ACDSee 6 - Why no thumbnails?

In ACDSee 6 (free trial), I go View/View Mode/Thumbnails and
I expect to see thumbnail pictures, but all I get are
squares with small icons in the center. I can change the
thumbnail-square to any of five sizes from 320x240 down to
40x30, but I never get the thumbnail pictures. All I get
are the icons.

I tried ACDSee 6 a month or two ago before I upgraded from
Windows 98 to Windows XP, and I think I remember getting the
thumbnail pictures then. I also remember that they loaded
so slowly that it made me give up on ACDSee 6 and uninstall
it.

After upgrading to XP, I decided to give ACDSee 6 another
chance. I haven't yet found anything particularly
objectionable about it except for the absence of thumbnail
pictures.

If anyone has any suggestions for me, I'd greatly appreciate
seeing them. Is there an obscure option somewhere that
needs to be set? Has ACD Systems decided not to display
thumbnails until they can make them load faster? Is there
anyone who is having the same problem I have and is as
mystified as I am?

I've tried to give the question to ACD Systems, but when I
go through the menus at their Support site, eventually
clicking on an option that says something like "I need help
with free-trial ACDSee", I get to a page that says only that
there are no FAQ items on that topic at this time.

Can anyone give me an e-mail address where I can ask ACD
Systems a specific question? Or a 'phone number where I can
ask?

 

Have you downloaded their latest patch?
Go to acdsystems.com and get it...download it.
It has helped a great deal--and I was QUITE irritiated with the bugs in 6.0.

 

Mark is correct, I also understand that there will also be another patch out
in February that addresses the speed issue. You've already bought it, you
might as well see if this takes care of your problems. Wait a minute,
you're using the free trial, I don't know if the patches apply to the trial
version.

For what it's worth, after the upgrade, ACDSee is still the Big Dog that the
other photo organizers have to compare themselves against.

 

Thanks to both for prompt responses.

I should have mentioned that the version I'm using for the
free trial is 6.02. Would that include the latest patch?

 

Actually, what I should have said is that the version I'm
using is 6.02.0014. I suspect the "0014" is something like
a patch number.

 

That's what my version says, but I'm not having the problems you report.
While this version is somewhat slower than that of V5 (which was a VERY good
product, and EXTREMELY fast), I am reasonably satisfied with the product at
this point. Though, I am looking forward to the next patch release.

I wonder if it is a quirk of your system? Maybe something installed that
causes conflicts with ACDSee.

 

Thank you. That's valuable information, that you're not
having the problem. Now I know it's not a bug in ACDSee 6.

I suspect it may have something to do with the fact that I
first installed V6 under Windows 98, then I upgraded to XP.
I am able to uninstall V6 and reinstall it, and I've done
that a few times, but I suspect that somewhere deep within
the bowels of the computer there's something that remembers
the W98 installation and that's keeping the XP installation
from working. Some problems I've had with other packages --
problems that have now been fixed -- tend to bear out my
suspicion.

I wish there were a way to contact ACD Systems, explain my
symptoms and see if they recognize them and can suggest a
fix. The Support Web pages are no help at all. They guide
me through a series of links that ends up with them telling
me they have no FAQ items that are applicable to the
free-trial of V6. I find it hard to believe that there's a
product that has no support group where you can ask a
specific question, either by e-mail or by filling out a form
on a Web page. How are people supposed to decide whether or
not they want to buy the product if they can never see it
working properly?

If I get to the end of my free trial without finding out
why I don't get thumbnail pictures, I just won't buy the
product.

Thanks for your helpful suggestions.

====================

 

Bob,

You might want to check out:

http://forums.acdsystems.com/YaBB.cgi

Rich

 

Thank you, Rich. That looks promising. I'll see what
happens when I ask a question there.

============================

 

I did that, and I found the answer to my problem there. I
don't have the exact reference, but the solution that worked
for me had to do with deleting a folder called something
like "Defaults". When I did that and restarted ACDSee 6,
the thumbnails were there and have been there ever since.

Thanks for the good advice.

 

SOLUTION: What I did. In ACDSee 7, If thumbs do not appear,
Close ACDSee, then delete the "Default" folder as shown below.

My Computer/Local Disk[C:] /Documents and Settings/Your User Name/Application Data/ACD Systems/Catalogs/70/Default

My problem existed for months. The simple fix corrected it immediately. Why it's in Catalogs and why it was a problem, I don't know. ACDSee 7 with Windows XP.Pro.