🚀 go-pugleaf

I think I have solid reasons to believe the grey box issue in FM7 is an FM7 issue. I don't think it's RAM related or video card related. But FM7's behaviour regarding grey boxes may be different depending on OS and time the platform has been used since FM was last started.

Here's the evidence that poiints to this opinion.

In October last year I used five PCs to do some training for FM6. I used an NT4 machine with limited memory (64MB) and limited disk swap space (less than 190MB). The other machines were WIN98SE with various memory sizes in excess of 192MB and lots of disk space. When we came to lesson 9 on graphics and anchored frames there were no grey box experiences.

In December I repeated this course for FM7 on the same machines (that are stripped and reinstalled after each training course) lesson 9 at the end of a day started producing occasional grey boxes that could be cleared by reopening the lesson 09 files. Continuing the lesson the morning after we did not see the grey boxes until later in the morning when I returned to this lesson to answer a question.

For this training each student uses their copy of classroom in a book. As far as I can see there is no difference between the FM6 lesson 9 and the FM7 lesson 9 files.

I have not been able to reproduce the grey boxes on either of my WIN2000Pro SP3 machines (one HP with 300MB and a Compaq with 128MB).

The only changed element in these scenarios is FM7 fully patched that produces grey boxes on a small file (35KB with 12 referenced tiffs - some 24 bit RGB and some 32 bit CYMK).

It seems clear from this experience that this grey box phenomena is not the same as the one seen in older versions of Frame. It is, instead, something new that is a part of FM7. This issue will be very difficult to track down, but if Adobe need sample files to produce the event, they should try their lesson 9 files from their own classroom in a book.
Cheers
Ian