ENCOUNTERED AN IMPROPER ARGUMENT Hauppauge ImpactVCB-e PCI

[John William]

Corel VideoStudio X8 Ultimate stopped working after installing Hauppauge ImpactVCB-e PCI Express Video Capture Board 1381:

I just received the Hauppauge ImpactVCB-e PCI Express Video Capture Board 1381 and installed it with the installation disk. The installation went OK and both programs on the disk loaded OK and I was able to capture analog video with the programs (Hauppauge Capture & Wintv V8). BUT, my version (18.6.0.6) of Corel VideoStudio X8 Ultimate would no longer work. Also, Total Recorder VideoPro Edition Version 8.6 would not launch & said the drivers were not installed. My version of eRightsoft SUPER C also no longer worked. In addition, when scanning from CorelDRAW x4 or x7, the driver I was using now gives me the message, "Error negotiating capabilities with the Twain Driver". I can choose the less functional WIA driver and the scanner works but I like the scanner drivers better.

I was able to reinstall Total Recorder VideoPro Edition Version 8.6 and it seems to work OK now. I am not worried about SUPER C for now but my main problem is Corel VideoStudio X8 Ultimate not working. I have reinstalled it several times. I have uninstalled Hauppauge Capture & Wintv V8 & even removed the capture board, rolled back my system to an earlier restore point date where Corel VideoStudio X8 Ultimate worked but this did not fix the problem. It still wouldn't launch. This also happened when trying to launch other programs that were installed with VideoStudio (Corel FastFlick X8, Corel ScreenCap X8 & VideoStudio MyDVD). I then tried re-installing all the patches & updates (6 total) to bring my version up to 18.6.0.6 which is where I was when this all started. Now I am able to launch the program and it mostly functions except when I go to "Share" I get an error message that says, "ENCOUNTERED AN IMPROPER ARGUMENT.” If I am working on a project, I cannot get past the error message. I've found that I can close my project by selecting File/New Project and then with nothing loaded, go to share, the error pops up, click OK, then all of my rendering choices are available. The program seems to default to "Create a video that you can play on a computer" with MPEG-4 selected. I have to choose "Disk" and then I can go back to Edit and reload my project which now also gives me the "ENCOUNTERED AN IMPROPER ARGUMENT." message but by clicking OK, my project is there and I can now click on "Share" and render my project. Sometimes I can go back to "Create a video that you can play on a computer" and select any of the choices (AVI, MPEG-2, etc.), get the error message but still select and use those choices. Other times I can't and have to close the program and relaunch it & go to Share and change the choice to anything but "Create a video that you can play on a computer", go back and load my project, etc., etc. Phew!! This used to be so easy! Anybody know what is wrong or a better workaround than I’m using? I use VideoStudio a lot and have spent the last two days trying to get back to where it worked.


My System:

Windows 7 Professional (x64) Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Dell Inc. XPS 8700
3.60 gigahertz Intel Core i7-4790
64-bit ready
Multi-core (4 total)
Hyper-threaded (8 total)

Board: Dell Inc. 0KWVT8 A02
Bus Clock: 100 megahertz

Intel(R) 8 Series/C220 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller
NVIDIA GeForce GT 720 [Display adapter]

256 kilobyte primary memory cache
1024 kilobyte secondary memory cache
8192 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
32720 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory
CF/MD Card [Hard drive] -- drive 2
Crucial_CT256MX100SSD1 [Hard drive] (256.06 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 14270C860ACB, rev MU01, SMART Status: Healthy
SM/xD Card [Hard drive] -- drive 3
ST3000VN000-1H4167 [Hard drive] (3000.59 GB) -- drive 1, s/n Z301PYZA, rev SC44, SMART Status: Healthy

3256.41 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
2498.31 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

All Microsoft updates installed to date. All vendor updates for video card, sys bios, etc. have been updated. Nothing has changed except the installation of the Hauppauge card & software. This is a work machine, no games, Facebook, or other stuff. Strictly business.

