An odd issue

[Guest guru]

My friends, this time I need your help and your experience.

Usually I chose for my shows the black background that is PTE default. I keep this choice in general Project Options (Screen, Solid color), and - if I customize slides - I control the Background color is set as Black.

No, I'm not a maniac of black color... For example in my last show I used a transition (fade) to a white blank slide.

Well, yesterday I made two CD copies of this last show. On my computer all works well, but on my class machines in Academy (old Pentiums II 266, but also a Pentium III 933) ALL backgrounds are WHITE.

It's not the first time this problem appears. I remember another time I'd noticed the same strange issue.

What do you think about? Thank you all!

[RudiRe]

Your class computers might have some kind of a lock, so that nobody can change certain windows settings. I for example deny access to the registry and desktop settings for users at my computer without a certain password.

Just an idea. It's hard to say from the distance.

[nobeefstu]

Hey, Guido

I aggree with RudiRe ... this issue is most likely occurring due to the Desktop Settings configured on those other PCs.

The Users backgroud color settings can especially be noticeable in any Widowed presentation and\or Screen Resolution difference that may be different than you originally sized your presentation for.

If I find out more .... I will let you know.

[Guest guru]

Rudi and Stu,

thank you very much fo your interest, but I think your suggestions cannot solve my problem.

Since I am the Lan administrator, I set myself all machines of my class. There is no lock in computers where I checked my show, because first of all the OS is Windows ME , and anyhow I log on as a kind of customized "power user" (the server runs on Win 2000). I can access to Registry and all desktop settings without any problem.

Stu: My show is full screen, not windowed; color settings and screen resolution are identical to my home computer where I made my show (only OS if different - at home I have Win 2000Pro... ).

Anyhow, thanks again!

[nobeefstu]

Guido,

Oh well, worth a try ... must be another quirky thing with ME OS to add to the list of quirks that system already has.

[Ken Cox]

Guido, i suppose you have but have to ask

did you recheck the colour settings for backgrounds gradients and custom -are they all there etc - and did you try restting to a different b/g colour then going back to your "black is beautiful" b/g -- things might just need a nudge

ken

[Guest guru]

Yes Ken, I verified several times the backgound color settings this evening (here is 1:16AM now), and all is right.

As to your advice to change these settings to different colors, it's an interesting suggestion. But I can try only Monday, because tomorrow the academy is obviously closed.

Thanks!

[boxig]

Guido,

After more experienced than me tried to find the problem, I will not even try. But I can give you a suggestion how to avoid the problem:

1. Make windowed shows.

2. Put your backgroung as image (big or 1 pixel tiled).

"Don't ask him why he hits you, just run away."

Granot

[LumenLux]

"Don't ask him why he hits you, just run away."

I like that, Granot. But sometimes it is hard to do. We have to remind ourselves sometimes what is really important.

[alrobin]

When I get hit, I usually know why!

Ciao,

Al

[Guest guru]

I too, Al! This time I cannot agree with my friend Granot, when he says "Don't ask him why he hits you, just run away"...

[Ken Cox]

Guido, it must be midafternoom in Italy --05:40 EST here -- did you find why the background was changing

ken

[Guest guru]

Not yet, Ken. All what I was able to do today at school was to make a mini-show with black background on "my" WinME machine, and all was right.

Tomorrow I will try with a little .pte file made at home with my Win 2000, and I'll compare the two EXEs created at home and in my class.

It's really a very strange issue!

[alrobin]

Guido,

Just to change the subject for a moment, do you (or anyone else) happen to know whether PTE runs satisfactorily on a pc running under Windows NT, version 5? I'm just about to give up on Win ME and go back to my NT 5. I have a dual processor setup, so Win NT would also give me some speed advantage (i.e. 800 Mhz instead of 400). Or should I upgrade to 2000?

Good luck with your backgrounds.

Ciao,

Al

[Guest guru]

My backgrounds thank you, Al...

But NT5 is Win2000! Maybe you mean the glorious NT4...

Unfortunately, I have no more a machine with NT4; I changed it two years ago with 2000. But I'm sure PTE works perfectly under NT4, that is not so different from 2000/NT5 (besides PnP support and some other features).

[Ken Cox]

I thought a couple years back there were a pile of probs with NT and Casey or one of the OS gurus brought it to light - some quirk -- people could run their stuff real good but it wouldn't run right on their work NT systems - was pre xp release era -- oh for the archives IGOR

ken

[Guest guru]

Whoops... Maybe my memory is falling with age... But I don't remember serious problems under NT, Ken.

[jayspry]

Ken,

I'm trying to remember what one of the problems was, but if I remember correctly and from some of my experience, some installations of NT don't like display settings to change on the fly; depending on what is loaded and hardware of course. We ran into problems with X software that changed the screen resolution and then a screen saver would kick in and you could not get the screen up again. You had to reboot. I again don't remember the issues, but I do think it had something to do with the way NT (4) was handling display features changing on the fly. It might have been a conflict with system premissions.

jayspry

[Ken Cox]

so then i guess people better not bet the house on things working right -- like anything else the world is full of surprises []

ken

[alrobin]

Thanks, everyone, for scratching your memories for me. Sounds like I had better stick with my existing Win ME problems until something better comes along.

Sorry, Guido, for changing the topic on you. Meanwhile, hope your background colours are resolved.

[Igor]

I have found reason of this interesting problem and could reproduce

it under my Windows XP and Windows 98.

I don't know, how it happened, but the "opt_bname" field has value = "-1" (opt_bname=-1)

But it should be between 0 (black) and 16777215 (white). Just open

Screen tab and select the black color again.

I think it's a very rare case and bug of the default control of Windows which

has returned the incorrect value. If it will happen again, I can add

protection to prevent such situation.

As programmer, I also think that Windows NT/2000/XP much stable than previous ones from Microsoft. But sometimes Windows 98 helps us to determine potentially problem places or bugs in the program. Because WinNT/2000/XP watches for accurate work of software and prevent from their dangerous behaviour. Minor bugs may be even ignored without any notification. Of course, Windows 98 has many strange limitations and a lot of own bugs and we prefer Windows XP.

[Guest guru]

Thank you very much, Igor. At last I've understood the reason of that unexpected white background.

Ken was right when he advised to change the background color and then reset the black.

I changed this color in Project options, reset black and saved again the project with my Win 2000 machine, and this time (don't ask me why!) opt_bname=0 !

I think a protection against this issue could be useful, because it happened to me other times in the past.

[Ken Cox]

using a quote from the old tv show "THE A TEAM"

"I love it when a plan comes together"

or words to that effect

ken