Digital Workshop

I need some help. I installed Opus 04 and am having the following problems after creating some trial pages. Can anyone provide help?

1. Selecting PROPERTIES or ACTIONS results in the error message: "Opus caused a general protection fault - module G400.DRV. Kernal 32." The computer locks-up.

2. Navigating the TOOLS>OPTIONS screens results in the message: "Opus caused a general protection fault in module GDI.EXE" The computer crashes and I must do a hard boot.

I uninstalled, cleaned the registry, re-installed and ran SR4. All previous versions of Opus/Illuminatus were removed. The DW key was deleted from the registry before re-installing. I would like to create my current project with Opus 04 and I hope the instability I am experiencing doesn't drive me back to the previous version.

I would appreciate any help that could be provided.

Thank you,

Don

It sounds as though there is an issue with your graphics drivers (G400.DRV is part of the Matrox driver system). I would suggest getting the latest drivers and installing those.

Duncan, thank you for the suggestion. I downloaded the updated drivers from Matrox and checked the file dates to be sure they were of a later date. I opened a publication and it worked great for a couple of actions, then I tried the following and Opus crashed as before.

1. Added one new page and no problem. Added another new page and an error message shut Opus down. Message: "Opus caused a stack fault in module KERNEL32.DLL."

2. Selected TOOLS>OPTIONS>GENERAL>MORE and the error message appeared and the program crashed. Error message: "Opus caused an invalid page fault in module G400.DRV."

In case Opus 04 doesn't work with some graphic cards, the specifics of my card are as follows: Matrox Millennium, G400 AGP, 32 Mb Graphics Memory (SGRAM).

Any other ideas or suggestions would really be appreciated because I would like to use the features of Opus 04 for my current project I am starting.

Thank you,

Don Flynnn

New information: I have repeated the complete uninstall (registry, et al) about five times and I still have the same problems with a new addition. After the tools bars are displayed and "undisplayed" several times, the CTRL 2 key combination for the color palette stops working. (The CTRL 1 key combination for the organizer continues to work properly.)

I also ran DxDiag and all tests were successful. (I have DirectX 8.0) I might also note that I use Win 98 SE, Pentium 3, 550 Mhz. I am really between a rock and a brick wall. Any help is appreciated.

Don

Hi Don,
I always had problems with Windows SE instability if the version of Internet Explorer installed wasn't at least version 5.0. -- should be 5.5 or later on an SE installation if you want to run recently developed software.
Microsoft used IE to upgrade a few Windows 98x, SE components quietly around the time of Y2K.
I haven't used Windows SE on a production machine for at least 4 years, might be time to think about retiring it.
Nowadays I would be very surprised if my clients wanted a pub to run on anything but Windows 2000 or XP, with the rare appearance of the occasional Windows Millenium computer.
Paul

Paul,

Thanks for the good info. I am running IE 6.0 and I normally only have an occasional blue screen, but I know what keyboard combinations cause them. I guess it is time to leave the DOS Kernal and switch to 2000 or XP (as much as I dislike XP).

My system is nearly six years old - if I have a new one built, are there any suggestions for the "ideal" system to use with Opus? My primary use is for authoring and I want to stay with Opus rather than switch to the expensive and long learning curve of Director. Thanks for any input.

Don

Hi,

Thank you for your enquiry.

The error messages you are receiving strongly suggest an issue with the currently-installed graphics drivers. However, you state that you have updated these drivers and the problem has not been resolved. It may be worth trying an older set of drivers from the Matrox archive (http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drive ... rv_drv.cfm) to see if these are affected by the issue.

I would also recommend updating your DirectX version to the latest 9.0c as the display drivers may have been optimised for this version of DirectX. You can download the latest DirectX from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx.

If the problem persists, I would recommend using Windows 98's System File Checker to verify the integrity of your system files. More information about this tool can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/usin ... echeck.asp.

I hope this helps. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further queries.

Kind regards,

Robin,

Thanks for the suggestions. I accomplished all of them except the "System File Checker." I searched the MS website you indicated and learned a lot about the System File Checker; however, I could not find it available as a download. It does not appear to be available on my computer in Win98 SC, at least I could not find it. I updated DirectX.

The crashing problem still exists and CTRL 1 for the pallete still becomes disabled after working correctly. I don't know if it is related, but another problem has surfaced: The only animation option that can be selected from the timeline is "Bounce." I tried re-booting and starting over several times. Finally, the other options could be selected the first time animation was used on the timeline and then when trying it again only the "Bounce" was available.

A question: Is Opus 04 written for XP and is anyone else using it with 98 SC? I am spending hours downloading updates etc (I have a dial-up connection) and am really getting behind the power curve on the project I should be creating. Any more ideas or should I just switch to XP (are there any similar problems with Pro 04 running on XP)?

Correction of error in my last message: I wrote CTRL 1 and I meant CTRL 2. The keyboard combination CTRL 1 for the organizer has always worked correctly. The keyboard combination CTRL 2 for the pallet is the combination that fails to work after doing other actions. Sorry for the mistake.

Don

Although Opus is primarily developed on Windows 2000 and XP machines, we have rigorously tested the software and resulting publications on all major Windows platforms, including Windows 98 (hence its inclusion on our Minimum System Requirements list).

As previously stated, the error messages you are receiving are almost certainly graphics driver related (hence the reference to the G400.DRV file in one of the errors), so if this problem is affecting your project deadlines, I would recommend borrowing an ATI or nVidia-based graphics card to replace your Matrox graphics card and installing this with the latest drivers from www.ati.com or www.nvidia.com to see if the problems are addressed. If so, purchasing an entry-level ATI or nVidia card should be more cost-effective (and less hassle) than upgrading to Windows XP.

Kind regards,