Acrobat Distiller "memory could not be read" error

I had a similar problem as I recall and it was caused by one of the updates -- not a good idea, but I just stopped downloading updates.... and I had to reinstall the program.

khkremer,

Thanks for you comments. I already had done the "Detect & Repair" and rebooted, but did it again after your message. No improvement.

The problem occurs no matter how I initiate it--in Acrobat, in Word or Excel with the menu bar selection, or with File-Print-select Adobe pdf as printer. I tried different pdf settings, no help. One common element is that the error always happens when the activity status reads "Building font table..."  

Another odd thing about it: if I'm in a MS Office ap like Word or Excel, this error freezes the ap into "Not Responding" and it must be killed, and strangely, Windows changes the Default printer from my physical printer to Adobe pdf.

JOrzech: Thanks also. This started happening suddenly without any updates. (My pdf making had worked fine for many moons before that.)  After the crashes started, I installed the latest few updates, but no change.

Still stymied....

I suspect a corrupt font file. Let me do some research to find out if we can identify which font causes the problem.

I tried something I found in an Adobe Forum: moved all the font files from the Windows/Fonts folder to a Temp folder, except those fonts that were part of the initial Windows XP install (Adobe had a list of these). Rebooted, and tried Acrobat again.

Alas, it had no effect. AcroDist.exe error still happened, freezing during the "Building Font Table..."

Any help would be appreciated.

I don't know if this will help but post for what it's worth:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Software/Misc/Q_21520419.html#a14642589

New clue!  I decided to look at the program folders and noticed the red and yellow ! on the file icon. (See attached screenshot.)  I assume this means the file is corrupt, but don't know how to repair. It is dated today, and time stamped the last time I tried to run Distiller.

I found web sites that claim to let you download acrotray.exe to replace corrupted files, but not sure I trust these. I don't find the single file download as an option from Adobe.

What if I delete the file, and do an Acrobat "Detect and Repair"?  Any thoughts? (I've done the Detect and Repair several times, but without deleting acrotray.exe first. As explained originally, this problem began out of the blue, and the first actions I took was to install the recent Abobe 7 updates--therefore the updating didn't cause it.)

See here for download:
http://www.corruptedfilerepair.com/File-Information/Acrotray.exe-AcroTray---Adobe-Acrobat-Distiller-helper-applicat-Adobe-Systems-Inc..asp

If you delete the file, Detect&Repair will recreate it. You should probably move the file out of the directory, and just let Acrobat repair itself. See if that makes a difference.

Thanks for suggestions, JO and khk. Here's what I tried in order:

Moved the corrupt acrotray.exe to a temp location. Ran Detect and Repair, rebooted. It recreated the acrotray.exe with one dated April 2008, but interestingly it also had the corrupt symbol on it. Tried to run Distiller, same error.

I downloaded a "new" acrotray.exe from the site JO specified, and put it into the Distiller folder after moving the corrupt one out. Rebooted. Upon restart, Windows asked about running the acrotray.exe from unknown publisher (no Adobe tags on the file), and I said yes. After startup, I checked Processes, and acrotray was running in background. Tried to run Distiller, same error. The new acrotray file, however, doesn't have the corrupt symbol, as of yet.

I'm beginning to think this is a programmed timebomb by Adobe to get you to buy the latest version.

As the problem always happens during the Building Font Table activity, I'll try some more things involving fonts.

No, it's not a time bomb. I still think that there is something wrong with the fonts.

Here's my latest attempt: I decided to start over. I completely uninstalled Acrobat 7.1.4 and did a registry cleanup. I had to install Acrobat 5.0 from the CD, since that was my original full version. It installed, I tested it, and it made pdf's fine.

I then installed Acrobat 7.0 Upgrade from the CD. It cranked through all the steps, including the uninstall of 5.0, and seconds before the end of the installation Finish button, the darned AcroDist.exe error "Memory could not be read" window popped up.

So the problem is something that affects version 7 but not 5, but remember that my version 7 worked fine for about 3 years before this application error suddenly started happening.

Arrrgggghhhh!

I meant to mention that the acrotray.exe file after the reinstallation had the ! corruption icon.

The "!" icon is not an indication for corruption, it's the icon that AcroTray uses - I see the same icon on an Acrobat 7 and Acrobat 9 installation. I doubt that your problems have anything to do with AcroTray. On my Acrobat 7 installation, Distiller is looking for fonts in two different locations:

c:\Windows\Fonts
c:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 7.0\Ressource\Font

Try to see if any of the fonts in the Acrobat 7 directory are corrupt. Do you know how to use the event viewer on Windows? It may contain some data about the problem.

Thanks for the suggestions, khkremer, and for educating me about the acrotray icon. It is logical that acrotray is not involved, since the error cites AcroDist.exe.

I looked at Event Viewer, and the only thing that shows up related to this is an Information event under System: Application Popup with my error message. The error is not logged under the Application area. I conclude Event Viewer offers no clues.

I emptied the Acrobat 7.0\Resource\Font folder temporarily and tried Distiller. Same error. I was surprised at the limited number of fonts in this folder. All are .otf files, and include 4 types of AdobeHebrew, 1 AdobePIStd, 4 AdobeThai, 4 CourierStd, 4 MinionPro, and 4 MyriadPro. Other than these, the folder contains SY____.PFB, ZX____.PFB, and ZY____.PFB. There's also a PFM subfolder with 3 .pfm files. Does this match your Acrobat 7 installation?

Yes, that sounds correct (I'm using a Mac right now, but your description is very close to what I've seen).

Take a look at this page: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/aboutgraphics/a/fontoverload_2.htm
It describes how to look for corrupt fonts, but also talks about using a font manager that may allow you to cut down on the fonts in the Windows font folder (at least temporarily) to rule out any corrupt fonts in that directory.

Thanks for the link. None of the fonts were obviously corrupt (zero file size). I scanned through each font, and the only one that appeared to behave badly was ZWAdobeF.ttf:  the font window didn't have the header that all the other True Type fonts had. Anyway, I've deleted it from Windows?Font.  

Some days ago I had removed all the fonts from the Windows/Fonts folder, except the minimum set specified for Windows XP.  Rebooted, and got same acrodist.exe error.

Still perplexed.