• Intro
• Download
• Installation
• Step By Step Installation Instructions
• Upgrading
• User Comments

This is the third version in my quest to fix some old Metacreations products. For people interested in the history, take a look at The first Painter Fix and the First Generic Metacreations Fix

This version solves an additional problem "Tiles: Out of Tiles" error and it will also work when Painter is installed on a 64 bit OS.
To find out why you were receiving the "Not enough memory" problem, take a look at the previous pages referenced earlier. The "Out of Tiles" problem was caused by a similar issue. For some reason Painter wanted to determine if there was still enough memory available on the system, so they asked Windows for the available memory. However, the return value from that call was improperly evaluated (way back when the program was written, the evaluation was properly good enough, but it dramatically fails with larger systems). Therefore I wrote another variant of the fix that not only fools the executable about the pagefile size but does the same for free memory, etc ... in such a way that the executable would never know in case more than 1 Gb of memory is available. The benefit is that you will be able to use all resources at your disposal, and the program will still work correctly.

I would like to know if the fix works for other programs then mentioned so far, so please leave a note below if you find another product not mentioned on this page.

You can download the zip file here.

If this works for you and you find it worthwhile, feel free to donate something for it using Paypal or your credit card. Just to give you an idea, most people donate between 5 and 10 USD, 4 and 8 Euro or 700 and 1400 Yen.

Euro

US Dollars

Yen

The installation method has changed compared to the previous fixes. If you have previously installed another fix, make sure to read "Upgrading" below after reading this section.

• Determine the installation directory of the program you wish to fix. To find the installation directory, goto the start menu in Explorer and instead launching Painter (or any other metacreations program), click with the right mouse button and select properties in the pop-up menu).
  You should see a window similar to the one shown below. The installation directory is shown in the "Start In" field.
  
  
• Unzip the fix in this installation directory (if you have a previous version of the fix installed, this will write a new intercept.dll -- to do this the program started with the previous fix must be stopped). Then open a command prompt in this directory. If you have Painter Classic installed, a "dir" should return something similar to what you see below.
  
  
  
• To install (activate) the fix, type:

  fixit PClassic.exe

  Of course if you are not patching Painter Classic, use the "Target" (executable) shown in the property display. You will have to repeat this step if you install an upgrade of the program later.
  
  
  
• The patch is now installed. The only thing you need to do is test is. You can do that by either typing the program name in the command prompt or by launching the program from the start menu.
  
  
• If the fix doesn't work or you wish to uninstall (remove) the fix, type

  fixit /r PClassic.exe

  .

 

I've had a lot of question for people who needed a more detailed step by step installation guide. I hope this section will be clear to everyone on how to get the fix installed.

• You should be able to find this window I hope, if not, simply right click on the program you wish to patch and select properties from the drop down menu.
  

• The “Start in” indicates the startup directory, in my case C:\Program Files (x86)\Corel\Painter Classic
  The next step is making sure all the files in the fix end up in this installation directory, so you download the fix (the zip file) and extract the files contained in it.
  Then you select all the files from the zip file like shown below (Edit -> Select All menu option in explorer)
  

• And you select Edit -> Copy to folder … from the explorer menu.
  

• This will prompt you for the target folder and you select the Startup folder where Painter is installed (in my case C:\Program Files (x86)\Corel\Painter Classic)
  Like shown below
  

• At this point the fix is installed but not activated yet, so let’s show how you need to do that …
  The next step is opening up a command prompt.

• There are a couple of ways to get there
  Either click on Start and All Programs -> Accessories -> Command Prompt
  Or click on Start, select “Run …” and type “cmd” in the input box like shown below
  

• Note:If you end up on a different drive than where Painter is installed (In my case I’m on the C: drive – first two characters in the path shown before the prompt), you have to change drive first, to do this type the drive letter in the Target where painter is installed … In my case Painter was installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\Corel\Painter Classic, which is on drive C: (note the first two characters are C:) and I am already on drive C:, so that’s fine.
  
  If painter is installed on drive D: for example, just type “D:” (without the quotes) and follow the rest of the instructions.

• You should have a window like the one below in front of you now.
  

• The next step is going to the directory where Painter is installed.  In my case go to the directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Corel\Painter Classic
  So you type

  cd “C:\Program Files (x86)\Corel\Painter Classic”

  
  

• Once you are there, you only have to type fixit followed by the name of the Painter Executable (which is the selected part of the “Target” in the properties screen), Pclassic.exe in this case (as you can see in the first screenshot in this Step By Step instruction)
  

• And now you are done, the executable is “patched” and should run without the memory problem.

 

If you already have an older fix installed then you will notice the model has changed from modifying the filename New_PClassic.exe and then launching that executable. The "fixit" method I'm introducing now actually modifies the target executable. Hopefully this makes it easier for people to use it. However, there is one downside and that is that this fix will have to be reapplied every time you install a patch for your favorite program (although it's very unlikely we will still see patches for those programs, except the patches I'm providing). Therefore, you can remove your "New_PClassic" program from the old patch after installing this patch. Also, it's completely useless to patch the New_PClassic.exe file or so ... just follow the instructions above and you should be fine!

Fill in the captcha and the blanks below to add a comment. The only mandatory field is the "comments". Thanks!
-- Geert De Peuter

Your Name:
E-Mail (will not be shown):
URL:
Location:

Comments:

Tried the fix with Painter 6...this is the result

\"Adding intercept.dll to to binary files.
Painter
Couldn\'t open input file: painter, error: 2
6:
Couldn\'t open input file: 6, error 2\"

I get secured loan every single year and feel good because of it

If you are in the corner and have got no cash to get out from that point, you would need to receive the <a href="http://lowest-rate-loans.com/topics/home-loans">home loans</a>. Just because that would aid you definitely. I get secured loan every single year and feel good because of it.

Works for painter 7 on winXP

FIXED: Fractal Design Painter 5.0.1 (1996) on XP Pro SP2, Xeon, 2GB RAM. Geert, you're a genius! Thank you very much!!!

works great for my xp sp3 with painter classic, 2gb ram. thanks loads!

I have been trying to get this program to work for a long time, everywhere I went I was told there was no fix. Your fix works fine. I once did some programing but was not clever enough for this kind of stuff although I do understand what you did but not how to do it. Thanks!

After installing this patch, when I tried to save a file in Painter Classic I got an error message that there was insufficient disc space on C: even though of course I had plenty. I was able to save the file to a camera card in a USB card reader, though, and after doing that, for some reason I was able to save it to C: as well, and saves have continued to work fine since then. Just thought I'd mention this as something people can try if they get the same message.

Many thanks for this.. Fontographer is a program I use once in a blue moon - but when you need it (in this case to adapt a backwards font for a Space Invader cabinet project where everything is vertical & backwards..) it's invaluable.. thanks for the lease of life, and the clear instructions. Cheers.

Wow! Thanks for the excellent patch and step by step instructions. It worked on my Windows XP Professional setup. You have made me very happy tonight! Check your pay pal for a tip. :)