Starry Night Pro

[Carole]

Any-one any ideas why my Starry Night Pro which I have used for 2 1/2 years with no problem suddenly will not launch.

It starts to open up, asks if I need to update the comets and satellites etc and then closes again.

Only thing that crosses my mind is that I did a general system update recently and I wonder whether it doesn't like this software which is probably at least 3 years old now. 

I am wondering whether to uninstall it and then install it again.

Carole

[MarkS]

Faulty fuel tank sensors can sometimes prevent launching.

[Ian]

assuming your fuel tank sensors are ok, I'd go for a re-install. Maybe have a poke around the starry night support pages first, see if anyone else has reported problems with the update...

[Mike]

Generic Computer Store Assistant Answer -

I'm afraid you have a virus on your motherboard and your hard drive is infested with spamware. There is no alternative but to fit a new hard drive and to do a complete reinstall of your operating system. Leave it with us and maybe in about 3 weeks time we will have it ready for you, if you're lucky. That will be £217.83 please.




Actual dialog of a former WordPerfect Customer Support employee:

TECH: "Ridge Hall computer assistant; may I help you?"
CUSTOMER: "Yes, well, I'm having trouble with WordPerfect."
TECH: "What sort of trouble?"
CUSTOMER: "Well, I was just typing along, and all of a sudden the words went away."
TECH: "Went away?"
CUSTOMER: "They disappeared."
TECH: "Hmm. So what does your screen look like now?"
CUSTOMER: "Nothing."
TECH: "Nothing?"
CUSTOMER: "It's blank; it won't accept anything when I type."
TECH: "Are you still in WordPerfect, or did you get out?"
CUSTOMER: "How do I tell?"
TECH: "Can you see the C:\ prompt on the screen?"
CUSTOMER: "What's a sea-prompt?"
TECH: "Never mind. Can you move the cursor around on the screen?"
CUSTOMER: "There isn't any cursor: I told you, it won't accept anything I type."
TECH: "Does your monitor have a power indicator?"
CUSTOMER: "What's a monitor?"
TECH: "It's the thing with the screen on it that looks like a TV. Does it have a little light that tells you when it's on?"
CUSTOMER: "I don't know."
TECH: "Well, then look on the back of the monitor and find where the power cord goes into it. Can you see that?"
CUSTOMER:..."Yes, I think so."
TECH: "Great! Follow the cord to the plug, and tell me if it's plugged into the wall."
CUSTOMER: ......."Yes, it is."
TECH: "When you were behind the monitor, did you notice that there were two cables plugged into the back of it, not just one?"
CUSTOMER: "No."
TECH: "Well, there are. I need you to look back there again and find the other cable."
CUSTOMER: ......"Okay, here it is."
TECH: "Follow it for me, and tell me if it's plugged securely into the back of your computer."
CUSTOMER: "I can't reach."
TECH: "Uh huh. Well, can you see if it is?"
CUSTOMER: "No."
TECH: "Even if you maybe put your knee on something and lean way over?"
CUSTOMER: "Oh, it's not because I don't have the right angle-it's because it's dark."
TECH: "Dark?"
CUSTOMER: "Yes-the office light is off, and the only light I have is coming in from the window."
TECH: "Well, turn on the office light then."
CUSTOMER: "I can't."
TECH: "No? Why not?"
CUSTOMER: "Because there's a power outage."
TECH: "A power... A power outage? Aha! Okay, we've got it licked now. Do you still have the boxes and manuals and packing stuff your computer came in?"
CUSTOMER: "Well, yes, I keep them in the closet."
TECH: "Good! Go get them, and unplug your system and pack it up just like it was when you got it. Then take it back to the store you bought it from."
CUSTOMER: "Really? Is it that bad?"
TECH: "Yes, I'm afraid it is."
CUSTOMER: "Well, all right then, I suppose. What do I tell them?"
TECH: "Tell them you're too stupid to own a computer."

[Carole]

I've heard that story before. 
Are you trying to tell me I'm too stupid to own a computer?

Carole

[Carole]

I tried uninstalling and re-installing but it made no difference, so I have E mailed Starry Night to see if they have any suggestions, in the meantime I have installed it on my Laptop and it works OK on there, just a smaller screen.

Carole

[Mike]

How did you uninstall it?

[Carole]

Went into control panel and the section for adding or deleting programmes and followed the instructions.

Carole

[Mike]

OK - Try this.....

Reinstall the program but this time do NOT choose the default location to install it. If you can, install it on a different hard drive (if you have more than one installed or your drive partitioned).

[Carole]

Unfortunately I only seem to have one drive, no partition. 

It was a good thought though.  Interestingly I have a partitioned drive on the laptop and actually chose the put it in the D drive there as that seems to be pretty empty and the other drive was nearly full.

Don't know whether I'll have time to access the Forum again before I go away so excuse any non responses to any furtehr suggestions.

Thanks
Carole

[Carole]

I came back from Egypt last night to find a response from Starry Night saying they thought it was a problem with Quicktime as follows:

"I suspect that the crashes are due to an incompatibility between Starry Night and Quicktime 7.4.x. You will need to revert to an earlier version of Quicktime. We recommend 7.3.1."

I tried this and Starry Night is working again. 
I think this might be have been caused by my son downloading music and Quicktime got upgraded in the process.

Egypt was a fabulous cruise with amazing Egyptian Antiquities, but disappointing from an Astronomical point of view.  I was told the skies would be amazing, but apart from being able to see the whole of Canis Major, I couldn't see much more than I can at home.  No milky way.  I think a lot of this was due to being moored near light pollution, plus we had heat haze (temperatures of 42 degrees).  The only time it was amazing was when we were driving through the desert on the way to Abu Simbel (south of Lake Nasser) and as we were driving in the early hours  I could only see through one window of the coach.  Since we had been provided with armed escort and every-one was trying to finish their night's sleep it was not appropriate to ask to stop the coach to look at the stars.

At least one evening before the heat haze started I managed to give some passengers a quick run through the night sky with my laser pointer at Orion, Gemini, Canis major/ minor, Leo, Ursa Major etc and they were amazed to see Saturn and Mars.

Carole

Carole