Windows FX 5

By esqlagoon on June 3, 2012 9:16:22 PM from

esqlagoon

Join Date 04/2010

Hey Guy's,

I love this software however I'm having problems with the final version. The Beta version worked well on my machine. Now that

I have upgraded to the main version my NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT keeps stopping and then recovering. This happens when

I'm making choices in a window IE: file/new folder etc. Or when just opening windows the program crashes. I certainly love

the effects and the Beta version provided stunning visual effects that I'm used to with a Linux distro. I have removed and re-installed

however same problems. Just keeps sticking. It would be great to see a fix for this. Here is my machine details:

Windows 7 Pro 64 bit OS

Processor: AMD 64 x2 6000+ 3.10 GHz

Ram: 4GB

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT

Driver Updated to try and correct however it still did not provide solution: May 2012 8.17.13.142

Let me know if there is an update to correct this issue. I would love to continue using this software in the future with Windows OS's.

brad

Do you happen to know the last beta you used? Was it the RC build?

You mention the program crashes, which program is crashing? Is there any information in the event log that might say what crashed and why?

Are you using the open menu animations? If so could you try disabling them and see if that helps.

Regarding the video driver stopping responding, unfortunately this is always a bug in the video driver / hardware glitch.

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Update on this, we have heard the 285.62 driver works fine and it may be a new bug in their newer drivers.

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Thank-you for reccommeding a solution. The dialogue windows are the ones just getting hung up when I try and click on file / open or any other

option when using the dialogue windows. Yes I'm using the open menu animations however will start with making that change.

Once I'm back in town I will try the alternative driver and let you know how that works if the open menue change does not work.

I'm not sure which RC build I had downloaded however I do recall that I downloaded this only 3 weeks ago. There was only one beta

to download during that time.

Thanks again for the quick response, very much appreciated !

brad

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I'm using driver 296.10 with a GTX 280 and I am getting regular blue-screens with the final version.

Like this chap, the beta was fine for me.

I've had to turn Win FX off as I have work to do - shame about that, I liked it.

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Quoting TwoWolves,

reply 4

I'm using driver 296.10 with a GTX 280 and I am getting regular blue-screens with the final version.

Like this chap, the beta was fine for me.

I've had to turn Win FX off as I have work to do - shame about that, I liked it.

Do you happen to recall if you installed the RC build or not? That is the build that introduced the desktop icons features and menu open animations.

Also have you changed video drivers recently?

Unfortunately a driver crash like this is always caused by the video driver having a bug and so far we have been unable to cause a single machine to crash in this manner. The nature of this kind of issue is that they may appear at random due to unrelated changes such as speeding up or slowing down a section of code which means a timing bug gets shown up in the drivers that was not shown before. The final build may be faster or slower in various areas than the betas.

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I'm having an issue with it disabling Desktop Window Manager on every reboot....

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Quoting ddraney,

reply 6

I'm having an issue with it disabling Desktop Window Manager on every reboot....

Are you sure it is WindowFX causing that as yours is the first report we have ever had of that and WindowFX does not start or stop the DWM itself.

Are you running any other tools like WindowBlinds, TuneUp Utilities or something of that nature?

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Hi Neil,

I have taken your recommendation and removed my newest driver for the NVIDIA GeForce 9400 GT.
Once the driver recommended was installed 285.62 version, all Windows FX options have been working
with no more video hangups.

Hopefully that will assist others with the same types of issues.

Thanks again for the recommendation.

brad

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Anyone with the video hangup issues, how many monitors do you have?

Also which animations did you have in use?

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@Neil ;Could be windowblinds too, not sure. I just know that since disabling windowfx, the problem stopped. Could it be possible running both windowblinds and windowfx at the sametime be a problem?

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Well, I've got both of them installed at the moment and I'm not getting the problems you describe, so if so running them together is not a problem for everyone.

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I just tried it again w/ windowfx. Running into the same problem. Disabled it, and everything's fine....so i can't help but think it's got something to do with windowfx.

