Affinity Publisher 2.5.2 Failing to Launch on Windows11

[YumMango]

Hello.  I've read other forum posts of a similar nature including one indicating that this issue is resolved in the 2.5.2 build. 

History:  I have used AP nearly on a daily basis for the past 1.5 years.  I like the program.  I recently had some unrelated computer problems so I decided to build a new system.  I reinstalled Windows 11 and performed all updates.  AP was running fine.  I suspect, although I cannot say for certain, that after I installed Fantasy Grounds software problems arose.   At about that point, I could not launch AP.  I would see a little screen announcing the software and build but it would never actually deploy.   I tried many fixes, including trying to launch it in safe mode, but nothing worked.  One solution briefly worked.  I did a system restore and AP would launch, but at that point I did not savvy on to the issue of Fantasy Grounds.  When I reinstalled that suspect program the issues returned.  But this time the restore point was gone.  Frustrated and out of ideas, I opted for a full and fresh install of Windows 11.  One of the first programs that I installed was AP, and it was launching fine.  But as I was updating Windows yesterday, the problem returned but this time without my prime suspect Fantasy Grounds.  One of the updates was to the NET Framework.  I had a restore point, and I used it.  I have AP up and running, so that is good.  I have Windows updates paused, which obviously has to happen eventually. 

I'm not a knowledgeable user.  I rely on blunt force to work through PC issues.    My current NET Framework v4 is 4.8.09032 and v4.0 is 4.0.0.0.  I'm not clear on the differences between the two or which one AP uses. 

I do see there is an option to use an older build of AP, which I didn't know about before, so I'll try that if a Windows 11 update reintroduces the problem.  At the moment, I'm sharing this information to (a) say that there is a continued issue related to launching and (b) maybe get some guidance for the next round of Windows updates.  AP is a high priority for me.  I might create another restore point and install Fantasy Grounds just to gain knowledge but I don't want to repeat the agony of another Windows installation.     

 

[YumMango]

I thought that I attached the pdf of my PC profile before but I don't see it above.  

[MOD EDIT - attachment removed]

[Dan C]

14 minutes ago, YumMango said:

I thought that I attached the pdf of my PC profile before but I don't see it above.  

My apologies, as a moderator here I hid this attachment from your post as I believe it may contain personally identifiable information - I had thought I had made a clear edit to your post to indicate this, but apparently I forgot!

This original attachment can still be viewed by other moderators, but not by other users who may wish to download this file and sell the information etc and therefore does not need to be posted again. For these reasons I've removed the attachment from your above post.

 

In regards to the issue you're reporting - I understand that once you have installed Fantasy Grounds, the Affinity apps them fail to launch - is that correct?

We've previously seen certain applications interacting with the same .NET runtime that the Affinity apps use, and this may be what is happening here, though we will require any crash reports being created on your machine to identify this.
Please provide the latest 3 .DMP crash files, as outlined here -

Alongside this, please open Windows Run (Windows Key + R) then paste the following string and press OK:

%USERPROFILE%\.affinity\Photo\2.0\

In the window that opens, please select the log.txt file, then attach this to your reply here also.

Many thanks in advance!

[YumMango]

Thanks for watching out for me! 

Clarification: It's not just another program, it's Windows update too.  I think it's the update for NET Framework.  That is why I'm hesitant to allow Windows to repeat the update after I did a restore.  

Attached is the log below.  Please know that it will not show the full history because of the installation of Windows and the repeated installations of AP.  But it looks like there is some remaining record from yesterday.  

Log.txt

[Dan C]

No problem at all

Many thanks for providing that for me - I've asked one of our developers to take a further look at your log file & PC specs to see if there is a clear reason for these crashes and will be sure to respond here ASAP..

23 hours ago, YumMango said:

It's not just another program, it's Windows update too.  I think it's the update for NET Framework. 

Do you know the specific version number for the Windows Update causing this please? 

[YumMango]

I'm not sure.  I remember seeing one specifically for the NET Framework.  Right now 2024-06 Cumulative Update KB5039212 started once I activated updates.  But I'm not sure what will follow.  Perhaps I'll let it update and watch what happens.   

Edited June 19, 2024 by YumMango

[YumMango]

Okay, I'm pretty sure that was it.  AP won't launch now.  

f05d0893-e7a0-4506-82ef-76463b9cdabe.dmp

[Dan C]

Many thanks for providing these files and further information for me, it's certainly appreciated! My apologies for the delayed response here.

Inspecting your crash report, I can see the app itself is not crashing, but actually the AMD driver is causing the crash (note amdocl64.dll)

Without access to the AMD driver 'symbols', I'm unable to debug the report further - but this does indicate the Affinity app itself is not the cause of the crash, it is the AMD driver.

Inspecting your log file, I can see the AMD driver number currently in use is 31.0.22044.1 - and there are other reports online of this driver causing issues:

• Report 1
• Report 2

Equally, I am unsure which version of AMD Adrenalin you have installed currently (if at all), but we've had another user confirm the AMD Adrenalin driver, 24.3.1 can also cause the Affinity app to crash - so you might need to either update or roll back this also:

Finally, as the app is crashing in the OpenCL AMD driver, which Affinity uses for Hardware Acceleration, I'd also recommend disabling this option from the Clear User Data dialog as outlined here - 

I hope this helps!

[YumMango]

This is great information.  Thank you.  Yes, crashes have been a chronic issue. In fact, I just dropped Nvidia because that was crashing and now I'm dealing with AMD.  

But the issue I'm presenting here is A. Publisher failing to launch.  This is happening a lot, and I think it's related to a W11 update.  I'm rolling back my system a lot and reinstalling A. Publisher to make it work. 

[Dan C]

On 6/21/2024 at 7:25 PM, YumMango said:

the issue I'm presenting here is A. Publisher failing to launch.  This is happening a lot, and I think it's related to a W11 update

I certainly understand, though from all of the information you've provided (and your crash reports) - this indicates the app is crashing when initialising the AMD driver, though it's possible that AMD driver initialisation crash only occurs following the Windows Update.