SERIOUS ADOBE ACROBAT PROFESSIONAL 8 ERROR

I haven't read all of the posts, but I am also running Vista Ultimate. It seems that maybe there is a compatibility problem between Acrobat 8.1 and Vista Ultimate?

Well, I'm not sure how much I can add to this thread, but I will say this:

I have two machines, one running Vista Ultimate, the other with Vista Business. Both are running Acrobat Professional 8.1, but only ONE of them has a problem. The Ultimate machine is a Pentium D with 2GB of RAM and the Business machine is a ThinkPad with a Pentium M and 1.5GB of RAM.

The laptop running Business runs fine with Acro 8.1. I haven't had a problem yet and I've been using it for months. The desktop with Ultimate ran 8.0 fine, then I installed 8.1 and it began crashing.

I have some utilities to monitor file and registry operations done by a specific process, but I haven't come across anything out of the ordinary that would cause a crash. I'm running Windows Defender, but other than that, no antivirus or antispyware utilities on either machine.

I also checked to see what FNPLicensingService.exe was doing before, during, and after starting Acrobat and this is all I get:

432247 9:59:29.6392847 PM FNPLicensingService.exe 5024 CreateFile C: SUCCESS Desired Access: Generic Read/Write, Disposition: Open, Options: Synchronous IO Non-Alert, Non-Directory File, Attributes: n/a, ShareMode: Read, Write, AllocationSize: n/a, OpenResult: Opened
432251 9:59:29.6393710 PM FNPLicensingService.exe 5024 DeviceIoControl C: FAST IO DISALLOWED Control: SMART_GET_VERSION
432252 9:59:29.6393844 PM FNPLicensingService.exe 5024 DeviceIoControl C: SUCCESS Control: SMART_GET_VERSION
432255 9:59:29.6394506 PM FNPLicensingService.exe 5024 DeviceIoControl C: FAST IO DISALLOWED Control: SMART_RCV_DRIVE_DATA
432257 9:59:29.6394691 PM FNPLicensingService.exe 5024 DeviceIoControl C: SUCCESS Control: SMART_RCV_DRIVE_DATA
432421 9:59:29.6433444 PM FNPLicensingService.exe 5024 CloseFile C: SUCCESS
----------------------------------------------------

Nothing incriminating there either. I expected perhaps an "Access Denied" message b/c this sounds almost exactly like messages I've gotten before when a registry key has too low a level of permissions. Doesn't appear to be the case this time.

I don't know what else to say...I've been searching for a solution to this as an IT Professional and computer programmer for awhile now, but to no avail. Hopefully someone will be luckier than I at some point.

I was speaking to a colleague who has encountered the shut down problem. I did not get all the details from her (i.e. the exact error message) but the interesting point was she had Reader 8.0 and AP8.0. She downloaded 8.1 (due to the auto download being set) but DID NOT install it. She wanted to read the notes before deciding to install it.

Does this info help Adobe narrow down the problem ... why does downloading the update cause the problem even though the update has not been installed?

This is really a sad and unfortunate state of affairs. No acknowledgment from Adobe of this most time consuming and work effectiveness destroying bug - no matter on whose plate the problem(s) lie (Adobe or Microsoft).

Here are my experiences for the record and maybe, just maybe, an Adobe tech support person will contribute to this forum.

1.0 Environment
---------------
=> OS - Vista
=> Acrobat Professional - 8.1 (AP8.1)
=> Acrobat Reader - 8.0 (only used because AP8.1 freezes and crashes when trying to scroll through a file)
=> PrimoPDF - to generate a PDF file from an Office 2007 document because AP8.1 hangs big time (see below)
=> Office - 2007 (whatever the version; I cannot locate the "About .." dialog box within all the X?X??X?X "ribbon" masking. It's like trying to read through a physician's scrawl ... not intuitive, AT ALL!)

