Disappearing pages in PDFs

[sethackerman]

I have a peculiar problem. When viewing a PDF (I often view large PDFs - e.g., 20MB) suddenly, as I'm scrolling, pages will disappear. The "frames" of the pages will still be there but the pages are blank. For instance, I might be scrolling through the PDF and when I get to page 21, I decide to scroll back to page 20 only to find it has disappeared. When I try to scroll back to page 21 it has disappeared too, along with all the other pages in the document. Even after I re-download the PDF from the web and save it as a new version, the same thing happens to the new version. What is going on?

Seth

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Seth,

this sounds rather strange. This is more than just a delay in rendering the pages I take it? Those pages never come back? Does it happen with specific documents or any document?

Have you checked that you are running the current version of our products? http://www.docu-track.com/knowledgebase ... nt-version

If there is a particular one that can reliably reproduce this behaviour can you zip it up and send it to us? If it's to large for the forum or email let me know and I'll provide FTP details where you can send the file.

Paul

[sethackerman]

Yes, the pages never come back. In fact they continue to be missing even after the document is closed and re-opened. (Although I think I have at least once re-opened a document and had the pages come back temporarily.) This happens with PDFs of different kinds, from different sources. At the moment, for example, all PDFs of all kinds come up completely blank from the start.

I actually uninstalled and re-installed the program and am using Version 2.0 Build 54.0.

Please do provide the FTP details.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Actually the very best way to report if possible would be to use the Viewer option 'Help -> Report a Problem'

Also please ensure you allow the system info to be attached so we can review your system details and also if possible a screen-shot of an example where you are actually viewing such a missing page.

Thanks

[sethackerman]

Okay, I've sent two emails via the Report a Problem tool. Each contains an attachment: One is a screen capture of a PDF file in the Viewer whose page contents have disappeared. The other contains the actual PDF file displayed in the screen capture.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

thanks sethackerman,

we got the files and I have passed them on to the dev team to investigate. Would you prefer to be contacted via email or on this forum with developments?

Paul

[csparks]

We've got a similar issue in our office, parts of pages don't display, if you open then in acrobat they are there but not in PDF-XChange. I cannot send sample pages as they are medical records and it would be a HIPPA violation to send them. I'd love to hear what you find from his though.

Thanks

[John - Tracker Supp]

Hi csparks,

with regards the problem files you have I suspect this may be different - are the pages viewable until you scroll through to other pages and then not ?

Or are the problematic pages always not viewable ?

Thanks

[csparks]

You're right, ours weren't visible from the onset, should i make a seperate thread?

[John - Tracker Supp]

Yes please - could you also advise the type of content - e.g. are they text, images or scanned data etc - as it could be its just a specific image type (xray etc) or compression method used that is problematic.

Also - can you advise what application create the PDF files - I appreciate you cannot send the files for confidentiality - but as much info as you can provide is going to be required to allow us to even superficially;y investigate - if you could somehow provide a file that displays the problem without confidential content - that would be most helpful.

Thanks.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Hi Seth,

we have investigated this at some length and we are fairly confident this is a local issue and its not that the pages are not there - but that your system is not 'repainting' the screen in a timely manner - one other possible area of consideration is the size of your hard disk drive and available space in the temporary area where the file is saved ...

Also - please advise what happens if you load in Adobe Acrobat Reader ....

This is very strange and we have never had such a report before where information is viewable one moment and not the next - and particuarly not available thereafter.

[sethackerman]

All documents view fine in Adobe Reader.

At this point, in PDF X-Change Viewer all documents are now coming up with all pages blank from the start - whereas at one point they would initially come up okay and then start disappearing at some point during the scrolling process.

You write: "one other possible area of consideration is the size of your hard disk drive and available space in the temporary area where the file is saved." My hard disk has about 42GB free. But I don't quite understand what you're saying about the "temporary area where the file is saved." These are PDF files saved to regular folders of my hard drive. Is there a way to check into the free space left in "temporary areas"?

[Intruder]

I'm having similar problems to the above. Pdf Tools is creating a new file but when pdfexchange viewer opens to review it a number of pages are blank. What's worse is that the program isn't closing down correctly and causing Windows 7 to 'hang'. It won't even close using the Windows task manager either.
I've tried reading the files created by pdf tools and they read correctly in a different pdf viewer (Foxit Reader). I have the latest version of pdf exchange and have tried un-installing, downloading the latest version and re-installing without success.

It seems to be more noticeable when using hi-quality (large individual file size) pages in a multipage pdf document.

