Bug: active program closes with MA2 - Page 2

Edgar · 06-12-2005, 11:04 PM

If you press the 's' key, the full version will be on the status line above.

patscarr · 06-13-2005, 03:58 AM

Originally posted by Edgar:

If you press the 's' key, the full version will be on the status line above.

But the program needs to be installed before you can do that.
Dale wants to know the real program version before he installs.

Dale · 07-13-2005, 12:44 PM

Nope. It turns out that installing the previous version didn't fix it for me. It may have reduced the number of times that it occurs, but didn't fix it.

Still hoping that somebody will find a solution.

RyanCamp · 07-14-2005, 10:09 AM

I don't think this can really be blamed on MA2. I'm experiencing the same problem on my PC at home, usually after playing World of Warcraft. Occasionally, if the last thing I used was explorer, I'll come back to find it sitting at the Shutdown, Restart, Logoff? screen. (like if you try to alt-F4 the taskbar).

pac722 · 07-15-2005, 08:57 AM

Greetings,

The response to this issue has been encouraging to the extent of re-assuring other Marine Aquarium 2 users who have experienced this somewhat frustrating anomaly that they are definately not alone - myself included! However, somewhat discouraging that there is no definative solution to this issue so far...

I followed the advice kindly provided by Dale, but alas, this did not remedy the issue, and as I write this reply, I have discovered this is also the case for Dale.

It is rather unfortunate that a seemingly simple issue such as this is proving rather elusive. Interesting point raised by RyanCamp however, perhaps the existence of this issue in other software could be indicative of a driver issue or perhaps DirectX? Mmmm...

Hopefully AudenTech has carried some tests and has managed to find some answers for us? Or maybe a solution? I am interested to find out his diagnosis of this issue so far...

Kind regards,
^PaC_722^

Edgar · 07-15-2005, 09:15 AM

If anybody wants to help solve this, I will need an MSInfo32 log and a DXDiag log sent to me. Note that the MSInfo32 log has everything about your system including the programs that you run and installed.

Please download the Sharks 2.0 from www.Lifeglobe.com and let me know if this version has the same problem. This should help me pinpoint the cause of this bug.

pac722 · 07-16-2005, 03:49 AM

Greetings Dale,

Just arrived back at my computer and realised something when I de-activated the screensaver. Even with the 'Exit on Mouse Move' option disabled (unchecked), when activated as a screensaver, Marine Aquarium will STILL exit when the mouse is moved! This only applies when activated as a screensaver, NOT as an application.

Kind regards,
^PaC_722^

feldon34 · 07-16-2005, 09:19 AM

I think Windows 2000/XP determines that behavior.

saysaknow2 · 08-06-2005, 12:24 AM

I'm back.

Turns out it wasn't the screensaver at all. I've been having a lot of hardware and software problems with my computer and it is all thanks to Dell.

My computer has a ATI mobility radeon 9700 graphics card. The drivers were (and are) updated and it's working fine, so that wasn't the problem. In the device manager window, I had the ATI card and a Voo doo card listed. The Voo doo Card needed an driver update but turns out all I needed to do is delete the stupid thing. How this got on my computer, I don't know. I'm betting it was on my computer when I got it. I even told the Dell technicians I had this card listed on the device manager window and they acted like it was normal. They don't know their stuff I guess. I fixed it myself.

So if any of you are having this problem...In Windows XP, click Start, right click My Computer, click Properties, click on the hardware tab, then click device manager. This will open the Device Manager. It is a list of components that are installed on your computer.

First off, double click Display adapters to see your list of graphics cards. If any of these have a yellow circle with an exclamation mark on it, then right click on it and select Update Driver...This will take you to a wizard where you can upgrade your graphics card. Note: be sure to have the internet. This will let you receive updates from the internet.

If this doesn't solve the problem or you don't have any graphics cards that need an update, then you might have to update the components listed in Other Devices.

Hope this helps. I haven't read the other posts so sue me if I'm repeating the same info. Oh and Microsoft sucks. I switched to Suse. I won't have to worry about crap like this again.