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Quoting ddraney,

reply 12

I just tried it again w/ windowfx. Running into the same problem. Disabled it, and everything's fine....so i can't help but think it's got something to do with windowfx.

Is there anything in the event log about the Desktop Window Manager from around startup?

It could be some odd interaction between things.

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I'll check and report back to you.

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I see in the event log the following :

Log Name: Application
Source: Desktop Window Manager
Date: 6/11/2012 8:27:55 AM
Event ID: 9003
Task Category: None
Level: Information
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Darren-PC
Description:
The Desktop Window Manager was unable to start because a composited theme is not in use
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Desktop Window Manager" />
<EventID Qualifiers="16384">9003</EventID>
<Level>4</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-06-11T15:27:55.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>4264</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Darren-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
</EventData>
</Event>

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Quoting Neil Banfield,

reply 5

Quoting TwoWolves, reply 4I'm using driver 296.10 with a GTX 280 and I am getting regular blue-screens with the final version.

Like this chap, the beta was fine for me.

I've had to turn Win FX off as I have work to do - shame about that, I liked it.

Do you happen to recall if you installed the RC build or not? That is the build that introduced the desktop icons features and menu open animations.

Also have you changed video drivers recently?

Unfortunately a driver crash like this is always caused by the video driver having a bug and so far we have been unable to cause a single machine to crash in this manner. The nature of this kind of issue is that they may appear at random due to unrelated changes such as speeding up or slowing down a section of code which means a timing bug gets shown up in the drivers that was not shown before. The final build may be faster or slower in various areas than the betas.

Hi Neil,

Yes. I installed the RC build and with this video driver version. I do keep my drivers fairly up-to-date but I've been using this version a while now. Nevertheless the RC build did give me the odd blue-screen; whereas final is not usable.

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Quoting TwoWolves,

reply 16

Quoting Neil Banfield, reply 5
Quoting TwoWolves, reply 4I'm using driver 296.10 with a GTX 280 and I am getting regular blue-screens with the final version.

Like this chap, the beta was fine for me.

I've had to turn Win FX off as I have work to do - shame about that, I liked it.

Do you happen to recall if you installed the RC build or not? That is the build that introduced the desktop icons features and menu open animations.

Also have you changed video drivers recently?

Unfortunately a driver crash like this is always caused by the video driver having a bug and so far we have been unable to cause a single machine to crash in this manner. The nature of this kind of issue is that they may appear at random due to unrelated changes such as speeding up or slowing down a section of code which means a timing bug gets shown up in the drivers that was not shown before. The final build may be faster or slower in various areas than the betas.

Hi Neil,

Yes. I installed the RC build and with this video driver version. I do keep my drivers fairly up-to-date but I've been using this version a while now. Nevertheless the RC build did give me the odd blue-screen; whereas final is not usable.

You need to switch to the 285 drivers which apparently are ok. There is something wrong in the 295 and 300 series drivers on some systems, though we have yet to reproduce any issues here.

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I'm having a similar issue as ddrainey. I'm running the latest beta of Windows Fx and it seemes to be clashing with the Desktop Windows Manager. When I unload Windows FX, the system works fine.

I've had the following Desktop Windows Manager error codes log today...

9003, 9002, 9007

This all started when I rebooted the system. I lost aero which caused Windows Blinds to load the classic Windows theme and DeskScapes not to run.

I was running the ATI 12.4 drivers and updated to the 12.6 beta drivers today which did not help.

I am running Windows 7 64 bit with dual monitors and an ATI 6870 1GB video card.

Here are the versions of software I'm using.

