Expert: Amy - 2/20/2008

Question
QUESTION: I was using Illustrator CS3 on a computer that I just replaced with my current HP notebook dv9410us running Vista. The rest of CS3 seems to be working fine on my new notebook, however when I try to open Illustrator, I get the error message, "Error loading plugins. Control Panel.aip" I click okay and I get the windows message that Illustrator had to close.

I already did a bit of forum-reading and troubleshooting. I tried repairing -- no good. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling -- no good. I tried deleting my AIPrefs file -- no good, since it was nonexistent to begin with. I tried deleting the entire Illustrator file within the Roaming folder of my User file -- nope. And I tried deleting the control panel.aip from the program files directory -- you guessed it, still didn't work.

Do you have any other suggestions that may help me get back into Illustrator?

Thanks!

ANSWER: Hi Aaron,

From what I've read, it's kind of complicated.... lots of disappointed Vista-based Adobe users...

This is a long thread at Adobe... the most helpful info is in the last few posts.

http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.3bc8f1c4/52

Have you run the 13.0.2, by the way? Try that before trying anything else. Look for the post by Daniel McFall on the link above. Try installing the update fix according to his instructions and let me know what happens.

After that, you can try to reinstall Illustrator following the various suggestions of the people posting at the link above... and update it to 13.0.2..with several steps in between to get the installer to work.

-Amy




---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Amy.
I tried the suggestions of Daniel McFall that you linked to for me.  I was able to everything suggested except I could not check the box to run this program as administrator because I'm on Vista Home Premium (why they decided I wasn't worthy to be the administrator of my own computer I will never know).  The updates worked fine, 13.0.1, and then .2 - no problem.  But when I click to open the application, even though it now says its the updated version, I still get the same message "Error loading plugins..."  
Is there anything else I can do?
Thanks

Answer
Hi Aaron, sorry you're still having issues.

If you haven't already done so, post the issue on the forums at Adobe.
There's got to be a braniac out there who knows if there's a solution for Vista Home.

I have to think that it's not even a plug-ins issue but some other conflict. I think you said you tried moving the plug-ins and deleting the entire CS Settings folder (of course, you should do that again).

Turn off all other background applications including and especially virus software, using the task manager if you have to, and see if you can get it to launch?

Be careful of people telling you it's Norton Utilities, if you use it. I just spent three days trying to figure out why my internet connection was suddenly dropping periodically... everyone said it was Norton's firewall and it wasn't. I went through every internet setting I could think of and finally hit on the answer. It was my wireless card driver. Windows failed to update it with my regular auto updates.

Sometimes it takes a lot of messing around with things like background apps, fonts, and other system settings to solve application problems.


I can't think of any other ideas - I'm sorry!

-Amy