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Answered: Cannot kill stubborn ZBrush.exe process

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

The ZBrush process tends to hang after a crash (or sometimes just after closing the program). If the ZBrush process is still running, you’ll get the:

"INTERNAL ERROR .\AFile.cpp Line:728

Unable to open/Create a FileC:PROGRAM FILES (X86)\PIXOLOGIC\ZBRUSH 4.0/ZStartup\Tempfiles\search.mem

I’ve tried using the taskkill windows command, with /F, /t, etc…and it says it kills the process just fine, but it never leaves my process window. Same with pskill (wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but figured I’d try)

I also don’t have access to the Tempfiles directory, because “a program” is still trying to use it.

And, of course, when I try to launch ZBrush again it says only one instance of ZBrush is allowed to be run from the same directory.

SO, since ZBrush isn’t a critical system process, why is it being so stubborn? Is it just my machine, or am I missing some sort of permissions to be able to kill it without restarting my computer?

#2

Oh, just in case:

Windows 7 Professional
64-bit
Intel Core i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz
12.0 GB Ram

#3

There are several possibilities here.

You could have a corrupted installation of ZBrush. The first thing I would try would be to uninstall it, delete its folder, then reinstall. I’ve refreshed your download link and had it resent to you in case you no longer have the installer.

Alternatively, you could have a virus that is creating issues with your computer. If reinstalling doesn’t work, you should do a complete system scan. (Honestly, I’d do that anyway, just in case the corruption in ZBrush was caused by a virus.)

If neither of those works, things get dicier. It might be as simple as turning off DEP (data execution protection) for ZBrush. But more likely it’s something wrong with Windows itself.

#4

Awesome, thanks! My first thought was a virus as well, but everything turned out clean :-/ I’ll try a fresh reinstall though!

Thanks again!