In the last couple of weeks I've been noticing that Poser takes a long time to start up; the pause happens during the Credits screen, after all the 'plugins'. Also, the Help item on the top menu now includes not just the Poser and ProPack help listings, but a list of all the subdirectories under the Poser main; clicking on each of these leads to a list of PSP effects! (Charcoal, Neon, Colored Pencil, etc.) I suspect my directory structure is corrupted, but ScanDisk doesn't spot any problems in that department. Has anybody seen something similar?

Look in your Poser directory in the "Web Links" folder and remove any of the .pzs files you don't use.

Have you defragged your hard drive recently?! The reason I ask is that someone else posted a similar problem, and went on for several messages before admitting he/she either didn't know about defrag, or hadn't bothered.

Thanks for that. Those were "Sketch Presets", not PSP effects. Sort of similar names. My drive probably needs defragging, but the last time I tried that, it corrupted everything and required total reformat, so I'm not going to do it again. Poser is the only app that's running slow, so I really don't think it's a general problem.

OH, no! Listen to me. I've built my own computers, and done computer tech support. Defragging a hard drive does not cause the problems you describe. You could very well have other problems that caused those disastrous results. If you refuse to defrag your hard drive, you will only have more and more problems. You might consider having a repair person look at your computer.

I had the same problem with the Pro pack running slowly at the start up screen. It would take between 4 and 5 minutes for it to get to the posing screen. I still don't know what the problem was, but the Service Release 3 fixed it and Pro Pack now opens as quickly as the unenhanced Poser 4 (usually around 30 seconds now).

Attached Link: http://www.curiouslabs.com/products/poser4/index.html

Defraging your hard drive can cause you to reformat or lose data like he has described especially if you have other HD issues such as bad or damaged clusters you may not be aware of. Second if your going to tell someone he must Defrag, besure that they do the things that will ensure they get the most out of it. First if you can back up your important files. Second run a thourough SCANDISK first. If you are using Win 95 or above make sure you disable ALL background programs (You can do this by ending the tasks.) When running scandisk first do the one that doesn't check the drive. Have it automatically fix the errors. Then run scandisk again having it check the disk. Again fixing the errors as it goes. Read the report when it is finished notice if it gives you any bad cluster information. If it gives you a high number your drive maybe wearing out. I also recommend running a scandisk a few days later and noting bad cluster info, if it is high again, your drive is dying. Now run the defrag. Since your machine has identified the current bad clusters, assuming you had any, it wont move good data to damaged areas, which could have resulted in needing to format to correct them. A defrag will speed up your file access which should improve load times to a degree, but to be honest this may not be your problem. Have you recently added a large number of folders to your poser libraries? I recently experienced a slow down in my poser start time, and the time it took for an image save dialog box to appear. After some trouble shooting I realised I had added about 30 new pose folders. So I combined many of my folders together and the times have improved. I think it has to do with poser looking at the various folders and directories before loading them. If the problems continues have a technician look at it as was suggested.

Moonbiter, This is a Poser forum, not a technical computer forum. I always advise people to seek the advice or assistance of a professional if they need to know exactly how to perform certain procedures such as defrag. If they don't wish to do that, there are always Help Files. I stick by my comment that defragging will not cause the described problems, and that any such problems came from other causes, such as a bad hard drive, etc.

Ron, Yes this is poser forum, but occasionally technical advise has to be given in order to help fix a problem. Why else tell him to defrag his PC? I just gave him/her the correct and full procedure so if were not computer savvy they would be able to do a proper defrag and minimize the possiblility of data loss. Nothing overly technical about it. -Moon