Desperate for suggestions --

Just installed a new serial ATA (unpartitioned) 750GB drive with Windows XP home Service pack 2 (3GB Ram) and installed Poser 4 and Poser 4.03 memory updater
 
Everything loaded fine but the default figure in the document window. There is no default figure and when i try to load a prop or another figure it cannot be seen. When i mouseover the document window i can see the faint outlines for the different body parts.

Also, after installing Poser and memory updater, the start menu program list showed an empty Metacreations folder (it is not empty) and a Curious Labs folder with the Poser 4 install in it. However, there is no Curious Labs folder on the hard drive.

I installed Poser Pro pack. Same problem. Rebooted. Uninstalled and reinstalled Poser.

Then i reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled windows thinking some of the graphics drivers i had also installed might be the problem. no default figure and i still can't load anything into the window.

I had never had a problem installing Poser 4 on any XP machine. I even loaded it on a Vista machine with no problems.

one other thing. I did install Windows on the new hard drive (same machine) using the Reinstallation Windows XP CD that came with my Dell PC that i purchased in 2003. The Windows loaded fine but i was wondering if the Reinstallation CD might be different than a standard Windows CD and if it is, wouldn't it tell me it couldn't load Windows?

Would Poser 4 have a problem on such a large unpartitioned drive? I don't see why it would care as long as the drive is big enough.

I am totally out of ideas so i turn to the Renderosity community. All suggestions/advice greatly appreciated.

ebrochure
 

Is your base Poser install 4.03? There was an update apart from the update for large memory systems. Have you tried running Poser before installing the memory update? Other than that I don't know. 750GB is way beyond the environment Poser 4 was designed for but I don't know if that would cause the problems described. You might try creating a small partition of 50GB or so and try Poser there. Does sound more like a memory/graphics drivers/etc. issue though.

PS prepare to be chided by some for using Poser 4 - apparently it's akin to a moral defect :-)

I thought it was the same thing so i'll have to search my archives for a Poser 4.03 version. Any idea where I can get it? SmithMicro only goes back to Poser 6, i think.

I tried to run Poser before the memory update and it would say i had run out of memory.

I'm not sure about the hard drive affecting memory but i had considered partitioning and installing the operating system there.

I wonder if 3GB RAM (as opposed to the original 1GB RAM) would affect Poser 4.

The graphic card and drivers are the same as before.

Yeah, i know some people think using Poser 4 is a crime. Maybe it is, since i have Versions 4-7. Still, i want to know why this is the first time i couldn't install a good version of Poser 4 on an XP machine.

Who knows? Thanks for the suggestions. Anybody else got any ideas?

Lots of folks still use P4 , even if they do have later versions.  Sometimes it's just faster and less taxing for some tasks.

There was a thread earlier this year (in here I believe) by someone else looking for the 4.03 upgrade, but it digressed into a misguided discussion of warez, and, IIRC, the originator never indicated that he'd found a current source for the update.

If I'm wrong, or if anyone does know where the update can still be legally obtained, please let us know here.

SOLUTION FOUND!!

After much hair-pulling, i found the problem. Thought i'd share it with the Poser family since there are still some Poser 4 users (in the closet)

turns out Poser 4/ProPack didn't like the 3GB RAM on my system that i had just installed. It didn't dawn on me that you could have too much RAM! Since Poser 4 has memory issues i guess that's one of them back in the days when 3GB Ram was unheard of.

Anyway, i scaled back to the original 1GB of RAM and Poser 4/ProPack worked fine. Then i added one more GB and it seems OK with a max of 2GB.

That explains why Poser 4/ProPack didn't work on my brand new Windows XP machine, with 3GB Ram, which really threw me for a loop.

Hope this helps someone else if they run into THE NIGHTMARE ON Poser 4/ProPack STREET!

thanks to all who responded!

Glad you got it lined out. Maybe the memory update tops out at 2GB.  

yeah, maybe so.

Never would have thought yu could have too much memory. lol

appreciate the feedback -- regardless.

i hope anyone running into the same problem finds this forum.

