Hi Basj,

I did the troubleshooting. It crashed at step 4 after closing the Fences window and returning to the desktop, but I personally think it's not the cause. As I said, the crash is so random that any clicking on desktop or simply doing nothing can lead to a crash. Thanks.

Thanks for your suggestion. I've tried restoring order layouts, but the crash keeps happening. 

Hello Chuckhe,

This is exactly the same problem I was having the past few weeks (you explained it much better than I did).

• Fences5 version: 5.54 (SAME)
• OS: Windows 11 Pro Version 23H2 (OS build 22631.3737)  (SAME)
• After a clean boot,  problem is triggered trying to access any folder in a Fence, then Explorer is corrupted, so all the following you described continues: 
  • Same pop-up message - "Fences discovered Explorer not closed properly. . . .  Fences disabled"
  • What triggers the continuing crashes: anything, e.g., simple left click, right-click, trying to refresh on desktop, etc. Sometimes, I didn't do anything at all and it just FREEZES (with the taskbar suddenly disappearing or the monitor screen suddenly turning black, flickering to white, empty screen)
  • Occassionally, after a long wait,  Fences re-enables itself, re-applies folders into correct fences, but bug remains on next click.
  • New or existing issue: It's an existing issue. I also can't recall when the problem began to occur, but it's got worse with 5.54. 
  • What I tried (but didn't work): Uninstall (did not do purge) and reinstall.
  • Did not test version 5.50

What worked for me:

• Uninstalled Version 5.54 (that's when it became intolerable),
• Installed Fences5, version 5.04, and DID NOT upgrade to 5.50 or 5.54
• I will stay on 5.04 until the bug is fixed.

Ref: my Post:

• https://forums.stardock.com/524563/page/1/#3935769

Hope this helps?

Bob S.

Hi Bob,

Thank you for adding more details. These are exactly what I'm having too (e.g., Fences re-enables itself, re-applies folders into correct fences, etc.). Unfortunately, I just tried 5.0.4.1 and 5.0.0.1, but the problem persists. Thank you again for sharing your suggestion.

I've sent my troubleshooting log (following https://forums.stardock.com/486084/fences-support-faq#ExtendedCrashReporting) to Basj. Hope this issue gets resolved soon.

Chuck

Hi Basj,

I just tried Fences v5.56 Beta. Didn't see a big differnece, it crashed soon after it's installed and enabled.

That is the log we need however, the one you submitted i 

We would really like both of you to try using this method for collecting crash logs for this issue.  Its a bit detailed but it would really help to find the root cause

https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1332969475/Manually+Collecting+Fences+Crash+Dumps

Thanks again for the time and help.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. But, I don't think your issue is the same as Fences v5. It is best to create your own thread on your issue so we can deal with your separately. Also, please post in your new thread more details on your system.

1. Windows full version and OS Build number. Use Winver.exe.
2. Is this a new issue? If its a new one, what changed in your system?
3. Mode details, please.

Thank you.
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

Hi chuckhe yes we'd really love to get a crash dump from your copy of 5.56. https://support.stardock.com/space/SHC/1332969475/Manually+Collecting+Fences+Crash+Dumps

It looks like this is a crash that's not being picked up by our built-in crash reporter, so something else is going on. I assume you already did the step for enabling "Advanced crash reporting" and reproduced the crash. If there's no file "fences_debug_snapshot.dat" in "%appdata%\Stardock\Fences\TroubleshootingLog" however after enabling that and reproducing the crash, and if you didn't see the BugSplat popup, you'll need to collect the crash report manually and share it with us. You can use this link to upload, since the file might be very large.

Thanks for your help looking into this – we'd like to get to the bottom of it. Thank you!

Quoting chuckhe,

reply 17

Hi sdrohan,

I'm doing the manual collection following the link you and Dr W sent, but I'm not entirely sure about one step (screenshot below): Do I need to type the exact '.dump /mf c:\users\sdrohan\desktop\Fences_RiverComb_04062022.dmp' (with my username replacing sdrohan of course)? The instruction appears to provide merely an example not for me to copy and paste. Thanks.

 

The:

.dump /mf

Is whats important.  The rest it the path and file name.  Yours could be

.dump /mf c:\[whatPathYouWantTheFileCreatedAt\chuckhe_Fence.dmp

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

I've uploaded a crash dump to the dropbox link Dr W provided. 

Here is a build we would like you to install, try to reproduce with, and provide some feedback when complete.

https://cdn.stardock.us/support/uploads/Fences5_5.5.9.1-j86-Setup.exe

We really appreciate the report, feedback, and time.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager

Very pleased to read, chuckhe, and thanks for the feedback.

Sean Drohan
Stardock Product Lifecycle Manager