets logged when you are launching Illustrator.

You can also run it from the terminal by opening /Applications/utilities/terminal, right-click Illustrator > show package contents and drag the file Adobe Illustrator from the Contents/MacOS folder into the terminal window and hit return.
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post #3 of 30
12/1/11 at 9:24am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

Check /Applications/utilities/console to see if anything gets logged when you are launching Illustrator.

You can also run it from the terminal by opening /Applications/utilities/terminal, right-click Illustrator > show package contents and drag the file Adobe Illustrator from the Contents/MacOS folder into the terminal window and hit return.

Fascinating... that actually launched the program! But it also recorded a bunch of errors into Terminal that are sorta gibberish to me. Can anyone make sense of this?

2011-12-01 11:51:30.019 Adobe Illustrator[23744:4303] CFURLCreateWithString was passed this invalid URL string: '/System/Library/Frameworks/' (a file system path instead of an URL string). The URL created will not work with most file URL functions. CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath or CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPathRelativeToBase should be used instead.
2011-12-01 11:51:37.743 Adobe Illustrator[23744:4303] CFURLCreateWithBytes was passed these invalid URLBytes: '/Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5.1/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/Frameworks' (a file system path instead of an URL string). The URL created will not work with most file URL functions. CFURLCreateFromFileSystemRepresentation should be used instead.
2011-12-01 11:51:37.839 Adobe Illustrator[23744:4303] CFURLCreateWithBytes was passed these invalid URLBytes: '/Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5.1/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/Frameworks' (a file system path instead of an URL string). The URL created will not work with most file URL functions. CFURLCreateFromFileSystemRepresentation should be used instead.


I was able to open files, use menus... it seemed like Ai was functioning properly.

I quit the app and tried to launch it again normally, but the bounce-then-vanish problem reappeared.

Could it be that the installer I downloaded from Adobe.com had an error in it, and I should uninstall Ai, redownload the CS5.5 installer and reinstall it?
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post #4 of 30
12/1/11 at 4:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

Fascinating... that actually launched the program! But it also recorded a bunch of errors into Terminal that are sorta gibberish to me. Can anyone make sense of this?

2011-12-01 11:51:30.019 Adobe Illustrator[23744:4303] CFURLCreateWithString was passed this invalid URL string: '/System/Library/Frameworks/' (a file system path instead of an URL string). The URL created will not work with most file URL functions. CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPath or CFURLCreateWithFileSystemPathRelativeToBase should be used instead.
2011-12-01 11:51:37.743 Adobe Illustrator[23744:4303] CFURLCreateWithBytes was passed these invalid URLBytes: '/Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5.1/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/Frameworks' (a file system path instead of an URL string). The URL created will not work with most file URL functions. CFURLCreateFromFileSystemRepresentation should be used instead.
2011-12-01 11:51:37.839 Adobe Illustrator[23744:4303] CFURLCreateWithBytes was passed these invalid URLBytes: '/Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5.1/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/Frameworks' (a file system path instead of an URL string). The URL created will not work with most file URL functions. CFURLCreateFromFileSystemRepresentation should be used instead.

I was able to open files, use menus... it seemed like Ai was functioning properly.

I quit the app and tried to launch it again normally, but the bounce-then-vanish problem reappeared.

Could it be that the installer I downloaded from Adobe.com had an error in it, and I should uninstall Ai, redownload the CS5.5 installer and reinstall it?

Those warnings are normal, they would have prevented the command-line executable from running if they had been causing the main app to not load. I suspect it's just a permissions problem. When you double-click an app, it uses the info.plist file to tell how to run the app.

