Mcs pro buyer beware

[Karriepie]

Well its official, this new pro must have some major problem! The program features are not functioning correctly if at all and or only when it feels like it! The whole software runs so slowly to the point of stopping altogether and is inefficient to the extreme. I have paid for another GB of ram increasing to 2 now and my processor speed is 1.86 1.87. MCS have stated that this has been tested but there are many configurations so cannot test them all! Well my pc is Windows Vista under 5 years old so hardly out of date!! As far as I am concerned they will have to refund me for this and every other cd of theirs I have purchased as without an efficient graphics program the artwork is useless. Still waiting for MCS customer services to get back to me and as bought on flexi pay havent finished paying for it yet!:angry:

[genierose]

So sorry you're having probs Karriepie :( I bought the new mcs pro when it was the potw with the couple of extra cd's and I'm having no probs at all with mine. I use my work laptop and save all my mcs discs on a separate usb hard drive. ONly running XP and my laptop is utter c**p but I've had no probs at all. Such a shame it's not working for you, I think the new pro mcs is great, just love the new features!

[juliet]

Thanks for the input genierose as I have been thinking about getting mcs pro!
Karriepie your probs don't have anything to do with Vista do they? - I have heard quite a few peeps have probs with that operating system! Shame for you tho!

[Karriepie]

Oh I don't know theres loads of peeps complaining on MCS facebook about the pro so I'm not in the minority. Funny thing is when you only need to do something basic its fine but as soon as as you put a few images on the page and some text then try and perhaps group, it all starts acting very strange! I think most of the problems are coming about when you need to use quite a few features together. Try grouping a few images together then copy and paste to cover an a4 page (similar to tiling) see what happens whether it all slows down and whether the mouse will grip the pasted images without jumping all over the page it's getting very frustrating. Please test out everything to make sure its working properly as I thought mine was fine at first.

[juliet]

Karriepie I bought Card Creations Master Card Builder awhile ago. I had great difficulty with it. I did email Card Creations about the problem but got no reply. I sold it in the end and put it down to my slow computer.

We now have a brand new computer which is why I was/am looking into the MCS Pro. I understand how frustrating it can be when you buy these things and they don't live up to what you are expecting.
Hmmmmmm...........I just keep hearing varying reports about it so don't really know what I'll do....don't want to be on the end of another frustrating CDRom......not knowing if it's a glitch with me! :wonder:

I've just had a look at the MCS Facebook and see Steph has left a message there about the Pro...hopefully Karriepie you will get your problem sorted. They do seem to be doing their best to sort it our for people!

[Karriepie]

Someone told me earlier that this new one is designed to go with new 2010 computers and the older ones struggle with the all the new features, surely MCS aren't assuming that all their customers have brand new equipment!! Well I'm going to call them again after Easter and if I don't get a fix then no point buying any more CDs. Will have to stick with what I've got!

[juliet]

If it ends up being no good for you Karrie maybe you could sell it.....just a thought!

[Granny Penny]

Well its official, this new pro must have some major problem! The program features are not functioning correctly if at all and or only when it feels like it! The whole software runs so slowly to the point of stopping altogether and is inefficient to the extreme. I have paid for another GB of ram increasing to 2 now and my processor speed is 1.86 1.87. MCS have stated that this has been tested but there are many configurations so cannot test them all! Well my pc is Windows Vista under 5 years old so hardly out of date!! As far as I am concerned they will have to refund me for this and every other cd of theirs I have purchased as without an efficient graphics program the artwork is useless. Still waiting for MCS customer services to get back to me and as bought on flexi pay havent finished paying for it yet!:angry:

I have to say I have not had these sort of problems with MCS Pro but has so many problems with Vista that I changed back to Windows XP!

