FPD 2.6 freezes in full-screen mode

[BobDavis]

Running FPD 2.6 and just completed a new computer build.

Old: Intel 875 chipset, Matrox P650, 4gb DDR RAM, WinXP SP2.

New: Intel P45 chipset, Matrox P690, 4gb DDR2 RAM, WinXP SP3.

All was running well on the old system, but now when I enlarge the screen to full-screen via alt+enter or have Foxprox launch in full-screen, the program freezes and won't react to the keyboard or mouse. I tried the screen and memory settings to both Foxprox and the shortcut suggested in this forum, as well as other changes, but to no avail. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

[Olaf Doschke]

Try TameDos.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[cricket]

You have moved to a higher specification computer with dual core or quad core, which have known problems for FPD.

Do a search for the word CORE in this forum to see how some people created workarounds

 

[BobDavis]

Olaf: I tried TameDOS and it didn't fix the full-screen lock-up problem. It started FOXPROX in full-screen mode but the screen was garbled, and when I hit alt+enter it produced a black screen that like before would not respond. Thus, no fix.

Cricket: I tried switching off one CPU through NTVDM.EXE and that also didn't help. I looked at a procedure provided by Ezopaci (FOXSETAFF) but didn't try it since I couldn't read the comments, which are in another language. I didn't want to run it without having an understanding of what it was doing.

I should've mentioned earlier that I have been launching FOXPROX.EXE (DOS) through a batch file with switches that nix the splash screen and have it immediately run the main procedure without interaction (FOXPROX -T M, where "M" is the procedure file). DOSIDLE is run ahead of FOXPROX.EXE in this batch file.

I have tried running the EXE alone and that doesn't help, but if I run just a command processor (4NT, CMD, or COMMAND) without FOXPROX everything works as expected, so the problem seems to be only with FPD. FOXPRO (non-extended version) also does not work in full-screen mode.

I gather from this the dual-core processor is not the problem. My old system had hyper-threading enabled and I never had a problem.

Thanks for your input. If you can think of anything else I should try please let me know, as I'm going to miss the ability to toggle into full-screen mode when needed.

 

[dbMark]

Are you running the latest such as 2.6a with the later patches such as the one for the divide by zero error?

Years ago a patch was released for FoxPro so it could run on CPUs running 300 MHz or faster. Some have reported a similar issue more recently when CPUs exceeded 3 GHz. I'm guessing that patch back about 1998 only moved a decimal point somewhere, so to speak, and years later FPD hit a limit again?

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q240982/

Are you running FoxPro 2.x from Command.com rather than Cmd.exe? While Command.com is not as powerful in the XP interconnections, it has better backwards compatibility for DOS-based programs. In its properties you can also try sliding the Idle Sensitivity to the right so that the Windows and non-Windows programs coexist better. (This was an issue with single core systems when using dBase 5. I'm not sure how FPD was affected.)

Type in FoxProX rather than Fox at the prompt.

thread182-943193 - Do a clean install, not just copying files

 

[ezopaci]

If you have trouble with fullscreen, it is nothing with dualcore, ...., but with VGA drivers. Try reinstall vga drivers to the newer version. I get the same problem some time and this solved trouble.

With dualcore cpus you get another trouble - hanging program after some time on 100% cpu.
Look at this for resolution:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1528866&page=2

Tomas

 

[BobDavis]

I appreciate all the feedback I received on this issue and think all of you deserve an update. Last night on a whim I tried to expand FPD 2.6 into full-screen mode (alt+enter) and low and behold it worked perfectly. Tried it again today and it still works. All that changed was a new HDD (C, installed last week, and maybe a few XP updates. I also uninstalled a small app called Speedfan, which monitors CPU temp, fan speeds, etc. while running in residence. I don't have a clue what could've coaxed it awake, but now all is well in full-screen mode.

Anyone care to speculate on why?

 

[ezopaci]

I get some strange behavior with dos applications on the machine where was some "speedfan" application.
I can not remember if this app. was exactly "speedfan", but it was something with that. When I remove it, everything was fine.
Try launche speedfan again and you will see.
You can delete it everytime.

Tomas