Application freezes when coming out of screensaver mode

[Trenton South]

The application I am developing largely relies on Telerik components from the following namespaces (referenced DLLs): WinControls, Docking, GridView, RadDock, Themes, UI and UI.Design.  I am using Telerik RadControls for WinForms Q2 2009 SP1 (2009.2.9.729).  The three people who are testing the application before it moves to production are all experiencing the same problem.  

THE PROBLEM: The application works fine and has no issues with unresponsiveness or freezing UNTIL they will allow the application to run and let their screensaver come up while they do paperwork and then when they unlock their PC the app is frozen, most of the time it is just a white box where the app was.  This used to be an issue for me but since I have upgraded to Windows 7 I haven't had a problem with it.  The beta testers are all using Windows XP SP2, which is what I was using when I had a problem except i was on SP3.  Their machines are more than adequate to handle the program as it is a simple data entry program as was mine.
I suspect either the docking or theming element in telerik is causing an issue but I haven't been able to trace it down.

Is this a known issue with a fix?
Is anyone else having this issue?

[Peter]

Hello Trenton South,

Sorry for the late response.
We are sorry to hear about your negative experience with our controls.
I did some research, since you're the first that reports such issue and cannot reproduce the issue with my test project.
Could you please create a sample project where the issue can be reproduced and send this project to us? This will allow me to investigate the case in details and provide you with a helpful response.
Thank you for your time and co-operation.
I am looking forward to your reply.

Sincerely yours,
Peter
the Telerik team

[King Du]

We seem to be experiencing the same problem in our project, I can consistently reproduce the issue by changing to a lower screen resolution which usually happens when connecting to a projector or an external monitor. Our project is currently using the RadDock controls from the Q2 2009 release, I did try updating to the Q3 2010 release and the issue still exists, but reverted back to the Q2 2009 release because for some reason loading of large trees takes 400% longer than it used to.

[Peter]

Hi Scott,

Thank you for the provided information.

We cannot reproduce this issue using our test application and the Examples application. Could you please try reproducing the case on your machine with the Eamples application? In addition, please share with us more details about the controls that you are using in your application.

I am looking forward to your response.

Sincerely yours,
Peter
the Telerik team

[Clint]

Hi Scott,
Were you ever able to find a resolution to the freezing issue.  This is happening for us on both Windows XP and 7, both 32bit and 64bit.  I am not sure if it is based on the graphics card being used but we used fairly decent ones. 

Telerik support,
I would doubt it is a problem based on hardward, my personal specs for my development machine are:
Model: Dell Precision 490 Workstation
OS: Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
Processor: Intel Xeon E5335 Quad-core @ 2.0GHz
Installed Memory: 20.0 GB
System Type: 64-bit OS
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro FX 3450/4000 SDI
Anti-Virus: TrendMicro
Remote Assistance: Radmin

The issue is still happening on users' Dell Optiplex 755 machines running Windows XP SP3.  It also happens if I run the program inside of a virtual machine (VMWare) of XP on my local machine. 

I will gladly send you the code to my project, will you need the database structure as well?
_______
I can duplicate the problem by either letting the screensaver come up or by changing the resolution.

[Eastern]

i am used RadDock in my project , and it freezes a lot on Windows XP !

[Eastern]

in my case , i have a radDock which is Dock.Fill to my form, and have 3 tool window , 1 is static , and 2 of them is floating.
and i have a tabwindowcontrol with 6 tabs.

can you please say how is your RadDock ? maybe our problems have something in common so we can find the problem better and sooner

[Clint]

I am now wondering if it has something to do with the RadGridView/DataGridView.  Today, in a desperate attempt to fix this freezing issue, I downloaded the latest WinForm Telerik controls and upgraded the project to use the new version.  After spending about 5 hours trying to figure out why the data wouldn't display in the new RadGridView (previously I was using the old DataGridView and the upgrade wizard changed it), by the way the whole issue was because I had Virtual Mode turned on...Errrr!  Anyway after that I ran the newly upgraded program, changed the resolution and it STILL froze!

Now, I did made a discovery.  If I leave it alone for a minute or two it will become responsive again!  Get this...this is the best part, then if I change the resolution again it DOESN'T freeze.  So the thing has an immunity, once it happens it is good from there on.  

I have made a test project by just placing several 'key' controls on a form, running it and changing the resolution.  It doesn't freeze.  I am willing to accept that it is something in my program, but it may very well be something like the Virtual Mode thing in that under the settings I have on Telerik controls it is happening.

[Peter]

Hi Clint,

Thank you for the provided information.

Currently, we cannot reproduce the issue with our test projects. We will start a new sequence of tests
that targets this case. I will write back when we have some results from the tests or if we need more details about your application/enviroment.

Kind regards,
Peter
the Telerik team

[Clint]

Thanks for your reply.  I downloaded the latest dev build (RadControls_for_WinForms_2010_3_10_1220_DEV) and compiled using those DLLs, but the issue was still happening.  So as a last resort I made a copy of the project and just started removing things component by component.  After removing almost everything it was still happening and the last thing (on startup) was a splash screen.  The splash screen was a simple little dialog (form) that just had some text, a static image and a scrolling progress bar.  The splash was being created on a seperate thread with a call to Application.DoEvent() to keep it updating and responsive.  It turns out that Application.DoEvents() is notorious for issues like this.  The problem with the freezing didn't happen at the DoEvents call but was only manifested later, for some reason unknown to me, when changing the resolution, or unlocking the computer, or coming our of the screensaver mode.
I tweaked the splash screen quite a bit and got some intermittent results and just decided to take it out altogether. 

Thanks Telerik for your efforts, I will mark the open ticket as resolved.

[Peter]

Hello Trenton,

We continued our tests, but we still cannot reproduce the issue on our development PCs and test PCs
If you want to continue the investigation on your side, you can download our source code and include our projects instead of DLLs in your solution. This will allow you to debug the application and find the code snippet in our source which is responsible for the issue. Hence, we will think of the possible reasons that make this code snippet fail and will try to address the issue. This is the only suggestion that I can provide you with at this time.

Kind regards,

Peter
the Telerik team

 

[Clint]

Probably should have clarified this sooner but I opened this discussion first under Trenton's account.  All the Clint and Trenton posts are me and the issue has been resolved.  Thanks for your assistance with this issue.

[Nikolay]

Hi Clint,

I am glad to hear that the issue has been resolved. Feel free to write back if you have other questions.

Kind regards,
Nikolay
the Telerik team

[King Du]

Turns out the problem that we were having was not with Telerik at all, it was how our program was being created. We had a form being displayed before calling Application.Run in the startup of the application. So our ui was being built on a separate thread. This was not an issue until (in our case) the screen saver kicked on or changing the screen resolution, which then just froze the application. The article that helped up through this is: http://www.ikriv.com/en/prog/info/dotnet/MysteriousHang.html

[Peter]

Hi Scott,

Thank you for sharing this with the community.

I updated your Telerik points for the cooperation.

Kind regards,
Peter
the Telerik team