Small word of caution on Windows XP Pro
by Dreamer · in Torque Game Engine Advanced · 06/07/2004 (9:30 am) · 17 replies
Hello, I finally got TSE compiled and working, however there was a bug in crash handling.
To test the system, I went ahead and forced a crash with ctrl+alt+delete, then just killed the process.
However immediately upon doing this taskmanager lost its windowframe and tabs.
I thought this might be an artifact problem so I rebooted.
No dice, taskmanager is still borked.
Something similar to this happened to me when I was beta testing EQ's latest expansion Gates Of Discord, the only solution the techs could give me was to re-install windows.
I'm going to try and search for a better solution, but I just want to warn people ahead of time, so they don't mess up taskmanager.
To test the system, I went ahead and forced a crash with ctrl+alt+delete, then just killed the process.
However immediately upon doing this taskmanager lost its windowframe and tabs.
I thought this might be an artifact problem so I rebooted.
No dice, taskmanager is still borked.
Something similar to this happened to me when I was beta testing EQ's latest expansion Gates Of Discord, the only solution the techs could give me was to re-install windows.
I'm going to try and search for a better solution, but I just want to warn people ahead of time, so they don't mess up taskmanager.
#2
Was it just task manager that was messed up?
06/07/2004 (9:56 am)
Did you try power-cycling the computer, as in turning it physically on and off? I'm just speaking out of the left field here, but maybe it put the video card into some freaky undetermined state? (Something that just a software reset couldn't fix.)Was it just task manager that was messed up?
#3
Try double clicking on the TaskManagers border and you'll see all your TAB's return. That's a Windows feature, not a TSE bug.
06/07/2004 (9:56 am)
ROTFLMAO Some peoples Kids...Try double clicking on the TaskManagers border and you'll see all your TAB's return. That's a Windows feature, not a TSE bug.
#4
Oh. This is something very Microsoft -- Entirely break their own standards.
Thanks for pointing that out, Gonzo.
06/07/2004 (10:16 am)
What the...?Oh. This is something very Microsoft -- Entirely break their own standards.
Thanks for pointing that out, Gonzo.
#5
"Taskmanager is broken" or "How do I reinstall the taskmanager"
Everyone of them ends up being this issue. I tell them to double click the border and see if that fixes it, and all of them say yes.
I'm not sure what causes it to jump to the non-tabbed setting because I have never seen it done by any other means than by double clicking. But it obviously happens based on the calls I get and the post here.
06/07/2004 (10:22 am)
Believe it or not, I get calls from people all the time from people saying..."Taskmanager is broken" or "How do I reinstall the taskmanager"
Everyone of them ends up being this issue. I tell them to double click the border and see if that fixes it, and all of them say yes.
I'm not sure what causes it to jump to the non-tabbed setting because I have never seen it done by any other means than by double clicking. But it obviously happens based on the calls I get and the post here.
#6
It's not just tabs, it's the entire frame that is gone. Almost like it had turned into a screen artifact with the exception you could still move what was left of the window around.
It also wasn't limited to just taskmanager as was originally thought, but appeared to also effect outlook, and windows explorer but oddly enough not internet explorer.
I found a very similar bug due to Dx9 crashing, during a google search.
The solution?
Create a new user on the system, login as the new user, delete old user (make sure not to delete old users files). Rename new user to old user name, and reboot.
No clue why this works, but it appears to be something with Dx9 since the problem and solution were found in a site dedicated to Dx9 testing.
I have now done this and can verify the fix works, so if needs be you can resort to this instead of a complete re-install.
Well I hope this helps people.
06/07/2004 (10:44 am)
Your solution didn't fix it.It's not just tabs, it's the entire frame that is gone. Almost like it had turned into a screen artifact with the exception you could still move what was left of the window around.
It also wasn't limited to just taskmanager as was originally thought, but appeared to also effect outlook, and windows explorer but oddly enough not internet explorer.
I found a very similar bug due to Dx9 crashing, during a google search.
The solution?
Create a new user on the system, login as the new user, delete old user (make sure not to delete old users files). Rename new user to old user name, and reboot.
No clue why this works, but it appears to be something with Dx9 since the problem and solution were found in a site dedicated to Dx9 testing.
I have now done this and can verify the fix works, so if needs be you can resort to this instead of a complete re-install.
Well I hope this helps people.
#7
06/07/2004 (11:00 am)
Thanks for the info. I suspect this user switching trick could actually fix quite a few problems besides this one. The reason IE was not affected is because it uses a different executable to run it's shell. It's possible your Explorer registry keys got corrupted or altered in some way at the HKEY_CURRENT_USER level which caused your problems, and creating the new user restored the proper keys. I suspect a quick system restore back to the day before this problem occured might have cured it as well.
#8
06/07/2004 (11:19 am)
Hehe, I keep system restore turned off, uses too much drive space and is kind of a waste if you do regular back-ups
#9
06/07/2004 (11:31 am)
That makes two of us. But you and I both know that not having it is flirting with disaster, lol. I personally just offload copies of critical files to other network drives so that if any one PC bites the dust, the rest can help restore it. All my personal files and game files and stuff reside on drives other than the OS drive, so that even if I had a complete OS failure, I could reinstall the OS and the Apps and lose little more than my IE favorites and some settings.
#10
I had not even thought of TSE having something to do with this, but now I'm curious to see if this happens again to anyone else.
06/07/2004 (11:37 am)
This is very interesting... I had something similar happen to me. On Thursday I started playing around with TSE, went to bed woke up the next morning and couldn't log into my system. The login box would show up, but the fields to enter in a username and password were not there... Gone completely. I had to reformat and reinstall xp to get things working again (which turned out to be all kinds of fun in itself) I had not even thought of TSE having something to do with this, but now I'm curious to see if this happens again to anyone else.
#11
Well, if that makes you feel better. :)
On the other hand, it didn't fix the problem.
You're embarrasing.
06/08/2004 (2:14 am)
Quote:
ROTFLMAO Some peoples Kids...
Well, if that makes you feel better. :)
On the other hand, it didn't fix the problem.
You're embarrasing.
#12
course i run ghost from another drive also, so instead of formating i just ghost and can have a clean os in about 15minutes.
06/08/2004 (5:08 am)
I use a program called ghost. After i formated and have all my apps installed with all the updates,i save a ghost image of my os drive and keep the image on another.course i run ghost from another drive also, so instead of formating i just ghost and can have a clean os in about 15minutes.
#14
i use ghost while windows is running, it takes care of everythingall in one shot. And the newer versions are easy to use
06/08/2004 (5:34 am)
Not sure but ther is a way i seen my brother do it (you need to know dos)i use ghost while windows is running, it takes care of everythingall in one shot. And the newer versions are easy to use
#15
06/08/2004 (5:42 am)
DOS? Most of us don't even have DOS installed you know. :)
#16
It was a joke putz. I find it interesting that so many people here lack the intelligence to understand them. I'm embarassing? Then tell us Stefan, where is your solution to the problem?.
Thought so.
06/08/2004 (9:10 am)
Quote:Well, if that makes you feel better. :)
On the other hand, it didn't fix the problem.
You're embarrasing.
It was a joke putz. I find it interesting that so many people here lack the intelligence to understand them. I'm embarassing? Then tell us Stefan, where is your solution to the problem?.
Thought so.
#17
06/08/2004 (3:38 pm)
Settle down kids. 
Torque Owner Stefan Lundmark