On Startup, ProSelect either loads or creates the thumbnail images for your image resources. This includes overlay images on templates, room view images, frame segments, mat/background images etc and the process depends on the version of ProSelect you are using.

In ProSelect v2012r1 and newer versions are faster as it caches the low-res copies on your hard drive disk.  If it can't find a low-res copy of the image, it looks in your ProSelect Resources folder and, if the image is found, proceeds to a create low res copy and thumbnails for the cache.

If you are getting an error during this process or ProSelect simply stops during the "Initializing External Resources" message, it may be that:

(a) You don't have sufficient free memory
(b) The .png file is corrupted or is too large to fit into available memory.  (You may also get an "Out of Memory Error")

Best Solution

To overcome this problem, we have improved the way that ProSelect loads and converts .png files in ProSelect 2012r2.3 and newer so that it is no longer dependent on the amount of free memory in your computer.  So the best solution if your licence is for 2012r2 or newer is to download and install this version or a newer one (as per your licence).  

Important: While this version should solve the problem of running out of memory when loading very large .png files, it will NOT help if you have a bad or corrupted file. So, if you are using this new version and still have the problem of ProSelect stopping  with the "Initializing External Resources" message, then you will need to follow the steps in the section below.

Other Solutions

Otherwise, your options are as follows:

Try re-starting your computer and run ProSelect first. This will ensure that you have maximum free memory.

Since an excessively large overlay image (.png) file is  the most likely cause. The solution is to locate the image causing the problem and remove it from your ProSelect Resources folder. One way to do this is as follows:

1. Start ProSelect while holding the SHIFT key down (keep the key down until you see a new window)
2. In the window check the "Debug Messages On" and "Show Debug Window" checkboxes
3. Click the Continue button
4. When the error occurs, click to the Debug Data window and scroll to the bottom. The last "Opening file: XXXXXX.png" message should be the problem image file.
5. Quit ProSelect
6. Remove the file from your ProSelect Resources Folder --> Template Overlays subfolder*
7. Try again.

If you can't locate the problem this way, try removing all images from the ProSelect Resources folder and re-start ProSelect. If it starts without the error, put the images back one at a time and try starting ProSelect after each one until the problem occurs again. Then remove the last image.

Where to Find the ProSelect Resources Folder

The default location for the ProSelect Resources folder can be found in the article Finding ProSelect Data & Preferences files. Or under "Backing up and Sharing" section in the ProSelect Reference Manual (quick access under the help menu in ProSelect or downloadable from the ProSelect software downloads web page) .