I’m still running Poser 4, and no apologies! I need to reinstall Poser 403 Updater, which I have, but it "searches for" but cannot find "installed components.” Does anyone know (remember) how to set up this Updater?

Hope you can help.

Only thing I remember from that one is that you had to point it to the Poser program folder.

That might help, thanks, if you would explain what you mean by "point it"?

I tried one of the P6 updaters.  After it says "Poser can't be found", you should hit OK to continue.  Then the installer gives you a file-open box and says "Locate Poser."  I think the P4 updaters were the same. 

In fact the Updater keeps plodding on and doesn't respond to anything. It won't even close. I have to use Task Manager to clear it. But thanks. 

I assume that you’ve tried placing it in the folder with poser.exe and running it from there. I’m not sure what it might be looking for other than that file. It could conceivably be looking for a registry entry but unlikely as Poser didn’t store much there other than file associations. It’s also possible the updater might be corrupted I suppose. The fact that it keeps running may suggest that. If so, there’s apparently nowhere to get another copy. Someone asked a while back and SM, IIRC reportedly said they no longer own the rights to Poser 4.

There was a generic patch someone did for Metacreations programs http://dev.depeuter.org/metacreations_fix_30.php maybe that will help if the memory bug is your main issue. Also, if you’re doing this on a newer OS than XP, maybe that is the problem. If possible you could try installing Poser and the updater on an older system. If it works, just copy over the files from the program folder (not the runtime) to you newer system.

If you’re up to a bit of sleuthing, you can try using the free filemon utility that will show you which files applications are trying to open, read from etc. You will probably want to use the filter function to restrict monitoring to the updater’s exe. Running the updater with filemon monitoring should show you what file(s) it is looking for and apparently failing to find. There’s an equivalent utility regmon for monitoring registry activity though as I said, I tend to doubt that’s the problem.

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Programming/Other-Programming-Files/Filemon.shtml

As a last resort, I’d try reinstalling Poser and see if that works. I no longer have the updater, just a saved copy of Poser updated. Its been far to long ago since I ran it to recall any special procedure – I don’t think there was one. One other unlikely possibility. Maybe it’s not the file (updater) you think – check the file properties in Explorer?

Very detailed answer, and much to consider and try. Thank you very much.

As a matter if interest my O/S is Windows 7 64-bit, which Poser 4 works well with in XP compatible mode. Unfortunately my other two machines have the same O/S which rules out an install in something below Windows 7.

I first tried Updater from within the Poser folder, then from elsewhere.

I freshly installed Poser 4 from the original CD but Updater behaved in exactly the same truculent way.

The bug I have, and it's recent, is that Poser locks up when a texture isn't found on loading a figure or object and I select Cancel. I can work around that, but I suspect there must be other problems lurking.

Again, thanks for the help

It is likely that Windows User Access Control is the culprit.  Try reinstalling it outide of Program files, like in C:/Poser.

If cost is why you haven't upgraded, (and you are in the States)  you can get Poser 8 for under $20. 

http://www.amazon.com/Smith-Micro-Software-Inc-PSR8HBX2/dp/B002KMQ8WU

It works with Windows 7 and all of your content should work fine if you run Dizzi's rsr converter on your runtime, which creates .png thmbnails for the Poser 8 library for old content...

Poser is on my secondary internal drive. I'll try the C Drive. Thanks.

As for an upgrade, cost is immaterial. I have Poser 6 but discarded it as complicated, sluggish, and hopelessly slow for animations. Poser 4 characters can be manipulated intuitively and to my mind have been designed by artists, their successors by engineers.

No idea if the problems wi. Poser are fixable by the update. I don't remember what issues it was supposed to fix.

The updater problem could be something to do with the OS, I suppose, especially since it's trying to patch an .exe. If you have a copy of another OS, XP, 2K, even 98, you could run an virtual machine either with MS Virtual PC,  or Virtual Box. Doesn't 7 have a Virtual XP mode - though only on the high end editions maybe. I think (don't quote me :-) that the updater is probably only going to update files in the Poser program folder and subfolders (excluding the runtime folder). It probably doesn't even need to be installed. You might be able to copy that folder to a trusting friend's machine and run the update - if you have a trusting friend with XP. Also I assume you're set the updater to run in XP mode or done whatever black magic is required.

Only other thing I can think of - does it actually give 'can't find' an error message or does it just keep running 'searching for components'? If the latter, how long are you letting it run? I'm wondering if it might be doing something foolish like searching the whole system and it just hasn't finished yet.  

4.03 is a while back and I'm getting older.... If I recall correctly all the 4.03 update did was to change file paths from Curious Labs to Metacreations file paths.  If I remember correctly the I suspect therin lies your problem. The update is trying to copy everything from Curious Labs file path to Metacreations file path on your C: drive. UAC won't like that one bit.

The past two messages are reassuring, and I'm grateful.

I did run Updater in XP mode and it made no difference. But I've discovered I only have the "searching for" problem with the original, default Poser 4 characters and objects and not with those since added or developed. I have now deleted the originals (don't understand what I did to resurrect them in the first place) and things are back to normal. Knowing that I don't need Updater is, as I say, very reassuring; it seems I was chasing down a non-existent problem.

Thanks to all. Sorry to confuse you.

ah. did you run the updater "run as administrator" ? plus Poser 4 predates UAC in Vista and Windows 7, so will not work properly within the Program Files structure. for that you need poser 7 or later. outside of Program Files it should work fine.

Understood. Thanks.

I as well use Poser 4 regularly and exclusively.  Others have already offered most of the advice I would have, except for one detail:  in the root directory of whatever volume you on which you have Poser 4 installed, you should have a file called PoserLocation.ini.  For example, if you have Poser at F:ArtstuffPoser4, then this file should be at F:PoserLocation.ini.  Perhaps the 403 installer is looking for this file.

The patch fixes numerous bugs, and certainly offers a very great deal more benefit than changing a few folder names.  One small problem with the 4.03 patch is that after installing it, Poser 4 will no longer store changes to your default scene preferences.  This is easily fixed-- simply set up your default scene (the scene that loads when Poser starts or you select File>New) and save it as preferredState.pz3 in your Poser 4Runtimeprefs directory (overwriting whatever is there).

Thank you indeed for the valuable advice. I've saved your comment to a document for study, comprehension, and follow-through.