X3 hang splash screen "InitComMan" w/AMD Catalyst 11.10 WHQL

[sveinan]

Subject describes it all really. When I started to use the preview releases of AMD's Catalyst 11.10 drivers, PSP Photo X3 would hang every time on the splash screen with the "Initializing Command Manager..." text. I have to kill the "Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo.exe" process. I did a clean install of AMD Catalyst 11.9 drivers, and no problems again. At the time I though it a 11.10 preview behavior. Maybe something about being unsigned drivers (not WHQL/signed).

Well. Today 31oct2011 the AMD Catalyst 11.10 WHQL/signed drivers was released. No change, with 11.10 final X3 hangs on splash screen, back to 11.9 it works.

I know there might be other ways. Reinstall Windows, test out PSP X4, and probably more. But I'll run X3 on a virtual machine before I do a reinstall, would take me one week of work And from reading about X4, Corel have missed their target audience by a mile Why can't they understand that some of us, me at least, would pay full price for a major upgrade that did not give a single new feature. Just put all the work into tuning/bugfixing the ones already there. I'm serious about that angle.

Back to my problem. For now I'm trying to gather if someone with a similar setup is experiencing this, or if I'm alone. Or if someone has tips to tweaks or problemsolving I could try (debug logs ?, ...), that are not too drastic. Any feedback appreciated

Little more about my setup:
» Win7 Ultimate 64bit (SP1, patched up)
» AMD HD 6950 x2 (AMD Catalyst 11.10 WHQL drivers, with CAP 4)
» Corel PSP Photo X3 13.2.1.32 (Patch 5)

PS: Going back to 11.9 is not very attractive, playing Battlefield 3 for the moment. Yeah I know, my priorities might not be very rational

[teknisyan]

I'm sorry to hear about this issue. Can you try these steps on PSP X3.

1. Delete the corel folder under "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Corel"

2. Reset Workspace. You can do that by pressing and holding down the SHIFT key then double-click on the PSP icon then when you received the message "DO YOU WAN TO RESTORE PAINTSHOP Pro TO ITS DEFAULT STATE?" just click OK.

3. Reinstall PSP X3, you can uninstall the program via the add/remove programs of Windows 7, then reinstall it using the the disc installer or redownload it from the order email that was originally sent to you or follow the steps here... http://corel.force.com/index/articles/e ... d-My-Order

[Madaz]

yes the above fixes don't work

as i have come from a fresh install i didn't even have this location "C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Corel"

[eL_PuSHeR]

Hmm. It works fine here. Are you sure you didn't download a beta? When you first posted this, I checked AMD site and 11.10 weren't out yet. I think they were out yesterday.

How did you install it? I just installed 11.10 over 11.9 without problems. Your mileage may vary. Try completely uninstalling Catalyst from Control Panel and do a clean installation afterwards.

[sveinan]

Thanks for the replies, tried a few things.

@Abiel Corel NA
1. Deleted "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Corel" folder. Still hangs at same point.
2. Did the shift/double-click/shortcut trick, OK'ed "default state" prompt. Still hangs at same point.
3. Uninstalled X3, reboot, installed X3 (13.0.0.264). Still hangs at same point.

Tested one more thing. In bullet 3 i did a test install of X4 trial after X3 uninstall (before X3 install). Looks like X4 do not have the same problem. Just an observation for now.

@Madaz
Interesting. Looks like your setup is very similar to mine. Win7 64bit and AMD 6950.

@eL_PuSHeR
Thanks for suggestions. They were officially available 31oct, I did download them from an AMD URL. Just to double-check I downloaded the 64bit driver now and did a binary compare against the one I downloaded. Was identical. Also, I didn't get the 'unsigned' prompt, so the drivers I used was 'WHQL signed'.

About the install technique. Very valid question. Independent of upgrade/downgrade of AMD drivers I always do the following (even minor upgrades): Uninstall CAP & AMD driver through official uninstall (Control Panel). Reboot into safe mode (F8). "Cleaner" on AMD stuff. Reboot into Windows. Install newer/older AMD driver. So it shouldn't be that, unfortunately.

One difference between us is that you look to be on 32bit Win7. Might be a problem only showing itself when 64bit. Or it could be something else. Problemsolving is so fun

Generally
Not sure what I will do at this point. Might have to go for X4, if registered version is ok too. See what gives the path of least resistance (& hassle) I guess Corel wouldn't mind me going X4, if it solved the problem. But if there really is a general problem with Win7 64bit AMD 11.10 + X3. There will, in time, probably be more replies to this thread.

[Madaz]

Sveinan - this problem for me first became apparent on my win 7 32bit install, so when I bought a new HDD I swapped back to 64bit to make use of my 8gb of ram

[sveinan]

@Madaz
Thanks. If I understand you correctly you got/get this problem on both 32bit & 64bit Win7. Might be other factors that makes it work for eL_PuSHeR, and not for us. Too few data points yet to indicate something certain. We'll see if others join the thread.

