Computer Hope

Hardware => Hardware => Topic started by: Dell-531S on September 20, 2012, 12:26:31 PM

Title: Windows photo viewer problem, but is this really a motherboard problem?
Post by: Dell-531S on September 20, 2012, 12:26:31 PM

Have a Dell 531S Vista 32 bit purchased new years ago. Photos in our photo folders taken by our own cameras mostly 6MP. It is my wife + little kid's computer.  As best I know, from day 1, when using the standard Windows photo viewer to open and look at photos, randomly on the 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th whatever photo, the photo would open as gibberish... assorted blocks of colors.  Close the photo, try again, it would work until the next random time.  Size of photo did not matter.  .5MP or 8MP... the gibberish could happen.

After a photo is open, you can keep it open for an hour - no problem.  It is the act of OPENING that triggers it.  Happening for years.  But now...

As the kids stopped being babies, became older, they want to play games...  playing simple games would make the fans roar on this simple computer, so I installed a dedicated graphics card.

And now... when using the standard Windows photo viewer to open and look at photos, randomly on the 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th whatever photo, the Windows photo viewer closes.  Clearly, the gibberish event has been replaced by the program closing.  Maybe the photo prior to the old gibberish, and now the program closing, opened slightly slowly... maybe.
 
Because the same defect is being seen with a new graphics card, I am wondering if this is a mother board problem?

Other than Windows photo viewer, the Windows Media Player Visualizaion that shows photo slideshows of your photos will also close after it shows a bunch of photos.

Playing youtubes, games, kids playing with MS paint... no problems.

The only other odd thing about this computer, from day 1, the hard drive seems to work more than normal.  Nearly constantly.  I have turned off services and indexing and tried many things.  It did not change it.  Probably not connected to the issue, but thought I should mention it.

Title: Re: Windows photo viewer problem, but is this really a motherboard problem?
Post by: jason2074 on September 21, 2012, 12:00:25 AM
What format are these pictures being viewed? Do you have other photo viewer such as Windows Live Photo Gallery?

Download MiniToolBox (http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/minitoolbox/) and select all options.
A notepad will open then copy-paste the report on your next reply.
Title: Re: Windows photo viewer problem, but is this really a motherboard problem?
Post by: ninjatex on September 21, 2012, 12:44:33 AM
If this were a motherboard or video card problem you'd see more errors -- this is simply a software issue. For whatever reason, Microsoft products on your computer are unable to open images. There are two ways to fix this:

1. Find the source of the problem
It's probably some corrupted file or registry key somewhere. This will likely take forever and make your hair fall out from stress and agitation

2. Re-install Windows
Takes an hour plus the time it takes to backup/restore your data.
Title: Re: Windows photo viewer problem, but is this really a motherboard problem?
Post by: Dell-531S on September 27, 2012, 12:13:15 PM
Thanks for the replies.  Here is more info just in case there is a less painful fix...

These are all jpegs.

Windows Media Player Photo Slide Show Visualizaion also freezes then closes.  Windows Media Player Visualizaions that are random fracturals go without error.  VSO Image Resizer can resize a photo file without error -- but VSO is a program that does not DISPLAY photos -- it resizes photo files. 

Here are the error codes from Windows Explorer from just now when attempting to open a few 6MP photos.  Opening and closing photos by simple clicking, this occured when trying to open the 3rd photo...

Problem signature:
  Problem Event Name:   APPCRASH
  Application Name:   Explorer.EXE
  Application Version:   6.0.6002.18005
  Application Timestamp:   49e01da5
  Fault Module Name:   gdiplus.dll
  Fault Module Version:   5.2.6002.18342
  Fault Module Timestamp:   4cd300b8
  Exception Code:   c0000005
  Exception Offset:   0004ceec
  OS Version:   6.0.6002.2.2.0.768.3
  Locale ID:   1033
  Additional Information 1:   fd00
  Additional Information 2:   ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160
  Additional Information 3:   fd00
  Additional Information 4:   ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

Maybe linked to this or not, after Windows Explorer closes and I go back to my desktop, the desktop icons are gone and I need to reclick VIEW > SHOW DESKTOP ICONS.
Title: Re: Windows photo viewer problem, but is this really a motherboard problem?
Post by: ninjatex on September 30, 2012, 02:38:09 AM
Honestly I would re-install Windows. You're going to spend more time diagnosing and fixing this problem than you'd spend starting from scratch. As long as you double backup your data beforehand you should be fine.
Title: Re: Windows photo viewer problem, but is this really a motherboard problem?
Post by: patio on September 30, 2012, 05:50:36 AM
An Interesting Read... (http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f10/gdiplus-dll-error-166679.html)

One of the fixes is to open a command and run sfc /scannow...

NOTE: There is a space between the command and the /switch.
Have your XP CD handy...it'll ask for it.