New D3000.... but I'm having problems with Windows now...

[16vjohn]

Hi all. Name is John. I live in Utah and I just bought my first dslr. Love it so far, but I am having issues in windows. I can take a picture, and view it fine on the camera review. I can also upload it to windows in a folder and the thumbnail appears as it should. But when I open it up, I get weird color banding and artifacting. Here's an example:

Soooo... as you can see we have a problem. I have not had any problems with viewing images on this computer before, but then again, my pictures have never been 3+ mb either. I have tried windows picture and fax viewer, Nikon ViewNX, picasa and Irfanview. They all do it. It's windows 7 64bit. Only thing I can think is that windows can't parse the file correctly. I don't understand. Anybody run into issues like this before? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[inTempus]

Hi all. Name is John. I live in Utah and I just bought my first dslr. Love it so far, but I am having issues in windows. I can take a picture, and view it fine on the camera review. I can also upload it to windows in a folder and the thumbnail appears as it should. But when I open it up, I get weird color banding and artifacting. Here's an example:

Soooo... as you can see we have a problem. I have not had any problems with viewing images on this computer before, but then again, my pictures have never been 3+ mb either. I have tried windows picture and fax viewer, Nikon ViewNX, picasa and Irfanview. They all do it. It's windows 7 64bit. Only thing I can think is that windows can't parse the file correctly. I don't understand. Anybody run into issues like this before? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

If multiple different applications are showing the same thing I doubt it's the operating system. If this is happening to more than one image (like all of them you're taking) and if you're trying different memory cards and still getting the banding... I would look at the camera before the computer.

I'm not a technician. But using my masterful powers of deductive reasoning, this is my best guess.

 

[Nicholas James Photo]

Mmmm a camera problem is the most likely answer. I know it is frustrating but get it changed.
PS have you tried another memory card

 

[KmH]

Mmmm a camera problem is the most likely answer. I know it is frustrating but get it changed.
PS have you tried another memory card

Yep, I'd persue the memory card angle before I assume it's the camera.

 

[16vjohn]

Thanks for the replies!

I need to be more clear. The images are fine once they are on the computer. The thumbnails look great. Also, the banding and artifacting are different from photo to photo. Also, some of the photo's artifacts/banding change each time you look at them. Lastly... I got out my crappy laptop and transfered about 100 images over to the laptop and had zero issues with that. Pictures look great with no banding. That's pretty conclusive that the problem lies with my desktop machine. The laptop is running vista 32 and my desktop is running Win 7 64. I guess now my question is, how do I fix this without doing a reload on my computer?

 

[JohnnyL]

I didn't read everything but format your memory card and try again. I had that problem before , almost one in every two pictures.

I think it's a corrupt memory card problem and formatting should solve it.

 

[Derrel]

Yes, you are right--your computer is having difficulty parsing the file. This is not a memory card issue. My feeling is that your hard drive is probably somewhat fragmented. I have encountered this issue before on heavily frag'd drives. The tip-off is that, as you mention, the files changed from viewing to viewing, indicating a problem in parsing the information.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Graphics card problem?
I had something similer, but it was to my whole screen. It would only happen sometimes. But it was that exact same color you have.

Just throw that in for one more possible option.

 

[Inst!nct]

Graphics card problem?
I had something similer, but it was to my whole screen. It would only happen sometimes. But it was that exact same color you have.

Just throw that in for one more possible option.

graphic cards display what is on the screen, they dont actually process the image, so unless he is getting this regularly on his screen without opening up anything, then no, its not his gpu. Most likely, hard drives (as said), 2nd most likely, operating system/software used, 3rd.. RAM?

 

[16vjohn]

Ok, I went to the extreme and did a full reformat of the entire operating system from scratch. I just got everything loaded back up with a fresh install of Windows 7. Problem still exists. :evil::evil::evil:!!! What the hell? I have been having problems with my graphics card with 3D rendering on certain games, but as a previous reply said, the graphics card doesn't parse the image file... It only displays what the cpu tells it to display. With that said, all the other graphics features work flawlessly in Windows 7... The "aero" theme is quite graphics intensive with all the transparent boxes and crap. The only thing that's really left at this point is the hardware in my computer. I have a friend that build a computer nearly identical to this one with the same brand/model of parts inside, including the video card. I will take my D3000 over there and see if the problem persists. If it doesn't do it there, then I guess it's time for a new computer anyway. Any other input would be appreciated. Thanks for the replies thus far.:thumbup:


Edit:

Also, it should be noted that before I did the reformat, I tried to defrag the drive. Turns out Windows 7 does this in the background every 7 days. The drive was 0% fragmented.

 

[Dwig]

It looks like corrupted image files which points to a problem with the card reader (standalone card reader or camera acting like one) or its compatibility with Windows 7 64bit.

If several apps display the image the same way its not the apps. If the apps read and display other images of the same size (in pixels) fine its not the or the display system.

Experiments should involve using a different card reader and using the same card reader with a different OS (Win7/32, Vista, XP, MacOSX, ...). If the card reader works with other OSes then its probably a compatibility issue with Win7/64. If it fails the same way then there is a problem with the reader itself.

BTW, have you checked to see if your card reader (the D3000 or otherwise) is supposed to work with the 64bit version of Win7?