JPGs cause crashing (XP Home)

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I am having a problem with certain jpg files (and now, possibly gifs but not sure on that yet) crashing either the program I am viewing them in, or windows explorer, or both.
The problem files cause the crash if
1) they are found by the search function
2) they are selected in the folder they are in (If the offending file is the first one in the folder, the folder closes as soon as I open it -sometimes if it is not the first file it closes as soon as the icon for the file loads)
3) I move, save, or copy them to a different folder (this is often when the problem first starts with a particular file)
3) I try to save them in Photoshop

Not all jpgs cause the problem, and even those which have become problematic do not ALWAYS cause the problem, which means if I try enough things I have been able (so far ) to delete them so the folders they are in don’t become totally unusable.
The files which have caused this problem come from different sources – some were sent by email, some were brought from my work computer on a disk (after having been recieved by email) and the most recent one was one I created myself today using my scanner.
I do not have this problem with all jpg files on the computer – but once one starts to cause a problem, it and any copy of it seems to become a real rogue.
After I had the problem today I was not even able to restart my computer other than in safe mode for quite some time (and I should note that my attempts to delete the file while in safe mode also caused an error message and things to stop working)

I have read post 276430 and appear to be having the same problem but it isn’t clear to me that any of the many suggestions made in that thread solved his problem so I am wondering whether anything new has been learned about this problem since then.

I should note that I have consistently had up-to-date Norton Antivirus, and a virus scan today revealed no viruses.
This computer has had a few more quirks than I think it should have during the year that I have had it, so with the advent of this considerably more troublesome problem, I am considering wiping the hard drive and starting over – but thought I’d post here in case a less drastic solution might be available.

In case this offers any clues, after having these problems, when I try to shut down, I often get a message that says that the program IMGICON is not responding.

Thanks in advance for any solutions that might be offered.
-cynthia

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Do you happen to have IomegaWare installed on your computer? If so, try temporarily removing it, and see if the problem persists. I suspect that something is hooking into Windows Explorer and is causing this to happen, the clue you provided about IMGICON not responding helped a bit.

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I do have an 250 mb zip drive (which has had a lot of problems and now doesn’t work at all – they say because the disks were not ejecting when the computer shut down)
I will try deleting it and see what happens. Currently all the specific files which had been causing problems have been deleted from the computer, and since it seems to only randomly occur I will have to wait awhile and see when/if it happens again.
It does occur to me that all these jpg problems have happened SINCE I installed the updated Iomega driver (which automatically ejects the disk – but too late to save my drive, it seems)
Thanks for the suggestion.
-cynthia

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Cynthia, instead of removing the entire suite of software, try disabling only IMGICON.EXE from your startup group. You should be able to accomplish this by running MSCONFIG (Start – Run – MSCONFIG) and de-selecting the startup entry for it. The only change that you can expect is that the pretty little Iomega icons will no longer be there, but everything else should work. If you continue to have problems, then consider removing the software entirely. I’d hate for you to lose the ability to eject the disk…

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Thanks for that tip, Mark. I have already removed all the software. The drive doesn’t work anyway – so I don’t need the software until I get a new one – and I’ll use your tip then because I DEFINITELY need the ability to have the disk eject automatically since relying on me to do it manually is apparently what wrecked the drive in the first place! (I DON’T need the iomega icon on the desktop, so I’ll be glad to not have that appearing again)

Thanks,
-cynthia

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I don’t know if you ever found a solution to this, but in case you haven’t I’ve just resolved apparently the same problem for me. On http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1071237898 (near the end of the discussion), there’s the suggestion that a conflict between Adobe Photoshop 7 and Windows XP might be to blame. The solution, which has worked perfectly for me (I was being driven mad by Explorer crashing every time I looked at a folder containing a number of JPGs), is to find a JPG file in a folder that you can view without crashing. Right-click it and choose ‘Properties’, and on the ‘Photoshop image’ tab UNCHECK the ‘Generate thumbnail’ box.

Good luck with it!

Alex

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Thanks.
I haven’t had any trouble since uninstalling the Iomega software, but I also haven’t worked with very many jpgs during that time (the problem has always been intermittent for me). I’ll do this step as well and hopefully be able to stop holding my breath every time I go to work with images!

