Wednesday 13 September 2006

Fixing Issues Caused By Uninstalling Pinnacle

I am writing this to help other people who might be having the same problem with their computer.

As some people, including myself, have experienced, removing Pinnacle video editing applications from your computer can cause some serious pain in the a** afterwards. I had a trial version of Pinnacle Liquid (now bought by Avid and renamed Avid Liquid) installed, but decided to uninstall it again. Suddenly these weird "missing dll"-errors started appearing in other applications.

To be specific, Quicktime and iTunes started shouting about missing dll's on startup. It wasn't a complete showstopper, both applications would run anyway, but it was quite annoying to have to click three popups every time I tried to watch a filmclip or listen to music. After a quick search on Google, I found that other people were having the same issues after uninstalling Pinnacle, and Quicktime/iTunes weren't the only applications to be affected. You would think a quick reinstall of the affected apps would fix the problem, but no, the errors kept popping up.

The files your system claims to be missing are the following: vfmpegu.dll, dialogsu.dll, fileiou.dll, futilu.dll, gbtoolsu.dll, setfileu.dll, vafxu.dll. I decided to make a post on the Creative Cow support forum for Avid Liquid, and after a few weeks I finally got an e-mail from Edgar Vallejo containing the missing dll's.

How to fix it

Fixing the issue is quite simple once you have the files. I have uploaded the missing dll-files to our company web server and will walk you through the process.
  1. Start by downloading each of the files I have linked below. For most browsers you can either just click the link and opt to save the file to your computer, or right-click the link and save the file. Preferably, make a new folder somewhere called "liquid missing dll" to put them in (to keep them all in the same place).
    vfmpegu.dll, dialogsu.dll, fileiou.dll, futilu.dll, gbtoolsu.dll, setfileu.dll, vafxu.dll
  2. Select all the files and choose to copy them, either by right-clicking and selecting "copy", or by using the keyboard shortcut ctrl+c.
  3. Browse your way to the "system" folder inside your "Windows" folder (usually c:\windows\system\).
  4. Paste all the files in the "system"-folder, either by right-clicking and selecting "paste" or by using the keyboard shortcut ctrl+v.
Basically, just get the dll-files into your "c:\windows\system"-folder, and you're done. The errors will stop appearing. Big thanks to the Creative Cow-people, and Edgar Vallejo in particular for helping and providing dll-files.

I have also uploaded the dll-files to DLL-files.com as an alternative download location.

Oh, and Pinnacle, I am no software engineer, but this seems like poor work from you guys. You might (or Avid might) want to look into preventing this from happening.


Update: If you have any trouble finding/downloading the DLL-files, e-mail me and I'll hook you up.

Update 2: Avid seems to have released a fix of their own now. I haven't tried this myself, but at least one reader reports that it works. http://www.avid.com/onlineSupport/supportcontent.asp?browse=&productID=0&contentID=9334

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73 comments:

  1. Anonymous00:44

    you've helped me out more than you'll ever know. been dealing with this issue for several weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous10:04

    I guess I was getting used to that stupid missing dll warning. Thank you so much for your help.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous19:35

    I don't speak english but...

    Quicktime, iTunes and Adobe Premiere started shouting about missing dll's on startup.

    Saludos desde Argentina.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous02:28

    wow! it work's!!!!!!!!! thank you so much!

    regards,
    marc-antoine

    --- vive le québec libre! ---

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous21:25

    Thx a lot! You made my day :)
    Cheers
    Reverendo Jones (From Brazil)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous21:03

    I'd like to add my sincere thanks.

    G'dad.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous01:13

    ohhh my friend, thanks very much.
    From POrtugal

    Carlos REis

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey man, thanks a lot. I was puzzled over this but I'm glad I stumbled onto your site. Keep up the good work.

    maverick

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous04:18

    By the way, if you're on Windows XP, you will have to copy the files into the system32 folder.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous04:21

    O yes, thank you so much, just as oscarverywild mentioned, I was also getting used to the f***ing Error Message!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous22:48

    Many thanks. Like belt with a steering-wheel for a buckle - this has been driving me nuts!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you for having all the DLL files available on one site instead of having to google each one individually. I'm really pissed off at Pinnacle for this.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous07:27

    THANK YOU!!!!!! So much!!!!
    Can't thank you enough, really!
    You rock man.

    Thank you thank you thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you.

    The instructions were easy to read and there were convienient links to all of the missing files. The 'fix' takes less than 3 minutes and cures the problem 100%

    Also, an all-around cool blog - adding it to my favorites.

