SERIOUS ADOBE ACROBAT PROFESSIONAL 8 ERROR

Jeff et al.:  Thxs 4 your assistance. Record of most recent challenge below - fwiw. It may assist someone in the future.

Facts: Auto updater downloaded/installed (at my selection) Acrobat 8 update (don't recall the update identifier) on 30.Aug. 2011. Restarted, as instructed. 'Running XP SP2 (with all necessary (i.e., MS recommended) updates, and Acrobat 8 Pro (and manually installing Vs 8.2 and 8.3 in succession following initial couple of power down/reboot cycles). As I was travelling and did not have direct access to original application content (although I do retain serial nos. electronically just for such circumstances...), deinstallation/reinstallation was not an immediate option.

Issue: Upon restart, a "Serious Error" - "the instruction at 0x055c1213 referenced at 0x03dbebf4 could not be written" occurred and persisted through several power down/reboot cycles, including those following manual Vs 8.2 and 8.3 updates).

Resolution:

Following three chain of posts, 'undertook the following:

First (although I was not running Vista...),

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=3750 - from a 2.October (2007??) post from Kevin Cheng, I believe:

Instructions (cut-n-paste from above URL)

After downloading a ".zip" file, use the operating system or a utility such as WinZip or PKZIP to access the file's contents.

1. Download the attachment.
2. Unzip/uncompress the file to a folder on the system.
3. Make sure Acrobat 8 is not running. If the system has any Adobe Creative Suite® 3 applications installed, make sure they are not running.
4. Click the Vista Start button, enter "taskmgr" in the Start Search field and press Enter.
5. Click on the Processes tab, then click the button "Show processes from all users".
6. If the FNPLicensingservice process is running, click on it, then click the "End Process" button and confirm that the process should stopped.
7. Exit Task Manager.
8. Right-click the InstAS.exe file and select "Run as administrator." The Command prompt window should appear and display "Trying to install anchor service."
9. Upon completion, reboot the system and launch Acrobat.

Power down/reboot/reinitiate Acrobat didn't resolve the issue:

Second, from Jeff's 13.Nov. 2007 post, as an XP user, I undertook the following:

XP Users...

1. Backup the following file, C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\FLEXnet\adobe_00080000_tsf.data.
2. Delete the file from the location above, but not the back up.
3. Reboot the cpu
4. Launch Acrobat and see if it requires you to activate again.

Power down/reboot/reinitiate Acrobat didn't resolve the issue:

Third, from ynaranjo@leetem.com 's Jan. 2011 post, I undertook:

..."I called tech support and they actually fixed it! This is what you do...

1. Cut and paste the "pcd.db" file resident in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD into a sub-directory/folder for recovery/retention.

2. Cut and past the "adobe_00080000_tsf.data" file in C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\FLEXnet (same operation as Jeff's No. 1, above) into the same sub-directory/folder as the pcd.db file (NOTE: after I had undertaken Jeff's step above, this no longer existed, as I had moved this to another folder).

Power down/reboot/reinitiate Acrobat didn't resolve the issue, and actually, it completely shut down access to other CS3 applications (PShop/IDesign, etc.). Ultimately, I had to restore the pcb.db file to its original location (...\Adobe PCD, from ynaranjo@leetem.com 's No. 1, above) and proceed through auto-prompted authorization process (from PShop application), which addressed CS3 access generally, but did NOT resolve the original Acrobat "Serious Error" issue.

Finally - AND THIS IS THE SECOND IMPORTANT STEP UNDER MY CIRCUMSTANCES:

1. Initiated Acrobat application, and before it blew up with the "Serious Error", I quickly selected "Repair Acrobat Installation" drop-down off "Help" menu. Windows/Acrobat immediately set about collecting data, configuring, etc., and then prompted for a restart.

2. I declined restart prompt (at which time Acrobat then blew up with same error), manually powered down and rebooted.

Upon reinitiating Acrobat, violà, problem resolved sans deinstall/reinstall.

'Can't guarantee outcome, but under similar circumstances/conditions, I believe Jeff's steps (don't 4get to retain the original ...tsf.data file - 'allows 4 "undoing" if whatever one does next creates other issues...), coupled with a "Repair Acrobat Installation" will address the issue, the first and third alternatives, above having no effect on a successful outcome. I include the latter two here only in the essence of full disclosure.

'Hope this helps those, who in the future experience similar challenges, to resolve similar issues. And, 'very much appreciate those who meaningfully contributed.

As an aside, in all, I spent a couple hours in debugging/resolution (not including this post). I appreciate that many of those posting had far more frustrating circumstances. Yet, might I suggest in the future that we all take frustrations (beyond substantive content) to another discussion forum, leaving meaningful material in the appropriate thread, which ultimately will streamline problem resolution for everyone - we all benefit.

And, hopefully, such compartmentalization of the corresponding issues will engage the appropriate Adobe audience/resources to avoid such issues in the future.

Thanks again...