Urgent: graphic filter error

[Guest]

One of our FM installs suddenly, out-of-the-blue can't display referenced or imported graphics. The graphics displayed correctly until a few days ago. We have not changed anything on the machine or in the FM files. The graphics display correctly on other computers. The graphics are all jpgs.

The problem computer: Vista SP2 with FM8p277

The error: "The filter encountered an error and could not complete the translation"

I tried reinstalling FM. This did not fix the problem.

Help! Our daily build is down until I can figure out what's going on.

Thank you!

Karen Story

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[Guest]

Karen, it could be that a recent Windows update(s) might have clobbered your graphics display; there have been a couple of graphics-related GDI updates from MS in recent weeks. Could your IT folks take a look at the recent MS installs and selectively uninstall them?

fwiw, there have also been relatively recent MS updates that have clobbered some fonts (Multiple Master fonts and also older Type1 Helvetica/Times ), but if you're using jpgs then I don't believe font changes affect them.

Can you determine what approximate page triggers the error message?

Does the affected system have MS Office on it; if so, what version?

Sheila

[Guest]

Hi Sheila,

Thank you so much for responding! The machine worked fine on Friday, and started having problems on Monday. IT did not deploy anything to the computer over the weekend. Absolutely nothing changed on the machine or in the FM files between Friday and Monday.

The machine does not have MS Office installed.

The error occurs on every page of every document. All graphics display as gray boxes, and if I try to import a graphic to any location in any document, I get the error message.

This definitely feels like an FM install corruption, but reinstalling FM did not fix the problem. Perhaps the uninstall did not clean out all registry files? (When I reinstalled FM, it did not prompt me for a serial number.)

Thank you!

Karen

[Guest]

Well, I guess the next thing I'd do is try to create a new FM document and insert a few of the AWOL graphics, using the same insertion method (copy, insert by reference, whatever) as you used previously, same location (are the graphics stored on a network share or on the local system?), and see if you can in fact use the exact same graphics files in the same location as the previous files.

After you uninstalled FM did you reboot? I would do that just to be on the safe side prior to trying a full install. Agreed that not asking for a serial number is odd, too.  And of course be sure that you're actually installing your original FM version plus doing any applicable update(s).

Maybe somebody else here will come up with some suggestions <looking around hopefully ...>

[Guest]

Another troubleshooting step would be to save one of the problem FM files as MIF and then look at the path to the graphic(s). Again, whether they're referenced or copied in, and if referenced are they on a server or local.

MIFBrowse is a great, FREE (!!!) MIF viewer that works perfectly with FM9 and below:

MIFBrowser Wideman

Depending on how your graphics are inserted it can be a bit daunting, but what I'd do is to search for a text string that occurs just before the target graphic and then scroll down from there to see what the MIF file might reveal.

[Guest]

Hi Sheila,

Thank you so much for your help! Rebooting was a great suggestion, but alas, it did not work. I also generated a mif file, and it is identical the mif file I generated from the same exact file on a machine that does display the graphics. So the FM files themselves are not corrupted.

I called Adobe Tech Support, and to my astonishment they told me that FM 8 is no longer supported! Is this true?? I can't upgrade FM right now because we're in the middle of a release cycle.

So I am going to try a manual uninstall using ideas from the instructions on this Adobe site:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/881/cpsid_88188.html [this is specific to FM 10, so it isn't in fact very helpful].

I'll let you know if this works...

Thanks!

Karen

[Arnis Gubins]

Karen,

The jpeg filtering is handled by the imagmark.dll, which also handles a variety of other files, including png. Try to import a .png file. If this fails, then the filter file is probably hosed. Instead of re-installing, you could just try copying that file from one of your other "working" installations. If you're using the jpeg2000 format, then it's the jp2kfilter.dll that handles those.

If you do want to go the uninstall route, try the Revo Uninstaller (free version). It does do a good job of identifying Registry detritus for clean-up after the native application uninstaller has done it's job.

FM8 is now two versions back, so I wouldn't expect any direct tech support for that version any more.

[Guest]

Hi Arnis,

Thank you so much for your suggestions.

I am unable to import png files.

I copied the imagmark.dll file from my working installation - this did not fix the problem.

I uninstalled using Revo, and reinstalled. This did not fix the problem.

I'm not sure what to try next... Could this be related to WebWorks? Should I try uninstalling Acrobat? FrameScript?

Thanks!
Karen

[Guest]

Karen, have you checked to be sure the system has enough empty space on the hard drive, particularly that there's enough for swap space?

I suppose it could also be something like some RAM that's starting to go flakey, could your IT folks maybe do some system diagnostics.

Also, take a look at the Event Viewer, maybe there are messages in it that could give an indication of Things Going Bump.

[Guest]

Thanks Sheila - I will look into those!

[Guest]

There is plenty of RAM and swap space, and the machine diagnostics indicate no hardware problems. We've decided to move the build to a different machine, and FrameMaker works fine over there. So for now, this mystery remains unsolved.

When we are able to upgrade to FM10, we will see if it works on the problem build machine.

Thank you Sheila and Arnis for your help - I can't tell you how much I appreciated knowing you were out there in my "hour of stress"!

Karen

[TomesOfTomes]

How very interesting. I'm running into this exact problem with one PNG file in a FM file that contains many of these. None of the others have this issue. It just started today. I can import a different PNG (from the same PPT deck) into that area in the FM, but it's just that one PNG that is causing a problem. Very odd indeed. We create these PNGs by saving the PPT into PNG format, so it is generated by the PowerPoint software.

Just now I opened the one offending PNG file with Paint.NET, re-saved it, and voila, it imports correctly. Very odd indeed.