Protel 99 SE, window not visible

[Winfield Hill]

One of us here is a Protel 99 SE user, and has
developed a strange problem on his Acer laptop,
running Windows XP. The program seems to
startup, and shows its splash screen for a few
seconds, but then no program window appears.

Protel has a Client99SE taskbar button (and it's
also on the Task Manager list). If the button is
selected it says you can Minimize, but Restore
is greyed out. If you go ahead and minimize it,
Minimize is greyed out and the Restore option
is available, but clicking on that does not reveal
a program window.

If you start the program by clicking on a .pcb file,
for example, the splash screen is up for a longer
time (while it's loading the file), but still no visible
program window after the spash screen closes.

So it seems the program is running, but won't
show a work screen.

Removing and reinstalling Protel 99 SE didn't fix
the problem. Removing Altium Designer 6, which
had been installed earlier, didn't fix the problem.

 

[Jamie]

One of us here is a Protel 99 SE user, and has
developed a strange problem on his Acer laptop,
running Windows XP. The program seems to
startup, and shows its splash screen for a few
seconds, but then no program window appears.

Protel has a Client99SE taskbar button (and it's
also on the Task Manager list). If the button is
selected it says you can Minimize, but Restore
is greyed out. If you go ahead and minimize it,
Minimize is greyed out and the Restore option
is available, but clicking on that does not reveal
a program window.

If you start the program by clicking on a .pcb file,
for example, the splash screen is up for a longer
time (while it's loading the file), but still no visible
program window after the spash screen closes.

So it seems the program is running, but won't
show a work screen.

Removing and reinstalling Protel 99 SE didn't fix
the problem. Removing Altium Designer 6, which
had been installed earlier, didn't fix the problem.

when you removed the program, did you also go into the registry
and remove all entries to do with that program?
Many times even when you reinstall after using an uninstaller
for example. Traces of settings for that App will remain in the registry.
Now, I'm thinking of an scenario (since I my self write code), it's
highly possible the app saves it's last screen position for the main
form. could it be possible that at one point an external monitor or
screen size of a much greater value was implemented? and in this case,
the form was off to the right, and program closed before switching back?

Just a guess, some authors of apps forget to this part to correct for
it un start up.

Something to think about.

 

[Charlie Edmondson]

when you removed the program, did you also go into the registry
and remove all entries to do with that program?
Many times even when you reinstall after using an uninstaller
for example. Traces of settings for that App will remain in the registry.
Now, I'm thinking of an scenario (since I my self write code), it's
highly possible the app saves it's last screen position for the main
form. could it be possible that at one point an external monitor or
screen size of a much greater value was implemented? and in this case,
the form was off to the right, and program closed before switching back?

Just a guess, some authors of apps forget to this part to correct for
it un start up.

Something to think about.

Yeah, Win, I have seen two scenarios like this. Either it is off the
physical screen, or it has been sized to be really, really small so that
you can't see it. Usually, you can contact Altium and the folks there
can point you to the offending registry keys or configuration file where
you can usually nuke them and they get automaticaly recreated...

Charlie

 

[Joel Kolstad]

Win,

If it's off the screen like Charlie suggests (I've seen this as well), select
"move" from the taskbar icon and then press each of the arrow keys a couple of
times to see if it "snaps" back to the visible portion of the screen (while
Windows apparently has no qualms about letting windows open off-screen, while
they're being moved it does enforce their location such that they're visible).
Try this first with a program that's behaving and you'll see how it works.

This trick works even for programs without taskbar icons... if you run the
program and then press Alt+Space, it brings up the "window" menu, which has
the "move" option available.

---Joel

 

[nospam]

So it seems the program is running, but won't
show a work screen.

Might just be the window is off screen. With it active hit Alt-Space then M
then a cursor key after which you can drag with mouse.

Otherwise try renaming/deleting ini files, think client99se.ini is the main
one.

--

 

[Winfield]

Win,

If it's off the screen like Charlie suggests (I've seen this as well), select
"move" from the taskbar icon and then press each of the arrow keys a couple of
times to see if it "snaps" back to the visible portion of the screen (while
Windows apparently has no qualms about letting windows open off-screen, while
they're being moved it does enforce their location such that they're visible).
Try this first with a program that's behaving and you'll see how it works.

This trick works even for programs without taskbar icons... if you run the
program and then press Alt+Space, it brings up the "window" menu, which has
the "move" option available.

---Joel

Yes, I had thought of the offscreen or too small possibilities,
but thanks! I couldn't remember the Alt+Space trick. Somehow
the move option didn't seem to reveal itself from the taskbar.

 

[Brad Velander]

Winfield,
Since you say this is on a laptop, possibly you are suffering from the
same problem an associate has periodically on his laptop. Has your laptop
been connected to a second external monitor and P99SE was moved to the
external monitor for a work session?
Not all apps can readily/easily be recovered after having been moved to
an external monitor at some point. I would bet that if you attached a second
monitor again, you will find your P99SE window on the external monitor
desktop. Sorry, don't know any other way to recover it (my associate
probably does but he is on vacation at the moment).

 

[Winfield Hill]

Winfield,
Since you say this is on a laptop, possibly you are suffering from the
same problem an associate has periodically on his laptop. Has your laptop
been connected to a second external monitor and P99SE was moved to the
external monitor for a work session?
Not all apps can readily/easily be recovered after having been moved to
an external monitor at some point. I would bet that if you attached a second
monitor again, you will find your P99SE window on the external monitor
desktop. Sorry, don't know any other way to recover it (my associate
probably does but he is on vacation at the moment).

OK, that's what happened: the program was coming up
on the 2nd monitor, even though there was no second
monitor attached. Now the laptop has P99SE back on
its main screen, but we don't know why this happened.
When your associate gets back from vacation, let us
know what he says about how to control this scene.

And thanks for your help!

 

[Brad Velander]

Win,
Don't hold your breathe, I am not too sure if my associate knows any
tricks for fixing the problem. I still hear him curse and muttter under his
breathe from time to time. Then typically he plugs in the second monitor to
fix it. I should also say that this is not just a P99SE problem, my
associate sees it with several misc programs he does use and he doesn't use
P99SE.

 

[TT_Man]

OK, that's what happened: the program was coming up
on the 2nd monitor, even though there was no second
monitor attached. Now the laptop has P99SE back on
its main screen, but we don't know why this happened.
When your associate gets back from vacation, let us
know what he says about how to control this scene.

And thanks for your help!

Perhaps it's just a glitch within 99SE.... I have a dual monitor card, with
no second monitor now, and my Client 3.2 has never switched to the 2nd
screen...But I have used it in the past.( 2nd screen+ Client)

 

[Winfield Hill]

Perhaps it's just a glitch within 99SE.... I have a dual
monitor card, with no second monitor now, and my Client 3.2
has never switched to the 2nd screen...But I have used it
in the past.( 2nd screen+ Client)

The laptop began opening P99SE in the 2nd screen after
it had been used once in a dual-screen mode to play a
video game. After opening P99SE once with a 2nd screen
attached, and closing, thereafter it went back to coming
up on the laptop screen.