Any help would be appreciated, like I said above, I use VideoStudio a lot and would like to get this resolved. So far my emails to Hauppauge have not been answered. I have read Damiands post about his ENCOUNTERED AN IMPROPER ARGUMENT but I am not getting anything from Microsoft Security Essentials which is my antivirus. Also I’ve installed SP 3 and the Hotfix 2 Released: 2016-02-11 that seemed to work for “Corel User” in his Dec, 28, 2015 post but it hasn’t fixed my problem. I have never used the Instant Projects nor imported any from earlier versions as Lata mentioned in his December 29th post so his solution probably won’t help me. Corel VideoStudio X8 Ultimate had been rock solid for me since installing it in August 2015. I want that back again.

Thanks if you have read this far.
John

[lata]

Hi John

Sorry you are having these problems.
Unfortunately, Corel never found the reason for this error.


If you go to Project Properties (Alt+Enter) one of the options will be blank, not available and that is causing the error. (Unable to set project properties correctly)
It was not always the same options that were missing sometimes avchd others DVD types?

Maybe try choosing different project properties would help.

The only way to correct that was to either a full clean install or resetting the program by re-naming the 18.0 folder.
C:\Users\Trevor\AppData\Roaming\Ulead Systems\Corel VideoStudio Pro (x64)
But would always return

The association with Install projects was a real one but still unable to find the actual culprit

I have not tried to replicate the problem for a while for obvious reasons.

[John William]

Thanks for your reply Trevor but I'm not sure what you mean by "Unable to set project properties correctly".

I have these choices in the drop down window:
DV/AVI
HDV
DVD
AVCHD
Blu-ray
Mobile
Online

None of them are blank and are all editable as far as I can determine. Am I missing something?

John

[John William]

Attachment missing on last post. Sorry about it being small but the forum limits the size.
John

[lata]

Hi

I don’t think you are missing anything but when I had the Improper Argument one of my project property categories was missing the default templates. (existing Project Profile list)
It was not always the same format that suffered so I had to check each in turn.
I always found one with missing templates. That made it difficult to change the properties as the error would pop up.

Setting F6 Show messages did help as I could use that to set my properties

So difficult to find the cause and of course a solution.

I have CVSX8 32 bit installed at the moment and have not been able to replicate the problem, I may install 64 bit again to see what I get, it was the 64 bit that from memory had the issue.

Attached images, yes there is a limit but clicking the image will enlarge a little to be able to view.

[John William]

After looking closer at my ENCOUNTERED AN IMPROPER ARGUMENT problem I noticed that in the Share tab, profiles for AVI, MPEG-4, WMV, MOV, Custom & Audio were missing but there were profiles for MPEG-2 & AVC/H.264 (see my attachment). If I look in Project Properties, I do have all the profiles there, just not under the Share tab. I received a reply today from Lou Michelle Dunas from Corel Technical Support Services. He asked me to download & install Corel VideoStudio X8.5 Hotfix 2 (Released: 2016-02-11) but I had already done that. That is how I solved the problem with VideoStudio not loading at all a couple of days ago.

I did try renaming S:\My Documents\Corel VideoStudio Pro\18.0 but that didn't help.

I still have the ENCOUNTERED AN IMPROPER ARGUMENT problem so can't create any MPEG-4 videos and am waiting on a reply from Corel. Luckily I can still render videos to DVD.

John

[lata]

Hi John

Ok
It seems as though other templates are affected by this problem, for me it was the project properties, you seem to have issues with the Share templates.
I can only repeat Instant Projects did seem to play a part in this problem.
Do you use Fast Flick? as that module uses Instant Projects.

John can you try resetting the program again.

First go to
C:\Users\User Name\Documents\Corel VideoStudio Pro\VSPTemplate
Rename that folder to VSPTemplate_old
That should remove any custom Instant Projects

Renaming 18.0
There are several 18.0 folders the one we need is located here:-

C:\Users\Trevor\AppData\Roaming\Ulead Systems\Corel VideoStudio Pro (x64)

This folder structure is hidden by Windows Explorer so you have to change the Folder options from Tools – Folder Options – View tab.
Otherwise place %appdata% in the Start Search panel to find the “Roaming” folder
Then locate 18.0
Rename that folder

When you start the program a new 18.0 folder will be created, you will notice a progress bar importing templates / samples, may take a while to open the program.

