OMG inkscape and gimp wont work

[daveo]

HI all since I posted for pattern help a couple of weeks ago I have been practicing every day, all has been fine till I switched on today to find that neither programme will load. I have even gone to the extent of uninstalling both, downloading newer versions and reinstalling, all went OK but they just wont open on the machine, I just get a box telling me that they have stopped working. There has not been any soft or hardware changes to the machine at all. can anyone shed any light please
regards an anxious Dave

[Old Crow]

Dave, I can't shed any light on your problem but I do have a word of advice. You said in your post that you installed newer versions. I also installed a newer version of Gimp (2. and hated it. I found that version 2.6 is much better so I re-installed it and got rid of 2.8.
Don R

[daveo]

thanks Don
Thank for the reply
I have been googling the problem and according to pythagorus and all his mates it is a much reported problem, has any one else had this.
There answer was to empty the font cache, but I dont know were that is in vista?
The other suggestion was to keep shutting down , leaving a few minutes and then reboot, again and again.
Any way I have shutdown and had a fag six times now just rebooeted for the seventh time and ha presto both progs work again.
will now be looking to see what this gimp 2.8 has to offer, what were your issues with it Don?
Dave

 

[Old Crow]

Dave, I didn't like how the toolbox is set up, especially the brush selection process, also it wouldn't let me save as a jpg directly, you have to export the image and save as a Gimp file, then convert. Overall it just seems less user friendly than 2.6.
Don R

[daveo]

well
Don I am in agreement ( not that I'm any expert) 2.8 seems to be like a different programme to me, so its already gone. I am not knocking gimp I'm sure its all there some where but for the time being I think its going to be a case of  better the devil you know"
Dave

[daveo]

just an update
well its back again
sometimes they load and others they dont.
I have been googleing the problem all day and although I cant get any info on inkscape, I did find an article on gimp of which suggests that it can be caused by a conflict in software "exe or dll" between gimp and hewlett packard. As I have a HP printer it could well be that. Q does any one know how to cure that as I am no PC guru?
In the last hour I have brought the laptop out of the office and downstairs, of course this means there is no printer connected to the pc , thus there is no software/drivers loaded, and low and behold both work fine!!
Dave

[Old Crow]

Strange. I also have a HP printer and no problems with Gimp or Inkscape.
Don R

[daveo]

Got the Culprit
I was not fully convinced about HP software affecting the programs so I have run some tests over the last couple of days- it was the graphics tablet, since I have stopped using it everything is now ok
so its in the bin and a new one on the way
Dave