So there's no other solution than to physically remove memory? I also got this problem when I upgraded from 2 to 4 GB memory (ie 3 GB running XP).

At the risk of sounding like a jerk, the solution is (gasp!) to use a version of Poser that isn't 10 years old. Yes, Poser 4 may be the tried-and-true version for most people and it may even "run faster" for some tasks. Until that is, you get the dreaded "Out of memory" generic error message when Poser can't find an obj file or a texture file and you scream at it, wondering why you're "out of memory" on a machine that has 3G of RAM.

I recommend getting Poser 7, or at least Poser 6.
You can probably pass on getting Poser 5 since P6 basically corrects all the issues found in P5.

yeah... hehe.. Or I'll have to use my 2nd (older) computer specifically for this task.

I've tried Poser 5 and 6 but don't like them at all. I only use poser to rig my models and make them available for the poser community. Poser 4 seems to be designed and coded by people drunk on the job. Poser 5 and 6 by people high on drugs.

I'd actually like to reinstall Poser 4 Pro on my laptop as well for setting up basic scenes on the road that can be finished up once I get home but my laptop has 3 Gigs as well and I'm not removing the memory just to get Poser 4 to run. Mainly just for the speed and stability with which it performs.

I'd actually like to reinstall Poser 4 Pro on my laptop as well for setting up basic scenes on the road that can be finished up once I get home but my laptop has 3 Gigs as well and I'm not removing the memory just to get Poser 4 to run. Mainly just for the speed and stability with which it performs.

I hear ya, but that's been my experience.

Now, i wonder if Poser 4 has a problem with an odd number. I wonder if it would run with 4GB.

You might look at the burnmemory switch in XP msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms791475.aspx maxmem might work as well but burnmemory seems to be preferred support.microsoft.com/kb/108393. In either case, if it works, the downside is that you'd have to reboot each time to use it.

A better alternative might be to get Microsoft's free VirtualPC or VMWare and run Poser in a virtual machine where you can set the memory to whatever you want. I run Visual Studio on a Windows 2000 VM over XP using Virtual PC and it works great.On a fast machine the emulation speed should be OK for Poser 4. A possible problem would be that it will only emulate a basic video card. You can get at least 1024x768/32 bit though and I'm guessing that with Poser's requirements, it would probably work OK. Using a VM, you can set up whatever Poser "machine" you want. Give it 2GB and use the rest to run your main OS on the physical machine.

"...Until that is, you get the dreaded "Out of memory" generic error message when Poser can't find an obj file or a texture file..." 

I always check file paths before I install anything - probably a good general practice so the OoM error isn't an issue, ditto missing textures (which don't generate an OoM, they prompt for the file location). At any rate, it P4 does the trick for someone I don't see the utility of spending money for something else but each to their own :-)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2755759&page=1

That may mean XP would work in 98 compatibility mode as well with 4 gigs. Worth a try.

The problem itself is not a Poser 4 Specific problem, but is an inherent design flaw through Poser 6.  For example, Poser 6 has issues beyond 2GB of as well. I don't know about Poser 5 as I have never run it on a system with over 1GB, but I suspect the core code for all Poser versions is the same and has, simply, been added too and/or revamped over time to give us the newer versions. Hence, I believe that none of the versions after 4 was a total rewrite of the core code.

With that, here is a possible fix, albeit a risky one, but gives some insight into a solution otherwise not disussed here. Take note that this fix involves modifying the poser executable file itself (poser.exe).

http://www.keindesign.de/stefan/poser/3gb.html

Also take note that this addresses Virtual memory rather than physical

This fix might help.
dev.depeuter.org/

As an aside, the Physical Memory issue was a problem with windows 98 not with XP nor P4 itself. At least after the P4 4.03 update.

The specific problem, thereafter, with P4 -6 is a VM problem (Virtual Memory).

As a test, try setting your VM to manual (not Windows Managed) and raising it above 2GB or lowering it below. What is the outcome? By allowing Windows to manage it automatically, you can be inadvertently causing the issues. This would be especially so since you mention having a 750GB HD. Windows uses available free space on your HD to manage VM.

I always set my VM manually and never let Windows manage it.