Editor shuts down automatically

[mathil]

I just updated to Calibre release 4.10.1, coming from version 4.9.1, and for some reason whenever I open the Editor it shuts down automatically in a couple of seconds. I've since attempted this with several books, both in EPUB and AZW3 formats, and it's happened every single time.
As this hasn't been reported yet I imagine it's something to do with my computer (Windows 10, latest updates - I'm using the Win64bit version of Calibre). Any suggestions on how I might fix this? Thank you!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mathil

I just updated to Calibre release 4.10.1, coming from version 4.9.1, and for some reason whenever I open the Editor it shuts down automatically in a couple of seconds. I've since attempted this with several books, both in EPUB and AZW3 formats, and it's happened every single time.
As this hasn't been reported yet I imagine it's something to do with my computer (Windows 10, latest updates - I'm using the Win64bit version of Calibre). Any suggestions on how I might fix this? Thank you!

Disable your AV (unless it's the Microsoft AV) and see what happens. Also shut down as many programs as you can that run at start. If Calibre is still not working, reboot in safe mode. Then try Calibre again. If it works, it's something your system runs when you boot normally.

I'm running Calibre 4.10.1 with Windows 10 64-bit and the editor is working.

[kovidgoyal]

try rebooting in safe mode and seeing if it work there first.

[mathil]

Thank you for your answers!
I tried rebooting into safe mode and everything works normally. The issue I have now is figuring out what is causing the problem I haven't installed anything new in between the two Calibre versions. I tried deactivating most of the programs that start at boot and turning off realtime protection on Windows Defender but no luck there either. Tried also Calibre in debug mode but even though I open the editor nothing weird shows up in the log (at least not that I can see).

[JSWolf]

Also try updating your computer drivers if there are any that can be updated. Something did change between the two Calibre versions. The underlying QT software changed to a newer version.

If you are using a laptop that has dual video cards, run Calibre using the other video card then it's using now.

[mathil]

Thanks for the help, Jon - I do have a laptop with dual video cards and had been using the integrated (Intel) one by default. I then tried opening Calibre with the other card and the editor worked!
I've kept the Intel graphics card to an older driver version because with the newer ones I have issues changing the screen brightness (it's an old laptop...), so I guess I'll have to adapt, but at least I've found a solution. Thank you and Kovid as well.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mathil

Thanks for the help, Jon - I do have a laptop with dual video cards and had been using the integrated (Intel) one by default. I then tried opening Calibre with the other card and the editor worked!
I've kept the Intel graphics card to an older driver version because with the newer ones I have issues changing the screen brightness (it's an old laptop...), so I guess I'll have to adapt, but at least I've found a solution. Thank you and Kovid as well.

I've been reading that a lot of the problems are due to an older video card driver. So I figured if you were on a laptop with dual video cards, trying the other one might work. Glad to know Calibre now works once again. Also, the other video card may be faster.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by mathil

Thanks for the help, Jon - I do have a laptop with dual video cards and had been using the integrated (Intel) one by default. I then tried opening Calibre with the other card and the editor worked!
I've kept the Intel graphics card to an older driver version because with the newer ones I have issues changing the screen brightness (it's an old laptop...), so I guess I'll have to adapt, but at least I've found a solution. Thank you and Kovid as well.

Curious - did you use the Editor in earlier 4.x releases.

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Curious - did you use the Editor in earlier 4.x releases.

BR

The underlying QT changed in the 4.10.1 release since the 4.9.1 release. That's probably what caused the problem. But it's fixed now.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The underlying QT changed in the 4.10.1 release since the 4.9.1 release. That's probably what caused the problem. But it's fixed now.

Can you point me to something describing the change to Qt - it may be related to a calibre problem some of the teachers at the school I support are having.

BR

[mathil]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Curious - did you use the Editor in earlier 4.x releases.

BR

The editor is probably the Calibre feature I use most often, and I keep Calibre constantly updated. This is the first time I've had this issue. Before Jon suggested I use the other video card I tried uninstalling 4.10.1 and going back to 4.9.1, and the editor opened correctly.

My laptop is an old Lenovo from 2013 with Intel HD Graphics 4000 (the video card which caused the problem). I have to keep it to a driver version that is much older, I assume, than the most recent updates pushed via Windows Update, one that is officially supported by the manufacturer, because the brightness controls stopped working at one point after every update. Hence the problem.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Can you point me to something describing the change to Qt - it may be related to a calibre problem some of the teachers at the school I support are having.

BR

The latest Qt5 versions are getting pretty aggressive at blacklisting video drivers that aren't fairly recent. Which often means you might be falling back to software rendering. I believe calibre on Windows/Mac is using the very latest Qt (5.14.1) as of about 10 days ago. So if your video hardware (or its drivers) are starting to age a bit, there could be some issues. 5.12.6 is a little flaky on my Windows 7 VMs. I haven't tried 5.14.x on them yet.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The latest Qt5 versions are getting pretty aggressive at blacklisting video drivers that aren't fairly recent. Which often means you might be falling back to software rendering. I believe calibre on Windows/Mac is using the very latest Qt (5.14.1) as of about 10 days ago. So if your video hardware (or its drivers) are starting to age a bit, there could be some issues. 5.12.6 is a little flaky on my Windows 7 VMs. I haven't tried 5.14.x on them yet.

Thanks, I didn't know that

The computers in question were ordered from Toshiba in November and delivered on the same palette in December - of 2019!

6 of 9 teachers have no problems with calibre 4.10 on the new laptops, whilst 3 have problems. I'm seeing a Toshiba engineer at the school tomorrow. We will, amongst other things, compare video adapters and drivers. I've had a shallow look, but nothing leapt out. Because they've not complained about anything else I assume everything else is works.

The 3 teachers with the problem are using one of the old 2015 vintage laptops to maintain their libraries with calibre version 4.10 on Windows 1903.

No, I can't figure it out either.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

Yes calibre 4.10 upgraded the bundled Qt to 5.14.1 to fix some bugs in the webengine pointer events support. It's quite possible it has issues with older graphics cards/drivers. It's annoying that something as simple as rendering HTML accurately requires up-to-date graphics drivers but that is the world we live in with the crazy browser makers endlessly making HTML more and more complex.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Yes calibre 4.10 upgraded the bundled Qt to 5.14.1 to fix some bugs in the webengine pointer events support. It's quite possible it has issues with older graphics cards/drivers. It's annoying that something as simple as rendering HTML accurately requires up-to-date graphics drivers but that is the world we live in with the crazy browser makers endlessly making HTML more and more complex.

A big part of the reason I do my Sigil development on Arch Linux is because I can easily build against the latest (and not always greatest) versions of Qt/Python/Etc without having to constantly build them from scratch myself. It works like an early warning system.

It's crazy how fast things are moving. Python 3.5 marked the end of support for XP, and I believe I saw that 3.8.x will be the last that will support Windows 7. Meanwhile Python 3.4 has already reached end of life.