Dexpot overloaded?

[Neutrino]

I've been using Dexpot 1.3 for the past 2 weeks now. After a while, like say 4 days of computer uptime, Dexpot starts to lag. And when it lags, it starts to cause malfunctions in the Windows GUI system. Like for instance, explorer.exe would refuse to launch programs from the start menu. IE or Firefox would appear to have missing window components. Windows Explorer (the infamous "My Computer") windows will have a missing left frame, or refuse to open at all. When this happens to an extent, Dexpot get's so laggy, and crazy, it just crashes. Good thing it keeps a memory of which windows were on what desktop. After I restart Dexpot, all my windows appear to be back to their appropriate desktops, and the GUI problem is gone (...untill the next few days of computer uptime and usage). Plus Windows GUI performance feels like new, as if GUI memory has been refreshed. I can tell this cause dragging windows back and forth doens't produce a bad frame rate effect on other windows after Dexpot has restarted. When Dexpot starts up, there aren't ANY icons on desktop 3 and upwards. I have to use TweakUI's Rebuild Icons function to enable the icons on the desktops.

Also when I use Remote Desktop to connect to my pc from another pc, switching desktops afterward leaves the system tray icons for the dexpot desktops turn from blue to red. In Dexpot 1.2, a dialog box would warn me everytime that an error occured in changing the resolution when i switch to another desktop. 1.3 doesn't do the dialog box warning thing anymore but it still has the system tray icons representing the desktops turn from blue to red. This ONLY happens after I have used the computer from a Remote Desktop session. On one rare occasion after I connected to my PC from a Remote Desktop session, I used TweakUI's Rebuild Icons function once to bring the icons to view on desktop 4, and suddenly Dexpot had renewed itself in a way that the red system tray icons turned back to blue as i switched desktops. But that only happened one time and it was pretty cool too when it happened.

My specs: I never turn off my puter.
AMD64 with 1024MB RAM
ATI Catalyst drivers
WinXP Pro SP2 with all the latest updates
Dexpot 1.3 configured to have 6 desktops

Programs I usually run are:
10 to 30 Firefox windows (with 5 to 15 tabs in each of them)
Gaim
mIRC
Winamp 5
Hauppauge WinTV drivers and software

[Patrick]

Nmittag Neutrinio.

After a while, like say 4 days of computer uptime,

You call 4 days 'a while'? That's ages!
Seriuosly, we've never tested Dexpot over such a long period of time.

And when it lags, it starts to cause malfunctions in the Windows GUI system. Like for instance, explorer.exe would refuse to launch programs from the start menu. IE or Firefox would appear to have missing window components.

Yep, sounds like a GDI resource leak. We did encounter similar problems during the development of 1.3. But it only took them a few minutes to affect system performance, not four days. So this one appears to be a bit more subtle...

It might be related to the full-screen preview (even if you don't use it). Please try activating 'Disable full-screen preview' (Settings -> Extras), restart Dexpot and in four days tell us if it still lags...

[Neutrino]

Well my computer has been on for about a week now. OK, i'll take your advice and disable the full screen preview and restart Dexpot. I shall report back if i enoucter these issues again in a few days, or if I don't encounter them.

[Neutrino]

Well, it's been 4 days now, I think. Just now, I had to log off and back on again, after restarting Dexpot. This time, I think I found out more problems that Dexpot's GDI resource leaks has caused. Such as, causing Overlay problems in some of my multimedia programs, expecially my TV players. And also, it disabled some of the functions of my Realtek AC97 drivers, which forced me to restart XP in order for me to get normal functionality back. It looks like this GDI resource leak problem will be your greatest and ultimate challenge to fix, ey?

[Thejahn]

There seem to be a lot of Explorer handles given to Dexpot. I used sysinternals Process monitor to have a look. This app doesnt seem to be memory hungry, but seems to have a resource leak somewhere. I have had problems launching windows partially completely and I leave this system up for days at a time. I will perform more testing however I am fairly certain this awesome application is the cause of this little issue. Thank you for any help.

[Neutrino]

I'm glad I still have Dexpot 1.2. It still runs great on my other puter. And my other puter now has an uptime of 2 months! So I'll uninstall 1.3 and run 1.2 until you good folks fix this problem. It's a really annoying problem.

[horst]

uhm, same problem here. any news on that or maybe a public beta that fixes this leak?

[Patrick]

A user suggests the leak might be related to the 'Dexpot entries in system menus' feature.

See http://dexpot.de/forum/viewtopic.php?p=16402#16402.