Jim Sachs · 08-06-2005, 01:32 AM

Thanks for getting back to us with the info.

susani · 09-09-2005, 04:24 PM

I am also having this problem, and have had it since I first purchased the screensaver from Costco about 6 months ago. I stopped using it because of this problem - and because I needed a screensaver to run on both monitors I use, not just the principle one. I saw that there was an update and that it would now run on multi monitors, so I'm giving it another go. I really love it, and it works beautifully on both of my monitors, but it still closes down the most recently used program, and if there are no programs open - it tries to close down Windows. It's very annoying, and as much as I like it, I may have to stop using it.

BTW - I disabled the "exit on mouse move", but it didn't make a difference - yet. I'll try disabling the mouse entirely and use the touchpad - but I hate touchpads, so hopefully, this problem can be solved without losing the wireless keyboard/mouse (microsoft brand) or the aquarium.

I have an HP pavilion zv5000 laptop with an AMD processor and GeForce video driver. I'm running Windows XP Home edition with SP2

Thanks for your help.

doggone1 · 09-11-2005, 03:17 PM

Hi All,

This problem was occuring on my system for a very long time and I suspect it has nothing to do with the coding of the screen-saver but one of the many patches Microsoft puts out, on a regular basis, for it's operating system XP. The problem began after XPSP2 came out and caused all complex screen savers to behave this way.

Currently all screen-savers are behaving themselves including Marine Aquarium, Sharks V2 and Goldfish. Sharks V2 is very cool BTW. I just love seeing those schools of Hammerheads swimming past!

Another suspect programme that I think may have been responsible is ZoneAlarm from ZoneLabs. Since their latest version (6) all problems seem to have disappeared. These are just observations and I wouldn't know how to test them being a humble graphic designer and not a techno-nerd (I mean that in the nicest possible way!)

I know it must be frustrating when so many people are plagued by similar computer problems and the developers can't pinpoint the cause. Too many different permutations and combinations I guess.

Anyway, keep up the good work on the screen savers and good luck to you Jim in trying to recover lost time and productivity after your recent compter loss.

Regards,
Tom

Edgar · 09-23-2005, 06:45 PM

From the Auden at feedback:

"A customer got some interesting feedback to us today regarding this issue...

Hi again! I've done a little more experimentation with
settings on the Aquar. screen saver working from the
information from MS about turning off the sound on
their vers. I found that turning off both the sound
and the bubbles on the SereneScreen vers. made a
difference. If either of those settings were enabled,
the MS Office shortcut bar turned off when the screen
saver was cancelled, but if the sound and bubbles were
turned off in 'settings' the shortcut bar was okay.
Please let me know if there's anything else I can do
to solve this problem. Thanks!"

Let us know if this helps any of you also.

AudenTech · 09-26-2005, 12:35 PM

Also, I'd like to have everyone try what pac722 did earlier and disable the "Exit on mouse move" option in the Aquarium settings. Do programs still exit when you close Aquarium using the ESC key?

ESHIREY · 09-26-2005, 03:53 PM

Everything works fine on mine. Also on my wifes and my parents.

FerdFerd · 11-07-2005, 03:41 PM

It doesn't appear that this issue has been resolved satisfactorily for anyone by my reading of this thread, so I thought I might try to revive it.

I have developed this problem after reinstalling Windows XP Home from scratch following a nasty malware infestation. Marine Aquarium 2 worked fine until then, but now it closes active processes as I exit.

It behaves better if I uncheck Exit on Mouse Move, but I still occasionally have a program terminate as I exit the screen saver with a mouse move. I haven't played enough to know whether a key press is OK instead of a mouse move.

I have no idea what the differences are between the original Dell factory installation and what I have now. I reformatted the drive before reinstalling Windows and reinstalled the programs I still want. There is no new software to conflict. And the screen savers that come with Windows behave properly.

loub516 · 11-07-2005, 04:27 PM

I don't beleive this bug is caused by MA2. I use Formosofts Aquagarden and it will also close an open program when I move the mouse to terminate the screensaver. (MA2 also does this on my computer) I think it's a bug caused by SP2.

FerdFerd · 11-07-2005, 04:32 PM

Thanks. Odd that it worked fine before I reinstalled the OS, but now it doesn't.