2.0 Acrobat 8.1 as stand-alone application
------------------------------------------
>>>> Only after reboot of OS & BEFORE creating a PDF, from Acrobat or O2007 apps <<<<br />
(2.1) AP8.1 will open a file and as long as I use the PgUp and PgDn keys, I can read the document. When I use the scroll bars, Acrobat eventually freezes and presents the effective Adobe-BSOD -- "A serious error has been detected and Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional cannot continue. Please re-install the application and try again." Certainly, deactivating & re-installing AP8 does not in any way solve this insidious problem.

(2.2) I can open, edit and save a fill-in PDF.

3.0 Creating PDF files with AP8.1
---------------------------------
>>>> Again, you HAVE to reboot Vista, otherwise AP8.1 displays the Acrobat-BSOD (see above) <<<<

(3.1) Within Acrobat 8.1 - File > Create PDF -- causes AP8.1 inform you that not all the PDF Maker components are installed. Even if you go through the "re-installation" process, AP8.1 STILL tells you that there are missing AP8.1 components. This is a circular-reference process.

(3.2) Creating a PDF within Word 2007 - [Firstly, the errors caused during this process are exceedingly time consuming. One can easily lose 15-20 minutes waiting for AP8.1/W2007 to respond.] Ctrl-P > Acrobat PDF causes a monumental grinding halt to both W2007 & AP8.1. AP8.1 eventually (after 5 minutes) generates the error window:

> [Window Title] Create Adobe PDF
> Adobe PDF creation cannot continue because Acrobat is not activated.

> Click Retry after activating Acrobat to continue printing.
> Click Cancel to quit PDF creation.

Click your choice (R or C), it doesn't matter, eventually the Adobe-BSOD is displayed (see above)

Once again, as I said above, this is a most sad state of affairs. Quite frankly, I cannot ever remember such a serious problem impairing Acrobat. Many, many of us depend PDF (PORTABLE data format) files to exchange files whose content we do not want modified .. just read.

I have had to resort to Acrobat Reader to read PDF files and to the wonderfully and capable PrimoPDF (http://www.primopdf.com/) to create (Print) PDF files from within other applications.

- Al

This is really a sad state of affairs. No acknowledgment from Adobe of this most time consuming and work effectiveness destroying bug - no matter on whose plate the problem(s) lie.

Here are my experiences for the record and maybe, just maybe, an Adobe tech support person will contribute to this forum.

1.0 Environment
---------------
=> OS - Vista
=> Acrobat Professional - 8.1 (AP8.1)
=> Acrobat Reader - 8.0 (only used because AP8.1 freezes and crashes when trying to scroll through a file)
=> PrimoPDF - to generate a PDF file from an Office 2007 document because AP8.1 hangs big time (see below)
=> Office - 2007 (whatever the version; I cannot locate the "About .." dialog box with all the "ribbon" masking.

2.0 Acrobat 8.1 as stand-alone application
------------------------------------------
>>>>After reboot of OS & BEFORE creating a PDF, from Acrobat or O2007 apps<<<<br />
(2.1) AP8.1 will open a file and as long as I use the PgUp and PgDn keys, I can read the document. When I use the scroll bars, Acrobat eventually freezes and presents the effective Adobe-BSOD -- "A serious error has been detected and Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional cannot continue. Please re-install the application and try again." Certainly, deacivating & re-installing AP8 does not in any way solve this incidious problem.

(2.2) I can load, edit and save a fill-in PDF.

3.0 Creating PDF files with AP8.1
---------------------------------
>>>> Again, you HAVE to reboot Vista, otherwise AP8.1 displays the Acrobat-BSOD ... see above <<<<

(3.1) Within Acrobat 8.1 - File > Create PDF -- causes AP8.1 inform you that not all the PDF Maker components are installed. Even if you go through the "re-installation" process, AP8.1 STILL tells you that there are missing AP8.1 components.

