Problems with PhotoWiz Plugins under Win 7 with PhotoPlus

General discussions ColorWasher, FocalBlade, LightMachine, B/W Styler and ContrastMaster
Post Reply
emmrecs
Plugin Expert
Plugin Expert
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:49 pm
Location: Lincolnshire, UK

Problems with PhotoWiz Plugins under Win 7 with PhotoPlus

Post by emmrecs »

I have all the PhotoWiz plug ins (BW Styler 1.03, Color Washer 2.04, Contrast Master 1.04, Focal Blade 1.07, Light Machine 1.06) running in Serif Photo Plus X3 (latest version) under Windows 7 32 bit.

I have discovered a "problem" which occurs with ALL these plug-ins: if I decide to "cancel" the plug-in, i.e. NOT apply any filter effect, the program immediately crashes. Formerly I ran exactly the same combination of plug-ins and program under XP, without problem.

This is a real annoyance since, sometimes, the "final" decision, having checked the differences any of the plug-ins might make, is that "no change" is best in the circumstances. I suppose it might be possible to "apply" a change and then "undo" it but this is a somewhat "kludgy" workaround.

I've seen an earlier post re DEP, but on my computer DEP is ONLY active for "Windows services etc.."

I would Very much welcome any advice!



UPDATE: I've now discovered that attempting to "OK" any plug-in setting (i.e. apply the change) ALSO crashes the program.

HELP!!!


FURTHER UPDATE: I also have a number of other plug-ins installed, some free (including PhotoFreebies) and some paid for (e.g. Neat Image). None of these cause any problem to PhotoPlus, the effect is applied quickly and successfully.

One thing I have noticed with the PhotoWiz plugs, if I want to OK the change, is that the "crash" seems to occur when the on-screen progress indicator suggests that the effect is "complete", but instead of showing the photo as "effected" the screen becomes transparent and after a few seconds a message appears that PhotoPlus "needs to close". Only once have I received any specific "error message", which was "Memory Access Violation".

Looking at the error report that Win 7 generates consistently shows the "faulting module" as "ntdll.dll". For information I am posting here one complete "error listing";

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: PhotoPls.exe
Application Version: 13.0.0.10
Application Timestamp: 49f9d11f
Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Fault Module Timestamp: 4a5bdadb
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0005205b
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.256.48
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789


I have considered uninstalling and reinstalling PhotoPlus but since my other plugs work properly I am reluctant to do this since the problem does not APPEAR to be with the host application.

emmrecs
Plugin Expert
Plugin Expert
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:49 pm
Location: Lincolnshire, UK

Post by emmrecs »

No-one any ideas on this problem, which is seriously hindering my normal workflow? Harald?

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Serif PhotoPlus X3, but the problem remains exactly as before. I suppose the next step could be to uninstall and reinstall ALL my PhotoWiz plugs but it seems unlikely a faulty install would affect them all.

HELP!

HaraldHeim
Plugin Guru
Plugin Guru
Posts: 3363
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2002 1:00 am
Location: The Plugin Site
Contact:

Post by HaraldHeim »

Thanks for letting me know about the problem. Seems the combination of PhotoPlus X3 and Win 7 causes it.

Unfortunately Serif does not provide trial versions of their applications. But I have PhotoPlus 11 from a magazine cover disk. I will see if I can reproduce the problem with it.

I will let you know.

emmrecs
Plugin Expert
Plugin Expert
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:49 pm
Location: Lincolnshire, UK

Post by emmrecs »

Thanks Harald!

I've also posted about this at the Serif User forum because I'm sure there are others who use PhotoWiz with PhotoPlus. So far, no replies!

If there's anything I can do to help track down the cause of this, please feel free to contact me.

Regards.

Jeff

emmrecs
Plugin Expert
Plugin Expert
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:49 pm
Location: Lincolnshire, UK

Post by emmrecs »

Since there is, apparently, no solution to this problem yet, I wonder if I might be able, Harald, to help you in your search?

I note you have disabled PMs on the board - for obvious reasons - but I wonder if there is any other way to contact you since I may well be able to help with an entirely legal way to obtain a "more up-to-date" version of PhotoPlus, free?

Clearly, you will have access to my email address; I am quite happy for you to contact me via that route.

Jeff

HaraldHeim
Plugin Guru
Plugin Guru
Posts: 3363
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2002 1:00 am
Location: The Plugin Site
Contact:

Post by HaraldHeim »

I managed to reproduce the problem with PhotoPlus 11 under Windows 7 64-bit. The problem is that PhotoPlus uses a zero memory buffer handle, which causes the problem.

I managed to add a workaround. I will upload fixed versions as soon as possible. I will let you know by email.

emmrecs
Plugin Expert
Plugin Expert
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:49 pm
Location: Lincolnshire, UK

Post by emmrecs »

HaraldHeim wrote:I managed to reproduce the problem with PhotoPlus 11 under Windows 7 64-bit. The problem is that PhotoPlus uses a zero memory buffer handle, which causes the problem.

I managed to add a workaround. I will upload fixed versions as soon as possible. I will let you know by email.
Thank you Harald! That is excellent news!

Just one question. I note you say you were able to reproduce the problem under Win 7 64 bit. I'm running Win 7 32 bit. Is the "fix" still applicable?

Regards.

Jeff

HaraldHeim
Plugin Guru
Plugin Guru
Posts: 3363
Joined: Fri Mar 08, 2002 1:00 am
Location: The Plugin Site
Contact:

Post by HaraldHeim »

Yes, the fix works on all version of Windows. It is only necessary under Windows 7 though. I did not test under Vista yet, so maybe the same problem occurs there too. But I do not think so, because someone else would probably have reported it in the past.

The problem is that the zero memory handle makes the plugins free the memory using a different method than it was allocated. This does not cause a problem under XP but under 7. The fix makes sure that the memory is freed with the correct method under all versions of Windows.

Another thing that I noticed is that PhotoPlus displays the plugin preview very slowly. It seems to draws the preview pixel by pixel and not at once. Seems that PhotoPlus is not such a good plugin host at all.

emmrecs
Plugin Expert
Plugin Expert
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Jan 12, 2005 7:49 pm
Location: Lincolnshire, UK

Post by emmrecs »

Another thing that I noticed is that PhotoPlus displays the plugin preview very slowly. It seems to draws the preview pixel by pixel and not at once. Seems that PhotoPlus is not such a good plugin host at all.
Interesting comment! That's not something I had noticed but then my experience with photo editing programs is very limited.

Anyway, I look forward very much to being able to use these plug ins in Win 7; at the moment I have a special install of PhotoPlus X3 in a Win XP Virtual Machine under Win 7, just so that I can use them without having to completely reboot my machine from Win7 to XP since I currently have a dual-boot system, though I am intending to move entirely to Win 7 as soon as possible! (Hope that makes sense)!.

Jeff

Post Reply