Thumbnail Crash on Dual Core fixed

[stefan]

Hi,

i got an email from Irfan where a user posted a "workaround" to prevent shutting down the thumbnailviewer on a dual core machine:

After starting IV Thumbnails, start the task manager, tab processes, select i_view32.exe, 
right mouse "Prozesszugehörigkeit" (sorry, I'm german and have a german Windows 
installed - something like "Which CPUs does the process belong to") and disable "CPU 1" 
(so only CPU 0 is checked finally)

It would be great if any english speaking user with a dual core can give the right expressions for "prozesszugehörogkeit"

steve

[pwright2]

Google translate says "process affiliation". Which can indeed be set from task manager in Vista. Or you can download THG task assignment manager (http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/05/...ocessing_buck/) to control Iview and other programs.

-----Paul------

[Guy]

Wow that is a wierd one, I never use the thumbnail viewer.
On WinXP it is Right-Click the Image in Processes and select "Set Affinity..."

[JPL]

Hi,

Unfortunatly that does not resolve the problem. I tested it before I submited the bug, but the thumbnail viewer keeps crashing.

So perhaps the bug is not related to due core machines?
Could it be related to memory type-speed?

J

[Laurent]

Hi JPL,

Sometimes, odd things occur because the plugins' version doesn't match IrfanView's version. Each time one upgrades IV, one has to upgrade its plugins. If you are unshure that you got the right plugins then it is worth checking and reinstalling them (download the last version from IV website).

Laurent

[JPL]

Hi Laurent,

Well, I'm 101% sure I'm using the updated plugins (at least the ones provided).
I don't use any extra plugin, just the provided with the installer:

Formats.dll - v.4.0.0.1 (updated)

I have also removed the Mpg.dll, the Video.dll and the Effects.dll, as I don't need them.

So, there is a "bug" OR an incopatibility issue within the "i_view32.exe".

Note: The viewer works great, what does not work well is the "thumbnail viewer"

J

[skalir]

I am running irfanview 4.00, on winxp with sp2 fully updated on a core2duo.

I had the same problem with the thumbnail viewer randomly crashing, until I tried the said above affinity and forced to only use 1 of my cores, and now it seems to work perfectly, while set to 1 core.

Although, there really isn't any good or easy way to make it consistently only use 1 core, and big pain in the butt, to have to open it, and then change the affinity and then use it.

Please fix this irfan!!! I love the thumbnail viewer, couldn't live without it.

[lister]

A workaround certainly, but not a fix.

I don't bother with the thumbnail viewer any more, it crashes all the time.

I just use Picasa now (nowhere near as fast), but it's stable and can show CMYK images correctly - which seeing as though half my images are CMYK is something of a plus.

btw: dual core PC here as well.

[itm]

I have the same problem on a Core2Duo E6600 (Abit AB9 Pro board), running XP SP2 with 2Gb of RAM. I've tried setting affinity to each of the two CPUs but still get regular crashing of the thumbnail viewer. I'm running v4, downloaded this week.

[Laurent]

Hi,

No solution here, unluckyly, just an idea (I know nothing about double core).

I noticed that there isn't a specific .exe file for the thumbnails viewer; it's simply the same as the main window (i_view32.exe), at the difference that it is invoked with a switch (i_view32.exe /thumbs).
So, when the main window and the thumbnails viewer are opened together, there are two instances of the same program running.
If this is the problem, I guess it should also happen when one runs two instances of the main window also... There is an option (Others1) to disallow several instances of IrfanView.

Does this help?

Laurent

[lister]

No, as long as the i_view32.exe process is open (no matter the number) and the affinity is set then it will stay until Irfanview is closed; at which point you need to reset the affinity.

[The Blond]

Same Trauma's here on a Core2Duo processor,
the "workaround" works,

any clues when this gets fixed properly??

[ChuckE]

I crash on Thumbnails very often

I crash on Thumbnails often, very often. Usually it is whenever I select another folder in the Thumbnail folder view.

The computer under my fingers, at the moment, is a Pentium 4 (Intel Pentium 4, 540) which is not necessary considered a dual core, but the TaskManager seems to indicate there are two cores. So, I changed the Affinity to use just one (first CPU 0, then later to CPU 1) and that seems to have resolved all the crashes I was getting so often.

But I have noticed crashes ramdomly with much older computers, too (no dual cores back then). What was the reason back then?

This 'work around' is terrible; even if it is the "multi-core-ness" of the CPU that crashes with IV Thumnails. The changing of the Affinity is only good for the current instance of IView. If I open up IView again (I use a hot-key since I love IView a lot), then I have to always remember to re-set the Affinity again. grrrrrrr

Plus, my latest computer has 4 cores (it is an Intel Q6600) and if "2 cores" causes havoc with Thumbnails, what am I to expect with 4?

Irfan, if you are reading this, PLEASE look into the issue.
As I am getting more and more photos, and organizing them into many different folders, the crashes are becoming more and more annoying.

[derniwi]

Hi,

as a workaround I've done this:
I downloaded a tool which can start programs and set the affinity to one processor:

http://www.stefan-kuhr.de/procaff/main.php3

I copied the procaff.exe into the IrfanView directory.

I renamed the i_view32.exe to i_view32_orig.exe.

I wrote this little AutoHotKey (http://www.autohotkey.com/) script (file name "i_view32.ahk"):

#NoEnv ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.

parameter=
Loop, %0%  ; For each parameter:
{
 param := %A_Index%  ; Fetch the contents of the variable whose name is contained in A_Index.
 parameter = %parameter% %param%
}

; change the path to I_view!!!
Run, procaff.exe /run 1 "c:\programme\irfanview\i_view32_orig.exe" %parameter%, %A_WorkingDir%, HIDE

Yo habe to change the path to the irfan view file!

I compiled this auto hot key script and got a new i_view32.exe.

Ok, what will this do? The AHK script will be compiled to an exe file which just calls procaff.exe which will call i_view, pass the parameters and set the affinity to processor 0.

Regards, Nils.

[ChuckE]

I would suppose it works, and I haven't tried it, but there are other "solutions" to run other applications that will launch any program you want with selected CPUs (when there are multi-processors), but your way is clumsy (sorry, do not mean to sound derogative - I am not trying to be) and it requires a re-compilation. I can handle that, most users can not.

But I want a real fix, and not a work-around.

ALSO, Thanks! for an informative and thoughtful work-around.