Regina,

I have seen that error appear in the last version of Hallmark Card Studio 2011. This is the first time I have seen it with the 2012 version.

The developers determined that the cause of that error message was due to a corrupt installation of DirectX. This is a program provided by Microsoft related to graphics display.

For some people, they were able to resolve this issue by updating their DirectX to a newer version of the program. For others, there was no fix. The developers eventually created a solution that bypassed the use of the problem DirectX file.

My assumption is that Hallmark Card Studio 2012 should already have this fix incorporated into it. Typically, these types of fixes are carried on into the next version of the program. So, I am not sure if they did not include the fix in the 2012 version, or if your problem is caused by a different file than the one that fix bypasses. I am waiting on a response from the developers to find out if that fix was not included in the 2012 version.

In the meantime, I would like to gather some information from you. If the fix was included, they will need this information in order to look into the issue. Which version of Windows are you running this on and is that a 32bit or 64bit installation of Windows?

Also, please go to Start - Run, or click in the Search box if you are on Windows 7, and type "dxdiag" without the quotes. This should run a DirectX Diagnostic Tool. On the first tab, you should see a line labeled "DirectX Version". What is the full version number showing on that line?

I am getting the same error msg when trying to launch Hallmark Card Studio 2012 that I just installed from disk.  Error msg 'Object reference not set to an instance of an object'

This is the version I have: DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

Susan,

Thank you for providing your DirectX version number. I heard back from the developers and they confirmed for me that the fix they made for the 2011 version was already included in the 2012 version. So, the cause of the problem is not the same file. The developers asked me to try to gather some more information from people that are experiencing this with the 2012 version of the program. Please provide me the following information:

1) Which version of Windows are you running this on and is that a 32bit or 64bit installation of Windows?
2) Were there any prior versions of Hallmark Card Studio on this computer? If so, which versions were previously installed?
3) If there were previous versions, were there any problems like this with those prior versions?
4) Did 2012 ever work correctly? Or did this problem appear from the first time you tried to run the program after installing it?
5) Was there any other program that was installed just before installing 2012? If so, what was that program?