For some unknown reason, every once in a while Bryce and Poser decide they're going to drop a "This program has performed an illegal operation" error on me when they're loading, so I have to reboot in order to run them. I haven't yet figured out a pattern to these errors, so I don't have any idea what's causing them, though usually they run fine when I first boot.. As a side note, when one starts doing it, the other one does it too, so I'm thinking it might be some sort of driver error or something.. but I'm really clueless.. Has anyone else encountered this problem or have any ideas how to fix it? I'm tired of rebooting every time I wanna run one of them.. It doesn't happen every time, just occasionally, but it really annoys me.. Thanks, Rosh

Have you tried reinstalling them? Make copies of your mats and presets for backup, and your prefs if you want, then reinstall both programs and see if that helps at all.

I was hoping I wouldn't have to.. if it had just been one of them screwing up, I probably would have.. but when both are, it seems to me like it's not the programs themselves.. dunno.. If all else fails, I probably will.. Thanks, Rosh

That error message sounds like your running Windows Have you defragged or run a thourough(SP) Scan disk recently? I always try that first. Good luck Hawkfyr

and have u updated the programs from the metacreations site, patches sometimes help with stuff like that

Lets see... Defragged a couple weeks ago.. fragged hard drives have never given me illegal operation messages.. Haven't done thorough scandisk, but same reasoning there.. I've got the Bryce patch, and I've got a Poser beta patch, not the newest one, as I really don't feel like downloading an 8 meg file with a 24k connection.. Either way, why would both programs not work at the same time if it were due to one or the other's lack of a patch? Mostly, I'm stumped, so I'll probably try the defrag/scandisk, though I shudder at how long that usually takes.. ugh. Thanks for helping, everyone... =) Rosh

I was haing problem with both poser and bryce crashing and not being able to restart them without rebooting. They would also corrupt files sometimes. I finally tracked it down to a bad ram chip. All other programs were running fine.

Mine usually don't crash once they're running.. but they'll give me the error occasionally when I try to start them.. But it's interesting to learn that they'll react to an apparently bad ram chip when nothing else will.. Thanks, Rosh

Rosh, Ever try to run Max after Poser or Bryce crashes? Check to see that you don't have too many progs runing in the background. That puts a drain on your system resources. Regards, - Art -

It may have been that it took a 3d app to actually use the bad ram, I had 256 megs and since removing a 64 chip have not had a crash in 3 days, where I was experiencing several per day.

yeah, bad ram can do some weird stuff

I'll see.. I've only got a single 128 meg chip, so if it's bad, I'm screwed. =( Rosh

Oh yeah, forgot to mention.. even after Poser and Bryce are crashing, Rhino still works like a champ, if that means anything.. I'll see about Max, though. =) Thanks, Rosh

I'm thinking that you may need to clear your registry of broken and invalid links. Do you have anything like Norton Utilities, Fix It Utilities 2000, anything like that? Tweak UI? Do the programs do this everytime you try to open them?

Not every time. Only occasionally... Some days, not at all... the day I first posted the thread, twice that particular day (the worst it's been).. Today, it hasn't happened once.. Oh, and no, I don't have any of those programs... Thanks for helping me everyone. =) Rosh

Rosh, For what it's worth, I ran taskinfo (a program to check system resources, then took a hardcopy of Windows (normal), then while running Poser. Although it wasn't truly scientific due to delay in swapping between apps, it did show an increase of 40% of CPU and other processes while running Poser. The old Ctrl-Alt-Del only shows a few apps that are available. To get the real scoop on what your computer loaded at / during startup, do the following: Start>Run> Type in:MSCONFIG and click OK. Tell it CUSTOM, then select the Startup tab. You will be shown ALL the goodies that are loaded when your computer boots up. It may scare you!! Aside from a wheelmouse /pointer & graphics tablet (if you have one, you only need SYSTRAY & SCANREGISTRY! Uncheck all others and Apply. You may have to reboot. After reboot, try Poser or Bryce and let me know your results. This will at least tell if your machine was running too many processes in the background. Hope this helps, - Art -

They don't always screw up, and they haven't today... But hey, that's a pretty damn cool trick.. I've been trying to figure out how to disable half that startup garbage for a while anyway. =) Thanks! Rosh

Art, that sound familier Grin Hawkfyr

I forgot about this Art. My machine feels much better now. Tip of the Day award to you. Thanks. Anvil

Thanks and glad to have helped! - Art -