[Craftyweebee]

Well its official, this new pro must have some major problem! The program features are not functioning correctly if at all and or only when it feels like it! The whole software runs so slowly to the point of stopping altogether and is inefficient to the extreme. I have paid for another GB of ram increasing to 2 now and my processor speed is 1.86 1.87. MCS have stated that this has been tested but there are many configurations so cannot test them all! Well my pc is Windows Vista under 5 years old so hardly out of date!! As far as I am concerned they will have to refund me for this and every other cd of theirs I have purchased as without an efficient graphics program the artwork is useless. Still waiting for MCS customer services to get back to me and as bought on flexi pay havent finished paying for it yet!:angry:

I've had loads of problems with the Pro. From what I've seen from various forums which have complaints about Pro it appears also needs a compatible printer (who has ever heard of that one before!) and doesn't work with all graphics cards. It doesn't seem dependent on your OS but as it's a very greedy programme, it uses up a lot of RAM (memory) so if you have an older pc/laptop it may not have enough to run it. I know the problems I have experienced are programme related cos I've been told by MCS that's the case. I had a fix sent to me but it didn't fix everything and information about the problems I've been experiencing are now with the software people to have a look at in the hope that another fix might help. Found another problem last night when I tried to import something from V1 and the background images were all over the place.


Funny thing is when you only need to do something basic its fine but as soon as as you put a few images on the page and some text then try and perhaps group, it all starts acting very strange! I think most of the problems are coming about when you need to use quite a few features together. Try grouping a few images together then copy and paste to cover an a4 page (similar to tiling) see what happens whether it all slows down and whether the mouse will grip the pasted images without jumping all over the page it's getting very frustrating. Please test out everything to make sure its working properly as I thought mine was fine at first.

I think that this is the problem, Stephanie says it has been tested but how has it been testing ie under laboratory conditions where only one function at a time has been tried out or under crafting conditions by crafters who "play" and experiment with the programme.

If you are thinking about getting the Pro but are unsure about it, get in touch with MCS with the following information they will tell you if Pro suitable for your pc/laptop (this is what Katie from MCS asked me for)


Processor:

Memory (RAM):

Graphics card(chip type):

Chip type version number:



You can find all this information by typing dxdiag into 'run' and the Diagnostics tool will appear. From the system tab you can find your processor and memory information, and if you click on the display tab you can find the graphics card and it's version number.

[Rentochops]

Blimey and they seem to back at square one, what a shame for everyone, perhaps it's just compatible with Diane's printer! Seriously they should think about recall rather than patches!

[craftycat]

If pro is going to be part of each new CD then I won't be buying any more MCS products. Think I've got all the ones I want of their "ordinary" ones too.

[Lindz]

My pro is working fine, but I can imagine the frustration felt if yours doesn't. I also keep mine on an external hard drive, I wonder if it makes a difference, I had so much loaded onto my laptop that it ran really slowly, so I uninstalled it, and put it on my back up hard drive and now everything works at a good speed and I have no problems. Maybe it does depend on how much you have running. Also when I bought my first one, the virus protection programme kept on interfering, so I had to turn it off before using MCS. I am not that technical, but the IT manager at work identified the virus programme problem.

[craftypurpledragon]

Hi Guys

I'm also having problems with pro ie I can't use the rainbow, hue or any of the new features and it doesn't print properly. I emailed MCS over Easter and had a lovely reply from Diane who asked me to let them know what memory I had and what graphics card I am using. She did say it may take them a few days after Easter for them to get back to me with a solution so I am bearing with them at the moment.

In the meantime I have uninstalled MCS Pro and reinstalled my old MCS cd's. I am using the images from the Pro discs straight from the disc on the old MCS programme. So at least I can still play with the new images until I get a solution to the problems with the Pro programme.

Hope we all get it sorted soon.

Love and Light

Suz

[budgie]

You shouldn't need to uninstall pro and reinstall version 1, cos they are different programmes, and you can run them both. I have icons on my desktop for both, and you can use the artwork in either.

Just noticed it was your first post! Welcome to the forum craftypurpledragon!

[craftypurpledragon]

Thanks for the welcome budgie and for the advice. I will reinstall Pro and try using both. I'll also post again when I get a reply from MCS.

[fabyon]

My pro is working fine, but I can imagine the frustration felt if yours doesn't. I also keep mine on an external hard drive, I wonder if it makes a difference, I had so much loaded onto my laptop that it ran really slowly, so I uninstalled it, and put it on my back up hard drive and now everything works at a good speed and I have no problems. Maybe it does depend on how much you have running. Also when I bought my first one, the virus protection programme kept on interfering, so I had to turn it off before using MCS. I am not that technical, but the IT manager at work identified the virus programme problem.