Do you know what these screen savers do that the Windows-supplied ones don't do?

feldon34 · 11-08-2005, 09:25 AM

Originally posted by Stefan:

From Stefan (in Sweden):

Although I don't even use your software, I only use windows built in "My pictures slide show" as my screen saver.

I reccon the problem lies within Windows that it somehow sends the WM_CLOSE message twice or such...

(Maybe a solution could be, trapping the WM_CLOSE message and wait X milliseconds for another one to appear. And then close either way. Unless the waiting is several seconds I doubt the average user will notice any difference).

..

Dale · 02-22-2006, 10:08 PM

Originally posted by saysaknow2:

Leaving my computer alone, MA2 comes on. I go back to my computer close MA2 and the last program that I was using closes. It only closes the last active program not any others. This happens to me about half of the time. Anybody else in the same boat?

See also my other posts in this thread. I was experiencing the problem, too.

It appears that version 2.6 **MAY** have fixed the problem. Of course, since as far as I know, Prolific never acknowledged that there was a problem like this, and never could (apparently) duplicate it, the fix may have been accidental.

Or it may have been that they knew about it but didn't acknowledge the bug.

Or maybe it isn't fixed, and I've just been lucky with using the "demo" version for the last day or two.

Or maybe it's fixed when running in demo mode, but not fixed when running in registered mode.

I guess we'll find out after some of us buy version 2.6.

06-12-2005, 11:04 PM	#21
Edgar Prolific/SereneScreen Developer Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Norwalk, CA Posts: 513	If you press the 's' key, the full version will be on the status line above. *Edgar Tolentino* Prolific Developer www.prolific.com www.LifeGlobe.com

06-13-2005, 03:58 AM	#22
patscarr Pet Shark Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Back in Buffalo Posts: 5,455	Originally posted by Edgar: If you press the 's' key, the full version will be on the status line above. But the program needs to be installed before you can do that. Dale wants to know the real program version before he installs. Patrick

07-13-2005, 12:44 PM	#23
Dale Banned Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Western Missouri Posts: 960	I was wrong Nope. It turns out that installing the previous version didn't fix it for me. It may have reduced the number of times that it occurs, but didn't fix it. Still hoping that somebody will find a solution.

07-15-2005, 09:15 AM	#26
Edgar Prolific/SereneScreen Developer Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Norwalk, CA Posts: 513	If anybody wants to help solve this, I will need an MSInfo32 log and a DXDiag log sent to me. Note that the MSInfo32 log has everything about your system including the programs that you run and installed. Please download the Sharks 2.0 from www.Lifeglobe.com and let me know if this version has the same problem. This should help me pinpoint the cause of this bug. *Edgar Tolentino* Prolific Developer www.prolific.com www.LifeGlobe.com

07-16-2005, 09:19 AM	#28
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	I think Windows 2000/XP determines that behavior. "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell "If voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal." - Emma Goldman

07-14-2005, 10:09 AM	#24
RyanCamp Registered Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Michigan Posts: 8	I don't think this can really be blamed on MA2. I'm experiencing the same problem on my PC at home, usually after playing World of Warcraft. Occasionally, if the last thing I used was explorer, I'll come back to find it sitting at the Shutdown, Restart, Logoff? screen. (like if you try to alt-F4 the taskbar).

07-15-2005, 08:57 AM	#25
pac722 Registered Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 7	Greetings, The response to this issue has been encouraging to the extent of re-assuring other Marine Aquarium 2 users who have experienced this somewhat frustrating anomaly that they are definately not alone - myself included! However, somewhat discouraging that there is no definative solution to this issue so far... I followed the advice kindly provided by Dale, but alas, this did not remedy the issue, and as I write this reply, I have discovered this is also the case for Dale. It is rather unfortunate that a seemingly simple issue such as this is proving rather elusive. Interesting point raised by RyanCamp however, perhaps the existence of this issue in other software could be indicative of a driver issue or perhaps DirectX? Mmmm... Hopefully AudenTech has carried some tests and has managed to find some answers for us? Or maybe a solution? I am interested to find out his diagnosis of this issue so far... Kind regards, ^PaC_722^

