FLAC corruption issue (Windows)

[mononoaware]

FWIW - I cold started my PC to day without issue and i'm running 466.63.

Maybe it depends on the Graphics card you have. . . I am running ancient hardware. . .

466.63 was definitely the issue in my case, I rolled-it-back and the issue stopped completely.
One more tell-tale sign, was when it auto-rebooted (from blue-screen) the Bios text down the bottom was pixelated to the point of being illegible (looked like space invaders) even though the centre logo was normal.

 

[Berwhale]

I've got a GTX 1060, so maybe 'middle aged' in GFX card terms...

It's interesting that your boot screen was corrupted, that can't be a direct result of the Windows drivers, but I guess it could have been caused by an incomplete recovery from the BSOD.

 

[mononoaware]

that can't be a direct result of the Windows drivers, but I guess it could have been caused by an incomplete recovery from the BSOD.

I have the GT635 model or something similar numbered.

Weird things going on though after I rolled-back the driver the boot screen is still pixelated (just the “Press F1 etc” text).
Recently updated the GeForce drive again and its still pixelated text on boot screen.
And also every time on start-up the Lock Screen after displaying goes black once before displaying again, which didn’t happen before.
(Not sure if this is the monitor losing signal caused by Graphics or a OS problem)

I have been using it and everything is fine, but seems like I need to back-up and reformat/install Windows 10 to fix it properly.

At least the issue was caused by GeForce this time and not a Windows 10 update.

 

[Ron Texas]

I have used explorer a few times, but haven't noticed any problems with foobar playback. If I get a corrupted file message in the future, I know what to do now.

 

[Berwhale]

Weird things going on though after I rolled-back the driver the boot screen is still pixelated (just the “Press F1 etc” text).

If you are getting this after a cold boot, then it can't be the driver, because it hasn't been loaded yet. I would check that the card is seated correctly by removing and re-inserting it.

You can force Windows 10 to fully shutdown (rather than hybernate which it what it does by default) by holding SHIFT whilst clicking on Start, then Power, then Shutdown.

 

[respice finem]

How old is the card? GPUs tend to "die" after a few years of use.

 

[eriksson]

a BS that alters customer's files without warning... they'll really force me onto Linux one day...

Few months later when you have gotten used to Linux you will thank them.

-Linux user for 22 years and counting.

 

[mononoaware]

You can force Windows 10 to fully shutdown (rather than hybernate which it what it does by default) by holding SHIFT whilst clicking on Start, then Power, then Shutdown.

Yes thanks I have done proper shutdown with “shift” at least once already in attempt to fix it.
I will check on the inside this time I do it.
Thanks.

 

[mononoaware]

How old is the card? GPUs tend to "die" after a few years of use.

Even if it is not used for games?

“The GeForce GT 635 OEM was a graphics card by NVIDIA, launched on October 1st, 2013.”

 

[respice finem]

Less often but it may happen. Another possibility is a "softly failing" PSU. Mine (GTX960) is used only for UHD desktop duties, photo editing and occasional video transcoding to HEVC. Works fine so far and is now 6 years old. A relative got the other card (bought together, same batch) and did only light gaming, the card died on him after 3,5 years. Hard to tell @ this sample size. If used for mining or hi-end gaming (not these models obviously), GPUs tend to fail far more often as mainboards and such.
One way to find out would be to try the card in another PC, run a few benchmarks to see what happens @higher temperatures etc.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=lifespan+of+gaming+gpus

 

[mononoaware]

Another possibility is a "softly failing" PSU.

This is probably what’s wrong.
In the last 6 months I have had 2 USB ports die, one died and then I started using another and it then died (seems like they are breaking one by one).
There are 4 USB ports on the back and I can now only use 2 of them.

The issue is, I plug something into the dead port and it works at first then a 30 seconds later I get the “USB malfunctioned error” and then it loses power.
I only use of the 2 ports at the back so I just moved on to the next working port, then that died soon after.

After troubleshooting every single other possibility, this behaviour gave me the impression the PSU is shutting down the USB power to “save itself”.

