Excalpius

Join Date 01/2005

+73

Wild ObjectDock and Explorer Windows resource conflict

The following behavior only happens under Windows XP, not under Vista, btw.

Moving any explorer window under or around an ObjectDock zoomer (no matter what the settings) works great and at full speed. HOWEVER, if any window is under a zoomer when I run the mouse over the zoomer (hence activating it and/or bringing it to the top), dragging future windows will cause the window drag to strobe at 1/10th the previous refresh as the CPU goes to 100% (3 ghz P4). As if something is fighting with something else for "priority".

This happens with Winamp windows, etc. etc. Anything that is behind the dock when it pops back into the foreground triggers this behavior. To reset thing, I just need to quit and restart object dock. The zoomers will then return and explorer window dragging behaviour will be normal again UNTIL I activate a zoomer if it's in front of something, and then SLOWDOWN again.

TESTING/SYSTEM NOTES:

With Winamp, it doesn't matter which skin, modern or classic.

I ran Rocketdock as a control and it doesn't display this behaviour under any conditions or circumstances, but of course it only runs one dock and i use 5. But perhaps something about the way it layers or draws is distinctly different from ObjectDock and I offer this info in the hopes that it will help you narrow down what's happening.

I've noticed this behavior for at least six months perhaps as much as a year and a half and I only finally managed to figure out the combination of events that duplicate it reliably. This is also a test machine, so if this had been on my primary production machine, it would have driven me crazy long before now.

Fortunately, Windowblinds appears no cause difference, running or unloaded. But if something remains wedged in the OS even when "unloaded" that might mean there might still be a connection. Let me know if I should do an uninstall of Windowblinds to test this.

Tabbed docks don't seem to cause the same problem or at least not to the same degree.

This is a 3 ghz P4, 1 gb Ram, Quadro FX 2000 w/128mb display card, latest Nvidia drivers 163.xx series, under Windows XP SP2 (fully patched).

As importantly, I just test installed this on an AMD laptop with XP and ATI on board graphics using Windows XP as well and the results are identical. So it's not an ATI vs. Nvidia or AMD vs. Intel issue.

Let me know if there is anything else I can do to track this down.

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Anyone? Anyone?

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DaveRI

Join Date 09/2003

+467

Ok, this is a long-shot, but it looks like ideas are sparse so here it goes:

If you have any docks landing in the top left corner of your primary monitor, delete them and see if the problem continues. If you're using 2 monitors, the primary monitor is the only one I'm talking about, the secondary doesn't matter. So we're talking about deleting anything positioned on the top edge and aligned left, and anything positioned on the left edge aligned top, on the primary monitor.

I know it sounds ludicrous but I have much better luck when I keep docks out of that corner. Usually though my conflicts are just with other video intensive software such as dvd playback. Sometimes I can even get a conflict if a dock isn't actually wedged in the top left corner but is big enough to get into it, such as a big dock centered on the left edge.

Just an idea, easy enough to try, check it out if you'd like. I've always considered it a "bonus feature" of my old hardware and outdated drivers.

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Lantec

Join Date 07/2003

+346

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thanks for suggesting that DaveRI, but none of my docks are in the top left. The issue seemed most pronounced with zoomers.

My layout was/is as follows on this test XP machine (single monitor, so I don't believe this is a dual monitor issue):

centered zoomer on the left for minimizing task windows (replaces taskbar functionality)

centered zoomer on the bottom for program shortcuts

autohiding tabbed dock (roughly centered) on the right with system tray icons/functionality

autohiding tabbed dock (roughly centered) on the top with internet links

So when I draw an explorer windows beneath either of the zoomers, once the zoomer pops to the top, the window draw performance goes to shite. Very strange, but confirmed on multiple XP test systems as I mention above.

I think DaveRI may have struck on something though, in that I *still* hear people bemoan ObjectDock as a "resource hog" etc. Which, clearly, from a programming/memory standpoint it isn't. It's amazingly efficient in that regard. However, if people run into this desktop slowdown problem when they run objectdock, and it only goes away when they stop using it, they are likely to get the impression that objectdock itself is just too "resource hungry" for *their* system, rather than report this as the obvious bug it is.

Just trying to help.

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