[Madaz]

That's correct

I also tried x4 (on the 32bit install) as well initially I though x4 broke my x3 install

[eL_PuSHeR]

More suggestions:

I have Windows 7 Superfetch disabled on my setup, and Prefetch is set to "boot only". I don't know if it will make any difference. You could try emptying the PREFETCH folder contents just to test because I have seen PCs with their prefetch folder corrupted. Not a very common issue but...

And about Catalyst installation:

- I have hotkeys disabled on Catalyst Control Panel (or whatever is called).
- Under Services (running services.msc for instance) I have both "AMD External Events Utility" and "AMD FUEL Service" services set to DISABLED.
- Other than that I think I installed everything from the Catalyst package.

[Madaz]

in all honesty it should just work

Corel has always JUST worked in the past so if they have broken something it needs to be patched

i could understand needing to run around like a monkey if i was Alpha or Beta testing but im not this is their stable product

[sveinan]

@eL_PuSHeR
Tried most of your tips. Superfetch service already Manual (not started). Changed Prefetch to "boot only" (3 to 2 in registry). Disabled hotkeys in AMD CCC (was enabled). Set "AMD External Events Utility" service to Manual (was Automatic & started). Do not have "Power" in AMD Catalyst (not laptop/battery). I did not try to delete contents of Prefetch folder, too many Google references of no/yes to doing it, chickened out After this, reboot, tried X3 again. No change unfortunately. But thanks for tips.

@Madaz
I agree. Problem is, I do not have the energy/time to go through a support case on this. Corel will nearly guarantied ask me to reinstall Win7, to be sure of clean environment. Is not an option for me, using a week's work to probably end up in the same place In addition we might get the classic: AMD broke it, talk to them. Then AMD saying: Corel does it wrong, talk to them. And in the end, if we manage to pinpoint it, find exactly what makes it break. We have worked for free, and they can apply a fix without using work hours problemsolving it. Yeah I know, a little cynical here, but been through this dance so many times, it gets very tiring In addition we do not have enough people having the problem. Would actually be better if it was a Windows Update KB doing it, then Corel would have to act. For now it looks to be AMD 11.10, and maybe not for all users or hardware (ref.: eL_PuSHeR), so volume will be low (for now). Even if we are right in our suspicions, it will take time for users updating to AMD 11.10. At least Google looks to have indexed combinations of Corel/X3/11.10/AMD very high, so easy for people to find this thread.

[eL_PuSHeR]

Hi Sveinan:

Clearing the prefetch folder contents is safe. You will just lose some speed because Windows will have to recreate the contents (.pf files and other). You could alternatively backup the contents, delete or move them, test and restore them afterwards. Another more user-friendly option is to use this free program: TweakPrefetch. It will allow for backups of your prefetch folder. And no need to be tinkering with Windows Registry either.

One other thing: Did you try actually downgrading Catalyst? Uninstall 11.10 and put 11.9 back. If that version works for you, that's it, there must be a bug somewhere. It's a known fact: newest versions doesn't have to be better. Other thing is the fun of isolating/diagnosing issues/bugs.

[Madaz]

Yeah I agree

On problems I see is

1) I came from a 100% fresh install no left over drivers anything

2) how many users keep there drivers that upto date that a) also use PSP x3 b) want to sign up at Corel forums to get some technical support

Like you I couldn't be bothered submitting a ticket but I am happy to try some suggestions from the community

[sveinan]

@eL_PuSHeR
Ok. Did the delete/move contents out of Prefetch folder (in Safe mode). Reboot. Test X3. Again, no change unfortunately. Downgrade to 11.9 ? Yup, tested that before my first post here. Then X3 works. But finding what X3 reacts on is hard work without some debug/logs from X3. I have done and still do problemsolving on Windows platform for a living, so I could go the SysInternals Process Monitor (files/registry/events/...) and other stuff. Compare and try to find differences between X3 starting with 11.9 & 11.10, might find some clues that could pinpoint something. Or I could be lost, because it might be Win32 API calls inside .exe/.dll X3 going against GDI/DirectX or something that flips out because of different behavior between 11.9 & 11.10. The possibilities are endless, unfortunately Although I love logically problemsolving stuff, and finding faults. It gets tiring after about 15years of fixing, educating and making workarounds for programmers not reading up on Microsofts best practice & guidelines Or being caught in the middle of two parties hellbent on blaming each other for a problem

Going back to 11.9 as a fix ? Nope, too many graphical glitches for my Battlefield 3 gaming. I need my FPS fix to relax, so 11.10 is there to stay for now

@Madaz
That is also my tactic for now. See if more people join the thread, get some additional data points to compare, discuss possible solutions/workarounds.

[Madaz]

Well I just received my weekly email from Corel and it is based on "for being a loyal customer here is an offer to buy the full version or x4 at the $64 upgrade price"

Mighty tempting I might add, have to weigh up how much time I want to spend mucking around with this as opposed to having it "JUST" work