A question about crashes

[Hokusai]

Just a question for anyone who might know a solution or have an idea of what is causing my problems. I've been having intermittent problems and it only happens when I'm using Affinity Designer. I originally thought Affinity Designer was the culprit but after posting about it here, I came to the conclusion that the fact that it only happens when I'm using Affinity Designer is just a coincidence. After reading this article ( was sure that it was something to do with mDNSResponder but now I don't think so (the problems with the mDNSRepsonder don't create the same kind of problems that I'm having). I was just wondering if anyone else is having the same issue or has had the same issue that I'm having. What happens for me is when I'm drawing in Affinity Designer using the Pen tool (with a JPEG on the 1st layer to use as a reference), and I press the space bar to get the Hand tool, the hand tool activates like it is going to pan but what it does is lock the screen. If I'm running iTunes in the background, music still plays and I can move the panning hand tool but it doesn't pan. I can't force quit the program, in fact I can't do anything. I can't switch programs or launch any new ones (the keyboard doesn't appear to work but it is working). I can't even access any menu items either (the cursor still moves and I can turn on the CapsLock but I can't do anything else). The only thing I can do is hard boot my computer to get it back. It isn't iTunes because it also happens when I'm not running iTunes, in fact I'm only running Affinity Designer. The odd thing is, it happens here and there and then it doesn't do it for a few weeks or a month and then it starts doing it again. The only time it has ever done it is when I'm using Affinity Designer. I don't get a crash log from Affinity Designer (I'm guessing because it didn't actually crash but I had to hard boot the computer and so it doesn't seem to generate a crash report, I don't know if this is correct but there isn't a crash log from Affinity Designer). I'm running OS 10.10.2 and it has happened to me with both the Mac App Store version and the beta. I posted about this in January and both MattP and MEB seemed to think it was being caused by something else, which it very well might be (if so, does anyone have any clue as to what might be causing the problem?). I'm not running any add-ons or anything other than a stock OS. My computer is a 2009 27 inch iMac with an ATI Radeon HD 4670 256 MB video card. It only does this when I'm using the Pen tool and I press the spacebar to pan (every single time this has been the case). I was just curious if anyone else has seen this sort of thing? Does anyone know if you hard boot, will it generate a crash report for any programs that were locked up before the hard boot? As I said, this problem isn't something that happens all the time, it is very intermittent but it seems to be happening more lately and I would like to resolve it. Any tips or suggestions that might help me to resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks in advance,

Hokusai

[A_B_C]

Hmm, perhaps this one is related:

 

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1708672

 

The user seems to have fixed the issue by changing the screen resolution ... Never had the issues myself ...  :unsure:

[Hokusai]

A_B_C,

 

Thanks for the link. I think that the issue that I'm having is something like that (similar but a little different). The drawings that i make normally have a lot of shapes, anywhere from 5,000 and up. I'm wondering if it is something as simple as I need to up the "RAM Usage" in the preferences? I don't know why, but I think that the program is having a hard time to draw all the shapes (I have no idea, just a guess). I have increased the amount of RAM Usage and I will see if it eliminates the lockups. 

[ronnyb]

Might wanna try Disk Utility to Repair you disk and Repair Permissions, run it a few times, sometimes it doesn't get all the errors on the first pass... Otherwise, I would try to re-install the OS... I know it may seem a bit drastic, but sometimes there are low-level corruptions that there's no other way to fix. That's been my experience in the past...

[Hokusai]

ronnyb,

 

Thanks for the tips. I have tried repairing permissions but it didn't help. I don't think that it is something that is OS specific as it doesn't affect any other program, only Affinity Designer but if my problems persist, I'll try reinstalling the OS. I really think my problems are being caused by the "RAM Usage" setting (not having enough RAM allocated in the preferences). In the preferences I upped the RAM usage and so far I haven't had any problems. Before I was using the default setting and possibly it was a little low for the type of drawings that I do. If Affinity locks up again, I'll up the settings even more and possibly buy another stick of RAM. By the way, what setting do you use for "RAM Usage"? 

[ronnyb]

This is what I have for AD. I just added more RAM to my laptop, total 16GB, so I may play with upping the RAM allocation too... I thought those days of allocating RAM to apps was over, and the OS handled it... but I guess not...

 

 

[ronnyb]

I would also try upping the RAM limit before re-installing the OS... that's a LAST resort thing...

[Hokusai]

MattP or MEB,

 

First of all let me just say that I love the software and I know that you guys are working hard to add new things and to improve other things but I'm still having the same issue that I wrote about above. It is an issue that I've been having ever since I first started using Affinity Designer last November. It is rather intermittent but it seems to be happening a lot more recently and it is making me crazy. Are there any known issues with ATI Graphics cards? When I'm using Affinity Designer it locks up my whole computer, to the point where I have to hard boot it. There is no crash report generated, I'm guessing because the program doesn't crash, it freezes up and I can't access anything else (I can't force quit, nothing). I work on some complex files but it doesn't matter whether or not the drawing is complex or not, I still get lock ups with simple drawings too. I do use Japanese occasionally but it isn't my main language, I don't know if that would make any difference. I saw a post where another user, Garytagreg was having problems and he mentioned that he also uses Japanese as a secondary language and so I was just curious? It seems to be graphics related (graphic card related but that is only a guess) because it always happens when I move and the screen has to redraw. It seems strange, normally I save frequently but there are times when I forget to save and I do a lot of drawing, this is normally when I get a lock up. If I save often (and I mean often, like every 30 second) then it seems to keep the mysterious lock ups away but not always. I set the RAM usage to the max in the preferences and it helped at first but now it doesn't seem to make any difference. Any ideas as to what is causing my problems? I have never had any lock ups with any other programs and it only happens when I'm using Affinity Designer. I love the software and I would love to figure out what is causing the problems that I'm having so I can focus on being creative.

 

Thanks in advance for any help or insight that you can offer,

Hokusai

[joost]

hmm, issues such as you describe always feels like running out of memory to me. So you have enough RAM?  Also you have enough disk swap space?   You say you have no issues with 'other software', does that include other _graphics_ related software (such as illustrator)?

[Hokusai]

joost,

 

Thanks for the suggestions, no I don't have any issues with any other graphics software. The odd thing is, even Affinity Photo runs smoothly and I've never had it lock up or crash at all. Even with Designer, when it locks up my computer, it isn't do anything CPU intensive or anything only panning (panning using the hand tool), if it was a problem because of an insufficient amount of RAM then I would imagine that it would happen when doing really complex boolean operations but it doesn't (it seems to me that the boolean operations are getting faster and able to handle more complex shapes better). 

[Ben]

Matt is not here this week.  I'm sure he'll reply as soon as he gets chance.

[Hokusai]

Ben,

 

Thanks for letting me know. No worries, I'm not in a hurry and it might not even be something that Matt can figure out, I just thought I would throw it out there and see if he or anyone else had any suggestions or if anyone else had experienced similar issues. 

 

Hokusai