Richard H

Hi v_kyr, Thanks for the links, I speak German fluently so was able to make full use of the information. All test results turned out negative, that’s to say nothing is corrupted or malfunctioning on my system. I have spent far too much time trying to sort the problem out, and short of taking the PC back to the shop for a hardware check, I don’t know what else to do, besides, having the components checked because of one app is a bit extreme. I am going to mothball AP and AD – if updates are released, I will give them a try. In my book the apps get an “A” for what they can do, but a “D” for functionality. I need reliability, and though I don’t want to spend the money, it’s back to Adobe full time for me.

It seems my BSOD post has sparked a lively discussion resulting in a lot of thoughtful input. Even with my limited knowledge, I can see what a complex issue this is with no easy solutions . Meanwhile back at the ranch, attached is my BSOD report from today. I also include an image of what I was doing in AP, putting together a presentation of how to identify old Art Nouveau tiles, I managed to do the one slide before the crash. Because of the deadline, nothing for it but to go back to Photoshop, I have just completed fifteen more slides with no problem.

Thanks RC-R, what you say makes sense. It's just frustrating that I can now get AP and AD to work successfully for several hours, presumably using the functions and drivers you refer to, only for the apps to crash/BSOD, when doing the simplest of tasks.

Many thanks for all the help and suggestions. I freely admit I am not a "computer whizz", and have always relied on specialist expertise to provide me with computing hardware solutions based on my requirements. My current specs configuration, as shown in my first post, serves me well, and I am very reluctant to start tinkering with the proverbial spanners. Because my nuts and bolts knowledge is limited, one big question still bothers me: if all the apps on my system have worked from the day they were installed and continue to do so, why should AP and AD be the exception, what makes them so different from other apps?

Many thanks All media Lab, I downloaded the driver version you refer to a couple of days ago. Walt and v_kyr happy to share crash details, attached is one from the Events Log, the other from the Reliability Monitor, both refer to BSOD CLOCK WATCHDOG TIMEOUT. If you would like to see anything else let me know, really keen to get to the bottom of this mystery.

Dear Dan C, Thank you for the information about the Reliability Monitor and suggestions. The attached reports make interesting viewing, prior to installing AP & AD on 23 May 2022, the reliability picture is good with only minor blips, two concerning Acrobat Notifications which I can’t remember even noticing. After AP & AD installation the days are full of critical problems. There were three calm days, 27-29 May, but this was due to using Photoshop to finish a work project, and not touching AP. Yesterday, Monday June 6, I thought for a while I had finally found the BSOD solution. Going through the Affinity Forums again, I came across one concerning problems caused by a graphics tablet, and that unplugging it solved the trouble. I duly unplugged my wireless Intuos Pro L, and just to be sure, all external drives and ShuttleProv2 controller as well. Result? Both AP & AD worked well for most of the day, until that is, when opening an image in AP and simply adding brightness and contrast to it, bang, BSOD #1 CLOCK WATCHDOG TIMEOUT (fatal hardware error). Restarting, I opened the same JPEG image did the same brightness action, BSOD #2, restarting again this time trying a different image with a simple object selection, BSOD #3. Just to be clear, the images I used when the BSODs occurred were the same as those used when AP was working perfectly earlier in the day. So, the tablet theory was not the hoped for answer after all. FYI I have double checked, all drivers are up-to-date, Windows updates are current. My crash logs are automatically sent to Affinity.

Many thanks v_kyr, most helpful. Going through the events there is a common link, a hardware error, as per the attached screenshot. I can try and post the detail view if it is of any help. FYI It doesn't seem to matter whether Performance Preferences are set to "warp" or to my default GPU, so it appears to be something else.

Thanks for the help. Since I've not needed it before, don't actually know where to look for the Windows Event Log. Wow, that is one long list of CWT errors, will study it in detail.

The results of my day with AP and also AD are no and yes. Have I been able to get either program to work on my desktop tower, no. No matter what I’ve tried, rolling back drivers, updating to the latest, uninstalling and reinstalling drivers and programs, running scans, memory tests, conflict troubleshooting etc. etc., every time after a few minutes there it is again, the dreaded BSOD: CLOCK WATCHDOG TIMEOUT. The yes part of the day was my idea to install AP and AD on my travel laptop, a Lenovo ThinkPad 3 with respectable but obviously much lower specs than the tower: Intel 6405U 2.45GHz processer, 4GB ram, 128GB SSD storage, integrated GPU, Windows 10 Home. Both programs worked, albeit slowly, but flawlessly for hours at a time. What does one draw from this, AP and AD don’t like Windows 10 Pro? Is my bespoke build tower set up – ok you may laugh, but I don’t know what else to think – too “high end”? Having said that, if AP and AD don’t like the Nvida Quadro P4000 GPU, why will they still not work when I change the Performance Preference to “warp”? What can the conflict be? A friend suggested I install the programs on his new Windows 11 high-spec Dell XPS 17, it will be interesting to see what AP and AD make of that.

Firstly, many thanks for the input and thoughts. Today is a Jubilee bank holiday in the UK, so I'm going to spend it trying to make AP work in the regal manner it is supposed to. Will report bank with results.

Many thanks for the prompt reply. I forgot to say in the original post, I'm using the latest version of AP and that all drivers and Windows 10 are up-to-date. From reading other forum topics, I understand using the "warp" setting in Performance Preferences is a Windows application that bypasses the GPU, or am I getting that wrong? I checked whether there is anything amiss with overclocking and BIOS settings and everything appears normal. This is quite a mystery as heavy duty programs such as Davinci Resolve 17, Cartoon Animator 4 and of course PS, all run without issues.

As a new user, I was really hoping Affinity Photo would release me from Photoshop after twenty two years. Sadly, it looks as though it’s not going to happen. Every time I open AP, I can work for ten minutes or maybe an hour before the software crashes and I get a BSOD, this is usually a CLOCK WATCHDOG TIMEOUT, there has also been MACHINE CHECK EXCEPTION and WHEA UNCORRECTABLE ERROR. The BSOD can occur when performing even the simplest tasks such as using the Selection Brush or copying and pasting a selection. I have methodically been through and tried every suggestion offered in the AP forums and online, I have methodically been through and tried every option in Performance Preferences. The longest time the software worked - about an hour - was running it in Windows 8 compatibility mode, with the renderer set to WARP, Precise Clipping disabled, and CL disabled. FYI I do not have Capture One installed. Desktop tower specs - more than enough power and memory in all respects - are as per the attached screenshot. I also attach the latest crash file. ac59a3e8-40c1-454e-a20b-c48b16e17d94.dmp To rub salt into the wound, I have just finished a six-hour Photoshop session without a hitch. I sincerely hope there is a solution/fix, if not, I will no option but to uninstall AP for the last time and carry on with PS. Richard H