    -Curtis

    ReplyDelete
  15. Nice one, thanks.

    Ian

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous16:28

    same error message from Adobe InDesign and tried your elegant fix... Once again, you've saved someone's a$#!

    Elling, by the way, was a great movie.

    Tak,
    Tom in New Jersey, USA

    ReplyDelete
  17. I don't know at all but you are my HERO !
    I could offer you my daughter's hand if I had one.

    I've been getting error messages for weeks, specially with Picasa2

    ReplyDelete
  18. thanx so much man!!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Seems like the links to the files on my site were down shortly, should be back up now. E-mail me if you have trouble retrieving the files.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous18:17

    thx playa . This was a big pain !

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous13:55

    THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!! I had this problem now for almost a year and i couldn't find the file fileiou.dll and now.. All my problems are solved.. it was so annoying everytime!! THANK YOU!!!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous05:17

    Worked great. I couldn't figure this out, and it fixed it right away. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous20:04

    thanks
    my timeline no show???
    why??

    alex

    ReplyDelete
  24. 10x man!

    It worked perfectly!

    Btw. the Avid fix doesn't work - I even don't have a folder named QTCompenents...

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous23:07

    Excellent work. Thanks for this solution to yet another problem with Pinnacle and their rushed-to-market ware.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous11:57

    Thank you very very very much!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous15:18

    hey, thanks a lot. Switzerland sends you the best regards. How I hat Pinnacle. I melted it in Swiss chocolate and started with Adobe.
    Daniel from Switzerland

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous15:18

    Thanks a lot for this !
    It was very boring...
    Marc (from France)

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous23:46

    Many Many thanks, Great stuff

    ReplyDelete
  30. Same happened to me just today and I also got stuck at the file fileiou.dll. dll4you.com charges $8.95 to download the file (crazy)
    Same deal with the other two files: vfmpegu.dll and gbtoolsu.dll. I got vafxu.dll, setfileu.dll, futilu.dll and dialogsu.dll for free from dll-files.com.

    You were a life saver by putting up the other three up for download without charging $8.95 each. I don't know why dll-files.com or other free dll download sites don't have those three dlls on their sites. It must be copyright issue I guess.

    fileiou.dll, vfmpegu.dll and gbtoolsu.dll are Pinnacle's and not Microsoft's, but so are vafxu.dll, setfileu.dll, futilu.dll and dialogsu.dll, which were available for free (I wonder what Apple iTunes and QuickTime does with Pinnacle DLLs).


    Pinnacle should interfere with the business of dll4you.com who is trying to rip off customers. I bet that a few people buy actually a needed DLL out of desperation.

    I hope that my mentioning of the DLL names will boost your ranking for them in Google a bit that your post will show up on page one.

    Thanks again and cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous22:45

    So much thank`s man, i´m desesperate because, i have a same problem whit my PC. Your fix it`s a very util. See you to the next problem, but have a so long time.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Anonymous14:23

    Thanks man!! I was looking for fileiou.dll since last year! Finally I can use Cinema4D without windows advice every 2 minutes!

    Bye from Catania (Italy)

    BeaN

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous23:55

    You can not be thanked enough!!! you restore not only my software but my faith in the human race! many thanks



    JR Tasmania Australia

    ReplyDelete
  34. Anonymous23:38

    Thank u very much.

    From Italy

    Aldo

    http://ombremosse.it/espansionedimemoria/

    ReplyDelete
  35. Anonymous17:48

    Thank's a lot,you have been a GREAT help,things are back to normal,fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Anonymous15:06

    Thank you for your assistance. This was great a help because I've searched online for a while and everyone wants to charge your for assitance. You've saved me time and money ($29.99 or more). Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  37. maaaaaaaannnnnnyyyyyyy THX

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous23:03

    Thank you, you helped me restore QT and itunes. As for Avid's solution -- it doesn't work for me, because it tells you to delete files that I didn't have in the first place.

    Thanks again!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Anonymous20:09

    thank you very much for your help! It's nice to have people like you out there :)

    ReplyDelete
  40. Thanks a lot, after 7 months I found your help. It´s really discusting what pinnacle have done and I don´t think they solved the problem yet. Worst of all is when we read the contracts of softwares, they say, we are not guilt for any problem in your computer after that, they fight against piracy, but don´t do the best. I bought Pinnacle 11 after all, it suddenly stops working all the time, pinnacle says the problem is your computer. I have the best one, quadricore 3.0, the best board, video 512 ddr3, and 4kingstone Ram. Never more.
    Brazil Guy

    ReplyDelete
  41. Anonymous03:12

    Awesome! Thanks for the post. Resolve my Google Picasa errors.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Anonymous23:41

    Thanks very much!

