Lots of JPEG images "ruined" throughout the HDD after installing AD?

[nekto]

Remember that trojan that encrypts files on your pc, asking your for money in order to decrypt files?

 

That's not it.

 

And remember that standard issue with bad sectors on HDD, which ruins some files?

 

That's not it either (I think).

 

Yesterday I installed AD. Before that, I installed the windows update it required. And today I've discovered that some of JPEGs are not previewed in explorer and can't be opened by the native picture viewer. Problematic JPEGs occur everywhere on the harddrive. Needless to say that this is a catastrophy.

 

But not quite a catastrophy, and that's the trick: these images open normaly in Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, MS Word, Fastone Viewer, MS Paint, whatever but not standard viewer. Also, these images open through a local network on another computer with standard viewer (same OS - win7 64bit PRO).

 

And here's trick #2: only photoshop and paint can save jpeg files now, all other programs can't! I export jpegs from INDD and AI - they instantly get "broken" (though they can be opened with the same programs and through LAN). All other formats export fine, but not newly made JPEGS.

 

I googled around and found some interesting advice: two commands have to be executed, but they don't - regsvr32 shimgw.dll and resvr32 shmedia.dll. I triedto execute them via command line (WIN+R) and tried just to open those dll's with regsrv32.exe (in 4 variations, since there is a copy of each dll in two folder - System32 and SystemWOW64 and there is a copy of regsrv32.exe in same two folders) - no use, it gives out an error.

 

I can't restore the system, since never used system restore points. 

 

I'm not saying it's AD's fault, but this looks suspicious. Again:

1) Only JPEGs have this bug.

2) Only SOME of the jpegs have this bug, and problematic images can be in the same folder side by side with normal jpegs.

3) Thumbnails aren't shown and only native image viewer can't open these JPEGs, only on the original PC - everything is previewed and opened through LAN

 

Any ideas? Thank you

 

 

[Mark Ingram]

Hi nekto, I've been installing these betas on all of my machines, and I've never noticed the previews for JPEGs suddenly stop working. I'd be interested to know if anyone else is experiencing this problem.

 

Can you attach a JPEG to this thread and I'll see if it has a preview on my machine.

[emmrecs01]

No such problem here, running Win 10 Pro.  Thumbnails of JPEGs continue to display exactly as they did before.

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I wonder if this is related to the issue with umlaut characters in file paths? 

 

nekto is apparently using Cyrillic in filenames. 

[peterapas]

Hi nekto,

If jpgs are opened by some applications there is good news: files are not damaged in fact, and problem laying in operating system itself. It is hard to say what is exact reason for all this without access to the machine, but I'll rather be suspicious in terms of system upgrades before AD was installed. A *.dll file is Dynamic Linking Library, linked to actual code if needed to do specific task (in very simple words), and this linking process may be affected by some system errors. I had similar issue a good few years ago with Windows Vista and only working solution was format the system drive and clean re-installation of the system. And no, there was no virus or other nasty stuff in the machine - just old and well known ability of the Windows family OS' to accumulate errors in vast space of system registers. To be honest - since that happen, a yearly refreshing of the Windows became my natural habit, and I thing that MS is aware about the problem because we can see more and more advanced 'refreshment' tools in Windows since Vista.

Probably there is some way to fix the problem without system being reinstalled, like *.dll files replacement for the new ones extracted from installation disk, registry scan etc, but as Linux, OSX and Windows user I have experience that sometimes setting things up as new is the best way in case of MS operating system... You'll lost few hours, obviously, but maybe this is the best way...

[nekto]

Hey everyone, thanks for the replies.

 

I fully checked the HDD (low level disk check, including surface check) - no probs with the HDD, no bad sectors or errors, so it's definately not HDD.

 

Mark Ingram

 

See attached image. Created it today - as I said, newly created JPEGS (from AI/INDD) instantly get broken.

 

Bhikkhu Pesala

 

Doubt it - cyrillic letters were sometimes a problem with WinXP, but Win7 doesn't have such issues. besides, even if an image is inside a fully latin-lettered path and has latin name - problem remains.

 

peterapas

 

Yeah, I'm starting to think that DLLs got broken somehow and now am searching for new ones. BTW can you give yours, if you have win7 x64 pro? 4 dlls (2 from system32 and 2 from syswow64).

 

And yeah, reinstalling OS would be the simplest way (way back the time when XP ruled it was a regular procedure) but reviving the OS from ground zero would consume too much time for me right now (reinstalling a bunch of apps, backing up saves of computer games, trying to remember all logins and passwords to tens of accounts in the internet lol).

[Mark Ingram]

Hi nekto, here's a cropped screenshot from my machine after downloading your test JPEG that you attached to this post. As you can see, it previews OK.

