Apps won't launch on Win10 after Upgrade to 1.9

[v_kyr]

@ZY Chang The whole is probably a try & error process here. Meaning you might have to try various of them, in order to see if they function without crashing and then keep that one which works Ok.

[simono]

37 minutes ago, ZY Chang said:

Or you manually installed the 2018 version?

To be honest, I don't really know. I de-installed the graphics device and somehow then landed on the 2018 driver version.

Afterwards, as Windows had updated and it all didn't work anymore, I clicked on the graphics driver and chose use previous driver i.e. using the Gerätemanager (device manager?). Then it went backwards, driver by driver by driver. Each time I had a new driver in place, and the screen had stopped going black a couple of times, I tested Mark's cltest utility.

[simono]

2 hours ago, v_kyr said:

• How to temporarily prevent a driver update from reinstalling in Windows 10

• How to disable automatic driver updates on Windows 10

Unfortunately, not quite so trivial. I'm on Win 10 Home Edition. Just for starters the Policy Editor is not on bord.

And anyway, this is all ridiculous - bad Intel drivers for the last two years and nobody knows about it.

[ZY Chang]

1 hour ago, simono said:

To be honest, I don't really know. I de-installed the graphics device and somehow then landed on the 2018 driver version.

Afterwards, as Windows had updated and it all didn't work anymore, I clicked on the graphics driver and chose use previous driver i.e. using the Gerätemanager (device manager?). Then it went backwards, driver by driver by driver. Each time I had a new driver in place, and the screen had stopped going black a couple of times, I tested Mark's cltest utility.

I went to Intel Download Center and install the first one (was told the latest one) as below and it now it's working with AF 1.9.  When I installed it, the system said the one on my computer was newer than the I was trying to install. But went ahead and  replaced/installed anyway.  Fortunately it's now working:

[simono]

Just to sum up my situation.

It would seem that Intel is the root of all evil.

The only Intel driver package that works for me regarding openCL is dated 2018. The next three drivers - right up to January 2021 - do not work regarding openCL.

Up to now three things have been updating my system. Windows, Lenovo Vantage and Driver Easy. The latter two I shall simply not use any more.

Now I am left with the problem that Windows is determined to update my system all the time. There is a so-called Group Policy Editor by which - reportedly - one can ask Windows NOT to update ALL drivers - not really the best solution.

I am, however, sitting on Windows 10 Home. The utility gpedit.msc along with supporting packages are not part of the Windows 10 Home edition and Microsoft will not deliver gpedit.msc to Windows 10 Home users. If you want to have and use gpedit.msc you have to purchase an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. There, this utility is included.

On some versions of Win 10 Home gpedit.msc was actually on board. In this case it was possible to pull it out from its hiding place and activate it manually, or even better, by running a specific batch file to do the job for you. The batch file is scattered around the Internet. In my version of Home gpedit.msc is not present and therefore cannot be copied into place.

As a prelim measure I have halted Windows updates for a couple of days to see if I can find a solution to keep the antique graphics driver version in place.

What a mess!

[simono]

With the old 2016 driver in place I get the following warning on the Intel driver download site.

==================================================

Installing this Intel generic graphics driver will overwrite any customized driver from your Computer Manufacturer (OEM).

OEM drivers are handpicked, customized, and validated to resolve platform-specific issues, enable features and enhancements, and improve system stability. Intel’s generic graphics drivers are intended for testing, and we recommend using drivers from Lenovo. Report any issues found with this driver to Intel.

I have read and understand this warning, and wish to proceed.

[simono]

10 minutes ago, simono said:

And if I go to the Lenovo driver download site I get:

===========================================

End of Development Support

This product is no longer being actively supported by development (End of Development Support) and no further software updates will be provided. Any software or support resources provided by Lenovo are made available “AS IS” and without warranties of any kind, express or implied. Products still covered under the Lenovo Limited Warranty will be covered for repair.

 

[Mark Ingram]

That's annoying! Just to confirm, if you install the latest generic Intel driver, that doesn't work either? You've only managed to get it to work when using the latest OEM (Lenovo) driver?

[simono]

Right. The latest generic driver direct from the Intel site does not work. Jan 2021.

The old driver - probably the original driver dated 2018 - does work.

Two drivers in between dated 2020 also do not work.

With the 2018 in place I get a warning at the Intel site. More or less "don't install me". 😊

With one of the 2020 drivers in place I am pretty sure I didn't get a warning.

