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General discussion

Download Keeps Failing!

Jul 19, 2007 10:52PM PDT

Hi

I'm trying to download the 'Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0' Free 30 Day Trial for Mac OS X. The file size is 172MB and my download speed is 256Kb/s (actual download speed will be lower of course). However each time the download only gets part way through and suddenly fails! I've tried the alternative download site and also tried at various times of the day, but it makes no difference!

Can someone tell me why my download keeps failing? Considering this is an old version of the software (now at version 4.01) its not as if thousands of people are trying to download it at once and congesting the network.

I've already tried over 30 times to download this file and its costing me in monthly download allocation each time I have to restart the download when it fails.

Thankyou.

Discussion is locked

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Elements
Jul 20, 2007 3:49AM PDT

Where are you trying to download this trial from? If you mentioned the site we could take a look.

What version of OS X are you running and what program are you using to try the download?

If you are using Safari, take a look at the download window. You should see your partial download in there. There should also be an orange circular arrow which is the "Resume downloading" button.
Try that, see if you can continue the download from where it left off.

P

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Photoshop Elements 3.0 - 30 Day Trial for Mac OS X
Jul 20, 2007 7:04PM PDT

In reply I'm downloading from CNET's own 'DOWNLOAD.com' site. the URL to the download is:

www.download.com/Adobe-Photoshop-Elements/3000-2197_4-10349818.html

I'm running Mac OS 10.4.10 on a Powermac G4 Quicksilver Dual 1 GHz with 1.5 MB SDRAM and 120 GB HD. I'm having to use OS X's own download manager since CNET doesn't allow third party download managers to be used otherwise I'd use 'Speed Download' to download the file. The transfer rate is normally not above 6.4 KB/sec and the download time usually says over 8 hours.

This file is not available anywhere else either, not even from Adobe's own site as they only make trials available for Windows users.

Regarding OS X's 'Resume downloading' option (which is dark blue not orange) this only works if you deliberately stop the download yourself then it will allow you to resume exactly where you stopped, however in my case the download actually fails part way through, normally not much after 20% has been downloaded. When this happens the 'ONLY' option under Downloads is 'Reload' (that's orange) which simply restarts the download from the very beginning.

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Go direct next link.
Jul 20, 2007 9:19PM PDT
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Download problems
Jul 20, 2007 11:12PM PDT

Unfortunately PS Elements 3.0 is not available from Adobe. They only offer PS Elements 5.0 for Windows.

That download speed is painfully slow. I just downloaded it, 12 minutes, with speeds ranging from 212 to 486.

Did you ever try an alternate download site as recommended on that page. Under Download Problems there is a link to an alternate site. It downloaded for me in 8 minutes with speeds over 725

G4 Cube 450Mhz. OS X 10.4.10 512MB RAM

Sorry about the colors, I tested it by stopping the download myself. Hmmm, that might be worth a try.

This may be a silly question, but, hopefully this is not a dial-up connection that we are talking about here. What is your ISP's advertised download speed?

P

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Just tried it.
Jul 20, 2007 11:27PM PDT

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended is available for the Mac on said site.

There is no trial for Elements (now at version 4.0) on their site. This may explain why you are having difficulty.

My advice is to switch to a current trial package.

Bob

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I might also suggest The GIMP
Jul 21, 2007 12:20AM PDT

Photoshop CS3 is a full size image manipulation package and the extended version offers video clip and 3D image importation as well. As such, it may take a novice 30 days just to scratch the surface.

If anyone wants to find a free, full image manipulation program the can try GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It is open source free ware that will do most things anyone could want to do with a still image / photograph / raster illustration.

http://www.gimp.org/

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Download Problems
Jul 21, 2007 2:07AM PDT

Regarding my connection speed I'm on a package with a 256Kb/s connection and 1 GB download allocation per month. Once I download more than 1 GB in a month, which is very easy to do, my connection speed gets throttled back to 64Kb/s until the start of the next month. At the moment I've probably exceeded my monthy allocation and my 'real' download speed is probably not much more than 50Kb/s which is still faster than dial-up.

I can't afford a better broadband package at this time. Besides my download speed in theory should have nothing to do with not being able to download the file. Something is actually causing the download to terminate. Interestingly when I use 'Speed Download' and 'aMule' I can routinely download files of several Gigabytes without problem.

The fact Adobe no longer offer Photoshop Elements 3.0 has nothing to do with not being able to download the file since I'm not even downloading from Adobe's server. This is a copy of the file hosted by someone else.

GIMP is only available for Windows. Yes there is a version for the Mac, but you have to be knowlegable enough to know how to compile it from the source code and I'm afraid that kind of know how is beyond me.

I did try to dowload the 30 day trial of 'CS3 Extended' for the Mac from Adobe's site, but given the file size is nearly 946 MB there's no chance I could download it given that I can't seem to download even a 172 MB file. In fact the download of CS3 failed numerous times as well after only a fraction of the file was downloaded. Besides I'm not interested in the full Photoshop.

If anybody knows how I can tryout Elements for the Mac then please let me know. I don't want to buy it then find out it won't do what I need and then try and return it and have Adobe say they don't accept returns.

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OK... What about Graphic Converter?
Jul 21, 2007 3:45AM PDT
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Package
Jul 21, 2007 8:03AM PDT

I'm sorry but, if it is available, you should shift from that almost Dial-Up package and move to something that is close to being real.
256 and 1Gb limit, please!!

The local Mom & Pop cable company here offer a much better deal than that, at a reasonable price.

Hopefully, something better is available in your area.

As suggested, Graphic Convertor may be of help to you

P

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Package - New!
Jul 21, 2007 4:34PM PDT

As I said its not my connection speed that's the problem as I can routinely download gigabytes of data in Speed Download and aMule without any problem so it seems to be the hosting site that's perhaps at fault ie maybe their connection isn't stable enough for users to download from and so the slightest glitch terminates the download and I guess OS X's download manager is simply too basic to cope with any glitches?

I can't afford a better broadband package at this time. Broadband in Australia is still too expensive compared to most other countries.

Regarding Graphics software its not so much what I need the software to do, but how it does it that's more important. I need a graphics program that can plot lines, ellipses, curves, etc using integer arithmetic ie using the 'Bresenham Algorithm' or some varient.

All the graphics programs I've tried so far seem to be using floating point arithmetic which gives rounding errors ie the pixels along lines, ellipses, curves, etc are not plotted along the path as close as possible to the actual path (think back to your high school math when you had to graph equations).

I don't want a CAD program. I just want a general drawing/painting/bit-map/image editing program that's easy to use, but most importantly fulfills the above requirement for plotting 'accurate' lines, ellipses, curves, etc.

If I could tryout Photoshop (preferably Elements since I'm not a graphics professional) then I could see if it fits my requirements. Actually I seem to remember Macromedia's 'Dreamweaver' being able to plot perfect lines and ellipses, etc as i used it during a web design course. Although of course Dreamweaver is a web design utility though it does have basic image creation tools.

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Give this a whirl
Jul 21, 2007 11:55PM PDT

Having let slip that snippet of location information, maybe this link would be better for you.

http://www.cnet.com.au/downloads/0,239030384,10349818s,00.htm

This is the PS Elements 3.0 demo and the above link is the Australian branch of CNET

Maybe you will get better results from closer to home.

Let us know

P

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Give this a whirl
Jul 22, 2007 1:10AM PDT

Tried it and unfortunately there's no file at this location to download. I guess it was too good to be true.

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Time to try a friend or wifi.
Jul 22, 2007 1:30AM PDT

Here in the states we have free wifi hotspots and friends to turn to when a download fails.

Try that.