Both affinity designer and photo shut down as soon as I launch them

[lindon]

I have been trying to launch affinity photo and designer for the last 3 months, trying all the different tricks others have used, such as changing colour profile in colour management, dotnet fix tool, etc. I had both applications working on version 1.9.2 when I first bought the product, So I thought trying to reinstall those versions would be my safest bet.

I've checked my %temp% and found the startup logs, I hope this can be of use:

+Startup: 23/05/2022 6:02:28 PM
+OS version: 10.0.19044
+ProductName: Designer
+ProductType: Retail
+Opening HKLM...
+	OK
+Opening registry key: 'SOFTWARE\Serif\Affinity\Designer\1'...
+	OK
+Reading registry data...
+	Designer Install Path: [not found]
+	Designer Desktop shortcut: 1
+Getting ProgramW6432 environment variable...
+	OK
+Install path not found, using default: C:\Program Files\Affinity\Designer
+Opening MSI database: Affinity.msi
+Opening database view: SELECT `Value` FROM `Property` WHERE `Property`='ProductVersion'
+	OK
+MsiViewExecute
+	OK
+MsiViewFetch
+	OK
+MsiRecordGetString
+	Value: 1.9.2.1035
+Opening database view: SELECT `Value` FROM `Property` WHERE `Property`='ProductCode'
+	OK
+MsiViewExecute
+	OK
+MsiViewFetch
+	OK
+MsiRecordGetString
+	Value: {97E38C19-DA5D-448B-9840-38646582331F}
+Install state: -1
+	IsThisVersionInstalled: False
+Opening database view: SELECT `Value` FROM `Property` WHERE `Property`='UpgradeCode'
+	OK
+MsiViewExecute
+	OK
+MsiViewFetch
+	OK
+MsiRecordGetString
+	Value: {8D334CF3-2FB7-40EA-A68E-5891CDAD8F53}
+MsiEnumRelatedProducts: 259
+	IsAnyVersionInstalled: False
+ProductCode: {97E38C19-DA5D-448B-9840-38646582331F}
+ProductVersion: 1.9.2
+InstallType: Normal
+Initialising main window...
+	OK
+Main window loaded
+Checking requirements...
+	OK
+DotNetInstall: checking installed version
+	Found 528372
+Switching to page: Install

 

[NathanC]

Hi @lindon welcome to the forums,

Is the app freezing/refusing to load on the startup/splash screen or does it eventually crash before it is able to launch?

If it's the latter, could you provide us with a crash report? The linked thread details how to find these.

 

 

[lindon]

Hey @NathanC It seems to be crashing before even starting up, It does the same thing when I tried reinstalling it, now the Installer won't even run, I run it as administrator, it pops up on my tab, then just shuts down with nothing popping up at all

[NathanC]

The referenced SetupUI log doesn't appear to indicate any obvious errors and is closing very early on in the process, do you have any anti-virus software installed which could potentially be interfering with the app? If so, it may be worth temporarily pausing this and trying to the install again.

Just to confirm, are there any recent crash reports in the %AppData%\Affinity\Designer\1.0\CrashReports\reports folder?

[Jonny Spaceman]

Yes It's just starting happening to me with photo and publisher, a few days ago.
Both have been working fine since I purchased them around Christmas time.

Both photo and publisher start to load, the little start up picture comes on the screen, then it just bums out.

Thanks

054b5827-1a48-4ae3-8cd2-8641db0fce46.dmp 73041fb2-7dd6-418e-be37-816ee056aff6.dmp 8470afbf-33e8-4f34-b90b-4675d95e39f5.dmp 8f6ca637-a80e-4d3b-a7ee-69dfd79038b4.dmp 0f39a01b-d4fe-4eab-af00-4a446e9af7fb.dmp 0df4b8c1-ad20-45f6-97a0-f54073b33dd0.dmp 622b18fe-8b4f-4645-95b8-1cad94c741e4.dmp 54184f1d-d3e1-40a1-9a05-65c5a2c335fa.dmp

[lindon]

18 hours ago, NathanC said:

The referenced SetupUI log doesn't appear to indicate any obvious errors and is closing very early on in the process, do you have any anti-virus software installed which could potentially be interfering with the app? If so, it may be worth temporarily pausing this and trying to the install again.

Just to confirm, are there any recent crash reports in the %AppData%\Affinity\Designer\1.0\CrashReports\reports folder?

No new crash logs, the latest one I have is from the 20/03/2022, I have uploaded that just in case it shows any indication to the problem. No new crash logs though from me trying to launch the applications.

2dd0617d-6632-4828-9876-7ae57b2c9350.dmp

[lindon]

18 hours ago, NathanC said:

The referenced SetupUI log doesn't appear to indicate any obvious errors and is closing very early on in the process, do you have any anti-virus software installed which could potentially be interfering with the app? If so, it may be worth temporarily pausing this and trying to the install again.

