LR import causes computer crash

[Robcat]

Upgraded a month or 2 ago to LR 3.6 and thought it might fix this but it didn't. About half the time, when I click File/Import to bring photos in from disk, my entire computer crashes---immediately on clicking import. This can happen when I have newly opened LR or when I have been running it for a while. It can happen when nothing other than LR is running or when other programs are open. It does not always happen, though. The crash is a full system crash, I cannot even shut down the computer using task manager and have to do a hard stop with the power button. This started several versions of LR3 ago, I frankly do not remember which, but was intermittent. Has steadily been coming more often. Anyone understand this? Fixes?
Rob P

[Rhossydd]

This doesn't sound like a LR problem, more down to system configuration.
It might be worth checking where LR is looking when trying to import files from. I had brief problems when LR defaulted at looking at a network cloud drive when the import dialogue was opened. With 30gb of files to check for something to import over a slow IP connection it gave the appearance that LR had frozen.

Also;
If you want answers to problems like this you'll need to supply a lot more detail for people to be able to help. eg OS, version, system config etc....

[Robcat]

This doesn't sound like a LR problem, more down to system configuration.
It might be worth checking where LR is looking when trying to import files from. I had brief problems when LR defaulted at looking at a network cloud drive when the import dialogue was opened. With 30gb of files to check for something to import over a slow IP connection it gave the appearance that LR had frozen.

Also;
If you want answers to problems like this you'll need to supply a lot more detail for people to be able to help. eg OS, version, system config etc....

Sure, this is Windows XP SP2 running on a dual core 3 GHz processor w. 4Gb RAM. I keep the system as clean and streamlined as I can.
It's not a cloud issue, as LR is only looking at physically attached drives, and in any case it's not "the appearance" of LR freezing, it's my entire system that is frozen. It's a complete Windows crash. No programs respond, I cannot even open Task Manager to view or terminate processes. The Start button will not respond to allow me to shut the computer down. This does sort of strike me as a LR problem as none of my other programs do anything remotely similar and this event happens only in LR and as soon as I click "import photos." It does not open the import dialog, the import process does not begin to run and then loop. I click "import" and my entire system crashes. I can't pin it down to what else might be running as it sometimes happens on a reboot with nothing else open. And sometimes I reboot, open LR and can import ok, and sometimes it does it again.
My main hope was that this issue was known to someone who could say, "oh yes, that's known, it's caused by X and you need to do Y," rather than the generic "uninstall everything and reinstall," which of course it may well come to.
Any more thoughts?
Thanks.
Rob P

[donbga]

Any more thoughts?

First of all why haven't you updated to SP3?

Second XP only recognizes 3GB of memory max even though you have 4GB installed. Have you set the 3G switch for XP so that it recognizes the maximum amount of memory in the boot.ini file?

After rebooting are you examining the contents of the Event manager to check for OS reported errors?

Are you running a virus detector? If so disable it.

If you aren't running a virus checker why not? At least scan your system with one of the free online utilities.

Do you ever get a BSOD? If so you can download Whatcrashed and examine the system post mordem report in English instead of a hex dump.

Your hardware or OS configuration is at fault not LR.

Download a program called Autoruns from Microsoft. It will report very detailed information about the system configuration on your PC and allow you to eliminate unwanted programs at startup and so forth. Very powerful yet pretty easy to use.

[jbrembat]

The crash is a full system crash, I cannot even shut down the computer using task manager and have to do a hard stop with the power button

Sw loop, no back to OS from sw. This freeze completely the system.
It's a sw bug.

[donbga]

Until Robert vets his system you can't assign the problem to software. It's not clear to me that he has done that.

[jbrembat]

This does sort of strike me as a LR problem as none of my other programs do anything remotely similar and this event happens only in LR and as soon as I click "import photos."

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

This also sounds like the kind of symptom that can result from a bad memory chip, one that happens to be in a loction that is only used by LR.

I would unplug the computer, open it, and carefully remove all the simms. Wipe the contacts with a soft cloth, preferably moistened with contact cleaner, and carefully reinsert them in the same slots they came from. Boot up and try LR again. If it still crashes, I would get hold of some serious hardware diagnostic software to test every part of the PC before blaming the software.

[Rhossydd]

I would get hold of some serious hardware diagnostic software to test every part of the PC before blaming the software.

Agreed,
Removing some of the ram, if that's an option, to see if one particular stick is problematic is a good easy start.

This isn't a widely reported problem, so it's most likely system based rather than down to LR being faulty.

[jbrembat]

I would get hold of some serious hardware diagnostic software to test every part of the PC before blaming the software.

May be. But in any case LR is not a good sw.
In a good sw:
-about 90% of sw is to check and trap errors.
-about 10% is to do the job.

[donbga]

May be. But in any case LR is not a good sw.
In a good sw:
-about 90% of sw is to check and trap errors.
-about 10% is to do the job.

If hardware fails software can't work. The errors you seem to think LR should handle are the responsibility of the OS. If the OS falters because of hardware issues then it doesn't matter how LR or apps are written.

Frankly you don't know what you are talking about.

Try contributing in a positive manner instead of making sophomoric posts.
 

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

On a previous PC I once spent hours trying to track down a "software" error that seemed to occur in just one program. Eventually, in desperation, I tried swapping the memory simms. In my case, it turned out that the ram was OK, but enough crud had gotten onto the contacts that just removing the simms and reinserting them fixed the problem.

Now I generally clean the contacts of all removable items in my PC once a year.

Eric

[jeremypayne]

May be. But in any case LR is not a good sw.
In a good sw:
-about 90% of sw is to check and trap errors.
-about 10% is to do the job.

I manage software development for a living.

Good software solves a problem efficiently.  LR solves many.

Lightroom is my single favorite software application of all time.