Open the terminal again and do the show package contents on Illustrator and type chmod 775 then drag info.plist from the show package contents folder into the window and hit return. The command should look like:

chmod 775 /Application/Adobe\\ Illustrator\\ CS5/Adobe\\ Illustrator\\ CS5.app/Contents/info.plist

Try running the app after that. If that doesn't work, try running repair permissions from Disk Utility and lastly, do a reinstall of the app.
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post #5 of 30
12/1/11 at 9:25pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

Those warnings are normal, they would have prevented the command-line executable from running if they had been causing the main app to not load. I suspect it's just a permissions problem. When you double-click an app, it uses the info.plist file to tell how to run the app.

Open the terminal again and do the show package contents on Illustrator and type chmod 775 then drag info.plist from the show package contents folder into the window and hit return. The command should look like:

chmod 775 /Application/Adobe\\ Illustrator\\ CS5/Adobe\\ Illustrator\\ CS5.app/Contents/info.plist

Try running the app after that. If that doesn't work, try running repair permissions from Disk Utility and lastly, do a reinstall of the app.

Tried running the app after chmod, no go.

Ran a verify and then a repair on Disk Permissions. Then tried to run app, no go.

Uninstalled and reinstalled, then double-clicked icon. No go.

But if I show package contents and double-click the Adobe Illustrator icon in Mac OS in Contents, it launches.

So the app will run, but for some reason the Adobe Illustrator.app icon won't work. Very strange.
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post #6 of 30
12/2/11 at 2:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

Tried running the app after chmod, no go.

Try doing that for the whole application by adding the recursive parameter. Drag the app in instead of typing the path to be safe:

chmod -R 775 /Applications/Adobe\\ Illustrator\\ CS5/Adobe\\ Illustrator.app

If that has no effect, try creating another user account and launching Illustrator there.
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post #7 of 30
12/2/11 at 10:04pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

Try doing that for the whole application by adding the recursive parameter. Drag the app in instead of typing the path to be safe:

chmod -R 775 /Applications/Adobe\\ Illustrator\\ CS5/Adobe\\ Illustrator.app

If that has no effect, try creating another user account and launching Illustrator there.

Did this. Error message:

chmod: Unable to change file mode on /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5.1/Adobe Illustrator.app: Operation not permitted
chmod: Unable to change file mode on /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5.1/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Illustrator: Operation not permitted

So then I did a "sudo" and the chmod -R command, which did not return any message, so I presume it worked?

In any case, the icon still wouldn't open Illustrator.

I then created a new user account, with full Admin powers, and logged into it. Illustrator will not launch on this account, either.

I'm baffled. But I do appreciate all your help.
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post #8 of 30
12/3/11 at 3:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

So then I did a "sudo" and the chmod -R command, which did not return any message, so I presume it worked?

Yeah, that means it worked when it just goes through.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

I then created a new user account, with full Admin powers, and logged into it. Illustrator will not launch on this account, either.

Given that it launches fine via the command-line, I think it has to be something to do with the way the application bundle is being installed. If you download the following app:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/17002/pref-setter

that will let you open and edit the info.plist file to check that the contents aren't messed up.

Check the executable file is set as Adobe Illustrator, the bundle identifier is com.adobe.illustrator, the bundle name is Illustrator and the Bundle OS Type Code is APPL.
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post #9 of 30
12/3/11 at 10:30am
Thread Starter 
Launched this tool. Under "System Preferences" there's a com.adobe.Illustrator.15.1.0, and in there is only one listing:

HelpcfgName -string Illustrator_15.1

There are no other items in the list presented that include the word Illustrator. Under "User Preferences" there's all sorts of Adobe items listed:

com.Adobe.Acrobat.Pro, com.Adobe.Bridge4.1, com.Adobe.InDesign, etc. But no com.Adobe.Illustrator of any sort.

Strange?
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post #10 of 30
12/3/11 at 11:59pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

that will let you open and edit the info.plist file to check that the contents aren't messed up.

Check the executable file is set as Adobe Illustrator, the bundle identifier is com.adobe.illustrator, the bundle name is Illustrator and the Bundle OS Type Code is APPL.