Just to confirm, are there any recent crash reports in the %AppData%\Affinity\Designer\1.0\CrashReports\reports folder?

Also adding on, Paused my anti virus (Kaspersky) and affinity Designer & Photo is still just popping up in my task bar, then disappearing, So safe to say my anti-virus is not interfering.

[NathanC]

10 hours ago, Jonny Spaceman said:

Yes It's just starting happening to me with photo and publisher, a few days ago.
Both have been working fine since I purchased them around Christmas time.

Both photo and publisher start to load, the little start up picture comes on the screen, then it just bums out.

Thanks

Hi @Jonny Spaceman, your crash reports suggest an issue with the GPU drivers/OpenCL Hardware Acceleration. Could you try updating your Graphics card drivers to the latest version, reboot and try launching Photo/Publisher again.

If you're still having issues, could you try manually disabling Hardware Acceleration in the PerformancePreferences.xml by following the below thread and launching Photo/Publisher.

-------------------

1 hour ago, lindon said:

No new crash logs, the latest one I have is from the 20/03/2022, I have uploaded that just in case it shows any indication to the problem. No new crash logs though from me trying to launch the applications.

@lindon your crash report also indicates a GPU related issue, however i'm guessing this crash report was from a point in which Designer was installed. To further rule out any Windows user environment based issues, could you try creating a new temporary Windows user and try running the installation?

[lindon]

Hey @NathanC Great news, creating the new temp user, I was able to install and run both Affinity applications flawlessly. I then went on to my main profile and noticed the apps had been installed (Transferred from the other user), So I tried running photo but it crashed, So we now have a new updated crash log finally, I have attached it down below

6260b7ac-ee04-4d48-82f8-ef562ff49083.dmp

[NathanC]

2 minutes ago, lindon said:

Hey @NathanC Great news, creating the new temp user, I was able to install and run both Affinity applications flawlessly. I then went on to my main profile and noticed the apps had been installed (Transferred from the other user), So I tried running photo but it crashed, So we now have a new updated crash log finally, I have attached it down below

Good to hear some progress has been made, i've checked your crash report and it's erroring on d3d9.dll, which is indicating this is a GPU/driver related issue. I would advice initially confirming that you have the latest drivers installed and go through with a re-installation of your drivers.

If you're still having problems with it crashing on startup, could you try following the below thread on disabling Hardware Acceleration in the apps manually.

 

[lindon]

I've sadly already tried the OpenCL solution, sadly with no luck. I have also gone through and updated all drivers and tried reinstalling them. I don't understand how I can create a new profile and it works instantly, It would be using the same version of every driver I use on my main profile would it not?

I have uploaded the new crash too see if that has anything new in it. Hopefully 😛

bf9f8bec-2834-4182-8cce-e79c747a30df.dmp

[NathanC]

32 minutes ago, lindon said:

I've sadly already tried the OpenCL solution, sadly with no luck. I have also gone through and updated all drivers and tried reinstalling them. I don't understand how I can create a new profile and it works instantly, It would be using the same version of every driver I use on my main profile would it not?

This is definitely a strange case, I've checked your crash report and it still references issues with d3d9.dll, you're correct in saying it would use the same GPU driver across user accounts. Since everything works fine on the new user, you could try copying over your Affinity Appdata settings from the new user account over to the old user account by following the below:

1. On your new user account, press Win + R go to %AppData%/Affinity and right click the Designer folder > compress to zip file
2. Copy the zip file over to a location accessible by both user accounts, such as the C:\ drive
3. Log back into your old user, go to %AppData%/Affinity and rename your old designer folder to 'Designer.old'
4. Extract your new user's Designer folder in the same location
5. Try launching Photo again

Additionally, have you confirmed that you don't have any 3rd party apps running which could be interfering with the App? The linked forum thread details a list of these however I'd try closing all unnecessary apps in the taskbar similar to how the new user launches.

 

 

 

[Jonny Spaceman]

Hi Nathan, Lindon,

No luck, I've disabled Norton 360 Auto-Protect and Smart Firewall, un-installed photo and published, downloaded the latest versions and re-installed. Updated my graphics card driver (AMD Radeon R9 M280X)

I have a HP ZBook laptop, it's been quite good and reliable.

 

[Jonny Spaceman]

Hi Nathan, Lindon,

I've just gone into the PerformancePreferences.xml files for both photo and publisher and change UseHardwareAcceleration>True</UseHardwareAcceleration> to UseHardwareAcceleration>False</UseHardwareAcceleration>  as you recommended. Appears to be working fine now.

Thanks for your help.

[lindon]

@NathanC Sorry for the M.I.A, Had a few work things come up and put this on the back burner, After looking through the list of 'known third party' software that interfere I found that RivaTuner  was on the 'low' setting I turned it off and the applications started up perfectly. Thank you for the constant help and knowledge provided