If the problem has gone di not access Instant Projects library or use Fast Flick to see how long the program responds.

[John William]

Hi Trevor,

I finally had time to get back on this problem (mainly because I had to work on a video).

Sorry, your fix didn't work. What did work was Corel got back to me with a cleanup tool to use after uninstalling VS. Below is the process I used. Also, I finally received a reply from Hauppauge. They said, "Unfortunately we do not have corel here to test with, I would check with corel to see if they generate any logging information to try and narrow down what the cause of the issue is."

So I uninstalled VideoStudio X8 Ultimate for what seemed like the hundredth time. Ran the VideoStudio X8 cleanup tool (http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php ... 42&start=0), reinstalled VS, Ran the VSX8HotFis_2 (http://dwnld.videostudiopro.com/updates ... tFix_2.exe), reinstalled updates SP 3, Local Help, Boris Grafitti for CorelX7_64 bit, & I'm back in business again. It didn't go exactly as smooth as that though. I had to do this process 3 times before everything finally installed correctly & I was able to use the Share tab without the error message popping up. I got an error message during the VS install the first time that my system had not been modified & that I had to run setup again. The second attempt at a reinstall yielded an error saying the application was unable to start correctly (0X0000006). The status bar said it was “configuring Triple Scoop Music…” when the error message popped up. I uninstalled everything again, ran the cleanup tool twice, rebooted & reinstalled VS for the 3rd time ( I had rebooted before each previous attempt). On the 3rd install, when I had to choose United States or between NTSC & PAL, I selected United States. On the previous two attempts I selected NTSC because I thought it was a two-step process, where you first chose the US, then NTSC. When I looked closer, it was an “either” choice. Not sure what the resultant difference was between the two choices but on the 3rd attempt, with United States selected the install completed & I was able to use the Share tab in my brief testing of the program after I installed VSX8HotFix_2, and SP3.

I seem to be back in business again and the Hauppauge capture board & software seems to still be working well. I guess if I ever have to reinstall everything again on a new hard drive I will install the capture board first before installing VideoStudio. The installation of the Hauppauge board also caused problems with scanning using my Cannon scanner from CorelDraw X4 & X7. I was not unable to use the TWAIN driver after the Hauppauge installation. I found a solution at http://weblogs.asp.net/jeffwids/canon-s ... ain-source. It had me add a certain folder path in my PATH environment variable. The link explains how to do this so now my scanner is talking to CorelDraw again, the Hauppauge board & software seem to be operating properly, & I can get back to editing videos again. PHEW!!!

Thanks for your help Trevor & hopefully my ordeal will help someone else resolve their problem a whole lot quicker than I solved mine. I have been using computers since DOS, then Windows 3.1, CorelDraw 2.1, etc. Each step up has been a nightmare. This is why I keep using a computer as long as I possibly can until I have to upgrade. My switch to the new Dell XPS 8700/Windows 7 Professional has taken well over 1 year of my time to sort things out & caused good peripherals (i.e., printers, scanners, etc.) to be obsolete. At my age, I would hope this will be my last "upgrade" but fearfully, I think it probably won't be.

[lata]

Hi john

Thanks for the feedback, nice to hear you have the program running ok, hopefully the error will not return.
There has been others having the error, I will pass on your comments regarding re-installing.

Good luck

[pvreditor]

I'm having exactly the same problem that John was having, only I can't get as far as he got using his workarounds. Every time I click on the Share tab, I get the "ENCOUNTERED AN IMPROPER ARGUMENT" and that's as far as I can get.

My main editing computer works perfectly -- this error is on my laptop, which I need to take with me in a few days to do a paid video shoot on the road. Following the steps in this thread, I deleted VS x8, re-loaded it, deleted again, ran the clean-up tool, re-loaded VS x8 again... still I get the "ENCOUNTERED AN IMPROPER ARGUMENT" message and can go no further toward rendering a video.