I was able to find the info.plist file in the Contents folder inside the application package. All of the tags you mention here are set as you specify. It doesn't mention OS Type anywhere, but APPL is the setting for CFBundlePackageType.
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post #11 of 30
12/4/11 at 12:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

I was able to find the info.plist file in the Contents folder inside the application package. All of the tags you mention here are set as you specify. It doesn't mention OS Type anywhere, but APPL is the setting for CFBundlePackageType.

Yeah, that should all be ok.

You can try tracing the application loading to see where it is failing using XCode. It's a big install but is free from the Mac App Store. It installs an application called Instruments in /Developer/Applications.

If you open Instruments and click library, drag over File Activity into the Instruments panel. Enable all the views at the top. Then set the target drop down to 'choose target' and locate the Illustrator app. Once you hit record, it will start loading Illustrator and records all the files it reads. At the point it shuts down, it will let you know where it has loaded up to and that will help narrow down which file it's having a problem with.

In the mean-time, you can make a shortcut to the file in Contents/MacOS so that you can open Illustrator quickly. I think you can only drag these into the right-hand part of the Dock though.
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post #12 of 30
12/4/11 at 2:58pm
Thread Starter 
I actually already had Xcode installed, so that was easy to do. When I set up Instruments as you suggested, and selected Illustrator CS5.1 and hit "record," the program actually launched properly!

However, when I quit Illustrator, and went and tried to launch it from the Finder, it still doesn't work.

Going back into Instruments allowed me to launch it again.
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post #13 of 30
12/5/11 at 1:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

I actually already had Xcode installed, so that was easy to do. When I set up Instruments as you suggested, and selected Illustrator CS5.1 and hit "record," the program actually launched properly!

However, when I quit Illustrator, and went and tried to launch it from the Finder, it still doesn't work.

Going back into Instruments allowed me to launch it again.

It must just be launching the binary directly like the command-line mode. Check the extended attributes on the Illustrator app; in the command-line, type:

xattr -l <drag Illustrator in>

It should have a com.apple.FinderInfo attribute. I suspect they use this to check if the app has been moved but see if there's anything odd in that listing.

Another thing to try would be renaming info.plist to info2.plist. This should cause all methods of launching to crash but with an error report. If it does this with the double-click method, Illustrator is at least reading the file so it must be failing after reading the file.

Has it just been opening and closing again without actually crashing? If so, maybe it's having some trouble linking up with the licensing part of the app when run outside of a command-line. Try checking the CS5 Service log in your home folder ~/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CS5ServiceManager/logs/CS5ServiceManager_native.log

Another thing you can do is to use Instruments to track all filesystem activity. Just set the target to all processes and put File Activity in again. Then hit record and double-click Illustrator. It logs activity by process name so check the last file Illustrator accessed.
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post #14 of 30
12/5/11 at 3:13pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

It must just be launching the binary directly like the command-line mode. Check the extended attributes on the Illustrator app; in the command-line, type:

xattr -l <drag Illustrator in>

It should have a com.apple.FinderInfo attribute. I suspect they use this to check if the app has been moved but see if there's anything odd in that listing.

The command "xattr -l /Applications/Adobe\\ Illustrator\\ CS5.1/Adobe\\ Illustrator.app" just returns me to the command line, no output at all is presented.
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post #15 of 30
12/6/11 at 12:07am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

The command "xattr -l /Applications/Adobe\\ Illustrator\\ CS5.1/Adobe\\ Illustrator.app" just returns me to the command line, no output at all is presented.

That should be ok but check if your other working Adobe apps have xattr attributes. If they are the same, it's no big deal. Apps should be able to launch without them but there may have been attributes preventing launch in which case they could be cleared.

I think running the Instruments app while launching via double-click will help trace what the application is doing just before it closes out.
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post #16 of 30
12/6/11 at 9:22am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

That should be ok but check if your other working Adobe apps have xattr attributes. If they are the same, it's no big deal. Apps should be able to launch without them but there may have been attributes preventing launch in which case they could be cleared.

