Unstable

[Organ Donor]

I spent a couple of hours working on a design for some t-shirts and flyers on Xara X today when the software shut itself off. Each time I tried after that to open this file, it immediately and without any fanfare shut down the program. Boink, gone. It will open other files, but not this one.

Xara still has not given me a response on a similar problem from last week other than to let me know they didn't read my e-mail through before answering. It doesn't really matter how great a software is if it's one problem is it is unstable and you lose your work. I have been using Xara X for a couple of years, so I know it isn't me.

I have the picture exported, but can no longer modify it. Any suggestions?

Dave Cowles AKA Organ Donor

www.3DCaricatures.com
Spartanburg, SC

[Organ Donor]

I spent a couple of hours working on a design for some t-shirts and flyers on Xara X today when the software shut itself off. Each time I tried after that to open this file, it immediately and without any fanfare shut down the program. Boink, gone. It will open other files, but not this one.

Xara still has not given me a response on a similar problem from last week other than to let me know they didn't read my e-mail through before answering. It doesn't really matter how great a software is if it's one problem is it is unstable and you lose your work. I have been using Xara X for a couple of years, so I know it isn't me.

I have the picture exported, but can no longer modify it. Any suggestions?

Dave Cowles AKA Organ Donor

www.3DCaricatures.com
Spartanburg, SC

[RAMWolff44]

I was able to see the graphic in XnView and it's there (nice work) but it's only a thumbnail. This next suggestion won't fix your file but it will prevent this, hopefully, from happening to you again.

Go into the registry and turn on the MakeBakFiles option and set it at 1.

Do this. Start/Run type in regedit and then once that comes up go to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER then to Software/Xara/XaraX/Version 3.0/Options/Filters.

Scroll down a bit to (it's all alphabetical) to where it says 'MakeBakFiles'. Double click on that key and a little dialog box will pop up. Then type in 1 in the 'Value data' box and then click OK (leave the default "hexadecimal" radio button checked.

Then up to the File pull down menu and click Exit and then next time you start a file then every time you make changes to the parent file a child copy is made named the name of the file but with a .bak extension. If the main file becomes corrupted then just change the backed up files extension to .xar and you will have a good version to work from again.

XaraX should have this option on by default because of this behavior but XaraX is not the only program that does this sort of stuff. I also own as copy of PhotoImpact 8 and it will also shut down for unknown reasons. I don't know if it will corrupt a file because of an instantaneous shutdown but it shuts down (We at the forum for PI are convinced that there is a memory leakage going on and I think the same thing is happening with XaraX as well).

I'm real sorry to hear about your problem, this was a hard lesson to learn for many of us and when you set the program to do backups then it's pretty safe to deal with. I also recommend saving often but I'm sure you know about all that other stuff.

Good luck to you http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Richard http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

---Wolff On The Prowl---

[Ross Macintosh]

Dave - I couldn't open it either. Something about a error in kernel32.dll I could see the preview image --- perhaps the program has an internal censor that doesn't like your subject matter. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Sorry I can't be of any real help. I just have sympathy. I hope you haven't had frequent problems with corrupt files. I've found Xara to be quite stable on my system. I don't ever remember it saving a corrupt file that wouldn't open.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[davezub]

Dave,

Sorry to hear that, but it happens with all software. I know this does not help, but I've had Microsoft Orifice trash files, plus other apps.

Take a look at Xara Crashes

Richard touches on the reg hack, but also look at number 4 and check your temp directory usualy c:\windows\temp.

Dave Zubrowski

Xara FAQ

[Organ Donor]

Thanks for the replies. I am running Windoze XP on a new Gateway 500S Plus Pentium IV with 512MB RAM. It is a pretty jamming system. What, pray tell is a kernell32.dll? That little badboy crashed my old PC (a Sony VAIO Pentium II) regularily!

Dave Cowles AKA Organ Donor

www.3DCaricatures.com
Spartanburg, SC

[gwpriester]

Not sure about the purpose of the Kernal 32.

I have found that Xara will on occassion crash and take the file with it, as you have regretfully experienced first hand.

In the previous version of Xara, you could locate a BAK file in the Windows TEMP folder and often salvage the last saved version of your document. Sadly that function was dropped in Xara X.

Whenever something like this happens to me (it happens a lot in NetObjects Fusion) I start saving like mad. Maybe every three or four moves. Then I forget and get sloppy until it happens again :-o

Gary

Gary Priester

Moderator Person


Click to make The Xara Xone #1

<a href="http://www.gwpriester.com">
www.gwpriester.com </a>

[wfcentral]

you may also want to look in your windows temp folders. I have recovered many files from there after Xara goes corrupt. Just look for a file with the same name - different extension...

[Klaus Nordby]

Kernel32 is THE Mother of All Windows OS files. VERY fundamental. Don't mess with her.

I run a great auto-backup program all the time, Powerquest DataKeper, so when things go bad (or I mess up) I always have at least dozen earlier versions of my bad file at hand. And I'm also a compulsive Savior: a role model to follow. :-)

K
www.klausnordby.com/xara (big how-to article)
www.xaraxone.com/FeaturedArt/kn/ (I was the first-ever featured artist in the Xone)
www.graphics.com (columnist, "The I of The Perceiver")

[gidgit]

Sounds like a format,partition and reinstall may be in order... and/or... perhaps a new CMOS battery... http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif and they think I am joking...

Richard eluded to experiencing this problem with PI as well... and now that I think about it... yup,couldn't get into about 4 or five recently made files (at that time) and... it hasn't happened since I replaced that ole cmos battery...

niether have the installer problems, or the sudden crashes...

nope, that little battery may be still showing the right time and all but when run down to a point starts other calamities often blamed on other things... but alas, nope... it ends up that wee little three dollar part... first the slight unexpected glitches...then worse, the sudden crashes... then the newer Windows installers would hang halfway through installations... then when trying to do a reinstall of windows it would hang during the Windows Intro screen, you know the popup when running Windows for the first time... chances are that you will already be getting cmos errors showing up on you bios screen when booting up... guess what? The time is... new battery time http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

Gee, we touched off on the CMOS battery issue bout a year ago... perhaps it's getting time to think about picking up a replacement battery once again...

thanx for the reminder.. http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[This message was edited by gidgit on March 07, 2003 at 13:09.]