[nekto]

Mark Ingram

 

Yeah, I know. It's fine in LAN, google drive and graphic editors. But not in thumbnails and native windows viewer, that's the problem

[itsahobby]

I had hundreds of images that ended up with totally bizarre DPI values. Values like -65536 and 99721 should be impossible but that's what was being reported. These would open fine in some programs but crash others. I did a Q&D application to go through my entire HD and reset these to reasonable numbers (reasonable for me since I seldom make use of them) and Presto! The files could now be opened by everyone.

 

I never did figure out how the bogus numbers got in there but resetting them fixed my problems.

[MikeW]

Might be the Windows Thumbnail cache getting corrupted. Google for what files to delete, reboot, and see if that fixes the issue with current files. Then create some more and see if they hold up.

[peterapas]

 

Yeah, I'm starting to think that DLLs got broken somehow and now am searching for new ones. BTW can you give yours, if you have win7 x64 pro? 4 dlls (2 from system32 and 2 from syswow64).

 

And yeah, reinstalling OS would be the simplest way (way back the time when XP ruled it was a regular procedure) but reviving the OS from ground zero would consume too much time for me right now (reinstalling a bunch of apps, backing up saves of computer games, trying to remember all logins and passwords to tens of accounts in the internet lol).

 

Know this pain - honestly the tendency of Windows family OS' to accumulate errors in time forced me some time ago to switch for Linux, which is my main OS now for most of the jobs - this system after installation and some tweaks can work smoothly for years. I still keep one Win10 laptop with Lightroom and Photoshop CC running, because I have to use some specific plugins for some of my jobs and I cannot re-create them in my Linux environment (this is for high advanced technical photographs for my main customer and as long as they paying - I am happy to keep my Windows alive :-)). 

Answering you question - I am not sure if I still have any Win 7 installation disk, if I can find one - then I can extract these files for you. But quick check in my software collection I recently done return negative result so far... I am afraid that during last desk cleaning I may put it to recycling bin...

[nekto]

itsahobby

 

What is this Q&D app you're talking about? May be it'll help me out too?

 

MikeW

 

That's an idea, thanks!

 

 

peterapas

 

I agree, lots of problems with Windows, but for a graphic designer it's simpler to stick to it right now, since most people use it and full file compatibility is a must when designing some stuff for brand identity (for example, mac versions of MS Office don't support font embedding and that's a real problem)

[itsahobby]

Sorry, Q&D refers to "Quick and Dirty".

 

I "Quickly" wrote a VB App to go through the JPG files on the HD and check for unreasonable DPI values. The "Dirty" part refers to the lack of attention to proper programming practices I exhibited to get the job done.

 

The bad DPI issue was found when I got PaintShop Pro X8. It was crashing every time I tried to open some files. Corel was no help so I had to diagnose and correct the problem myself.

 

Try using irfanView and look at the "Image" - "Information". If the numbers look wrong you can set them to whatever you want, click the "Change" button and save the file.

 

I had thousands of bad ones so I had to do an automated solution.

 

You might also look at Windows as a possible culprit. I tried Windows 10 a few months ago on a spare HD and forgot to disconnect my data drives before booting into Win 10. They all got hundreds of files corrupted by Win 10. I fixed those when I got back on Win 7 but as soon as I put the Win 10 drive in again, the files all got trashed again.

 

I'll be moving to iMac soon.

[nekto]

itsahobby

 

Hmm. I took a look at the properties of the image (not through irfanview, just RMB->Properties), and it seems that all problematic JPEGs have 32bit color depth, while normal one have 24bit. But this is still weird, since PNGs have both 32 and 24 bit color depth and are displaying just fine.

 

Can you comment this please? 

[itsahobby]

Not color depth, my problem was dots per inch (300/120/95/72 etc.)  where mine were showing things like 50,000 dots per inch. That's an unlikely number.

 

In AD when you select an image and look about 2/3rds of the way down the "File-Document Setup" dialog there is a section called "Dimensions". Here it will show the DPI of the image and you can change it to whatever you want.

 

If it is a really silly number, that could be your problem.

[nekto]

itsahobby

 

That's the thing, all params are OK, only the color depth seems suspicious  :huh:

 

BTW, Illustrator *suddenly* started to generate normal JPEGs. One guy gave me his DLLs and I replaced mine (it was quite a trick to do, replacing system files) - maybe that was the solution. But previously "broken" jpegs are still not displaying... Sigh.

[itsahobby]

Are the broken JPGs all the same color space? 32-bit CMYK perhaps instead of 24-bit RGB?

[nekto]

itsahobby

 

Good question! Yes, I've discovered that problematic images have 32bit color depth AND CMYK color space. ANd I was wrong when I said that Illustrator suddenly started to work normally.

