problems transferring exe files between a desktop & a laptop

[P6044]

I'm sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this but I'm starting to loose the will to live!

I want to transfer some P2E exe files that I've created on a desktop over to a laptop so that I can show them to my mum but I can't get the files to copy properly. I'm using windows 8.1 on both the desktop & the laptop and I'm trying to transfer via a pen drive. I'm getting the following results:

(a) For some files when I try to run the exe from the pen drive to check it I get a "this app can't run on your PC" message. The icon association looks correct. For other files the icon is wrong but the exe runs ok.

( For other files I can get an exe moved across to the laptop ok, but it doesn't run properly - sometimes it loads but pauses at the first photo, other times I just get a blank screen.

© Sometimes the exe is copied to the pen drive ok, but the laptop looses the icon association and I get a slideshow error.

I've tried zipping the files but that doesn't seem to work either, and it doesn't seem to matter whether they are old or new files, I still get random results.

Can anyone help please?

Lynda

[davegee]

Is this a new problem?

Has it worked before?

DG

P.S. Make a small single-slide EXE for PC and try that?

[Lin Evans]

Hi Lynda,

The first question I would have is do each of these copied files on the "pendrive" (I'm assuming this pendrive is a USB flash memory stick?) run from that drive correctly when it's connected to the desktop? The next question is, were these all single executable files or were some of them created using the "Safe Executable File for Internet" feature of PTE?

If they are not all single exe files and some were created as Safe Executable Files, are both the data file and exe file resident on the pen drive and were both transferred to the laptop?

Finally, does the laptop have sufficient resources to run the executables in terms of dedicated or shared resource video card, etc.?

Once these questions are answered perhaps we can chase down the source of the error(s).

Best regards,

Lin

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Lynda

Couple of questions, were the exe's created using Windows 8.1, what anti virus are you running? Have you tried switching off your anti virus on both the machines, re-copying to the USB/Pen stick, then copying to the lap top. As an interim measure until the problem is sorted, you could up-load the exe's to Mediafire or Dropbox, send your Mum the link & let her download them.

Yachtsman1.

[P6044]

thanks for your replies - in no particular order:

Yes I do mean a USB flash memory stick.

The exes have been created on a mixture of windows XP and Windows 8.1, I'm having similar problems with all of them. I did manage to copy some exes when both machines were running XP, but the odd one failed, though I think it worked when I re-tried (this was a couple of years ago).

We're running Windows Defender - it was turned off this morning (thanks hubby!) when I was having the mixed response, yesterday when it was turned on I got the "this app can't run on your PC" for all the exes I tried to run from the pen drive, even though it looked like they had been associated with the correct icon.

All the files are single executable files, I did try re-created a slide show with the "Safe Executable File for Internet" option but when I upzipped the file on the laptop and tried to run it, it said it couldn't find the PTE file, even though both parts were there.

Unfortunately I can't try using Dropbox for mum as she doesn't have a PC, but I'll try putting access to Dropbox on the laptop (assuming I can) & see if I can get them copied that way. (I had thought of creating a shared drive, but I'm not sure if exes can be accessed over an intranet)

Lack of resource on the laptop may explain why the exes I have managed to copy don't run properly (they are holiday slideshows & they do tend to end up being rather large), so I'll also try creating just a small single-slide exe to see if that will run.

Did I miss anything?

Lynda.

[P6044]

update:

I've made progress of a sort - I've loaded dropbox onto the laptop, turned off Windows defender on both the desktop & the laptop & used dropbox to transfer a small exe, all looks ok except when I try to run it I get a blank, black screen.

I also tried creating/tranferring a single-slide exe, and that gave me a black screen as well. I then tried creating it using the the "Safe Executable File for Internet" option, and got the black screen again.

(At least things now seem to be consistent!)

Lynda.

[Lin Evans]

Hi Lynda,

Tell us a bit about the laptop - brand, amount of RAM etc., Generally you can get this information by running a Windows resident file called "dxdiag.exe" which Windows "should" be able to find if you just right click on the white Windows icon (the one with four little square white divisions) then from the dropdown menu choose "Run" and then enter the word "dxdiag" without the quotation marks and press the Enter button. What will be of interest is what the Display and System tabs reveal...

Best regards,

Lin

[Guest Yachtsman1]

update:

I've made progress of a sort - I've loaded dropbox onto the laptop, turned off Windows defender on both the desktop & the laptop & used dropbox to transfer a small exe, all looks ok except when I try to run it I get a blank, black screen.

I also tried creating/tranferring a single-slide exe, and that gave me a black screen as well. I then tried creating it using the the "Safe Executable File for Internet" option, and got the black screen again.

(At least things now seem to be consistent!)

Lynda.

Hi Lynda

When you up-load to Dropbox are you zipping the exe first, "right click exe, scroll down to send to, scroll down to compressed (zipped) folder? Upload a known good exe zipped that way to Dropbox via your PC, then download via your laptop. To open the downloaded zipped exe folder, "right click on the folder, scroll down to extract all, see screen shots. Good luck let us know what happens.

Yachtsman1.

[P6044]

Hi Lynda,

Tell us a bit about the laptop - brand, amount of RAM etc., Generally you can get this information by running a Windows resident file called "dxdiag.exe" which Windows "should" be able to find if you just right click on the white Windows icon (the one with four little square white divisions) then from the dropdown menu choose "Run" and then enter the word "dxdiag" without the quotation marks and press the Enter button. What will be of interest is what the Display and System tabs reveal...

