Version 6.71 Beta 3 Available...

[Quade]

Thanks.

[bd baker]

Regarding the test B4 version, I note that after it hangs and I kill the process and re-install 6.71B2, the order and width of the columns as I have configured them in the GUI is now changed. Where are these column settings/preferences stored?

[Quade]

B4 resets the GUI as part of the test. It just does it when you run it. So once you switch back you can reset all that.

Should have been in the release notes.

Do any of you have procmon installed? Might be interesting to see if Newsbin is getting hung up working with a file.

[bd baker]

Yes - I'm running ProcMon. Tried to PM you a log file with the last 50 Newsbin events when it hangs, but am unable to attach .pml, .csv, or .txt. How can I best send this to you?

[tl]

Re-downloaded B4 from the link above and re-installed. I no longer get the VCOMP140.DLL missing error, but I still have the problem of no GUI window showing up.

Same here, the latest B4/test build still hangs on startup without a GUI.

[mimauk]

Re-downloaded B4 from the link above and re-installed. I no longer get the VCOMP140.DLL missing error, but I still have the problem of no GUI window showing up.

Same for me.

[Quade]

I've come to the conclusion that this is something beyond my control at the moment. There's some aspect of your Win7 installs that simply doesn't like the version of Newsbin generated with the latest devel tool. It's works fine on many Win7 machines. Mine, people on IRC and Dex's.

I think my next step is to get it building with the older devel tools again and see if that fixes your problem.

[Quade]

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/ ... ard-trick/

Can someone try this?

[mimauk]

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows/bring-misplaced-off-screen-windows-back-to-your-desktop-keyboard-trick/

Can someone try this?

Tried it with the new beta4 and no GUI.

There is no NBPro Icon on the taskbar so there is no Window to cascade

[Quade]

There is no NBPro Icon on the taskbar so there is no Window to cascade

Ok, this is a good clue.

[bd baker]

Quade - I tried the "hidden window" trick and that doesn't work - neither cascade or trying to move the window to the visible real estate. I don't think the process is getting full started since there isn't an icon for it in my taskbar. If you can get a build with the old dev tools and I'll try it.

[mimauk]

There is no NBPro Icon on the taskbar so there is no Window to cascade

Ok, this is a good clue.

As I said in an earlier post, there is no icon on the taskbar and in Task Manager, although it shows NBPro running in the Processes Tab there is nothing showing in the Applications Tab so there is no Window being generated for NBPro to run in which is why I have said there is no GUI.

Maybe the GUI is running but there is no Window for it to run in.

[Quade]

Maybe the GUI is running but there is no Window for it to run in.

I was hoping it was either off screen or minimized to tray.

[Quade]

http://www.newsbin.com/downloads/nb671B4.exe

Here's another one to try. It doesn't reset the display. It also runs under XP by the way.

Looks like I'll be able to turn XP support back on in the next official beta.

[mimauk]

http://www.newsbin.com/downloads/nb671B4.exe

Here's another one to try. It doesn't reset the display. It also runs under XP by the way.

Looks like I'll be able to turn XP support back on in the next official beta.

No GUI with this one either.
No icon on Taskbar.
NBPro running in Task Manager Processes Tab but not in Applications Tab

[tl]

http://www.newsbin.com/downloads/nb671B4.exe
Here's another one to try. It doesn't reset the display. It also runs under XP by the way.
Looks like I'll be able to turn XP support back on in the next official beta.

No GUI with this one either.
No icon on Taskbar.
NBPro running in Task Manager Processes Tab but not in Applications Tab

Damn, you beat me to it , the download took 5+ minutes for some reason, it's always been fast before. Exactly the same results as mimauk.

Perhaps you could try check out the B2 sources and build that using the new build tools?, that would at least confirm which change made this so it's not a seemingly innocent change elsewhere.

It's weird, it's clearly something fairly specific since it works for some others but on the other hand no other program ever has hung this way on this computer...

[bd baker]

Same for me - no application window coming up with this new test.

[Quade]

Perhaps you could try check out the B2 sources and build that using the new build tools?, that would at least confirm which change made this so it's not a seemingly innocent change elsewhere.

It's not a code problem. It works on Win7 for most people. There's something specific to your Win7 installs which prevents it from running when built with the new Devel tools.

Have you rebooted between running B2 and B3? Might be worth trying. Maybe a DLL is getting stuck in memory.

