Snow crash

from Stardock Forums

I finally got DeskScapes to install and verify this morning. (My first several attempts didn't pass Impulse's "Verify Installation" check.) I checked out the free backgrounds, decided I liked the sand & water one the best. Everything was fine for a few minutes, but then my whole screen filled with colored snow, and the video output shut down. Pressing the sleep key did a full reboot into Safe Mode instead of just putting the machine to sleep.

I'm reluctant to do a lot of experimenting to figure out what went wrong here. Any similar experiences?

I'm running Vista Ultimate SP1, Intel Core 2 Duo, ASUS P5Q3 Deluxe, 3.25GB RAM, BFG GeForce 9800 GTX+ OC, 1TB disk. DeskScape's diagnostic screen shows this:

Windows Vista 32-Bit
DreamControl.dll         10/14/2008 15:55:09 PM       v2.00 (#106)
DesktopControlPanel.dll     5/5/2008 19:14:24 PM       v2.00 (#106)
WallpaperPage.dll         5/5/2008 19:14:25 PM       v2.00 (#106)
DreamTasks.exe         10/14/2008 15:55:09 PM       v2.00 (#106)
DreamSwitcher.exe         10/14/2008 15:55:09 PM       v2.00 (#106)
DreamThumbnails.dll     11/18/2008 1:31:56 AM       v2.00 (#106)
DeskScape.dll         11/18/2008 15:14:44 PM      
DeskScapes.dll         11/18/2008 1:31:56 AM      
Activate.exe         4/24/2008 19:01:34 PM       v1.04 (#8)
d3dx9_30.dll         11/18/2008 1:31:15 AM      
d3dx9_32.dll         11/18/2008 1:31:15 AM      

deskscapes
4,962 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

DeskScapes crashes for me after a few seconds when I'm using a dream that plays video. I think the one you tried is one of those. What happens for me is that it freezes. Then if I do anything like open a window, it becomes clear that explorer has crashed.

In XP, If you do a Ctrl Alt Delete, select the processes tab, and then select exporer.exe and press the End Process button, then File/New Task (Run...) and type explorer.exe, you can get your desktop back. But then you have to Right click the desktop and go to Properties/ Desktop tab and select a different wallpaper and apply and close before Deskscapes crashes exporer again. Sorry I don't know if Vista is different.

You might want to try the one called Bouncing Box Sample and see how long that runs without crashing. It uses directx 3d instead of video, so if your DirectX is in order it should run without problems. I've been running that so far without a crash. I haven't solved the video problem but I know Dreamscapes is pretty picky about video card drivers, video codecs, and video cards. Looks like your card is pretty new so PCI-E? If so that is a good thing. Deskscapes doesn't like some AGP and ATI. Do you know what video codec you have for playing DVDs?

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

OK, thanks for the suggestions! Luckily the machine is new enough that I don't have any critical data on it yet. ;) Yes, the 9800 is PCI-E. No, I don't know my codecs of the top of my head, but I can check. Ugh, I hope it's not something more widespread like that.

Edit: I don't know whether it's relevant, but after rolling back I tried Windows DreamScene to see whether it exhibited similar problems. I ran the streetlight background for quite a while without trouble.

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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Last night, I had another snow crash, while DeskScapes wasn't even installed. A bit of Web research showed that there's a long-standing issue with NVidia's display drivers that leads to slowdowns, driver resets, and BSODs on some rigs. When it happens, Windows reports an error in nvlddmkm.sys. The first time it happened, my screen was too trashed to read, but the second time I could make out the nvlddmkm BSOD behind the snow.

In short, this is probably an issue with my GPU or its drivers, not with DeskScapes.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Thanks for the follow up, Bradd. Sorry for your troubles. I'd have expected better software from nVidia.