The reason it seems quicker is that the computer doesn't have to read the memory swap cache from the main disk and at the same read the graphic files. You probably are low on RAM so the computer swap files with your main harddrive. Using an external harddrive will 'lighten the load'.

[budgie]

The reason it seems quicker is that the computer doesn't have to read the memory swap cache from the main disk and at the same read the graphic files. You probably are low on RAM so the computer swap files with your main harddrive. Using an external harddrive will 'lighten the load'.

Never thought of that! Will have to try putting mine on an external drive and see if it speeds it up a bit. Have been thinking of putting all my craft cds on an external hard drive for some time now, but more as a back up than anything else, didn't know it could make it quicker. That would be a bonus. Trouble is no time to do it at the moment. In mega craft stash sort out mode!

[Alice3_2009]

Thanks for that Fab. I loaded all my disks onto my newest hard drive the other weekend and after using the CC cleaner as recommended on another site, my laptop is quite wizzy.

I also found lots of things I didn't know I had!

[crafty anne]

I have MCS Pro and it is working beautifully. I keep all my CDs on an external hard drive too and my PC is much faster now. Try to keep with it if you have the partience because it really is a fanastic program.

[Karriepie]

Doesn't make any odds I'd already increased my ram by another GB when my drive went in for a new power supply unit. The tech guys there checked out how much more ram would be needed for me to run all my programs. They reckon its more likely to be a fault with the software and after speaking to MCS today it appears to be the case as their tech guys are in the process of sorting out a fix. Obviously if you put your programs on an external drive it will speed up your pc its got less baggage! Lets hope they get it sorted out quickly!

[Nessie]

I am also having problems with MCS Pro - have been in correspondence with the company and they have asked loads of questions about my computer etc. I have loads of spare ram and disk space and my computer is only 6 months old - I run programmes such as Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop so am not a complete ditz when it comes to things. It crashes, runs at whatever speed it sees fit - you name it - it does it! I bought it as there are certain functions that are easier than with the other two programmes. If they get it working correctly it will be brilliant - it seems they are suffering similar issues as they did when they launched the original programme.

I have been asking (since the orginal programme) to be able to save files into anything other than MCS with no luck - I use a cutting machine a lot and so it would be great to be able to tie up the two. I then had a brain wave - took me a while, I know, but I got there. Save the file as a pdf and you can then open in what you like - wonderful!

In their defence, I have to say they have got back to me and appear to be trying to do something - I have told them however, that I am not prepared to pay for a new disk to rectify these problems - I shall let you know how I get on -if, I get on! I am sure they will sort it out as it isn't in their interest not to. In the mean time I open the images in different programmes and manipulate them that way - but it certainly isn't the point. By the way I have the programme etc backed up onto an external drive and have the same problems if run from there.

[Craftyweebee]

It was driving me bonkers yesterday trying to make alterations to & print off the insert for a birthday card. I'd started it a couple of days ago and saved it to finish later - only it wouldn't let me cos every time I tried to do something it either froze right away or the screen went black and then it froze before crashing. :headbang:

My friend who was with me said she admired my patience as she'd have had the lot out the window. In the end I deleted the document and had to use a plain insert as I'd run out of time to get it finished.

[Craftyweebee]

I've been on Facebook and someone has been told by MCS that the Professional is not compatible with computers which have processors that don't support SSE2 (don't know what that is). If you have a computer which has any of the processors listed below the Pro won't work. You also need to have the right printer and the right graphics card as well!!!


Notable IA-32 CPUs not supporting SSE2
The following CPUs implemented IA-32 after SSE2 was developed, but did not implement SSE2:

AMD CPUs prior to Athlon 64, including all Socket A-based CPUs
Intel CPUs prior to Pentium 4
VIA C3
Transmeta Crusoe

[craftycat]

so out of interest what is the right printer and graphics card?

And what is a graphics card anyway. I assume it is one of the gizmos we all have in our computer setup without realising it!

[kitten_with_claws]

And what is a graphics card anyway. I assume it is one of the gizmos we all have in our computer setup without realising it!

Here you go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_card

[craftycat]

Here you go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_card

Oh one of those, ermmm of course it is! :dull:

So does Diane know what one looks like?

Must admit that I just like to turn on the computer and expect it do to do the things I bought it for.