Best regards,

Lin

Hi Lin,

this is the output from the dxdiag, I think it contains what you asked for.

DxDiag.txt

Lynda.

[P6044]

Hi Lynda

When you up-load to Dropbox are you zipping the exe first, "right click exe, scroll down to send to, scroll down to compressed (zipped) folder? Upload a known good exe zipped that way to Dropbox via your PC, then download via your laptop. To open the downloaded zipped exe folder, "right click on the folder, scroll down to extract all, see screen shots. Good luck let us know what happens.

Yachtsman1.

z1.jpgz2.jpg

Hi,

I'm getting confused as what I've done, so I've re-run some tests as follows:

(1) created a single-image exe using option F9 (created excutable file for PC) - resulting file size 1650K

sent this file uncompressed via dropbox, file size on laptop 1650K

displays a blank, black screen when run

(2) manually zipped file & sent this via dropbox

unzipped on laptop as administrator, file size 1650K

displays a blank, black screen when run

(3) created another single-image exe (using the same image) using option "safe executable file for PC" & sent this via dropbox - 2 files, the exe & a ptshow file

unzipped on the laptop as administrator, file size of exe 1253k, file size of the PTSHOW file 403k

displays a blank, black screen when run

(4) unzipped on the desktop & sent the resulting folder via dropbox

file size of exe on laptop 1253k, file size of the PTSHOW file 403k

displays a blank, black screen when run

The exes all run fine on the desktop, so it's looking like a setting on the laptop that is stopping these exes from running, something to do with virus protection? Is there a way of telling Windows Defender which exes are actually "safe"?

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi Lynda

I don't use Windows Defender & to be honest hadn't heard of it until you mentioned it. I've just had a look at it & it looks like it works with updates, either MS or Windows. If you have the updates set to automatic, you won't have any control over what is being up-dated. I use MS Security Essentials, been using it a couple of years now & only had a couple of hiccups with it. As for MS updates, mine are set to advise me when something is supposed to be up-dated. A couple of months ago, someone on the forum started having trouble after up-loading the latest MS up-date, from then I haven't up-dated. This tends to happen now & then & eventually when MS realise they have caused a problem, it goes away. I will probably leave mine another month before up-dating.

Back to your problem, I don't use the Safe for internet setting in PTE's publish, so I can't say if it reduces the exe file size, I've just done a test & I only get a 5 to 10% reduction, whereas you are getting over 60%. What I suggest is upload a known good exe, zipped as I described to Dropbox, not using safe for internet setting & PM me the link if you don't want to publish it on here openly, make sure the exe has some picture content, not blank images. The 2 screen shots show the file sizes of the two exes I tested, one as normal & one safe for internet. Finally, how old is the laptop, what make & model, did it come with W8 or have you up-graded from an earlier operating system.

Yachtsman1.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

hi again

just seen the data on the lt you sent to Lin, is this the LT?

Yachtsman1

[Guest Yachtsman1]

If it is it certainly shouldn't have any problems running PTE Exe files. If all the stuff in the spec is pre-installed, I wondered if there could be some sort of cross contamination between the programmes.

Yachtsman1.

c2721044-c61d-4d34-8a96-d5b14a3f741e.pdf

[P6044]

hi again

just seen the data on the lt you sent to Lin, is this the LT? len1.jpg

Yachtsman1

yes it is - it's about 18 months old I think & came with 8.1 pre-installed. It's mostly used to access forums, news etc so doesn't have many apps on it. I wouldn't be suprised if there is a default setting somewhere that is causing the problem as all the P2E exes I've ever created on the desktop work fine.

By-the-way, thanks for suggesting using Dropbox to transfer things, much easier than using a pen drive

Lynda.

[P6044]

for info, I finally tracked down why the P2E exes weren't running on the laptop - it was a problem with the sound card software!

[Lin Evans]

Hi Lyn,

Thanks so much for the feedback. It's amazing how something as seemingly unrelated as an issue with the sound card software can cause such headaches. But in retrospect, we have sometimes had even mp3 files which were not "standard" format cause no sound at all when even one of many was defective. The simple "fix" was to normalize them by loading them in a sound editor such as Audacity and exporting them again.

Was it the the "Conexant - CHDRT64.sys" driver file which was the problem?

Best regards,

Lin

Sound Devices

-------------

Description: Speakers (Conexant SmartAudio HD)

Default Sound Playback: Yes

Default Voice Playback: Yes

Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_14F1&DEV_506E&SUBSYS_17AAA001&REV_1000

Manufacturer ID: 1

Product ID: 100

Type: WDM

Driver Name: CHDRT64.sys

Driver Version: 8.54.0047.0000 (English)

Driver Attributes: Final Retail

WHQL Logo'd: n/a

Date and Size: 9/3/2012 06:26:02, 1609376 bytes

Other Files:

Driver Provider: Conexant

HW Accel Level: Basic

Cap Flags: 0x0

Min/Max Sample Rate: 0, 0

Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 0, 0

Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0

HW Memory: 0

Voice Management: No

EAX 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No

I3DL2 Listen/Src: No, No

Sensaura ZoomFX: No

[P6044]

yes I think so, we went into the control panel/hardward & sound section & got an error message saying there was something wrong with some file extension software, did we want to disable it? - said yes (as you do!) & hey presto, everything worked.

(might have got there sooner had we realised the problem was also affecting avi's with sound but not those without).

Lynda.