Is there any further advice or guidance on this problem that you can point me to?

Thanks!

Bob Kovacs

[lata]

Hi Bob

Try changing the project properties to a different format? Can you now access Share?
Can you also make sure the Laptop is using the most upto date drivers, visit the manufacturers web site.

A fix…..
unfortunately no, for me it appeared to be associated with Instant Projects, then Project Properties lost templates, for John he lost Share Templates notice the image provided by John.

For me to cure is probably the wrong word, a temp fix, I removed all templates in the C:\Users\Trevor\Documents\Corel VideoStudio Pro\VSPTemplate folder.

Then reset the program by re-naming the 18.0 folder
C:\Users\Trevor\AppData\Roaming\Ulead Systems\Corel VideoStudio Pro (x64)\18.0

Then after selecting the Instant Projects library I was asked to import templates from earlier version, choosing yes seemed to affect things, so I always choose no.

But eventually the problem always re-appeared, as I say Project properties seemed a problem, so I always choose a different format?

I never did find the culprit neither did Corel after doing a Remote Desktop job.

I have not had the problem for a while, although I have re-installed the operating system whether that was the final fix I will never know.

And yes I have tried to replicate the error, to no avail, probably a bit stupid of me trying to do that.

Doing a search will find posts back to 2010, and this post should be available to you.
http://forum.corel.com/EN/viewtopic.php?f=100&t=52454

I created a web page of my experiences
http://lata.me.uk/corel/argument/argument.htm

Sorry there is nothing positive about my reply

[pvreditor]

Thanks, Trevor. I'm up to my elbows at the moment, but I will work on this again tonight. If the project properties are something I can change from the Edit tab, then I can try that. If it's under the Share tab, then I can't get past the "ENCOUNTERED AN IMPROPER ARGUMENT" message. Once I click on "Okay" to clear that, everything on the Share page is grayed out or otherwise unavailable.

Bob Kovacs

[pvreditor]

FWIW, I tried all the choices in Project Properties and all gave me the "Encountered an improper argument" message when I click on the Share tab. Therefore, I can edit and save an edit file, but I can't render. And I need to render this coming weekend.

I checked my computer for an update link to the manufacturer (Toshiba) and didn't find one. I may Google that and see if I can go directly to Toshiba for an update to drivers, etc. Otherwise, it is a decent three-year-old laptop with a 3rd gen i7 processor. It handled VS x7 without a problem. I hate to re-install x7 but I may have to.

I'm now off to read the thread you mentioned to see if there's any insight there.

Bob

[pvreditor]

New information:

I deleted VS x8, ran the clean-up tool several times, then re-installed VS x8 using only the first disk. I have the Ultimate version, and I assumed that all the "Ultimate" stuff was on Disk 2. Therefore, just to test it, I stopped after Disk 1. I rebooted the computer and VS x8 Pro (not Ultimate) works fine. When I click on the "Share" tab, there's no "Encountered an improper argument" drama. If I had to guess, I'd say that the "Encountered an improper argument" problem has something to do with the content on Disk 2.

I've really not learned much of the Ultimate content, although I played with Boris some before deciding I needed a tutorial. VS x8 Pro has everything I need for my weekend project, so I'm all set. FWIW, I tested rendering with a mixture of HD and 4K files. I rendered as both HD and 4K output, and all worked fine.

Thanks!

Bob Kovacs

[lata]

Hi Bob

Well at least you have the program running and assuming you have not used the Ultimate packs to edit then you should be able to complete your work, so that’s good.
Can you confirm you are using CVSX7 and that your last post referring to VSX8 was a typo?
Do you only have the one version of Video Studio installed?

Post updated

If you were to install the ultimate package you can choose individual items to install rather than “install all”
Installing one at a time may identify the one that’s causing the problem, assuming it is this package.

However once I fixed the problem it did not return straight away, but eventually showed its ugly head, which makes it difficult to find the cause, if you get my drift.