Win XP Hangs and Blue Screens While using WB5

from Stardock Forums
Windowblinds 4.6 works fine, although I have recently purchased Version 5 (latest version as of today) and my PC totally hangs and blue screens on random occasions.

System config =========

Win XP Home SP2 (32 bit)
1 Gig Ram
Athlon XP 3000
Nvidia Geoforce 6600 (Latest Nvidia drivers 81.98)

=======================

WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have one monitor in total.

etc etc

===========

Any ideas? I'd really appreciate it as WB5 is excellent otherwise.
windowblinds
8,022 views 18 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Had you uninstalled WB4.6 BEFORE installing WB 5???
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
I did an installation over the top of 4.6 at first, then I tried it by uninstalling everything and re-installing WB5 as a fresh copy.

Thanks for the rapid reply.
Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Not sure now, something about a kernel fault as far as I remember. I uninstalled WB5 due to the instability. It seemed to hang more than blue screen, i.e no mouse movement etc and the red HD LED on (although the whole system was frozen).
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It sounds like a driver problem.  Probably video driver instability as WB 5 pushes your hardware more than WB 4.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Is there anything that can be done? i.e with a future update of WB 5, or is it just a case of hoping for Graphics card driver updates?
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
What is your Graphic Card -- !!!
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Nvidia Geoforce 6600 (Latest Nvidia drivers 81.98)
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Just read somewhere on this forum that you have to roll back 6600 drivers to 77.77. I think it was in the 'Read this if your UI is black and painting slowly' thread.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I read that too, although I didn't really want to roll back to those drivers. The 6600 should be capable of what WB5 throws at it, surely?

It's hard to work out why it's happening because it's random.
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

read that too, although I didn't really want to roll back to those drivers. The 6600 should be capable of what WB5 throws at it, surely?

I think the first thing to try IS the roll-back to an earlier driver.  Not all updates are actually steps 'forward'...sometimes drivers are known to be worse than previous vers....they may give some groovy smoke effects in Quake 4 or something...but actually fubar your 2D OS interaction....[just an example]...

Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Ok well I have just found an updated driver (ForceWare 82.65) http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=1299

I've just upgraded my drivers to the above and re-installed WB5, so I'm gonna give it a run for few hours to see if that helps.

If not, I will give the 77.77 drivers a try.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I have already reported this bug in wb5 several month ago (win2003 4 Gig of mem).
It happens mostly every time if you are doing changes in wb5 and then these changes are applied.
Bluescreen with code 0x000000 System halted. It has something todo with the logon process.
I don't think that this are driver problems, maybe it is related to mem more then 1 gig?
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
I've not had a problem so far with the Forceware 82.65 drivers, but no doubt I'll jinx myself saying that.
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
maybe it is related to mem more then 1 gig?


Nah, I have 2GB of RAM and I've not had any problems with WB. I fully believe that this problem with the 660 could be caused by drivers as I have had a problem with PSP X not running when I installed any of the 8x.xx series drivers from NVidia, and the problem occurred regardless of whether or not I had WB installed or running. Like Jafo said, some drivers are just bad.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Still no problem with the Forceware 82.65 drivers, but now I've just changed to the Aura skin with transparent borders and shadows so this will be the real test. Fingers crossed.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I have had 1 problem like this so far also. I have a Dell dimension 8400 P4 2gig ddr ram ATI Radeon 300X video card. The frist time I started the program it came up with a blue screen. I rebooted then it was fine. But now I am having a problem with Win XP media. I can not open any of the folders with out getting an error in windows explorer. It then shuts down, then comes back. And every time I try to open a file it will happen again. I unloaded WB5 then there was no problems after that. I have sent in an error report. I hope they can find out what it is.

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