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ZBrush 3.1 crashes after being run once.

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hey folks,

I had a search around the forums for a while today and couldn’t find anything similar to the problem I’m having.

I bought and activated ZB 3.1 yesterday, and everything was going fine, got some sculpting done.
Then I closed ZBrush and tried to open it again later. This time it opened the main window and displayed the “Initializing ZBrush” tooltip in the centre of the screen… then a second later it crashed to a Windows error box saying “ZBrush Executable has encountered a problem and needs to close.”.

I closed it and tried again, got the same error at the same place. So I rebooted, tried again and it worked fine, ran well and loaded my sculpt, did some more work. Closed it again, and later tried to re-load ZBrush. Same error as before.

It seems that I can only run ZBrush once before needing to reboot and run it again. This is very annoying, I wonder if it’s possible to fix it easily.

I installed it from the full 3.1 installer, not 3.0 patched to 3.1. I’ve tried an uninstall, a reinstall and a repair install, and the problem always persists.

Computer specs:
AMD 64-bit Dual Core 3800+
2GB DDR RAM
NVidia GeForce 7900 GS
Windows XP Professional SP2

Any ideas or other people had this problem and fixed it?

#2

Please create a DXDiag report and upload the .txt file here.

Go to Run and type DXDiag. When the window opens, wait for the progress bar to finish. After that, click the Save All Information button to create the .txt file.

#3

Cheers Aurick.
I’ve run DXDiag and uploaded the results attached to this post.

At a glance, I noticed I’m running with some beta NVidia graphics drivers, I don’t think they are the latest version, gonna try updating those and see what the result is.

Edit: Hmm, looks like I can’t attach a .txt file (unless it’s just not showing up for some reason).

Link to the DXDiag.txt here:
http://www.ldaustinart.com/paul/DxDiag.txt

#4

Hmm, ok, updating the NVidia drivers to the latest stable versions doesn’t fix it. Still crashes if run more than once. Also updated motherboard NForce drivers too just in case.

For the time being I’m just leaving it open and running in the background to avoid having to close and reopen it again, although after more than a few hours open and minimized, it starts chugging a bit when restored. Crashed on an undo operation after that.

3.1 doesn’t seem to like my computer much :cry:

#5

OK, new information on this strange issue.

I went into the ZBrush folder, right-clicked on the executable, and in Properties -> Compatibility tab, enabled compatibility and set the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” to “Windows 98 / ME” … now running this works perfectly every time (although it seems to “forget” stuff like the most recently accessed folder for ZTools, I assume this is related to changing the compatibility mode).
As soon as I turn off “Compatibility mode” it goes back to crashing every time I try to run it again. :cry:

However, when running in 98/ME compatibility mode, it seems to run a bit slower than without it, but it’s definitely useable and better than rebooting every time I want to use ZBrush again :confused:
Edit: After spending a bit more time using it in compatibility mode, it is actually fairly unuseable. As soon as I zoom in on a ZTool mesh a lot, it slows to a crawl and brings my whole system grinding to a halt along with it :cry:

Would be interesting to find out what might be causing this, and why using Compatibility Mode fixes the launching/initializing issues.

#6

I’ve forwarded this to the development team. We’re continuing to investigate. Thanks for the additional info.

#7

Cheers Aurick.

Some further info:

  1. If I start up ZBrush then, while it’s initializing, ALT-Tab out and switch to a different program, or launch another application (like an explorer window), ZBrush will crash the majority of the time.

  2. I just found out I don’t actually need to reboot to get it running again, however I do have to log out of my Windows XP user and log back in again. That’s a full sign-out, not just a “switch user” style thing where it leaves processes running but drops you to the WinXP user logon screen.
    Just “Switching User” doesn’t work, I’ve also tried running ZBrush as a different user and it still crashes on initialization if I’ve run it once on my primary user login, with that user still logged in.

Seems like maybe some processes are not being started/stopped correctly? I dunno, just a shot in the dark really.

