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Topic: «Explorer and system issues with 5.2 Beta 2 under Vista 64-bit , Windows Explorer still hangs when AWM settings are saved, and more. » on forum: Beta Testing   Views: 204935
 
Jeffrey R. Broido
Registered user

Bona fide, old fart, retro hippie.
 
 Posts: 44
Joined: 12/12/2007
Posted: 09/20/2008 15:21:40
 
 
 Alex,

Well, I just installed AWM 5.2b2 and, several reboots later, I'm running without it for the time being.

I still have the problem that, shortly following AWM options saving, Windows Explorer becomes non-responsive.  I must wait for the OS to discover this and, when prompted, restart the shell.  If this happens a couple of times, applications also start to become unresponsive and I must reboot.

Additionally, I find that with AWM 5.2b2 running, my system becomes very, very sluggish.  I can see no reason for this, for my task manager (IARSN's Taskinfo 8) reports no processes in a tight loop, though the top few processes (in CPU cycle consumption) all appear to be using a good deal more cycles than they do, normally; the difference is, perhaps, as much as 100%.  This problem generally starts within a half hour of booting and cannot be fixed by shutting-down AWM.  But, after a reboot without AWM, all returns to normal and remains normal (but my windows are a mess!)

Folks, are any of you experiencing anything like this in Vista?  64-bit Vista?  With a quad Xeon CPU?  Thanks!

Regards,
Jeff

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Gerard Booth
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 119
Joined: 08/04/2008
Posted: 09/21/2008 11:56:45
 
 
 Jeffrey, I am suffering the system slowdown element of your problem under Vista 32bit.

A couple of minutes after bootr up the system slows to snail pace. as per your post stopping awm does not cure the problem. I unisttalled the beta version and all is fine.

Regards

Gerard Booth
 
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Martyn Kenyon
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 135
Joined: 04/22/2006
Posted: 09/22/2008 11:23:03
 
 
 I've been experiencing similar problems. Vista 32 Ultimate on Quad processor.   The system was slowing down, explorer crashed and the windows went "berserk"

I've just tried disabling IARSN Taskinfo V8 and so far all seems good with AWN 5.2b2 running OK.

Regards



Martyn
 
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Matt Rasmussen
Advanced user
 
 Posts: 107
Joined: 05/25/2008
Posted: 09/22/2008 14:11:56
 
 
 I'm running XP Pro SP3 and do not notice this issue...
 
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Jeffrey R. Broido
Registered user

Bona fide, old fart, retro hippie.
 
 Posts: 44
Joined: 12/12/2007
Posted: 09/22/2008 14:44:19
 
 
 Dear Martyn,

Now, we might be getting somewhere!  I've been using IARSN Taskinfo since version 1 and it's always been running since I've been running Actual Windows Manager.  And, aside from the new slowdown business, I've had the settings-crash-explorer.exe since I've started using AWM.

Now, I'll move my http server to another machine, shutdown Taskinfo 8 and start-up AWM.  I'll report back with my results but, meanwhile, will everyone who's reading this thread let us all know if you're running IARSN Taskinfo and if you're having any of these issues.

Stay tuned!

Regards,
Jeff

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Jeffrey R. Broido
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 Posts: 44
Joined: 12/12/2007
Posted: 09/22/2008 16:51:11
 
 
 Folks,

Now, we're getting somewhere!  I do, however, have mixed results to report.  The good news is that, at least for now, modifying and saving any parameters no longer crashes explorer.exe.  This single observation gives me a great deal of hope, for I've been suffering with this problem for quite some time.

Now, the bad news.  I still have a slowdown when AWM is running, though it appears to be a bit less severe.  Simply scrolling down in browsers with my mouse wheel is somewhat sluggish.  I use an auto-hiding taskbar and find that popping-up the taskbar is sluggish.  I use customized notifications and find that clicking on the little arrow to reveal all tray icons is extremely sluggish though, before, it was so sluggish I had to leave the room, with one icon appearing each second, more-or-less.

When I stopped AWM, scrolling in browsers seemed to get closer to normal.  The taskbar problems, however, remained.  I then tried stopping AWM altogether, but that just made matters worse, for explorer.exe crashed and, when restarted, the sluggish animation remained and, one-by-one, all of my open apps became unresponsive.  Needless to say, it was reboot time!

But this does seem to show that there is some untoward interaction between AWM and IARSN Taskinfo, at least versions 7 and 8.

I'll try some more experiments tomorrow.  Any ideas, anyone?

Regards,
Jeff

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Jeffrey R. Broido
Registered user

Bona fide, old fart, retro hippie.
 
 Posts: 44
Joined: 12/12/2007
Posted: 09/23/2008 07:41:10
 
 
 Dear Alex,

Here's a note I just sent to Igor Arsenin, of iarsn.com, the author of Taskinfo:
____________________________________________________

Dear Igor,

I'm a user of Taskinfo with a paid-up license and I have a difficult problem to report.  I call it difficult as it involves what appears to be an untoward interaction between RealVNC Server 4.4.2, build 13117, running under Vista Ultimate, 64-bit, and Actual Window Manager 5.x from actualtools.com.