07-16-2005, 03:49 AM	#27
pac722 Registered Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 7	Greetings Dale, Just arrived back at my computer and realised something when I de-activated the screensaver. Even with the 'Exit on Mouse Move' option disabled (unchecked), when activated as a screensaver, Marine Aquarium will STILL exit when the mouse is moved! This only applies when activated as a screensaver, NOT as an application. Kind regards, ^PaC_722^

08-06-2005, 12:24 AM	#29
saysaknow2 Registered Join Date: Apr 2005 Posts: 7	I'm back. Turns out it wasn't the screensaver at all. I've been having a lot of hardware and software problems with my computer and it is all thanks to Dell. My computer has a ATI mobility radeon 9700 graphics card. The drivers were (and are) updated and it's working fine, so that wasn't the problem. In the device manager window, I had the ATI card and a Voo doo card listed. The Voo doo Card needed an driver update but turns out all I needed to do is delete the stupid thing. How this got on my computer, I don't know. I'm betting it was on my computer when I got it. I even told the Dell technicians I had this card listed on the device manager window and they acted like it was normal. They don't know their stuff I guess. I fixed it myself. So if any of you are having this problem...In Windows XP, click Start, right click My Computer, click Properties, click on the hardware tab, then click device manager. This will open the Device Manager. It is a list of components that are installed on your computer. First off, double click Display adapters to see your list of graphics cards. If any of these have a yellow circle with an exclamation mark on it, then right click on it and select Update Driver...This will take you to a wizard where you can upgrade your graphics card. Note: be sure to have the internet. This will let you receive updates from the internet. If this doesn't solve the problem or you don't have any graphics cards that need an update, then you might have to update the components listed in Other Devices. Hope this helps. I haven't read the other posts so sue me if I'm repeating the same info. Oh and Microsoft sucks. I switched to Suse. I won't have to worry about crap like this again.

08-06-2005, 01:32 AM	#30
Jim Sachs Developer Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Southern Oregon Posts: 9,791	Thanks for getting back to us with the info. Jim Sachs Creator of SereneScreen Aquarium

09-09-2005, 04:24 PM	#31
susani Registered Join Date: Sep 2005 Posts: 1	I am also having this problem, and have had it since I first purchased the screensaver from Costco about 6 months ago. I stopped using it because of this problem - and because I needed a screensaver to run on both monitors I use, not just the principle one. I saw that there was an update and that it would now run on multi monitors, so I'm giving it another go. I really love it, and it works beautifully on both of my monitors, but it still closes down the most recently used program, and if there are no programs open - it tries to close down Windows. It's very annoying, and as much as I like it, I may have to stop using it. BTW - I disabled the "exit on mouse move", but it didn't make a difference - yet. I'll try disabling the mouse entirely and use the touchpad - but I hate touchpads, so hopefully, this problem can be solved without losing the wireless keyboard/mouse (microsoft brand) or the aquarium. I have an HP pavilion zv5000 laptop with an AMD processor and GeForce video driver. I'm running Windows XP Home edition with SP2 Thanks for your help.

09-11-2005, 03:17 PM	#32
doggone1 Registered Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Frankston South Posts: 9	Hi All, This problem was occuring on my system for a very long time and I suspect it has nothing to do with the coding of the screen-saver but one of the many patches Microsoft puts out, on a regular basis, for it's operating system XP. The problem began after XPSP2 came out and caused all complex screen savers to behave this way. Currently all screen-savers are behaving themselves including Marine Aquarium, Sharks V2 and Goldfish. Sharks V2 is very cool BTW. I just love seeing those schools of Hammerheads swimming past! Another suspect programme that I think may have been responsible is ZoneAlarm from ZoneLabs. Since their latest version (6) all problems seem to have disappeared. These are just observations and I wouldn't know how to test them being a humble graphic designer and not a techno-nerd (I mean that in the nicest possible way!) I know it must be frustrating when so many people are plagued by similar computer problems and the developers can't pinpoint the cause. Too many different permutations and combinations I guess. Anyway, keep up the good work on the screen savers and good luck to you Jim in trying to recover lost time and productivity after your recent compter loss. Regards, Tom