[simono]

Hi Mark 

With a functioning driver in place Filmora runs 20 times faster and Affinity photo launches within 25 ms. I have trouble keeping up! 😊😊 😊 And the bellowing fog in the assets bellows around so fast that you get giddy just watching it! 😊

Well, at least it all works, even if somewhat sluggish now and again.

Of course, all the drivers I have display Intel as their source. But where each driver actually came from and how it got in is not quite so clear.I

It is interesting that with the old 2018 driver in place Intel warns me that it might not be a good idea to load the latest driver off their Intel site.

[Mark Ingram]

20 minutes ago, simono said:

Hi Mark 

With a functioning driver in place Filmora runs 20 times faster and Affinity photo launches within 25 ms. I have trouble keeping up! 😊😊 😊 And the bellowing fog in the assets bellows around so fast that you get giddy just watching it! 😊

Well, at least it all works, even if somewhat sluggish now and again.

Of course, all the drivers I have display Intel as their source. But where each driver actually came from and how it got in is not quite so clear.I

It is interesting that with the old 2018 driver in place Intel warns me that it might not be a good idea to load the latest driver off their Intel site.

Well I'm glad you have it working.

I'm working on testing OpenCL capability on startup now, via a separate process, so it shouldn't crash the main app if the driver is broken. 

[simono]

It's funny that the Intel drivers openCL/GL compatibility issues are so little known.

As Topaz Labs was trying to get their openGL-based Sharpen AI to work on my system, googling around I did actually read "Intel compatibility issues" somewhere or other. 

If you do test at the beginning of the launch I feel that you should bring up a message for the user -

"There is an openCL issue. Using HW acceleration will not be possible. Updating your graphics driver might help."

With a

"[  ] Don't show this message again."

[v_kyr]

10 hours ago, simono said:

I am, however, sitting on Windows 10 Home. The utility gpedit.msc along with supporting packages are not part of the Windows 10 Home edition and Microsoft will not deliver gpedit.msc to Windows 10 Home users. If you want to have and use gpedit.msc you have to purchase an upgrade to Windows 10 Pro. There, this utility is included.

Did you already tried this here (see below article links)  in order to get a working copy of gpedit.msc for Windows 10 Home?

• Gpedit.msc in Windows 10 Home ohne Download nachinstallieren – so geht’s wirklich

• Windows 10 Home gpedit Gruppenrichtlinie installieren

[simono]

Yes, thanks, I did read about this method.

The batch method requires the presence of all the gpedit stuff at least somewhere on the disk. On my machine this is not the case. Ergo - I cannot do a post-install.

Die Batch-Methode verlangt das Vorhandensein des ganzen gpedit-Zeugs zumindest irgendwo auf der Platte. Auf meiner Maschine ist das nicht der Fall. Ergo - ich kann nicht nachinstallieren.

[v_kyr]

4 hours ago, simono said:

On my machine this is not the case. Ergo - I cannot do a post-install.

There are other ways ...

• Fail to install group policy for Windows 10 home (Answers MS)
• Enable Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) in Windows 10 Home Edition
• Add Group Policy Editor to Windows 10 Home

[simono]

The latest official AP version 1.9.1 is still not side-stepping non-functioning drivers!

[Mark Ingram]

14 hours ago, simono said:

The latest official AP version 1.9.1 is still not side-stepping non-functioning drivers!

I'm surprised about this, obviously it is hard to test a fix for a problem that we can't replicate. We now ship a cltest application which we run at startup to determine whether OpenCL will crash. Can you do the following for me:

1. Press Win+R keys
2. Type cmd, hit Enter
3. Type cd "C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo\" (or where you installed Photo to), hit Enter
4. Type cltest all, hit Enter

Can you paste the results into this thread please?

After that, can you download procdump from Microsoft - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/procdump

Extract the files and place them somewhere like Desktop or Downloads (e.g. C:\Users\Simono\Desktop\procdump)

Then try the following:

1. Press Win+R keys
2. Type cmd, hit Enter
3. Type cd "C:\Users\Simono\Desktop\procdump" (or where you extracted the files to), hit Enter
4. Type procdump64 -e -ma -accepteula -x . "C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo\cltest.exe" all (or where you installed Photo to), hit Enter

This should generate a huge crash dump file, which we are going to pass to Intel to investigate. Could you upload this file to Dropbox or similar (if you don't have online storage we can provide an upload link).

[simono]

As it happens, Windows decided to update my graphics driver from ver. 2018 to ver. 8th jan 2021 - against my will!

The Intel setup that popped up took a lot of trouble to explain to me - that this driver update would all be at my own risk and might not even work. 

Anyway, I installed the latest driver again.

Abracadabra!