This is an example of a pdf file that pdf exchange will show some blank pages for me:

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for that sample Intruder. I have downloaded it on my Vista x64 machine and is seems to render fine on my system. an you tell us the specs of your PC? The easiest way to do that would be to report a problem within the Viewer and include the 4 Zip files it offers to attach. Also in the body of the email please leave the default text and add a reference to this thread so we can cross reference it.

One we see this we'll have a better idea of if this is related to the availability of system resources or something else entirely.

thanks

[Arnold]

I downloaded the file from Intruder. Everything seemed fine over here on my machine running Windows XP.

[Intruder]

Thanks for that sample Intruder. I have downloaded it on my Vista x64 machine and is seems to render fine on my system. an you tell us the specs of your PC? The easiest way to do that would be to report a problem within the Viewer and include the 4 Zip files it offers to attach. Also in the body of the email please leave the default text and add a reference to this thread so we can cross reference it.

One we see this we'll have a better idea of if this is related to the availability of system resources or something else entirely.

thanks

OK will do that.
For infomation I tried the same pdf file on this pc but with V2 Build 42.9 of PDF-XChange (2.0.54 uninstalled) and it worked fine.
just tried 2.0.54 and page 4 was blank.

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

HI Intruder,

thanks for sending those files - we did get them.

We'll keep you posted as to developments.

regards

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi Intruder,

we are having difficulty reproducing this issue. would you be interested in letting someone from the team remote into your PC to investigate? This is not something we would normally want to do but in this case we are needing to make special considerations.

Let us know if this is something you are OK with, send an email to support@pdf-xchange.com and refer to this thread. We'll make arrangements then for a remote session.

regards

[sethackerman]

By the way, I would be fine with having someone from Tracker remote into my system to investigate this issue. And if you end up doing this with someone else, please report back on any results!

Thanks,
Seth

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for that sethackerman,

I'll see what arrangements I can make. We typically use TeamViewer Free for such things: http://teamviewer.com/index.aspx

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Hi All,

We just had a Team Viewer session with Intruder, and he did show me the problem.
It was indeed just as he describes it - he opens a document, and some pages do render and some just stay blank.
It turned out that it was Kasperski Internet Security blocking us.

He is using KIS 2011 and here are the steps he made to add our Viewer as a trusted application which solved the problem:
Open KIS 2011
Go to Settings -> Detection and exclusion rules ( it's the forth small icon at the top left end in the settings window) -> Exclusions -> Settings -> Trusted apps - > Add -> And select to add our Application as a trusted one.

Best,
Stefan

[sethackerman]

Aha. I had recently installed KIS 2011.

So far, since adding PDFX-Change Viewer to KIS' exclusion list as you suggest, the problem seems to have gone away. Thanks very much for the report!

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Gladly welcome sethackerman.

Best,
Stefan

[Intruder]

just like to thank all those involved with this thread. It is good to know that support from this company is helpful and resolves issues, unlike some of the 'bigger' companies who just want your money.

[John - Tracker Supp]

Thanks for taking the trouble to post - kind words are always welcome

cheers

[compassguy]

I have had a similar problem with blank pages and searched the forum and found this thread. Our system also uses Kaspersky AV, so I sent this thread to our IT consultant. He added XChange Viewer to the trusted apps in Kaspersky as a previous reply instructs, but I'm still having the same problem. Sometimes the blank page of the multi page file will be different each time I open the file.

We use Remote Desktop within the offices of our organization to access the server and this problem only happens when viewing the files within Remote Desktop. If I transfer the file to my local machine, the file displays perfectly.

Looking forward to your reply.

David

[Paul - PDF-XChange]

Hi compassguy,

I do think this deserves some further investigation. In order to correct a problem we must first be able to recreate it. In order to recreate it we must simulate your environment as accurately as possible.

Can I ask you to open PDF-XChange Viewer in a Remote Desktop session where you see the problem and select Help --> Report a Problem. This will open an email compose window in your default (simple MAPI compliant) email client and attempt to attach some zip files and system info. Please send this, along with the PDF file itself and we will attempt to recreate the issue.

I should point out that setting up a Terminal Server test environment that accurately matches your own is not trivial, would certainly take some time and requires no small input from you.

Does that sound like something you want to take on?

[compassguy]

Thanks Paul.

In order to continue using your excellent product, I am more than willing to do as you request.

The email has been sent.

[Stefan - PDF-XChange]

Thanks for the files David,

I will now leave that to Paul to try and recreate your environment.

I am sure he will keep you posted both here in the forums and via e-mails

Best,
Stefan