09-23-2005, 06:45 PM	#33
Edgar Prolific/SereneScreen Developer Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Norwalk, CA Posts: 513	From the Auden at feedback: "A customer got some interesting feedback to us today regarding this issue... Hi again! I've done a little more experimentation with settings on the Aquar. screen saver working from the information from MS about turning off the sound on their vers. I found that turning off both the sound and the bubbles on the SereneScreen vers. made a difference. If either of those settings were enabled, the MS Office shortcut bar turned off when the screen saver was cancelled, but if the sound and bubbles were turned off in 'settings' the shortcut bar was okay. Please let me know if there's anything else I can do to solve this problem. Thanks!" Let us know if this helps any of you also. *Edgar Tolentino* Prolific Developer www.prolific.com www.LifeGlobe.com

09-26-2005, 12:35 PM	#34
AudenTech Customer Service Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Winnetka, CA Posts: 29	Also, I'd like to have everyone try what pac722 did earlier and disable the "Exit on mouse move" option in the Aquarium settings. Do programs still exit when you close Aquarium using the ESC key? Auden Reiter Customer Service www.SereneScreen.com

09-26-2005, 03:53 PM	#35
ESHIREY Smilie Dragon Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Lebanon, PA Posts: 4,725	Everything works fine on mine. Also on my wifes and my parents. Thank you for taking the time to read this.

11-07-2005, 03:41 PM	#36
FerdFerd Registered Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 22	It doesn't appear that this issue has been resolved satisfactorily for anyone by my reading of this thread, so I thought I might try to revive it. I have developed this problem after reinstalling Windows XP Home from scratch following a nasty malware infestation. Marine Aquarium 2 worked fine until then, but now it closes active processes as I exit. It behaves better if I uncheck Exit on Mouse Move, but I still occasionally have a program terminate as I exit the screen saver with a mouse move. I haven't played enough to know whether a key press is OK instead of a mouse move. I have no idea what the differences are between the original Dell factory installation and what I have now. I reformatted the drive before reinstalling Windows and reinstalled the programs I still want. There is no new software to conflict. And the screen savers that come with Windows behave properly.

11-07-2005, 04:27 PM	#37
loub516 Registered Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Savannah, Ga. Posts: 421	I don't beleive this bug is caused by MA2. I use Formosofts Aquagarden and it will also close an open program when I move the mouse to terminate the screensaver. (MA2 also does this on my computer) I think it's a bug caused by SP2. LB

11-07-2005, 04:32 PM	#38
FerdFerd Registered Join Date: Nov 2005 Posts: 22	Thanks. Odd that it worked fine before I reinstalled the OS, but now it doesn't. Do you know what these screen savers do that the Windows-supplied ones don't do?

11-08-2005, 09:25 AM	#39
feldon34 Forum Administrator Join Date: Dec 2000 Location: Rock Hill, SC Posts: 10,939	Originally posted by Stefan: From Stefan (in Sweden): Although I don't even use your software, I only use windows built in "My pictures slide show" as my screen saver. I reccon the problem lies within Windows that it somehow sends the WM_CLOSE message twice or such... (Maybe a solution could be, trapping the WM_CLOSE message and wait X milliseconds for another one to appear. And then close either way. Unless the waiting is several seconds I doubt the average user will notice any difference). ..

02-22-2006, 10:08 PM	#40
Dale Banned Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Western Missouri Posts: 960	Maybe fixed Originally posted by saysaknow2: Leaving my computer alone, MA2 comes on. I go back to my computer close MA2 and the last program that I was using closes. It only closes the last active program not any others. This happens to me about half of the time. Anybody else in the same boat? See also my other posts in this thread. I was experiencing the problem, too. It appears that version 2.6 MAY have fixed the problem. Of course, since as far as I know, Prolific never acknowledged that there was a problem like this, and never could (apparently) duplicate it, the fix may have been accidental. Or it may have been that they knew about it but didn't acknowledge the bug. Or maybe it isn't fixed, and I've just been lucky with using the "demo" version for the last day or two. Or maybe it's fixed when running in demo mode, but not fixed when running in registered mode. I guess we'll find out after some of us buy version 2.6.