(3.2) Creating a PDF within Word 2007 - [Firstly, the errors caused during this process are exceedingly time consuming. One can easily lose 15-20 minutes waiting for AP8.1/W2007 to respond.] Ctrl-P > Acrobat PDF causes a monumental grinding halt to both W2007 & AP8.1. AP8.1 eventually (after 5 minutes) generates the error window:

[Window Title] Create Adobe PDF
Adobe PDF creation cannot continue because Acrobat is not activated.

Click Retry after activating Acrobat to continue printing.
Click Cancel to quit PDF creation.

Click your choice (R or C), it doesn't matter, eventually the Adobe-BSOD is displayed ...

Once again, as I said above, this is a most sad state of affairs. Quite frankly, I cannot ever remember such a serious problem impairing Acrobat. Many, many of us depend PDF (PORTABLE data format) files to exchange files whose content we do not want modified .. just read.

- Al

Jeff,

My Acrobat will not even install from the Master Collection (Education Version). The installer simply informs me that the Acrobat component failed to install--no reason given.

I was, on the other hand, able to install the Acrobat trialware. The trialware installer gave several registry errors; but by selecting "ignore" for each error, the trialware installed and works fine.

I tried many reigstry solutions found in this forum and on the web and none have made it so that Acrobat will install from Master Collection.

I am on Windows XP Media Edition, running McAfee. All the other components of Master Collection installed perfectly and run just fine.

Jeff - It has been made perfectly clear that this problem is in fact a real issue by many Acrobat users. The issues are in essence the same ones over and over for each new user that posts to this forum. It is unfortunate that Adobe is unable to see the damage that this is causing to their customers as well as Adobe's reputation. As a user of Acrobat for many years it does not make sense that we are unable to use this program. You can read post after post where people are having serious troubles. It is insulting when you try to minimize the affect this is having on your customers. I diligently followed all of your suggestions on multiple machines with no success. As for your "solutions" they are not effective in the slightest! Please re-read the posts and you can see that there are a number of different systems, operating systems, as well as other aspects that do not fit in your solutions! I spent over two weeks trying to get this program to work. I installed it on CLEAN machines with no other software other than the operating system. The same issues still existed. It makes no sense that so many users are having the exact same issue with regard to your stupid licensing program. It is painfully clear to all of the users who posted here that your program has a flaw. It is unfortunate that all Adobe does is deflect the issue to other programs. Once activated that should be it! Adobe should not need to have a connection over and over to see if it is a valid copy. This is wasting not only my bandwidth but also is using valuable computing space for NONSENSE! I am not sure that you understand the gravity of this situation for your customers. You are losing customers who are trying to do use your product. At least I have found alternate programs from reputable companies that perform all of the tasks I used to use Acrobat for (see previous post for programs). These other programs work just as they should without affecting the stability of my system!

If you are encountering a situation where Acrobat launches and then is "not responding" it is most likely that something in your environment is blocking the activation service from getting to the internet. (FNPLicensingService.exe). Please check if you have Live Once Care, Norton or McAfee secuirty centers, Zone Alarm or some other firewall program. I have been finding that even if you instruct those apps to allow Acrobat that they are not allowing the activation exe to launch. A not responding situation is an indication of this.

I think that there are others that see Acrobat actually crash in a way that I'm calling a "vapor" crash. No error/alert is thrown but Acrobat just closes. Another crash is when you are presented with the "Acrobat has encountered a serious issue error message. Both of these issues are because of the activation software. Adobe still cannot reproduce this in-house.

If you are adding to this post please try to clarify which situation you are in. Details from one does not help the other.

Adobe is working off-line with some cusotmers who have called into support.
Jeff

I just tried the free tech support and the number has already been changed

Hello all,

I have come across FREE Adobe Tech Support 206.675.6304 where a person answers!!!

Also, I have been give what I am told is the CEO of Adobe, Bruce Chizen's direct line at 206.675.7000

Maybe we can get some answers now.