Troubleshooting ShowCase Problems

Wondering about moving to Windows 7? Yes, ShowCase has been tested and works well on Windows 7.

Problem: PATIENTS who have been given CDs or DVDs of their Obstetric (or other) exam and want to print the pictures out or save them.

Most ShowCase CD/DVD viewers are read-only and do not include print or export features. However, you can easily print the images (at not medical quality) in either of these 2 ways:

-- Using Microsoft Word
1- Click on the image to select it (It will have a yellow border) and copy it to the clipboard (Ctrl-C or use the Edit->Copy menu option)
2- Paste the image into a Word document
3- Print the Word document

--- Using a Screen Capture
1- Double-click on the image you want to print.
2- Copy the Image to the clipboard by holding down the Alt key and clicking Prt Scrn
3- Paste the image into a graphics program like Paint (Start Menu / All Programs / Accessories / Paint)
4- Save or print the image from the graphics program.

Problem: I get a message that says .NET Framework needs to be installed, when I install ShowCase Premier or ShowCase Basic.

Solution: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 must be installed on your Windows PC before ShowCase 5.0 products can run. The .NET Framework 2.0 is included with Windows Vista and Windows 7 but not with Windows 2000 or XP systems in some cases.

Here are 2 ways to add the .NET framework to your PC:
1- Run Windows Update (Start Menu->All Programs->Windows Update), press the "Custom" button on the Welcome page, and select only the .NET Framework 2.0 under Software, Optional. Then download and install .NET Framework 2.0.

OR 2- If you are unable to install .NET Framework 2.0 using Windows Update or it fails for any reason. Download the .NET Framework 2.0 installer -- if you are running the English language version of Windows XP (with Service Pack 2 or higher),or Windows Server 2003 go to

Problem: I am running ShowCase release 5.1.5 (or earlier) software and my trial expired early or my license suddenly isn't recognized..

Solution: Please download and install the latest ShowCase 5 installer. Improvements to the licensing software were added in the 5.1.8 release that should fix these problems.

You might want to first try simply rebooting your ShowCase PC and waiting a few minutes before starting ShowCase. It is possible that the license service did not start up as expected.

Problem: Export to PowerPoint fails using the PPT button on the ShowCase toolbar, says cannot communicate with PowerPoint.

Solution: Be sure that you are not saving in the ".ppx" format. That format does not support the ShowCase embedded DICOM displays. Use the ".ppt" format.

Solution: Check your AVI compressor settings. In some cases the ShowCase upgrade can lose the previous AVI export settings and reset the quality to "1", which translates to lowest quality. The quality setting is displayed on the screen so you need only check it before exporting and change it if needed. If you don't remember your previous setting -- most people use a quality setting of 75-80%. Try that and adjust to suit your needs.

Problem: AVI files generated on a Vista machine look scrambled in Powerpoint. AVI files created on Vista machines are shifted or garbled when played back in Powerpoint.

Solution: There was a defect in a Windows system component in very early versions of the Vista OS. Installing the latest Vista service pack corrects the problem. You need to re-generate the defective AVI file.

Problem: Exporting a single frame from a clip as a bitmap -- The first frame of the clip exports instead of the selected (currently displayed) frame.

Solution: This bug was fixed in Release 4.6. Please download the 4.9.8 installer and update your software (no charge). Or you can upgrade to the newer 5.0 software -- There is an upgrade charge.

Problem: ShowCase does not recognize images written to magneto-optical disks from an HDI 5000 ultrasound machine.

The HDI 5000 does not write images to MOD in DICOM format unless you have the "DVS module". Without the DVS module the HDI 5000 uses the "DEFF" image format -- which is based on TIFF. You can display DEFF images using consumer graphics software that can display TIFF files.

A ShowCase solution: If you have a PC that is on an Ethernet network with your HDI 5000 . Our products that include the ShowCase Connect module can accept HDI 5000 images sent over the DICOM network and store them in DICOM format.

Problem: AVI files in Powerpoint - Click to play AVI files and they turn black.

Solution: This is most likely a mismatch of your display's driver and your Microsoft operating system. You can fix this in one of two ways -- 1- Upgrade the driver for your display or 2- Turn off video acceleration for your display... To do this go to Control Panel -> Display -> Settings -> Advanced - > Troubleshooting. Then turn hardware acceleration off (move the slider left from the "full" position to "none").

Problem: ShowCase (release number earlier than 5.0) worked yesterday but now it says the license has expired.

Solution: Occasionally a virus scanner or spyware program, such as McAfee Virus Scan, Norton AntiVirus, Trend Micro PC-cillin or Webroot Spy Sweeper will erroneously think that a valid program file contains a virus or spyware. Most of these programs have a "quarantined" area where suspicious files are kept for several days before they are deleted. Check your virus scanner or spyware software's "quarantined" area for files from the "\Program Files\ShowCase" directory tree. We have had one report that this happened with the file: \Program Files\ShowCase\TLF. If this file is "quarantined" instruct the virus scanner or spyware program to restore the file and to not remove it again. If other files from the ShowCase folder are affected reinstall ShowCase or email us at <support@TrilTech.com> so we can assist you in resolving the problem.

Problem: CD Viewer on a CD received from another site does not run on Vista. An inscrutable error message might say something like "Could not install the image display component" or "The source and destination are the same".

Solution: CD Viewers from an early pre-Vista release do not work on Vista and there is no work-around. Please try to find a PC that is not running Vista to view the studies. You might also inform the source site that they should update their CD Viewer software.

Solution: A customer has reported some XA images (manufacturer unknown) that have an error in the DICOM header information (the header reports the image as MONOCHROME instead of MONOCHROME1 or MONOCHROME2). Older versions of ShowCase do not handle this header error. ShowCase version 4.0 and higher displays these images appropriately. Update your software. Download ShowCase 4.9.8 installers at no charge, or purchase an upgrade to ShowCase 5.

Problem: Directory list takes a very long time to come up - hourglass is up the whole time.

Solution: You probably have ShowCase looking for images in specific folders on your disk... And those folders have grown large. This can be a very time consuming since ShowCase will read EVERY file in the folder. Let ShowCase finish reading and come up normally and then select the menu option File->Edit List of Folder Directories. Remove any folder directories you are no longer using. Clean out folders that you are actively using by deleting old studies. OR move your studies to a real DICOM directory.

Problem: Can't copy to a new MOD or other external disk because it isn't offered as a destination.

Solution: You probably need to create a DICOM directory on the media. You need a directory before you can COPY. Use the File Menu option "Create new DICOM Directory".

Problem: "Bad Header" displayed below black images that have been copied from an external disk from an Aspen ultrasound machine.

Solution: We have received some DICOM directories that contain errors in them that prevent ShowCase from copying the images correctly even though ShowCase can display the images. Try this: Use the Browse button in Showcase to browse to the CD or MOD. (Browse all the way into the image folder so that ShowCase will not see the directory file.) Click on "List All Studies in the Folder" and ShowCase will construct a new directory (this takes some time). Then the studies should copy correctly from this browsed directory.

Solution: Check to make sure that your monitor is in 24 bit color or 32 bit color mode (look at your monitor settings in the Control Panel settings). If the images still don't appear, send an example image to support@TrilTech.com.

Solution: Gamma adjustments work best on static images and grayscale clips. Color clips have been jpeg compressed and include some information 'errors' that increase with gamma adjustment.