-cynthia

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Thanks.
I haven’t had any trouble since uninstalling the Iomega software, but I also haven’t worked with very many jpgs during that time (the problem has always been intermittent for me). I’ll do this step as well and hopefully be able to stop holding my breath every time I go to work with images!

-cynthia

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Alex,
I’ve just experienced this same problem on a second computer – this one with XP Pro – and your solution about unchecking the thumbnails box seems to have done the trick. It was the FIRST fix I tried, this time.
Thank you again.

-cynthia

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Glad to be of help!

alex

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Glad to be of help!

alex

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Alex,
I’ve just experienced this same problem on a second computer – this one with XP Pro – and your solution about unchecking the thumbnails box seems to have done the trick. It was the FIRST fix I tried, this time.
Thank you again.

-cynthia

Reply | Quote

I don’t know if you ever found a solution to this, but in case you haven’t I’ve just resolved apparently the same problem for me. On http://www.annoyances.org/exec/forum/winxp/t1071237898 (near the end of the discussion), there’s the suggestion that a conflict between Adobe Photoshop 7 and Windows XP might be to blame. The solution, which has worked perfectly for me (I was being driven mad by Explorer crashing every time I looked at a folder containing a number of JPGs), is to find a JPG file in a folder that you can view without crashing. Right-click it and choose ‘Properties’, and on the ‘Photoshop image’ tab UNCHECK the ‘Generate thumbnail’ box.

Good luck with it!

Alex

Reply | Quote

Thanks for that tip, Mark. I have already removed all the software. The drive doesn’t work anyway – so I don’t need the software until I get a new one – and I’ll use your tip then because I DEFINITELY need the ability to have the disk eject automatically since relying on me to do it manually is apparently what wrecked the drive in the first place! (I DON’T need the iomega icon on the desktop, so I’ll be glad to not have that appearing again)

Thanks,
-cynthia

Reply | Quote

Cynthia, instead of removing the entire suite of software, try disabling only IMGICON.EXE from your startup group. You should be able to accomplish this by running MSCONFIG (Start – Run – MSCONFIG) and de-selecting the startup entry for it. The only change that you can expect is that the pretty little Iomega icons will no longer be there, but everything else should work. If you continue to have problems, then consider removing the software entirely. I’d hate for you to lose the ability to eject the disk…

Reply | Quote

I do have an 250 mb zip drive (which has had a lot of problems and now doesn’t work at all – they say because the disks were not ejecting when the computer shut down)
I will try deleting it and see what happens. Currently all the specific files which had been causing problems have been deleted from the computer, and since it seems to only randomly occur I will have to wait awhile and see when/if it happens again.
It does occur to me that all these jpg problems have happened SINCE I installed the updated Iomega driver (which automatically ejects the disk – but too late to save my drive, it seems)
Thanks for the suggestion.
-cynthia

Reply | Quote

Do you happen to have IomegaWare installed on your computer? If so, try temporarily removing it, and see if the problem persists. I suspect that something is hooking into Windows Explorer and is causing this to happen, the clue you provided about IMGICON not responding helped a bit.

Reply | Quote

Hi Cynthia,

Perhaps the problem might lie in the file association grab-bag. Find any particular JPG, right click on the file name and chose the “Open With” value. Select a program (viewer) that you know is pretty secure/stable… for example IrfanView (which can be obtained here if you don’t have it.)

Let me know if that works OK without crashing and we can take it to the next step.

Cheers, Bob

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Thanks Bob,
As I mentioned in my reply to Mark, all the problem files currently have been deleted (the problem doesn’t seem to happen with all jpgs – only some and it’s not predictable which ones at this point). I’m going to try his suggestion and if/when another problem file appears I will try what you have suggested here.

-cynthia

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Thanks Bob,
As I mentioned in my reply to Mark, all the problem files currently have been deleted (the problem doesn’t seem to happen with all jpgs – only some and it’s not predictable which ones at this point). I’m going to try his suggestion and if/when another problem file appears I will try what you have suggested here.

-cynthia

Reply | Quote

Hi Cynthia,

Perhaps the problem might lie in the file association grab-bag. Find any particular JPG, right click on the file name and chose the “Open With” value. Select a program (viewer) that you know is pretty secure/stable… for example IrfanView (which can be obtained here if you don’t have it.)

Let me know if that works OK without crashing and we can take it to the next step.

Cheers, Bob

Reply | Quote