Blank White Comp Window

[colourandre]

I did the June update to help with the audio bugs I was having. Now I have no audio and a completely white comp window.

Please help. This is unacceptable!

[colourandre]

FYI my system info is:

PC running Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit OEI

Intel i7 6950x 10 core running at 4.95GHz

GTX 1080 Ti 11GB

64GB RAM

App Drive: Samsung m.2 SSD

Working files disk: Samsung 850Pro SSD

Scratch disk: Samsung 850Pro SSD

[Szalam]

That sounds very frustrating.

However, I've not heard anybody else having any issues remotely like this one. That means, we are going to need a lot more information from you in order to help.

Screenshots of your full interface would be very handy.

Descriptions of the contents of your composition, the previous issues you were having, and codecs/formats of assets in your comp would be handy too.

[colourandre]

It's interesting that you've not heard of issues remotely like this. Search "blank white comp window ae" in Google and there are pages of people complaining about similar issues over many years.

I've had issues with comp window being black in previous editions of AE also, but this is the first time I've had a complete white screen.

As far as the content of the composition goes, I've tried completely new comps with nothing but a shape object, and I've also tried opening various other project files all with the same issue.

I'm trying to get a screen grab for you but now it won't even launch.

I'll try another restart and send you a screen grab.

[Szalam]

I meant that I haven't heard of this update causing it where no issue was before. As you've mentioned, you've had issues before, so this is likely an extension of that issue.

In other cases that are similar to what you describe, it was a hardware issue. That's the first place I would look.

[colourandre]

I've just purchased a brand new PC with the below specs.

Don't think AE can ask for much more than what I've provided it.

AE was working fine-ish, other than not being able to play audio and crashing repeatedly on projects made on the previous mac system. Other than those couple of things (sigh) it was working ok. The blank white screen only started today with the June update.

FYI my system info is:

PC running Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit OEI

Intel i7 6950x 10 core running at 4.95GHz

GTX 1080 Ti 11GB

64GB RAM

App Drive: Samsung m.2 SSD

Working files disk: Samsung 850Pro SSD

Scratch disk: Samsung 850Pro SSD

[Stan Jones]

I'm looking at a new PC build. Have you tried without overclocking? One report suggested not overclocking the i7 6950x over 4.3. Just a thought.

Did you run the cleaner when uninstalling? Getting an odd zoom rate after reinstalling makes me wonder if the preferences were not reset.

[colourandre]

When I've had similar issues on my previous machine (mac), I've had to uninstall and reinstall. Which makes me think not a hardware issue. I've also had to go back to previously installed versions before, but as this is a new machine there are not any previously installed versions to revert to.

[colourandre]

Uninstall and reinstall has fixed the issue BUT!!!! then I closed AE and restarted it again and we're back to the same issue.

I'd suggest than a reinstall fixing the issue would suggest a software issue not hardware? Am I wrong?

Really appreciate help here because I'm trying desperatly to meet a client deadline and I can't do anything right now.

[colourandre]

Don't know if this is of any interest but the zoom always starts at 6.25% which is odd

[Szalam]

That is odd.

I'd mess with trying different GPU drivers for a start.

[colourandre]

Capture one is with a floating comp window. (See all white)

Capture 2 is when I try and dock the window. (It does a strange copy of the timeline that has an error on the right when I try and resize the window.

[colourandre]

Reinstalled 14.1.0.57 and everything is working perfectly now.

Can you please log this as a software issue as if the error is only occuring in the June update then I would suggest that means it's software not hardware. Agreed?

[Warren Heaton]

Hi Colourande:

You can report the issue here:

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

Everyone who responded in they forum is a user like yourself.

It does seem to have been a software configuration issue on your machine, but not so much software failure or bug.

-Warren

[colourandre]

We've now narrowed down the issue to the creation of a new workspace. Once a new workspace has been created, on the next launch of the software the comp view is all white with no view. Removing the ModifiedWorkspaces .xml makes AE work correctly again, but we're stuck in a loop of not being able to launch the software again after a new workspace has been created.

Have tried removing all plugins to see if any of them was causing the issue but this has made no difference.

Have exactly the same issue on version 14, 14.1 & 14.2

Any ideas on how to fix this?

[Szalam]

You don't happen to have the Midas extension installed, do you?

[colourandre]

Szalam  wrote

You don't happen to have the Midas extension installed, do you?

No I don't have that plugin.

I did see you comment re Midas on another post After effects cc 2017 crashes with workspaces, MTS files, and more

We did remove ALL plugins and UIScripts to see if that was causing the issue but it made no difference. (We did this but deleting everything in the plugins, and scripts UI folders)

Please help as having to delete the ModifiedWorkspaces .xml and redo my workspace every launch is not really a viable working solution in the long run.

[Szalam]

Midas gets installed in a different location than plugins and Script UI folder. It's in an entirely different folder structure altogether!

Plugins, Scripts, and Presets are in the regular, 64-bit Program Files folder, like so;

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects CC 2017\Support Files\Plug-ins

But extensions (like Midas and Flow) go in the 32-bit, x86 Common Files folder here:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions

That's why I was asking you to double-check since that stuff is kinda hidden. I initially asked about Midas because a couple of other people had workspace-related crashing issues and removing Midas solved it for them.

[colourandre]

Hi Szalam,

I've never purchased the Midas plugin you're mentioning but I did check the folder C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\CEP\extensions.

All I can see in there is the following

What am I looking for as there are a lot of sub folders in each of those folders?

[colourandre]

Is there a way to do a complete uninstall and reinstall that removes all plug in's, extensions, scripts etc, so that we can remove that as a cause of the issue.

[Szalam]

You can try the Creative Cloud Cleaner tool.

See this page: Use the Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool to solve installation problems

[colourandre]

So I've done the complete uninstall of All adobe software, using Creative Cloud Cleaner Tool.

Fresh install of all software with no plugins of scripts etc.

Stil have same problem :-((

[Szalam]

Have you tried different GPU drivers? NVIDIA's had some weird bugs lately. Sometimes going to the newest driver helps. Sometimes going back several driver versions help. That's what I would try first.

Actually, first I would try unchecking the "hardware accelerate...panels" option in the preferences.

[colourandre · Accepted solution]

SOLVED!!!!!!!

After trying the following;

With and without the system overclocked. No change to outcome.

With and without all plugin to see if that causes the conflict. No change to
outcome.

We have tried with different monitor configurations. No change to outcome.

We have tried various GPU drivers.
Originally 382.33 installed, but have since tried 382.53 & 378.78
No change to outcome.

We have tried a new Windows user account. No change to
outcome.

We even swapped the graphics card entirely for a GTX 1070. No change to outcome.


BUT THEN!!!!!!!

We stumbled across the a post about Asus Sonic Studio causing issues in Adobe Premiere Pro.

turns out if you have an Asus motherboard and the default software Asus Sonic Studio is installed this causes an issue with multi monitor setups for Adobe Software, where the video window is not positioned on the primary monitor. Uninstalling Asus Sonic Studio fixed the issue. Alternatively as long as the comp/video preview window is on the primary monitor, you can move other panels to other screen no problems.

WTF a random piece of motherboard software caused the issue. Grumble. But at least it’s fixed.

[Szalam]

Thanks for sharing what worked! That's really random.