WB5 and a hanging OS

but not with older, WB4 skins

Friday, January 19, 2007 by Snap Hook | Discussion: WindowBlinds

I get relatively frequent system hangs when using WB5 with those slick new per pixel skins (Dreamland, GT3, Copperdeck 2, etc.). If I switch back to an older skin (Tronnix?) everything seems to work great. Here are two examples.

1) With dreamland loaded, if I start PerfectDisk 8, the splash screen comes up and then switches to the main program window. The problem is, I can see the frame but it is completely transparent and the mouse goes into sleep mode and will move about, but can't click on anything. Cont-Alt-Delete is useless as is Alt-Tab. I have waited for as long as 5 minutes to see if something would happen, but nada. Hard power down is about the only solution. This happens everytime, but not with Tronnix.

2) If I open Theme Manager (Free) and click on Visual Styles, wham, the mouse goes into hibernation as above, and no response arrives to any keyboard input. I can click on all of the other tabs, but not Visual Styles.

There are numerous other little lock ups in response to seemingly innocent actions, clicking on a file in explorer, for instance.

Somehow, I think it might be graphics related (I only have problems with WB5 skins). I am running an NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT which should be enough and is capable of per pixel display.

Has anyone else run into this problem? Are there some hardware/firmware tweaks I need to make?

Thanks for any suggestions.
Hankers
Reply #1 Friday, January 19, 2007 3:02 PM
Please open the WindowBlinds Configuration screen and click on System Information.  Copy/paste that info here.
Snap Hook
Reply #2 Friday, January 19, 2007 3:17 PM
Hankers,

Is this what you wanted?

Another item that might be of interest. If I use the NVidia multiple desktop feature, when switching desktops, all the transparent borders disappear until that application is selected.
========================================

WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have 2 monitors.

(Default Monitor) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT
(Default Monitor) 2 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT

Wblind.dll 2006/03/21 13:33:46
Wbsrv.dll 2005/12/20 22:57:44
Wbconfig.exe 2006/03/19 14:33:44
Wbload.exe 2005/12/21 00:04:40
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 15:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2005/11/02 13:28:26
Hankers
Reply #3 Friday, January 19, 2007 3:35 PM
Your dates are from several releases of WB5 and may be causing your issues. I would suggest you un-install WB5 and reboot then re-install WB5 from Stardock Central - https://www.stardock.com/products/sdcentral/

After completing this, please post your System Info again.
LittleBearJason
Reply #4 Friday, January 19, 2007 5:36 PM
I too notice that sometimes when I switch to another skin, it just sits there for quite a long time. Im able to exit out sometimes with Control Alt and Delete but that makes everything corrupt. WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 5 (5.5 (build 84 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 7100 GS

Wblind.dll 2006/12/12 16:40:20
Wblind64.dll 2006/10/09 11:51:37
Wbsrv.dll 2006/11/18 14:47:19
Wbconfig.exe 2006/12/20 13:35:02
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
Snap Hook
Reply #5 Friday, January 19, 2007 7:15 PM
Hankers,
Thanks, that took care of it. I decided to upgrade DesktopX while I was at it and now that App can't seem to find ODZip.dll. I have uninstalled and reinstalled twice, to no avail. Any tips?

Thanks,
Snap
Hankers
Reply #6 Friday, January 19, 2007 7:28 PM
On my system I find ODZip.dll in 4 locations - C:\Program Files\Common Files\Stardock  -  C:\Program FIles\Stardock\Object Desktop\IconDeveloper  -  C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\ObjectBar\DXFrame and C:\Program Files\Stardock\Object Desktop\SkinStudio

Try re-installing Stardock Central - http://storage.stardock.com/files/sdcentral_setup.exe

That has been mentioned on other postings as a fix.

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