Actual Window Manager is a very nice and well thought-out geek tool, of sorts, for it adds controls on any window's title bar for such things as transparency, minimizing to the tray, etc., it allows automatic placement and sizing of windows, automatic minimizing, event-driven scripting, etc.

I've been attempting to use Actual Window Manager for quite some time, with mixed results.  The product works nicely and, considering my rather complex use of my workstation, provides welcome relief from Windows' rather casual handling of, um, Windows, especially in Vista.

My main problem with Actual Window Manager has been that, when any of its settings are saved, explorer.exe becomes non-responsive and must be restarted.  After a couple of these shell crashes, my system is effectively hosed and I must reboot.

For months, after each release, I've reported this but have only found a couple of others who have anything like this problem and I assumed all along that the issue had something to do with my somewhat unusual set-up (64-bit Vista running on a quad Xeon).  But, now, another user has duplicated one of my issues and that user is also running Taskinfo 8.  That user reported that, after uninstallation of Taskinfo, the problems with Actual Window Manager were greatly decreased.

I didn't uninstall Taskinfo, but I did shut it down and found that, indeed, the explorer.exe crash triggered by Actual WIndow Manager settings saving no longer happens (at least after about fifteen attempts), though there are still other outstanding issues with the latest beta version (naturally).

If you wouldn't mind, I'll ask Alexey Fadeyev of Actual Tools to contact you at ima-at-iarsn-dot-com and you might consider contacting him at support@actualtools.com.  Perhaps you can exchange copies of each other's software and, hopefully, this problem will be put to rest.  I'm posting a copy of this note in Actual Tools' beta testing forum at http://actualtools.com/beta/ ...  Thanks in advance for your help!

Regards,
Jeff Broido

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Martyn Kenyon
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 Posts: 135
Joined: 04/22/2006
Posted: 09/24/2008 10:21:31
 
 
 I've now done some testing of the Beta 2 release, without TASKINFO running.  Whilst it is better there is still a problem with things slowing down.

Basically I get a pause of about 10 to 15 seconds with the Vista equivalent of the hour glass (a rotating circle) at frequent intervals.  The most common places for this pause are Firefox 3 and Outlook 2007, but I have also seen sluggish behaviour when expanding a menu in various places.  This seems to get worse the longer the machine has been running.

I've tried booting without AWM and the system works fine with consistent good speeds.   However, when I run AWM I get the slow downs.

I have had to resort to running without AWM to get normal work done.

Regards




Martyn
 
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Jeffrey R. Broido
Registered user

Bona fide, old fart, retro hippie.
 
 Posts: 44
Joined: 12/12/2007
Posted: 09/24/2008 11:22:11
 
 
 Dear Martyn,

Your experience regarding the slow-downs is pretty-much the same as mine.  To summarize our common experience:

1) With Taskinfo running and without AWM, system performance is normal.

2) With Taskinfo and AWM running, performance is severely compromized.

3) Without Taskinfo but with AWM 5.2β2 running, the system is quite slow (slow enough to stop me from running this release of AWM) but not as slow as 2).

Have you tried exercising my other severe problem, involving the shell (explorer.exe) becoming non-responsive when AWM settings are saved, with and without Taskinfo running?

Meanwhile, I heard back from Taskinfo's Mr. Arsenin to the effect that since his software installs no hooks and runs no dlls in other processes, Taskinfo isn't the problem.  He said he'd put it on his to-do list, but he didn't seem particularly enthusiastic (this in stark contrast to his typical reaction to a bug report or feature suggestion), to say the least.  So, I wrote him another note regarding finger-pointing, and we'll see.  Meanwhile, I urge Actual Tools to install the latest version of Taskinfo on both a 32-bit and a 64-bit Vista system to see if this long-outstanding problem can be duplicated and the problem debugged at last.

Regards,
Jeff

Quote
I have had to resort to running without AWM to get normal work done.


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Jeffrey R. Broido
Registered user

Bona fide, old fart, retro hippie.
 
 Posts: 44
Joined: 12/12/2007
Posted: 09/24/2008 12:08:42
 
 
 Update:

Mr. Arsenin responded to my urging and is now working actively to deal with this problem.  He had a thought and told me to disable Taskinfo's tray icon and leave Taskinfo's window restored and try again, this due to the fact that Taskinfo's refresh of its tray icon is the only area of intersection between the two programs that he can think of.

I tried this, but it didn't seem to make a difference and, now, I must reboot again as I'm back to sluggish performance, again, even after shutting-down Taskinfo and AWM.  In any case, he'll be installing AWM5.2β2 on a Quad Xeon 64-bit Vista system in a few days and we'll see what he reports.

Regards,
Jeff

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