[simanion]

(Illustrator CS2)

Hi, Im still learning the program but this is an error that hasn't occurred before under the same circumstances. I am working on Macs at uni (as I dont have Illustrator at home) and with images from my USB drive. I want to get the images into my ai document and trace them to make a logo, but Illustrator is preventing me from doing this in any way I try.

* I try to 'place' (file>place...) a jpg from the USB into the ai document and one of three things happens:

1. It appears as though nothing has happened so I 'select all' and this highlights an empty box where my image should be. This always happens on the first try after I open the document.

2. I delete the box and try again. This time not even the invisible box is placed. The computer processes and then acts as if I commanded it to do nothing.

3. Irregularly, if I try again it seems like it's about to happen (with a preview showing and asking me to approve) and then I get the message "the operation cannot complete because of an unknown error".


* I tried opening the jpg in Photoshop and copying and pasting from there and got the same "unknown error" message, followed by the empty invisible box.

* The images place in photoshop with no problem.

* The images cant be dragged and dropped into Illustrator.

* I tried opening the image with Illustrator and get the message "insufficient memory was available to complete the operation". The image is only small - less than 1MB.

* I tried changing the file to a tiff and a pdf. I tried uploading the jpg to internet and saving and placing from there but this is unsuccessful. I tried other images saved both from my computer and the uni computer and they dont work.

* SOMETHING WORKS: I tried with random images from the internet and some (usually around 4kb) saved to Documents and placed are done so successfully. But this is no use to me.

I have done this in the past and there have been no problems placing or pasting images whatsoever. I dont think uninstalling is really an option as they are the uni's computers and that would probably be an ordeal.. I really need this to be fixed quickly as I have no other access to Illustrator and it's part of a job. It happens with all the computers in the lab. I cant even start making the logo until this is overcome. I would really appreciate some help! your ideas on what the problem could be and what needs to be done to fix it.

Thanks for your time,
Simon.