[Rentochops]

I've been on Facebook and someone has been told by MCS that the Professional is not compatible with computers which have processors that don't support SSE2 (don't know what that is). If you have a computer which has any of the processors listed below the Pro won't work. You also need to have the right printer and the right graphics card as well!!!


Blimey you'd be better off with any camera graphics programme you appear to need a degree in computers to understand MCS!

[vampyre]

Oh one of those, ermmm of course it is! :dull:

So does Diane know what one looks like?

Must admit that I just like to turn on the computer and expect it do to do the things I bought it for.

We to trot out the old cliche, you don't need to be a mechanic to drive a car.
I love 'puters and gadgets but haven't tried mcs pro in case I end up with a coaster and a frozen pc.

[kitten_with_claws]

I've been on Facebook and someone has been told by MCS that the Professional is not compatible with computers which have processors that don't support SSE2

Doing a quick google, it looks as though this was introduced with the Intel Pentium 4 processor, so if your 'puter pre-dates this, it won't work! That would be a pretty old 'puter though tbh as the Pentium 4 has been around a good 8 or 9 years at least?

[vampyre]

Sounded a little like a cop out to me when they started saying amd chips might not be compatible.
I thought the pentium 4 was obsolete for quite a while but that could be just me listening to way too much technology hype.

[CaramelBunny]

I just thought I'd share my own "fix" for MCS Pro being so desperately slow at times. I found when I imported an image & started to use the punch feature to create my own decoupage sheet with matching embossed backing paper things started to get really painfully slow. I thought my graphics tablet was playing up because nothing was moving at all then it would suddenly jump off in the right direction! Anyway, the solution for me was to save the page when things got slow & then open it right up again from my saved projects on a new page. My more tech savvy fiance suggested it & it certainly got things moving again. (I think the reason it helps is that my PC stops having to remember all the stages I've gone through in case I decide to hit "undo" repeatedly, but who cares why it helps so long as it does, hey?!)

I'd also suggest saving your page before you check print preview. I find, as others have I think, that I can't get back from print preview to actually work with the page again. If I've saved it beforehand then it doesn't matter!

Anyway, I hope that might help some people a little bit if they're experiencing similar problems to me...

[Craftyweebee]

Thanks for that CB. Must admit there was one card I was working on where it was getting to the stage that I was saving the page after just about every move I made as it had already frozen a few times and I lost stuff. I got round it by saving it as a .pdf file and then turning that into a .jpeg so that it was now a single layer.

I've spoken with Diane a couple of times recently and I remembered to ask her if there was a maximum number of layers that you could have on a page but she reckons that the number of layers shouldn't affect the running of the programme.

Earlier this week Diane said she should have an updated disk to me by the end of the week - it arrived this morning. I think one or two alterations have been made to it as the version I've been sent is 2.0.61.0, (sixty-one) the last one I was sent was 2.0.4.0 - it looks slightly different too. I've noticed in the "Control Panel" the Features tab is no more and it's contents have been split into a Colour tab (personally I think this should be renamed Text Colour as it only changes the colour of the text) and a Layers tab. The Colours tab now has, in addition to the colour slider/picker, a drop down menu of "Constants" which are a whole load of pre-selected colours - the kind of selection we all asked MCS for in the original version! No doubt we will see these new features on the PoW tomorrow night.

I've queried something else with Diane and sent her the .pdf files I ran off to demonstrate the problem I've been experiencing (it happens when I open a .mcsp file in the new programme) and she is sending those to the software folks to have a look at as well.

I haven't really been able to play with it, just tried a couple of things I'd problems with so I don't know how it will be when I try it out properly.

[Nessie]

I received a 'tiling text' upgrade - it has made a little difference - can't actually find out which version I am running as it doesn't appear to be anywhere - have looked in all the 'normal' places! I would really have liked to by the p o w - cross stitch cd but am blowed it I am going to shell out any more if it still isn't working correctly. They did say they would get back to me but I am still waiting!

[Rentochops]

Why don't they just send a new CD with a programme that works on normal computers to everyone?

[Karriepie]

Hey guess what? I've had huge probs with the the new program but the other night I heard Diane mention that the system requirements included service pack 2 among other things. Now at the bottom of my screen I noticed there were 29 windows updates that I hadn't bothered installing (didn't think they were important) but went ahead and installed them all and I'm pretty sure one of them was windows ssp2, anyway since doing that I've actually managed to use the pro quite successfully, well was able to digitally punch a few images and resize add a bit of text etc and it didn't slow down as before!! Not sure if this is a fluke or if this really has made a difference but check your updates guys and see. Will have another play later using other features and let you know how it goes!!