Along with these issues, I’ve been finding 3.1 quite unstable in general. It’s crashed a few times when performing routine tasks (such as subdividing a subtool, even as low as SDiv2-3 with about 20,000 polys). I hope that it’s just something strange with my computer, rather than an overall stability problem with ZBrush. I certainly don’t recall Z2 crashing this much, if at all.

Ah well. I eagerly await any info or fixes you guys might have in store! :slight_smile:

#8

Item 1 is to be expected, since the licensing stuff is being handled during that initialization phase. If you alt+tab out, there’s a good chance that the initialization will fail and ZBrush will shut down.

Regarding stability: How much free disk space do you have on the drive where ZBrush is installed? What is your Compact Mem setting? Your edit undo setting? MaxPolysPerMesh? Do you defragment your drive once a week, or do you let it go? Have you run spyware and virus scans to ensure that nothing like that is interfering?

#9

Yeah I figured the ALT-TAB thing was to be expected. Not a big deal. Photoshop often doesn’t detect Wacom pressure-sensitivity if you ALT-TAB or start a new application while it’s booting, too.

Regarding my system, something that may or may not make a difference is that I do not have a C:\ drive defined - Windows is installed on my primary drive F:</b> (250gb SATA drive with 193gb free space), this is also where ZBrush resides. I have a second 250gb SATA drive, G:, but that doesn’t store any ZBrush or system data. I doubt free space is the issue :slight_smile:
I haven’t defragged in a few months though, I’ll give that a shot tonight.

I run Grisoft’s AVG Free as my virus scanner, it does a pass every day and my system appears to be clean. Same report from HijackThis. I haven’t received any notifications or warnings when running ZBrush.

As far as I know, all of my CompactMem, Undo and MaxPolysPerMesh settings are the default. I certainly haven’t manually changed any of them, I’ll list them here just in case though:
Compact Mem: 256
Doc Undo: 4
Tool Undo: 4
MaxPolyPerMesh: 6
HD Preview MaxPoly: 4

When it runs, it usually runs fine for hours without a hitch. It’s just the getting it past the initialisation that’s the hard part :slight_smile:

Further info which may be of use: I have a StartupDocument.ZBR saved in
the ZStartup folder, but removing it doesn’t affect the startup crashes. Similarly I have a ZPlug (gm770’s Make1Mesh plugin), but removing it or adding it from the ZPlugs folder doesn’t appear to have any effect on crashes either.
Also, I run a dual monitor setup, primary is widescreen LCD at 1680x1050 which I run ZBrush on, secondary is a 4:3 flat panel 1280x1024. I have my Wacom Intuos2 set up to use only the primary monitor while ZBrush is running (set up through the Wacom options). The rest of the time it’s mapped over both monitors. I guess I should try not using the tablet and uninstalling the drivers for a while to see if it makes any difference.

Question: Is there a setting to turn off the “Quick Load” screen that pops up on startup with the 5-6 last used ZTL files listed as preview icons? I’m sure there was a setting for that in ZB3 but I can’t seem to find it in 3.1 … maybe that’d make a difference too.

Thanks for the support so far!

Edit: Heh, I had ZBrush 3.1 open while I was typing this, to check the settings… I had a ZTL open, and then switched to a Sphere3D default tool, and tried to sculpt on it without converting it to a PolyMesh3D - I got the popup warning about “Make PolyMesh3D”, and at the same instant it crashed… but after I’d ended the task, this time when I tried re-launching it, ZBrush ran again perfectly, straight away! Weird :frowning:

#10

It’s possible that your lack of a C drive is causing your startup trouble. I’ll see what I can find out about that.

With your RAM you should set Compact Mem to 1700. At 256 you’re only allowing ZBrush to use 1/8 of your RAM! I don’t know if you’ll get more stability at 1700 but you’ll certainly get better performance.