I think running the Instruments app while launching via double-click will help trace what the application is doing just before it closes out.

The last entry of activity from Adobe Illustrator is this:

Code:

#CallerFunctionExecutableFDPath
7920x8fefb501stat64Adobe Illustrat/System/Library/Frameworks/GSS.framework/GSS



And then it crashes, producing almost 3,000 of lines of activity from ReportCrash, starting with:

Code:

#CallerFunctionExecutableFDPath
819-[NSFileManager fileExistsAtPath:isDirectory:]lstat64ReportCrash/Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5.1/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Illustrator



I saved out the report, if that's useful in any way.
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post #17 of 30
12/7/11 at 4:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

The last entry of activity from Adobe Illustrator is this:

Code:

#CallerFunctionExecutableFDPath
7920x8fefb501stat64Adobe Illustrat/System/Library/Frameworks/GSS.framework/GSS

The next file it should try to access after that is a file in /Library/Managed Preferences/<username>. Check if that folder exists and if it does, move Managed Preferences out of the /Library folder.
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post #18 of 30
12/8/11 at 2:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

The next file it should try to access after that is a file in /Library/Managed Preferences/<username>. Check if that folder exists and if it does, move Managed Preferences out of the /Library folder.

While /Library/Managed Preferences exists, there is nothing in it.
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post #19 of 30
12/9/11 at 2:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

While /Library/Managed Preferences exists, there is nothing in it.

Does it have any effect removing that folder from /Library? There could be a permissions issue with it for example that prevents Illustrator reading it or writing to it. It will recreate it if it needs to.
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post #20 of 30
12/9/11 at 9:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marvin View Post

Does it have any effect removing that folder from /Library? There could be a permissions issue with it for example that prevents Illustrator reading it or writing to it. It will recreate it if it needs to.

Nope, Illustrator still won't launch. And it didn't recreate the folder, either.
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post #21 of 30
12/10/11 at 4:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

Nope, Illustrator still won't launch. And it didn't recreate the folder, either.

It looks like it logs crashes in /Users/<name>/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports. Check if Illustrator is dumping log files there and if so, check what they say. Generally the content surrounding the line "Thread 0 crashed" is the most useful.

Given that it crashes regardless of user, I wouldn't expect there's a problem in your home folder. The permissions on the app itself should be fine as well as the directory layout otherwise it wouldn't launch via the command-line. I suspect it might be an issue in the /Library folder but those issues should affect the command-line too.

There is a preference file for Illustrator in /Library located at /Library/Preferences/com.adobe.illustrator.plist that gets accessed not long after the GSS file so remove that from the folder and try launching.

If that still doesn't fix it, try booting your machine in safe mode by holding down shift at and see if Illustrator launches in safe mode. It creates boot/font caches that safe mode will remove.
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post #22 of 30
12/10/11 at 10:55am
Thread Starter 
I really appreciate all your help. Here's the first chunk of the most recent crash log.

Code:

Process:         Adobe Illustrator [10459]
Path:            /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5.1/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Illustrator
Identifier:      com.adobe.illustrator
Version:         39 (15.1.0)
Code Type:       X86 (Native)
Parent Process:  launchd [223]

Date/Time:       2011-12-10 00:39:49.392 -0500
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.7.2 (11C74)
Report Version:  9

Crashed Thread:  0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)
Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x0000000000000034

VM Regions Near 0x34:
--> __PAGEZERO             0000000000000000-0000000000001000 [    4K] ---/--- SM=NUL  /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5.1/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Illustrator
    __TEXT                 0000000000001000-00000000010de000 [ 16.9M] r-x/rwx SM=COW  /Applications/Adobe Illustrator CS5.1/Adobe Illustrator.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Illustrator