    ReplyDelete
  43. Anonymous03:08

    Thank you very much! I, too, was having this problem - I had been using Avid Liquid very successfully until we did a hard-drive upgrade. After that, Liquid would open, but I couldn't view clips. After a LOT of communications with Avid and Pinnacle, and no resolution, I made the break and switched to Adobe Premiere Pro CS3. Best move I ever made. HOWEVER, the ghost of Liquid followed, and when I opened Premiere Pro, and Soundbooth, I was getting these "missing ****.dll" messages. I too did the individual internet hunt to find the files, one by one - and then had the question of - where to put them. I knew they were missing because the software told me that, but it didn't tell me where to put them. I tried a bit of a random selection, and that seemed to work, but your website was fantastic. Now I know that I have all the right .dll files, and in the right place!!!

    Lorraine
    Australia

    ReplyDelete
  44. Anonymous00:06

    Cheers mate . thanks for the Dll's

    ReplyDelete
  45. Anonymous09:04

    Danke jetzt funktioniert wieder alles wie es soll.
    Thank you, working all normaly

    ReplyDelete
  46. Anonymous12:04

    vfmpegu was misssing, thnx for your help, problem is solved!

    Frans the dutch

    ReplyDelete
  47. Anonymous21:48

    Thanks for the post !!!

    ReplyDelete
  48. Anonymous20:33

    Tusen takk for hjelpen.

    Thank you very much, after removing Liquid this same problem happend to me when starting premiere pro.

    Now life is much easier.

    Greetings from Bergen

    ReplyDelete
  49. Anonymous20:05

    Great post, many thanks!!
    Felix

    ReplyDelete
  50. Anonymous00:36

    Bravo. Works like a charm.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Anonymous17:50

    Grazie tantissime dall'Italia!!! (thank you very much from Italy)

    Gio

    ReplyDelete
  52. Anonymous18:48

    Your the MANN!!! good job will the DLL's research

    ReplyDelete
  53. Anonymous18:23

    Thank you so much for the help !!!!!!1

    ReplyDelete
  54. Works like a charm, thanks a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  55. Anonymous12:16

    u r one good star

    ReplyDelete
  56. Anonymous09:45

    thx man! this pop-up was real pain in the a**

    ReplyDelete
  57. Anonymous03:43

    big, big, big thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  58. Peter09:06

    Thanks I have also been looking for the three that were being asked to pay money for. As they are pinnicle dll's then that to me is an infingement on copywright, but your posting them for everyone with this problem is a God send. Thanks again, I can get past that problem now hopefully.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Anonymous15:20

    Brilliant!!!!!
    Many thanks for this.
    Problem solved.

    ReplyDelete
  60. Anonymous03:00

    i use blender for 3d production with video but everything stoped working....asking for all these dll's after i removed pinnacle. thank you so much.....

    ReplyDelete
  61. Vamsi17:34

    Thanks. Excellent advice!

    ReplyDelete
  62. Thank you for this post. I recently cleaned up my PC and had been getting those error messages ever since. I wish I had found this sooner!

    ReplyDelete
  63. Anonymous17:10

    THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  64. Anonymous16:50

    this is the very first time to post a comment in the pc. THANK YOU SO MUCHHHHHHHH .I had not an idea what the hell was wrong with the pc and i forgot that i installed an unistalled the stupid pinnacle software!thanks again

    ReplyDelete
  65. Anonymous10:30

    thank's a lot

    ReplyDelete
  66. Anonymous16:08

    Grazie

    Since this error would not prevent from using the software I've been living with it for longer than a year. Now I am free from that annoying popups and it's all because of this post. Thank you and.. Keep on with Philanthropy!

    Giulia

    ReplyDelete
  67. Anonymous19:49

    Thanks a bundle! It worked fine for me!
    Pieter

    ReplyDelete
  68. Thanks a lot.

    Great post.

    ReplyDelete
  69. Anonymous13:36

    Thanks a lot. It worked to me!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  70. Anonymous19:05

    Muchas gracias amigo, una gran ayuda.
    Saludos desde Madrid

    ReplyDelete
  71. Really, thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  72. Excellent! Many thanks to you and Edgar Vallejo!

    ReplyDelete
  73. Anonymous18:00

    Thank you very much!!!

    Matt

    ReplyDelete

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