I see only gray rectangles

  • Thread starter Thread starter drpfa
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

drpfa

Guest
I have a problem I have never seen before after years of using LR. I have a Vista 64 bit PC running 2.3. I went to open up LR one day and all I could see instead of pictures was gray rectangles. All the folders with the number of pictures is listed in the history. I have tried re-synching the folders, purging the cache, optimized the catalog, etc. without success. I decided to delete the catalog and re-import the pictures. I decided to try it first with one picture. in the import dialogue box, I see the pictures perfectly but when I select a picture, only a gray rectangle appears. I feel that I probably need to uninstall LR and re-install but I thought I would try this forum first to see if anyone else has had this problem or knows the problem and the solution. I would appreciate any help anyone can give.

Peter
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Welcome Peter, to help us help you could you please take a moment to fill in your signature in the "userCP' that is found in the nav-bar at the top left of the page - thanks.
Now what your problem looks like is a corrupt monitor profile. Try changing the monitor profile to sRGB and see if you can now see the previews, if so you will need to recalibrate your monitor.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Peter, welcome to the forums.

Hard to say with what you've told us so far. 'Grey box' problems are frequently, but not always, related to video driver problems. And video driver problems are occasionally related to Microsoft's Windows Update Tuesday software pushes. Do you have auto updates turned on in Windows? If so, verify that your video stuff is up to date, sometimes the update accidentally 'downgrades' it.

Edit: Geoff gives excellent advice as well; if it's not the one, it's usually the other.

Whatever you do, it's not necessary to delete a catalog. Simply create a new empty catalog to experiment with.

In the meantime, try these troubleshooting steps from Victoria Regina.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote 0 Downvote
Geoff & Brad:

Thanks for your replies. I have an NEC 269' WUXi monitor which I calibrate regularly. I can see the pictures perfectly if I open the folder in which they are stored. IT is only within LR that they only appear as gray rectangles. I will check on the drivers but the monitor works perfectly with all other applications. It seems to me that the problem is within LR. I did optimize the catalog without success. I have already deleted the catalog so I think I will re-install LR and see what happens.

Peter
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Peter, LR is very proficient at picking up corrupt profiles.
Try the suggestion of just setting the monitor to the sRBG profile first. Reloading LR generally has no affect on these type of issues.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Geoff:

Lesson learned!!! I did re-load LR and you are correct. It did nothing to correct the problem. I then re-calibrated the monitor and now everything works so I am in the process of re-importing the pictures. I do appreciate your wise counsel.

Peter
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Nice result !!:lol::lol:;)
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Kiwigeoff said:
Nice result !!:lol::lol:;)
Click to expand...

I seem to be having the same issue. I have a dual monitor setup and when I lock the image to the second monitor it shows up fine on that monitor but on the main screen I just get grey rectangles. I have updated the grpahics driver, deleted monitor profiles, but all to no avail.

Any other ideas?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
That still sounds like the monitor profile - and probably the monitor profile for monitor 1. Mac or PC?
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top