GIMP Version: 2.8.10
Operating System: Windows
OS Version: 8.1
GIMP Experience: Beginner Level

List any relevant plug-ins or scripts:
-

List any ERROR messages you received:
Gimp has crashed

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After many uninstalls, reinstalls and expletives, I decided to complete remove gimpuser folder.
Gimp starts fine and copy contents of user folder back in to new user folder, refresh scripts etc.
works fine but without the plugins of course.
on restart the same happens again.
Removed just plugins and script folders. loaded ok. on restart it crashed again.

Probably unrelated, but started after installing perspective shadow advance and sig rotate.
Can anybody shed a little light please

It looks as if GnuTux nailed it with memory leak theory.
After installing and running FreeRamXP-Pro I have not had a gimp crash (loading or running).
Thanks for input everybody.

Can you not revert?

As in restore point odin. did restore but had same effect on loading.
some time ago i had a repeatitive crash problem and deleting tags cache seemed to clear it.
still suspect a conflict with direct show but cant find proof.
does gimp generate a log while loading. if so i may be able to track it.

Sorry Graechan, but the only error notification is that gimp has crashed. The windows generated error log is of no help at all.
I re-installed windows (retaining data of course) to see if maybe crash was microsoft related. It still occurs.
My sons school installed gimp810 and also had similar problems on windows 8.1.
It will be awkward but Linux here I come again.

gimp 2.8.10
This is worse than the python problem I had with XP.
I will check that link, THANK YOU GRAECHAN. (soon, very soon, they won't even let ME out on weekends)

For sure Graechan, first opportunity. Thanks for the link.

GO Linux

Linux it will be

Fedora? with MATE desktop

Thank you Molly. When I get back home and off of Mobile broadband I shall try Fedora+MATE. I am a kenn UBUNTUist though.

Did you run GIMP from the console (verbose) to see what errors were generated? Dong so might help narrow down the problem.

If there is an issue with Windows 8, you could run GIMP in a virtualbox (Linux or Windows7/XP).

I"m a bit unclear but are you saying GIMP works without the scripts and plug-ins folders or are you saying that GIMP works only once when the gimp-2.8 folder is removed and recreated by GIMP?

GnuTux this is what has occurred:

With all user folders in place Gimp has started to crash on loading. I have a few captures at home of the crash point that shows three habitual points TAGS, SCRIPTS and PLUGINS.
Initially I suspected the TAGS cache had become corrupt and deleted it. This worked for a little while, however the crashes became more frequent.
Trial and error lead to Zipping the scripts and plugins folders (moving them to a different folder). This allowed me to load gimp and move the files back to the original folders.
Once this was established I retained essential plugins and removed as above, the scripts and plugins folder contents. This has been working (although nerve racking), however there are occasions where it crashes while performing tasks which a of frequent use for me, such as CanvasToLayerSize and Image crop.

My Suspicions were TOO MANY SCRIPTS-PLUGINS-RESOURCES, however removing all but the basics eliminated that possibility.

DirectShow also was a suspect as my sons has crashed on occasions (Command and conquer: Generals). It was updated resently and about the time of the worst crash history.

Gimp has been download from the repository, removed completely and reinstalled several times. The battery removed from laptop and all power drained, rebooted and reinstalled.
Windows was refreshed, reinstalled and also re-updated.

The kicker was when my sons school installed gimp 2.8.10 on microsoft 8.1 and began experiencing similar issues.

It's puzzling and annoying, also very hard to convey.
The laptop is new and mostly dedicated to GIMP. Inkscape runs fine as do Krita, my paint, ultrapaint, paintstar and GimpPainter. I found these failed when gimp misbehaved on XP.

I hope this is helpful GnuTux

Also maybe related - I have lost the use of the ALT key for KEYBOARD shortcuts along with thumbnail views.

I have not tried verbose mode, Graechan provided a helpful link earlier, but it will need to wait until i am home

Well, I suppose if there are too many resources installed in GIMP, it could be eating up your memory. Historically, Windows has tons of overhead, especially when you include virus scanners. I'd imagine Metro, and it's associated apps, are resource hungry, as well.

Did you ever try running GIMP from the console (verbose mode) to see what errors were generated during the crash? This might help narrow down your problem.

Aside from that, I can't really offer any other suggestions. Perhaps other members who have experience with GIMP 2.8.10 and Windows 8 can help.

I can never just have a small problem, It must always be huge to justify the time spent
Verbose will need to wait a few days, sorry.
Memory - I have 8Gig and 3 of 4 cores.
I will try and source a util called FreeRam XP. Not sure if it works with windows 8.1 but it was a godsend for XP.
Thanks for your time GnuTux.

It's possible that you could be experiencing some kind of memory leak, which is basically where an app or plug-in isn't freeing up memory or memory that is supposed to be used by one app is being trampled by another. These kinds of things can be hard to debug.

I've had a similar issue with Linux about a year ago, where GIMP was frequently crashing. Also, Firefox was crashing. These are two of my most frequently used apps. I could find no solution to this problem and reinstalling GIMP & Firefox didn't help. I ended up having to re-install the OS.

I'm not suggesting this is the solution to your problem. If you can duplicate the crashing issue across two different Windows 8 installations, that would suggest there is a conflict with Windows 8.

When I reinstalled the OS, it was in the hope that it would solve the issues, its the inconsistent environment in which the crashes occur that are confusing. The memory leak I will look into because Firefox ate the XP memory in big chunks. FreeRam XP was great for plugging it. (A good memory manager must be out there).

Fantastic. FreRamXpPro runs on Windows 8.1. I will tweak it and see what happens.
FreeRamXP
http://download.cnet.com/FreeRAM-XP-Pro ... ml?hlndr=1

NOTE: This link is for the download stub. Once downloaded you need to run it and have internet connection to download the installer. Best to decline the two initial options if you are unsure of them.

All XP users should have FreeRamXP-PRO