(new user) Unable to save any file including .xcf

[Montmorency]

Brand new Gimp user here, using 2.10.2 on Windows 7, 32 bit.

Installation went very smoothly.

Opened a relatively small existing jpg (photo), less than 100kb probably.

Managed to use one of the basic guides to convert image to a pseudo circle.

Then tried saving to .png, but the save dialogue just "hung".

Tried to save to .xcf, but that hung too.

Restarted gimp, and after reading around, realised I should probably be exporting as, rather than saving as.
Did that, but it also hung.

Restarted again, and just tried saving as .xcf. Hung again.

Restarted again, and now I couldn't even open the .jpg, or any similar .jpg.
The open dialogue hangs in a similar way to save.

I assume there must be something wrong with my installation of Gimp.

Only thing I can think of is to reinstall.
(Maybe I should reboot first - haven't tried that).

Thought I might be memory constrained, since this box only has 2GB, but these are small files I'm trying to work with.

Should I try an older version, perhaps? Where would I get that from? I didn't see any options for older versions on the download page.

Thanks a lot in advance for any advice.

[Ofnuts]

Looks like an old PC... There used to be a bug where the File Selector would hang for a long time (but eventually unlock) if you have a false floppy disk defined in the BIOS. Can you check if you have one?

[Montmorency]

(06-11-2018, 12:10 AM)Ofnuts Wrote: Looks like an old PC... There used to be a bug where the File Selector would hang for a long time (but eventually unlock) if you have a false floppy disk defined in the BIOS. Can you check if you have one?

Hi thanks for the very quick response. Yes, it's an old second-hand Dell desktop. A real old workhorse, and works pretty well for everyday things.

Do I need to reboot to see what's in the BIOS? (I guess so).

In the meantime, after posting my question, I decided to uninstall, and install an older version (I found where they were).
I tried 2.10.0, but had exactly the same result.

I couldn't find a 2.9 that seemed to apply to my machine (seemed to be only 64 bit - might that have worked?)

So went to 2.8.0 (which I now see is  a bit old ..maybe there is a later 2.8.? that might be better).

Just tried successfully opening a small .jpg and then exporting it as .png and saving the ..xcf.

Haven't tried actual image manipulation with it yet, but it's looking more hopeful, and as I'm not looking to do anything very sophisticated with it for the time being, this might keep me going for a bit.

I'll try looking at the BIOS when I get a minute. Do I just need to delete that false floppy (if possible) if there is one?

Thanks again.

EDIT: I now see there is a 2.8.22 that's only about a year old. Have d/l that and might give it a try later.

[rich2005]

Just a note on 32 bit Windows systems.

This a quote from portableapps which uses 32 bit Gimp (as more universal) and equally applicable to the regular installation.

quote We have reverted to GIMP 2.8.22 as of May 21, 2018. GIMP 2.10.0, 2.10.0-2, and 2.10.22 (sic) Windows 32-bit binaries have all been broken. Opening, saving, and exporting files does not function in these builds. unquote

There is a Windows 32 bit Gimp 2.10.2 from samj bottom of this page https://samjcreations.blogspot.com/2018/ that I understand works.
direct link. http://www.aljacom.com/~gimp/Gimp-2.10_3...ortable.7z

But for an older computer, Gimp 2.8.22 is a good bet.

Use a local mirror, save the planet, save bandwidth (although I believe bandwidth has never been cheaper)
This Kent Uni. Gimp 2.8.22 installer
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.g...-setup.exe

Edit:
There are a couple of videos on first time setting Gimp 2.8 up: https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Gimp-Installation shown in Win 10 but equally applicable to Win7.

[Montmorency]

(06-11-2018, 08:42 AM)rich2005 Wrote: Just a note on 32 bit Windows systems.

This a quote from portableapps which uses 32 bit Gimp (as more universal) and equally applicable to the regular installation.

quote We have reverted to GIMP 2.8.22 as of May 21, 2018. GIMP 2.10.0, 2.10.0-2, and 2.10.22 (sic) Windows 32-bit binaries have all been broken. Opening, saving, and exporting files does not function in these builds. unquote

There is a Windows 32 bit Gimp 2.10.2 from samj bottom of this page https://samjcreations.blogspot.com/2018/ that I understand works.
direct link. http://www.aljacom.com/~gimp/Gimp-2.10_3...ortable.7z

But for an older computer, Gimp 2.8.22 is a good bet.

Use a local mirror, save the planet, save bandwidth (although I believe bandwidth has never been cheaper)
This Kent Uni. Gimp 2.8.22 installer
http://www.mirrorservice.org/sites/ftp.g...-setup.exe

Edit:
There are a couple of videos on first time setting Gimp 2.8 up: https://www.gimp-forum.net/Thread-Gimp-Installation shown in Win 10 but equally applicable to Win7.

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Sounds very promising. Thanks a lot for your very helpful reply.

M.