The latest version of Windows FX 5

Fences Pro v1.1.0.419

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 7.1
Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 7.8

WindowBlinds version : WindowBlinds 7.4 (320 - Windows 7 Edition) - 64 bit OS

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC
WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC
() 1 is attached to AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
(LG E2340(HDMI)) 2 is attached to AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series

Wblind.dll       2012/04/11 12:31:20
Wblind64.dll     2012/04/11 12:31:05
Wbsrv.dll     2011/09/26 15:10:56
SevenConfig.exe     2012/04/10 18:38:58
Wbload.exe     2010/10/20 16:08:35
Wbhelp.dll     2011/10/04 10:01:37
Tray.dll          2009/10/23 20:12:19
Wbload.dll          2010/06/07 15:59:25
Screen.exe     2010/06/07 15:59:43

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your computer has a Windows Experience Index base score of 7.1
Your Windows Graphics Experience score is 7.8

DeskScapes appears to be activated on this PC
DeskScapes engine appears to be running
() 1 is attached to AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series
(LG E2340(HDMI)) 2 is attached to AMD Radeon HD 6800 Series

Deskscape.dll              2011/11/01 15:10:18
Deskscapes.dll               2010/09/27 11:06:03
DreamControl32.dll             2009/11/09 17:10:17
DeskscapesConfig.exe              2011/11/01 15:10:45
UI\Deskscape.dll            2011/10/26 13:13:21
UI\DeskscapesVideo.dll     2009/10/24 13:04:54
DreamTasks.exe               2010/09/24 14:01:26
DeskscapesVideo.dll          2010/01/19 18:02:22

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Quoting Neil Banfield,

reply 17

You need to switch to the 285 drivers which apparently are ok. There is something wrong in the 295 and 300 series drivers on some systems, though we have yet to reproduce any issues here.

Thanks Neil, that has resolved the instability and I'm able to run WinFX again.

Hopefully you'll have a work around (or Nvidia a fix) by the time I upgrade to a 600 series card.

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Quoting TwoWolves,

reply 19

Quoting Neil Banfield, reply 17
You need to switch to the 285 drivers which apparently are ok. There is something wrong in the 295 and 300 series drivers on some systems, though we have yet to reproduce any issues here.

Thanks Neil, that has resolved the instability and I'm able to run WinFX again.

Hopefully you'll have a work around (or Nvidia a fix) by the time I upgrade to a 600 series card.

Honestly based on my experience with nvidia cards over the years it might be worth looking into ATI/AMD graphics cards.

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I'm running with the 301 driver with no trouble since the help from support was given.

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Well I spoke too soon.

Regular BSoD have been a plague so I have had to disable WinFx 5 and Descscapes to get some peace.

Either my graphics card is dying or your support for Nvidia lapsing.

I have to work so they will have to stay off for now. Let me know when you have a solution for interoperability with the Nvidia drivers.

@Neil

You may prefer AMD but I need to write CUDA software for my living (yes I do prefer OpenCL personally before you ask).

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Quoting TwoWolves,

reply 22

Well I spoke too soon.

Regular BSoD have been a plague so I have had to disable WinFx 5 and Descscapes to get some peace.

Either my graphics card is dying or your support for Nvidia lapsing.

I have to work so they will have to stay off for now. Let me know when you have a solution for interoperability with the Nvidia drivers.

@Neil

You may prefer AMD but I need to write CUDA software for my living (yes I do prefer OpenCL personally before you ask).

Unfortunately a BSOD indicates a serious driver error and or hardware failure. You would need to contact Nvidia regarding their defect.

A user mode application like a game or Deskscapes or even WindowFX should not be able to cause a BSOD or even a crash in the video drivers and there is nothing we can do to cause such a problem. Any crash in the drivers is always the sole responsibility of the driver manufacturer or the operating system vendor (in the rare case of the OS interacting with the driver incorrectly)

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*** I Owe Neil Banfield a big fat apology ***

I managed to find the real cause (somewhat accidentally during a debug session) and it was in fact Nvidia Ntune that was causing the problem, once this was removed everything has been working perfectly, including all the Stardock apps I like.

I didn't even need it, I have no recollection of installing it. It must have come with some tools/game/dev-kit I installed from them and it doesn't seem like to live with Stardock applications.

I have also installed the latest Nvidia drivers and everything's been running well since.

You were quite correct Neil, thanks.

Alex.

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