Application Specific Information:
objc[10459]: garbage collection is OFF

Thread 0 Crashed:: Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   dyld                          0x8fe1e025 dyld::registerAddCallback(void (*)(mach_header const*, long)) + 61
1   libdyld.dylib                 0x9a921078 _dyld_register_func_for_add_image + 74
2   libignitor.dylib              0x013fee76 initializer + 27
3   dyld                          0x8fe2c15b ImageLoaderMachO::doModInitFunctions(ImageLoader::  LinkContext const&) + 251
4   dyld                          0x8fe2bcc0 ImageLoaderMachO::doInitialization(ImageLoader::Li  nkContext const&) + 64
5   dyld                          0x8fe29220 ImageLoader::recursiveInitialization(ImageLoader::  LinkContext const&, unsigned int, ImageLoader::InitializerTimingList&) + 256
6   dyld                          0x8fe2a1c0 ImageLoader::runInitializers(ImageLoader::LinkCont  ext const&, ImageLoader::InitializerTimingList&) + 62
7   dyld                          0x8fe1e626 dyld::initializeMainExecutable() + 166
8   dyld                          0x8fe22ef2 dyld::_main(macho_header const*, unsigned long, int, char const**, char const**, char const**) + 2238
9   dyld                          0x8fe1c2ef dyldbootstrap::start(macho_header const*, int, char const**, long, macho_header const*) + 637
10  dyld                          0x8fe1c063 _dyld_start + 51

Thread 0 crashed with X86 Thread State (32-bit):
  eax: 0x8fe1dff6  ebx: 0x0733a000  ecx: 0x013fee7c  edx: 0x00000000
  edi: 0x8fe51d48  esi: 0x00000000  ebp: 0xbfffe9b8  esp: 0xbfffe990
   ss: 0x00000023  efl: 0x00010286  eip: 0x8fe1e025   cs: 0x0000001b
   ds: 0x00000023   es: 0x00000023   fs: 0x00000000   gs: 0x0000000f
  cr2: 0x00000034
Logical CPU: 2
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post #23 of 30
12/11/11 at 2:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

I really appreciate all your help. Here's the first chunk of the most recent crash log.

People on the Adobe forum with that issue said that same crash was caused by a keylogging application called refog:

http://forums.adobe.com/message/3816924

If refog isn't installed, it may be another app that does something similarly low level like Little Snitch.
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post #24 of 30
12/11/11 at 7:06pm
Thread Starter 
That's it, most likely. I tried out the trial version of that software a few months ago, just out of curiosity. Unfortunately, the program must be uninstalled through a menu command in the software itself, and my trial is expired. I'm searching now for a manual way to remove the files.

Hopefully that will work!
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post #25 of 30
12/12/11 at 9:20am
Thread Starter 
Thank you! That fixed it. I really appreciate you taking the time to help me track down this weird error, and finding interim solutions as we went. You're a life saver!
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post #26 of 30
12/12/11 at 10:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fireball1244 View Post

I really appreciate you taking the time to help me track down this weird error

Glad to hear that finally sorted it out. Those low-level apps sure can cause some odd behaviour.
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post #27 of 30
5/18/12 at 10:41am

I don't have either one of those programs and I am having the same problems. I have tried all the above mention tests still no luck. I need some serious help!
 

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post #28 of 30
5/19/12 at 1:39am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jed Counselman View Post

I don't have either one of those programs and I am having the same problems. I have tried all the above mention tests still no luck. I need some serious help!

If you find your crash report in /Users//Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports, post a similar portion of it to what was posted earlier.
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post #29 of 30
2/11/13 at 4:56pm

I know this is an OLD THREAD but I was running into the same problems a few days ago and "My Solution" was after I installed/updated Java...it launched without any problems. Hope this helps someone.
 

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post #30 of 30
4/27/13 at 10:22pm

Hi sbpait2408, what do you mean by 'My Solution' was after I installed/updated Java...  Do you mean the problem of error 16 was solved then? Can you help me, I shortly installed Java. What should I do? Regards, iMac1943

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