 

So now the situation is:

 

InDD and AI create CMYK images which have 32bit color depth. They cannot be preview or displayed. But same files, saved as RGB JPEGs from InDD/AI, have 24bit color depth and are previewed and displayed just fine.

 

Again, the funny part is that when I open those 32bit CMYK JPEGs in PHOTOSHOP and save them (just make a minor change and hit CTRL+S) - images get ressurected: they are preview and displayed normally.

 

I understand why CMYK images have 32bit color depth (4 channels multiplied by 8 bits per channel vs 3 channels by 8bit in RGB), but I don't understand why Photoshop is creating such images just fine, but AI and InDD don't. Any thoughts?  :o

[nekto]

OMG a new portion of bugs, this time with Photoshop. It now doesn't update a JPEG if saved replacing an old file. Discovered it too late, lots of work wasn't updated... OMG.

 

This is a disaster, hate to say it - but I regret installing AD. I've been working on my computer for years, and on my previous PCs - for years as well, and never had any trouble with win7, never had to reinstall it, always kept everything clean and working and now it seems that I have to reinstall the OS   :(  :(  :(

 

I'm also disappointed that moderators and admins aren't paying much attention to my problem, because this is a dead serious problem

[TonyB]

OMG a new portion of bugs, this time with Photoshop. It now doesn't update a JPEG if saved replacing an old file. Discovered it too late, lots of work wasn't updated... OMG.

 

This is a disaster, hate to say it - but I regret installing AD. I've been working on my computer for years, and on my previous PCs - for years as well, and never had any trouble with win7, never had to reinstall it, always kept everything clean and working and now it seems that I have to reinstall the OS   :(  :(  :(

 

I'm also disappointed that moderators and admins aren't paying much attention to my problem, because this is a dead serious problem

 

We are paying attention but we also know it simply can't have anything to do with Affinity Designer. As Mark already posted back and told you the actual file you sent was fine and it's just the preview in Windows that is causing you a problem. My guess is the files saved from Photoshop are also fine but Windows and Preview are just showing the wrong data.

 

This is a Windows support issue. It's not that we don't care it's just that we can't help fix Microsoft's issues.

[nekto]

TonyB

 

Yes, it is a windows bug, but it was caused by AD. AD has weird requirements such as necessary windows updates - never ANY program required an OS update; a particular OS - yes (win xp only, win 7 only, win 10 only) - but never an update. And never any program required to turn on Aero - not graphic editors, not movie editors, not sound editors, not even 3d editor! - they all manage to use hardware acceleration without making the user to modify his OS. And as I said, I worked on my lovely win7 pc for years without any problems, and then I install AD and have these awful bugs in my system, instantly (alright, not quite instantly, because I discovered them only a day after). 

 

Yeah, these bugs look like windows bugs and they are windows bugs, but they appeared because AD did something to my system.

 

And I dunno how you can be so sure that it's not AD. You guys didn't even know about fonts problems until I made a bug report, see my thread: https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/21631-how-to-fix-horrible-ui-fonts/

 

I mean, this is a beta, right, and it's a beta because it has lots of bugs and you can't even charge people money for it, because obviously noone will pay for a buggy program that can ruin a workflow, so it's kinda of a risk. And here I am, took my chance, made a couple of bug reports so that YOU can fix them and earn money in the future, when commercial production-ready version will be prepared (thanks to all of the beta testers), and because of that my system is ruined and you tell me that it's not your problem?

 

This is outrageous, thanks for all your help!

 

and 1 more thing, i hate adobe for their awful bugs inside their programs that they will never fix because people don't have an actual choice, and i tried AD because i am dead sick of illustrator's bugs, but atleast adobe's programs never touched my system, never interfered with anything that's not adobe on my pc. UGHH! Damnit, I'll have to reinstall the OS  :( You guys are programmers, you must be like gods in knowing the system, why can't you help me and give advice on what to do?

[myclay]

Hello nekto :)

could you please try this out?

 

1. clean the Thumbnail Cache with the Disk cleanup.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/10797-thumbnail-cache-clear-reset.html

test again if the image problem occurs

 

2.  remove the microsoft visual C++ redistributable versions which where installed with AD.

test again if the image and other program problems appear

2.1. remove all microsoft visual C++ redistributable versions and then install them again but in order(use microsoft update for that)

test again if the image and other program problems appear

 

3. if those things didn´t help, try to do a repair install (some bought licences can survive that)

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2255099

 

hope it helps

[Willabong]

nekto, it is not unusual for a program to require Net framework and C++ to be installed to run. And while everyone is sorry that you are having these problems,NO ONE ELSE is!

This strongly suggests that your trouble is Windows related and not Affinity. Everyone else who runs Affinity Designer also has the extra downloads and Aero enabled, but no one has damaged jpeg files?