The ability to disable the startup screen created problems with the activation system and was removed in 3.1

#11

Hi all, I’ve seem to have the exact same problem, and I had the very simular hardware. I’m using AMD opteron 165(dual core) slightly overclocked, geforce 7600GT, 2GB of ram, and a 74gb WD raptor. and most setups are very simular;

I’ve installed using a patch, from 3.0 to 3.1, which the problem exist in both, even though i thought 3.1 would have possibly fixed that. i’ve tried to switched the compatibility to 98/Me and it does seemed to fix it, but it wasn’t able to exit the program by normal methods, I’ve to go to task manager to exit it there.

when I click on either projection master or the zmaper, often times it’ll tend to crash, but without a particular pattern.(sometime it works and sometimes it doesn’t)

it seems that i don’t neccesarily need to restart the machine for it to work, sometimes i keep fire it up a few times and occationally it’ll work. but there are times when it’ll keep crashing no matter how many times i keep firing it up, restarting does help.

btw, my main drive is C: which is the raptor.

I’ll look forward to the fixes

#12

I have the same problem, that guy said that him have updated the nforce drivers, the drivers of the motherboard right? because my mother board is nforce too and it could be the problem

#13

I’m using nforce as well.

#14

Others with 64-bit AMDs have tried this fix. Please see if it helps your case:

Could you check if you have Data Execution Prevention turned on for applications? If you do, could you turn it off (at least for ZBrush3.exe) and try ZBrush3 again?
To do this, you go to Start/My Computer and right click and select Properties. You go to the Advanced tab, choose the Performance section Settings button and then the Data Execution Prevention tab. Make sure “()Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select” is off. Or, turn it on and add ZBrush3.exe to the exception list.

#15

Hey AnneLise,
Thanks for the response, but I checked what you said, and “Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select” is off.
If it makes any difference, I’m not running Windows XP 64-bit edition.

Cheers,
-MoP

#16

Hey, glad to see I have company. :confused: Same problem: AMD 64 dual core, geforce 6800GT, nforce motherboard, 2gb RAM.

This doesn’t solve the problem for me.

#17

I think it actually worked…! for me at least, and so far… i’m not sure if the crashing will happen again but this definitely helped.

and here is a screen shot of what i did:

Attachments

crash.jpg

#18

I have an AMD X2 3800+ socket 939 processor and this seemed to fix it for me. Been trying to figure out how the get 3.1 to work since the patch was released.

Thanks AnneLise!

#19

It seems like its happening again, just that its happening must less often, and its happening in a more expected way; so far, its happening either when I start up zbrush, if it crashs, i’ll have to start it a few times then it’ll start, but most of the time now it’ll just start up fine. but it’ll crash if i click on zmapper, then i’ll crash then cannot start again until I restart. but its stable enough that I am brave enough to start a little project with it. thanks again.

p.s. I noticed when this happend, when it’ll keep crashing no matter how many times I try to fire it up, It CAN be fixed if I changed its compatibility to windows 98/ME but it seems to be slow downs and I can’t close/exit zbrush unlease I use task manager to end the process. But when I turned the windows 98/Me off, it’ll keep crashing again.

#20

penthoy: Yep, same results here - turning on Compatibility Mode for Win98/ME means it will run, but it runs quite poorly (and often to the extent that it’s unusable, so that’s not really a solution).

Anyway, I’m still getting this problem. It seems the only way I can get ZBrush to run is if I start it up as soon as I’ve logged in to Windows, and just leave it running in the background until I need it :frowning:

If I run 3ds Max, Photoshop, games like Quake Wars or Half Life 2, then try and run ZBrush 3.1, it just gets to the “Initializing…” screen and then crashes.
Basically it seems like if I don’t run ZBrush before anything else, then I can’t run it at all until I reboot :frowning:

I’ve tried various compatibility modes, reinstalling, repairing, changing the Data Execution Prevention settings to every possible variety of options, but still this bug persists.

Hopefully it will be remedied in the next patch…