well i posted a similiar message in the technical support section but i thought id post one here as well.. my problem is when opening a charecter for a pic, my poser program crashed and I cant seem to getr it running again..i tried all the computer checks and scans and am stumped.. the program when initiated, comes up for a milisecond then reverts back to windows ?? my brother in law has my cd in stockton, ca and has misplaced it as well...so I screwed !!! and my serial number listed on the start up of the poser program (whicj dosn't work !!) and neede for metacreations help ?? soo..if anyone can help me out i would appreciate it....thank you...

You'll need to get your CD back from your brother-in-law - or get him to replace it if he's lost it. It sounds very much like Poser has become corrupt and you'll need to do a complete re-install. If you've not kept a copy of your Serial number, then you do indeed have a problem. Big important note: Always keep a note of your Serial Number If you are asking for a serial number, then nobody here is going to give you one Paul

When does the crash happen. At first you say when opening a character. Does the start up screen appear for poser. If so it should show you your name and your serial number. It does on mine(I'm on a mac, but I bet it's no different on windows) Might want to write it down. I've lost my serial number to other metacreations software before. One time the one they provided didn't work. You should have no problem get a replacement-if you can proove you bought it. registering your software helps. If I was you I would just call Metacreations ASAP.

The problem is the poser prgram will not start up,..i know the seriel number appeas on the start up but it does not get that far..it starts to load up but then immediately shuts off before the number is displayed...

I hate to be the bearer of bad news...but you're SCREWED. The same thing happened to me before. Your POSER.EXE and POSER.RSR have been corrupted. You'll have to do a complete reinstall, and since your CD is in your brother-in-law's car, you can't do that. When you DO get it back and reinstall, back up those two files in case it happens again. I made a backup of them, zipped it, and called it POSER-RESCUE.ZIP. That way if it happens to me, I just unzip it, and it overwrites the corrupted files. Now, as for a serial number, THAT I can help you with. Look in your Windows directory. You'll find a subdirectory called "Metacreations". In this subdirectory is a file called POSW400.TXT. Your serial number is in that TXT file.

What's your brother in law doing with the CD? That's a serious No-No.

Gordon

well thanks for all your help folks i've solved the problem !!! (kinda) since my bro in law lost the cd...or "misplaced" it..I "convinced" him to buy me another copy...!!i just ordered it (again) and I should have it soon..and this time...NO ONE GETS IT (HA HA)..and my bro in law had it not what yo think (to copy) rather I was visiting and left it there by mistake..he in turn thought it was something else.and blah blah blah..being that i'm in law enforcement, i do not prescribe do illegal activities of any sort...well i speed occassionally : )

heya; if you check down the board a bit on a thread called 'files that kill poser' you can read more about dead posers and theories on what may cause that, and some voodoo to perform to resucitate your poser. (not to call anybody's poser-handling techniques 'voodoo,' but... since nobody knows what really causes the corruptions, it's kinda a personal thing what to do about it. but backups of the poser exe and rsr are a must!)

Every time my Poser's .exe and .rsr have become corrupt it has been due to trying to load a downloaded figure from the sidebar menu and not having its reference .obj file in its proper folder. Always check the readme file, and if you see that the character .zip comes with an .obj file, use Winzip to see its original path. I'm not saying that's the final answer, but that's what has always happened to me. Oh, and do as Legume says ASAP! Emilio

THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED !! I WAS TRYING TO BRING UP A CHARECTER THAT I DOWNLOADED FROM THIS SITE AND IT CRASHED...I AM NEW TO POSER AND FIGURED OUT WHERE MOST FILES GO EXCEPT THE bum ??, BUMP ?? and obj ?? SO CHANCES ARE I PUT THE FILE IN THE WRONG PLACE...NOW HOW DO I FIX IT ???? IF AT ALL..OR SHOULD I JUST RE INSTALL THE PROGRAM AND CHALK IT UP AS A LOSE ?? CHAOSARCHANGEL

When that happened to me, I had to reinstall Poser on another folder and the move the Poser.exe and Poser.rsr to the first folder, thus erasing the corrupt ones (this part sounds lovecraftian!). Of course, you need the Poser CD and serial number. Then do a backup copy of both files on another folder ASAP. When .zip extracting, place the texture files wherever you like, but remember where: as soon as you open the character the program will ask for them. I've heard that putting those image files on the same folder that the .cr2 file or the .obj file makes them be loaded automatically, but never tried that (I like to have all the texture maps together). Hope this helps. Emilio