Designer, Photo & Publisher crash on launch (splash window opens, then gone in 3 seconds) Windows 10 [After AMD driver update]

[NcikSibille]

Hello! 

Out of the blue all three apps won't even load, crashing during mid load. The splash opens and a few seconds later there isn't even a crash notice, the thread just disappears from the Task Manager. 

They have been working perfectly on my system for about a year and a half, two years now. Only correlation I can see is that I recently had to update the chipset driver (AMD A8 with integrated graphics) in order to run a totally separate app that required the latest drivers. Went from v15 to v21 and this is the first system failure I come across, I'm guessing they must be related. 

Are there any workarounds here? Can I maybe download an older version of the apps, perhaps they could run?

Thanks for your help!

Cheers!

NS

[Joachim_L]

Welcome to the Affinity forums @NcikSibille!

Did you update the graphics driver over the existing one or did you uninstall the old driver and installed the new one? The latter is worth a try. Are you using the latest versions of all three apps? Maybe the latest betas are worth a try?

Or perhaps disable hardware acceleration in Preferences >> Performance, but you have no chance to change it and therefore you have to edit this file (below the example for AP and the application has to be closed):

"C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Affinity\Photo\1.0\Settings\PerformancePreferences.xml"

Change <UseHardwareAcceleration>True</UseHardwareAcceleration> to <UseHardwareAcceleration>False</UseHardwareAcceleration>

 

 

[NcikSibille]

Sorry, forgot to mention, yes, using the latest stable releases (1.9.2) of the apps. Updated the graphics driver over the existing one since its an integrated chipset driver --and I am not proficient enough to uninstall a CPU driver and install from scratch, therefore I rely on AMD's installer--. 

Will try right now to disable the hardware acceleration following your suggestion, will write back as soon as I get it done and try it out.

Thank you for your help!

 

[NcikSibille]

Holy smokes! It worked! Designer is up and running! Did exactly as you said, disabling Hardware acceleration from the Performance Preferences XML file. Will try out the same method for Photo and Publisher. 

Thank you so much!!! You have no idea how much of a life saver this is.

Cheers!

NS

[NcikSibille]

Wooow!!! All three apps are up and running!!! (and given that my system is kinda old, I can't tell much difference in performance without the hardware acceleration running, hehe!). 

Thank you once more! Real lifesaver/game changer.

Danke!

NS

[NcikSibille]

Hello Again! I just upgraded to V2 and I'm having the same issues all over again. Is the GPU switch still managed in the same way? I can't find the install files. Its still the same computer, and I used the MSIX installers. Thank you!

[Dan C]

Sorry to hear this issue has returned in V2 for you @NcikSibille!

Can you please try launching the Affinity V2 apps and holding down the CTRL key whilst the app launches - you should see the 'Clear User Data' dialog appear.

Here, you will see an option to disable Hardware Acceleration, please tick this and then select Clear. The app should hopefully now open:

Please do let me know if this helps

[NcikSibille]

Awesome!! It worked like a charm, going to do the same with the other apps. Thanks, this is a game changer!