TOOLS: problem with AI-derived illustrations in FM

[mlist -at- safenet-inc -dot- com]

I'm temporarily not getting through to the Framers list, so I hope this
isn't too off-topic. If there are FrameMaker users in the house, I could use
a little help.  Here's what I've got and what I've tried...

System: Dell Optiplex GX280, 2GB system memory, nVidia Quadro FX video card

OS: Win XP Pro SP 1a   (but I had XP Pro SP 2 for a few months, before
"downgrading")

Software: FM 7.1, Illustrator CS

PROBLEM: Two-page FM document, 11 x 17, with seven illustrations. All
illustrations were created in Illustrator CS, and exported as PNG (and other
formats). Illustrations were imported by reference into anchored frames, in
PNG format, pre-sized during import dialog, then positioned/cropped in FM
(the drawings are all bigger than their frames and I want to show just the
important bits).

All were visible and usable for at least two months. A reviewer asked for a
small change to one illustration, so I moved a couple of elements and
deleted a couple of elements before saving that illustration in AI and
re-exporting as PNG.

Suddenly FM cannot display it and presents the gray box.

I tried re-importing.
I tried re-exporting and re-importing.
I tried importing JPG and other formats. Either FM reports that an error
occurred and it could not complete the import, or it imports and then
displays the gray box.

I tried deleting the frame and its anchor, and re-creating those, then
re-importing the illustration. No improvement.

I tried saving the doc as MIF and re-opening in FM.
Now, ALL the illustrations are gray boxes.

I re-installed both FM and Illustrator. No improvement.
I re-installed (downgraded?) Win XP Pro at SP 1a (after full format of hard
disk), then re-re-installed all my programs. No improvement.

These are the latest versions of two Adobe products, on the nearly-latest
operating system, on a modern PC. I can't use the gray boxes, because I
can't see to position the illustrations, position callouts, etc.  Even so,
the last time I printed (to PDF, using Acrobat PPD), the resulting PDF also
showed gray boxes. 

Six of the seven illustrations have not been touched in weeks or months, so
it is hardly likely that they decided to change and begin causing problems.

DELL Memory tests report no errors.

My deadline is days away and I have a ****load of other work that must be
done, as well as this document that must be finalized.  I looked in vain for
a "repair" function in the menus or the Help for either of FM and AI
(cycling through MIF was always the "repair" for FM...). 
What is my next step?   No, I don't have access to a Mac. Who do I have to
bribe?

Kevin (in Ottawa, and not entirely happy despite the nice weather)



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