 

[respice finem]

I've had several PSU failures despite not buying cheap or weak, and these failures can be tricky. When you look at the voltages in idle, all is well, but under load, they go down. I always have one "spare" ATX PSU, maybe It's just bad luck, but having 5 ATX PCs, having one spare is reasonable IMHO. One day downtime would cost me way more.

 

[mononoaware]

I've had several PSU failures despite not buying cheap or weak, and these failures can be tricky. When you look at the voltages in idle, all is well, but under load, they go down. I always have one "spare" ATX PSU, maybe It's just bad luck, but having 5 ATX PCs, having one spare is reasonable IMHO. One day downtime would cost me way more.

Maybe I should explain I am not very experienced in building of repairing PC’s.
This one I am using is just extremely old Desktop Tower model, one you buy already made from the store.

I thought this “graphics driver” caused the issue (due to blue-screen Windows error), but it makes sense now since the first thing I tried was to “force” shutdown by holding shift key (the bios screen “press F1” text only appears on start-up after hard shutdown).

Computer still functions good.
And now I know it is most likely the pixelated bios text is hardware related. . .

 

[garbulky]

This is probably what’s wrong.
In the last 6 months I have had 2 USB ports die, one died and then I started using another and it then died (seems like they are breaking one by one).
There are 4 USB ports on the back and I can now only use 2 of them.

The issue is, I plug something into the dead port and it works at first then a 30 seconds later I get the “USB malfunctioned error” and then it loses power.
I only use of the 2 ports at the back so I just moved on to the next working port, then that died soon after.

After troubleshooting every single other possibility, this behaviour gave me the impression the PSU is shutting down the USB power to “save itself”.

If you are having USB ports starting to fail, you may also have a slowly failing motherboard. Hoepfully not as that is usually the point at when you have to more or less replace the pc and reinstall the software

 

[respice finem]

Hard to tell "remotely", but if it is the PCs first PSU, not unlikely... The motherboard is the other possibility, yes.
Any PC repair shop should be able to diagnose it easily. The question is, if it's worth the money to "invest" in an "extremely old" PC.

 

[wrat]

Mp3 Tag, use windows tools as little as possible

 

[mononoaware]

If you are getting this after a cold boot, then it can't be the driver, because it hasn't been loaded yet. I would check that the card is seated correctly by removing and re-inserting it.

You can force Windows 10 to fully shutdown (rather than hybernate which it what it does by default) by holding SHIFT whilst clicking on Start, then Power, then Shutdown.

Just an update.
I thought to uninstall the Graphics card driver (checking delete drivers) and restart.
This caused the GT635 to fall back on the default Microsoft Graphics driver, and the black screen flash on lock screen was gone (it fixed it).

Funnily enough after logging in, just like the boot screen everything was pixelated and weird, then after awhile Windows auto updated to a Geforce driver (an older version) everything snapped back to normal.
Now I think the pixelation is caused by the fact I am using 125% scaling in Display Settings (which the default Microsoft graphics driver struggles with).

Anyway pretty happy, so I open up Geforce Experience to update to the latest driver again for security reasons (latest driver was already downloaded and stored in temp).
And the black screen issue is now back. . .

Maybe it is a issue specific to the GT635 or similarly old cards, but the Geforce driver seems to be the culprit. . .

 

[mononoaware]

Just to stay on topic, regarding FLAC file corruption by editing FLAC metadata using Windows Explorer/Properties.

I made a decision long ago to NOT try to change metadata on FLAC files in general.
(It did seem odd to me to use "Properties" to change the FLAC file information)

It was an easy choice for me since I predominantly used iTunes to sort the audio archive, so I had built a habit of converting all FLAC to ALAC and then applying metadata edits and cover art to ALAC files with iTunes.
I have a back up of the FLAC archive, but I leave it as it is.

If going to change the metadata on FLAC I would recommend using some regularly updated Audio Player to do so.
(In my experience I think Foobar cannot edit metadata)