John Wilson said:
OK. Here's the deal: The issue is a combination of problems that come from
Microsoft and the vendor that created the bitmap.
I found earlier that if I paste the contents of the file directly into a new
bitmap file with the same properties as the original and save it from paint,
that file works when trying to insert the picture.
So I opened the two files up and compared the contents in a hex editor. The
only difference is in the headers. Inside the header of the file is a field
called biSizeImage. This field is supposed to contain the size of the image
in bytes. The vendor set this to a presumably arbitrary value (3780). Given
that the file is 800X600 the field should contain 1440000. That is the value
that is in the file saved from paint.
From this observation I have surmised that Microsoft never examined this
field in versions prior to the one I have. It appears that they have started
to validate the contents of this field to ensure that this is a valid file.
It sure would have been nice to know this...
Oh, you want meaningful ERROR messages, do you?
From the people who brought you "File not found" and haven't seen fit to fix
that in the last 20 years people have been complaining about it?
I may say that you're a dreamer,
But you're not the only one.
<g>
This may be another security feature. A file that lies about its size may be
trying to play buffer overrun games (JPGs have already been implicated in this
kind of thing). Makes sense that they'd be a bit more cautious in validating
headers for reasonableness.
Sure would be nice if they'd hand back a clue rather than just urping in your
lap, though.
You may say that I'm a dreamer,
But I'm not the only one.
I plan on going back to the other vendor and asking them to fix the firmware
on the camera to output files in the correct format.
Steve, thanks for your feedback. It's nice to know that there are people out
there that read these posts.
WHAT? I thought this was some kind of weird computer game.
No wonder I can't figure out the rules.