W/Blinds 5.1 not loading fully

Saturday, November 18, 2006 by Ricky Mark | Discussion: WindowBlinds

Hi all, my 1st post on the forums, but been signed up to Wincustomize for a couple of years.

Here's my problem:  Only just recently, it seems like W/Blinds 5.1 isn't loading properly.  I'm not sure if it IS a W/Blinds problem or XP though.  The PC starts up as normal, gets to my desktop, and all seems okay, just waiting for all of my system tray items to load, ie firewall, AV, etc. 

My screen then goes off for a second or two, then comes back again, but this time just to the right of the Start button I get a black vertical line, like a piece of graphic is missing.  I always have an unlocked Taskbar, and this black line is where the left hand side resize handle should be when the Taskbar is unlocked.  If I mouse over the Taskbar, the hourglass is constantly spinning as if something is still loading, only it never stops.

I can use my PC as normal if I go via My Computer, or using my icons, but can't do anything from the Taskbar or System Tray.  I've uninstalled W/Blinds for now, and am using Style XP *spit*   with no problems.

I suppose a Repair of XP might be advised?  Cheers for any help or advice  

6 Reply 4 Referrals
Daiwa
Reply #1 Saturday, November 18, 2006 1:55 PM
Would do the usual stuff (disk cleanup, remove temp files, defrag, etc.), make sure WB is well & truly uninstalled and reinstall WB clean. If the same behavior exhibits, open WB config, go to the system information page, copy the contents (be sure to click in the text area of the window & scroll down to see if some lines are there but not visible) and paste the contents in a reply post here.

Ricky Mark
Reply #2 Sunday, November 19, 2006 11:57 AM
Ok Daiwa, I've defragged, did disk cleanup and chkdsk, etc. I uninstalled Style XP and did a new install of WB. Before I posted this I used Stardock Central to update to the latest version of WB5 - 5.49, took me a while to get used to the new layout and way of applying skins

After rebooting, I immediately got a small error window saying this > failed to load " [/B] (the quotation marks were in the error message).

WB opened by default as it does on first installing it, so I chose a skin and applied my settings. I got the wallpaper, but the Taskbar and opened windows stay in Windows Classic mode

I have no WB icon in my System Tray either, and in my Start Menu, all that is listed under Stardock > Object Desktop is Object Bar, (which I don't use BTW).

WB is installed, as I looked in C:\Program Files and all the relevant folders and icons are there, and I can open WB Config.exe from there too.

I have copied the contents from System Info in WB as you requested:

[B]WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 5 (5.1 (build 82 x86))

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

You have one monitor in total.

(Plug and Play Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 6600

Wblind.dll 2006/11/18 14:47:20
Wblind64.dll 2006/10/09 11:51:37
Wbsrv.dll 2006/11/18 14:47:19
Wbconfig.exe 2006/11/15 19:39:02
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:14
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:07
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2006/04/28 18:26:49


I am running XP Home Build 2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519, fully updated. 1GB RAM, Intel Celeron 2Ghz processor in an eMachines PC, and an nVidia GeForce 6600 256MB graphics card.

Thanks in advance for any advice


Daiwa
Reply #3 Sunday, November 19, 2006 12:31 PM
I don't have any experience with StyleXP so not sure if it poses any issues related to residue after being uninstalled or not. Maybe someone else who sees this might have some knowledge here; I don't think the status of uxtheme.dll affects WB, but I just can't say for sure.

I just updated to yesterday's build - no errors, WB is working normally and my System Information matches yours exactly. I'm on XP Pro, but the XP version is read by WB as exactly the same (2600.xpsp...).

I know from prior 1st-hand experience that eMachines computers can be a little weird - not saying that's it, but it is a consideration. What set of nVidia drivers are you running? Don't know if it would help, but might try updating the drivers if they are a little long in the tooth.

Keep chippin' away at it.

Fuzzy Logic
Reply #4 Sunday, November 19, 2006 12:51 PM
StyleXP hacks uxtheme.dll, youll need to replace this with the original file. If you didn't back that file up, you'll need to restore it from the cd.

Ricky Mark
Reply #5 Monday, November 20, 2006 4:21 AM
Thanks for your replies, I just want to make it clear that this problem occurred before I installed Style XP, it just started happening one day. That's the reason I uninstalled WB and went for Style XP as an interim measure, 'cos I HATE the bog standard boring Windows Themes.

As a bit more info, I've just turned back on this morning, to find WB has loaded properly, but I'm back to my original problem of the black bar next to the start button.

I think I'll uninstall WB again and go down the Windows Repair route, maybe somethings missing/corrupted.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers  

Ricky Mark
Reply #6 Monday, November 20, 2006 9:15 AM
Ok, well that didn't work

Did a Repair of Windows to no avail, downloaded the latest drivers from nVidia - 93.71 also no good. I've not got the black bar anymore, but I still can't use the Taskbar or Sys Tray, the cursor is spinning as before.

I can't be bothered with reformatting my HDD, as that seems a bit drastic just to get WB working, looks like I'll be back to Style XP then!

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