[mimauk]

Have you rebooted between running B2 and B3? Might be worth trying. Maybe a DLL is getting stuck in memory.

I shut my machine down every night and boot it up again the next morning.

[Quade]

I mean specifically between running B2 and running B3. I'm suggesting a reboot between running B2 then trying to run B3. I'm trying to eliminate anything being stuck in memory.

[mimauk]

I mean specifically between running B2 and running B3. I'm suggesting a reboot between running B2 then trying to run B3. I'm trying to eliminate anything being stuck in memory.

With beta2 installed - rebooted, shut down all non Windows programmes, went into task manager and ended every process except Windows, AVG and ASUS motherboard software. Installed beta 3 and no GUI.

Rebooted with beta3 installed ended all programmes and processes again as above - started NBpro and no GUI

Edit - rebooted to safe mode and installed beta3 then but still no GUI. Rebooted normally and tried NBPro and still no GUI

[bd baker]

I think I've made some progress. I use a custom desktop theme. When I switch it to the stock Windows 7 Aero theme, the B3 interface does come up. When I switch it back to my custom theme, it hangs. Perhaps the others can test this and confirm.

[Quade]

That's a damn good data point.

How custom is it?

[mimauk]

How clever was that !!!!!!!!!

I have a custom desktop theme as well - changed to Win7 Aero and beta3 works fine. DUH!!!!!!

I use the Windows Classic theme - one simple colour for the background.

Edit- Started beta3 with the Aero desktop - minimised it to taskbar - changed the desktop back to customised (it wasn't quite the same, the fonts retained the shadow from the Aero theme) maximised NBPro from taskbar and it appeared. Shut down NBPro and tried starting it again but no GUI. Stopped it in Task Manager - changed desktop back to Aero and it started up no problems.

[bd baker]

I customized pretty much everything. If I recall, I tried to keep it looking as much like my prior desktop (Vista? or XP?) as possible. In the Personalization screen under Window Color, it says "Windows Classic".

[Quade]

I'm trying to setup a test setup so I can remote debug this under win7. I'm suspecting a problem with the manifest which tells windows what Newsbin is looking for.

[mimauk]

Experimenting with the desktop and beta3 will run on any of the Aero themes and the basic Win7 theme - not on Classic or any of the High Contrast themes.

My desktop now has an Aero theme with one plain colour (as before) and I got rid of the Shadows effect on the fonts by typing in "advanced" in the search box from the Start button - clicking on Advanced Settings in the Control Panel section - clicking on settings in the performance section of the popup - and in the visual effects tab, uncheck the use drop shadow etc. box.

So my desktop is pretty much the same as it was except for the crappy looking taskbar and icons

[mimauk]

Just a bit of an update - using beta3, I now change my desktop to an aero theme, start NBPro and then change the desktop back to how I usually have it in the Classic form and carry on using NBPro as normal with no problems. Just use the aero form to start it and change the desktop back straight away.

[Quade]

Thanks. I'm pretty close to being able to trouble-shoot this. One good thing that came from it is that I can support XP again.

[mimauk]

Just tried another little experiment - for years I've had a problem with NBPro in that if I delete all the headers in a group tab and close the tab immediately then NBPro would crash about 70% of the time.

I left my desktop on the Aero theme and updated the headers in my groups/gog - I then opened each group one at a time and deleted all the headers and shut the tab immediately and there were no crashes. Granted I've only tried this once, but after shutting down each tab, the view goes to the groups tab which is still showing the count for the headers in each individual group before it has a chance to refresh back to zero so it looks promising as far as the programme crashing goes.

I'll try it a few more times over the next week or so.

[Quade]

Ok, problems is resolved. It was a combination of some shady code in the GUI library I use and a change in how statics are initialized in VC2015.


So, ColorManager was calling into ColorManager when there was no Aero. That was the shady code. Because color manager hadn't actually been initialized yet. This caused the code in VC2015 which handles static variables to hang. Basically it was recursive in a place where that isn't allowed. I assume 2013 didn't care about this recursion but it's a flaw in the code either way.

The code was depending on the particular behavior of the C compiler. When the behavior changed (legally) the shady code broke.

Been tearing my hair out over this. Thanks for all of your help. Next beta will have this fix as well as supporting XP again (a feature VC2015 is giving me).

[Quade]

http://www.newsbin.com/downloads/nb671B4.exe

Here's a copy of B4 to try out. Runs under XP too.