Filmora grays out all the hw acceleration options except "use hw encoding" for the export - which even works and is faster.

Affinity Photo 1.9.1 croaked after showing me the pretty squid. This, according to my analysis, means that the special test is not in place in this version and my time is being wasted.

With the new driver cltest delivers:

C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo>cltest all
Checking for OpenCL binaries: Found
Querying OpenCL platform count:
C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo>

I might mention, as I had the 2018 graphics driver in place, Filmora immediately offered GPU acceleration options and Affinity came up normally. However, if Filmora actually tried to use GPU acceleration it got stuck left, right and center.

Now with the 2021 Intel driver installed, Filmora disables the acceleration options and Affinity crashes on start up.

More to follow.

[simono]

C:\Users\simono\Desktop\procdump>procdump64 -e -ma -accepteula -x . "C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo\cltest.exe" all

ProcDump v10.0 - Sysinternals process dump utility
Copyright (C) 2009-2020 Mark Russinovich and Andrew Richards
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com

Process:               cltest.exe (3772)
CPU threshold:         n/a
Performance counter:   n/a
Commit threshold:      n/a
Threshold seconds:     n/a
Hung window check:     Disabled
Log debug strings:     Disabled
Exception monitor:     Unhandled
Exception filter:      [Includes]
                       *
                       [Excludes]
Terminate monitor:     Disabled
Cloning type:          Disabled
Concurrent limit:      n/a
Avoid outage:          n/a
Number of dumps:       1
Dump folder:           .\
Dump filename/mask:    PROCESSNAME_YYMMDD_HHMMSS
Queue to WER:          Disabled
Kill after dump:       Disabled

Press Ctrl-C to end monitoring without terminating the process.

Checking for OpenCL binaries: Found
Querying OpenCL platform count: [17:17:35] Exception: C0000005.ACCESS_VIOLATION
[17:17:35] Unhandled: C0000005.ACCESS_VIOLATION
[17:17:35] Dump 1 initiated: .\cltest.exe_210228_171735.dmp
[17:17:38] Dump 1 writing: Estimated dump file size is 138 MB.
[17:18:07] Dump 1 complete: 138 MB written in 31.7 seconds
[17:18:07] Dump count reached.

C:\Users\simono\Desktop\procdump>dir
 Datenträger in Laufwerk 😄 ist Windows
 Volumeseriennummer: 9ABB-24F8

 Verzeichnis von C:\Users\simono\Desktop\procdump

28.02.2021  17:17    <DIR>          .
28.02.2021  17:17    <DIR>          ..
28.02.2021  17:18       140.858.907 cltest.exe_210228_171735.dmp
17.09.2020  09:18           384.888 procdump64.exe
               2 Datei(en),    141.243.795 Bytes
               2 Verzeichnis(se), 447.301.513.216 Bytes frei

C:\Users\simono\Desktop\procdump>

[simono]

And here's the dump.

https://www.magentacloud.de/share/q19ai5h0so

 

[simono]

But now we seem to have a driver problem. The event says "device not started". On the other hand, the device is reported as working perfectly.

 

Beim Start des Geräts PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_5916&SUBSYS_39E817AA&REV_02\3&11583659&1&10 ist ein Problem aufgetreten.

Treibername: oem91.inf
Klassen-GUID: {4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
Dienst: igfx
Untere Filter: 
Obere Filter: 
Problem: 0x15
Problemstatus: 0x0
 

[Mark Ingram]

6 hours ago, simono said:

With the new driver cltest delivers:

C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo>cltest all
Checking for OpenCL binaries: Found
Querying OpenCL platform count:
C:\Program Files\Affinity\Photo>

Thanks so much for testing this @simono, I really appreciate your help and patience in this. I'm going to take your crash dump and give it to Intel to investigate further. Your results above indicate that it's still crashing in clGetPlatformIDs (as before), but for some reason, Affinity Photo isn't detecting the error case at startup (we run cltest at startup to work out whether the OpenCL drivers will crash the app - any crashes will only affect cltest, and not the actual Affinity app).

[simono]

I presume that you are returning an appropriate error code in your test exe. Maybe nobody is bothering to check it in the main application.    

[simono]

I have now added a sysinfo file to my cloud. Windows is a moving target and there have been a few updates.

[v_kyr]

1 hour ago, simono said:

I presume that you are returning an appropriate error code in your test exe. Maybe nobody is bothering to check it in the main application.    

Depends on if and how the error code is persisted, then how it's value is exchanged aka evaluated read between the apps. There might be circumstances where something in that pretest chain doesn't always work.