[Nessie]

Have just received a programme update from MCS and it seems to have corrected some of the things but it is still very jumpy (or is that just me getting twitchy when I have to use it?!)

I was blooming annoyed though I had made a fab card and created a matching insert etc., Went in to print the insert off today and it printed out a completely different colour - it had not saved as I had created it - tried to save again (having wasted all the ink & paper) only to find it wont - I ended up saving as a pdf - what a complete rip off - I am so glad I didn't actually go ahead and get the latest pow

have a good weekend from a very disappointed me here in a very sunny France x

[Shepherdess]

Can anyone tell me how long they take to send out the disk to fix the tiling text problem, I had an email on 9th April saying they were going to send me the disk to fix the problem but so far there is no sign of it arriving.

[Karriepie]

In too was told ages ago that a fix would be on the way within 2 weeks....still waiting!!

[Craftyweebee]

Hey guess what? I've had huge probs with the the new program but the other night I heard Diane mention that the system requirements included service pack 2 among other things. Now at the bottom of my screen I noticed there were 29 windows updates that I hadn't bothered installing (didn't think they were important) but went ahead and installed them all and I'm pretty sure one of them was windows ssp2, anyway since doing that I've actually managed to use the pro quite successfully, well was able to digitally punch a few images and resize add a bit of text etc and it didn't slow down as before!! Not sure if this is a fluke or if this really has made a difference but check your updates guys and see. Will have another play later using other features and let you know how it goes!!

MCS have changed the minimum spec for Pro since they launched it, it's now:

PC running Windows XP service pack 3 or later
(Vista and Windows 7 compatible)
512 MB RAM
(1GB Vista and Win7 Users)
700MB of free hard disk space
1024 x 728 screen resolution
CD ROM Drive
.Net Framework 3.5 SP1
(included in installation)

but even with minimum spec there are people experiencing problems.



Have just received a programme update from MCS and it seems to have corrected some of the things but it is still very jumpy (or is that just me getting twitchy when I have to use it?!)

I was blooming annoyed though I had made a fab card and created a matching insert etc., Went in to print the insert off today and it printed out a completely different colour - it had not saved as I had created it - tried to save again (having wasted all the ink & paper) only to find it wont - I ended up saving as a pdf - what a complete rip off - I am so glad I didn't actually go ahead and get the latest pow

I've experienced all that jumping about as well - even my update for the update hasn't solved that one. I've saved cards I've been working on and when I've gone back to finish them all that's left is the file name and a blank screen! :headbang: I've also had colourisation problems - highlight the bit I want to change the colour of, get the colour I want but when I click away from it the colour has changed tone. :headbang:


Can anyone tell me how long they take to send out the disk to fix the tiling text problem, I had an email on 9th April saying they were going to send me the disk to fix the problem but so far there is no sign of it arriving.

Check your support ticket number via the MCS website and make sure that they haven't closed it just cos they've emailed you back (it's happened to myself & a few others). Might be worth giving MCS a phone call as well to give them a nudge.

Personally, I'm getting pretty p***ed off with MCS & the Pro :headbang:

[budgie]

All this carry on is really putting me off trying to use mine. I haven't tried to make a single card using them since I got the pro and all this kicked off. Can't cope with hassle at the moment. I did play the dvd and try the new stuff whilst watching it, and seemed ok, but slow. It sounds as though people have trouble when they actually try to do a few things to make a card, so haven't tried. I was happy with the old mcs, and it was nice when they brought out a new feature. Don't know why they had to change the programme completely.

[Shepherdess]

Check your support ticket number via the MCS website and make sure that they haven't closed it just cos they've emailed you back (it's happened to myself & a few others). Might be worth giving MCS a phone call as well to give them a nudge.

Personally, I'm getting pretty p***ed off with MCS & the Pro :headbang:

Just checked and your right, they've closed it, will have to get onto them tomorrow, thanks for suggestion I wouldn't have checked if you hadn't suggested it and would probably have waited in vain for weeks.