Plug-in causes hang on program exit...

chmillman

Member
I have a relatively complex problem which nobody has been able to solve so far - so I will post it here in the hopes that someone can help me continue with my investigation.

3 computers - two desktops, one laptop, all running vista x64 (two ultimates, one enterprise on one of the desktops).

I have a principal (3D modeling) program I use, and it has various optional plug-ins. One third party plug-in is used for machining parts, and has a hardware key (dongle). It is installed on all 3, I plug the key in wherever I'm working. Function-wise everything is fine. (all this stuff is x86, no native 64 bit yet)

Now for the problem... On one computer (the laptop), if my machining plug-in is loaded, when I close the principal program, the window disappears, but if I go into Task Manager, I see it is still there. That is to say, it doesn't manage to exit correctly. I have to kill it manually. If I don't, every time I open a new instance, it stays stuck in there, at one point before I discovered what was going on, I had 6 or 7... which ran up the memory use, and that's how I found the problem.

If I unload the machining plug-in, the problem goes away.

On the other two computers (desktops) no such problem exists. The program exits normally, plug-in loaded or not.

So, there is obviously a conflict somewhere on the laptop that is preventing the program for exiting properly. I assume this could be any one of a number of things - drivers, other software installed, ??? All three computers have pretty much the same software loaded. One difference is that the laptop is an HP unit, with all the junk they put in there, the others are custom built units with installs from a retail OEM disc and no "bloatware".

How can I proceed? Is there a way to see what's hanging up when the program refuses to exit? Event viewer? Dependency walker? I'm a reasonably experienced user, but not a systems expert.

Needless to say the manufacturer of the plug-in says they "cannot reproduce the problem" and the manufacturer of the principal program says that if the program runs fine without the plug-in, then the problem is caused by the plug-in... :rolleyes:

TIA, --ch
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP HDX 16
    CPU
    Core2Duo T9400
    Motherboard
    HP
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 9600 GT M
    Sound Card
    -
    Monitor(s) Displays
    -
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    320 Gb 5400 RPM
have you done a comparison of what services are running?
something to do with power management on a mobile system, maybe?
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Aleinware Area-51
    CPU
    core 2 extreme x9000 2.8 Ghz
    Memory
    4 Gig
    Graphics Card(s)
    (2) Nvidia 8800m GTX in Sli
    Sound Card
    Onboard RealTek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    42" JVC LCD HDTV
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080p 32 bit
    Hard Drives
    (2) seagate 7200rpm in RAID 0
    (1) maxtor external 1 terabyte firewire
    Case
    laptop
    Keyboard
    a really spiffy backlit one that i can change color ;>)
    Mouse
    logitech Anywhere Mouse and built-in touchpad
    Internet Speed
    Cable
Well, there's like 80 processes running on one and more than 90 on the other... Gonna take some time to figure out what different from one to the other, but I suspect it is mostly the HP stuff, media center, etc...

--ch
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    HP HDX 16
    CPU
    Core2Duo T9400
    Motherboard
    HP
    Memory
    4Gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia 9600 GT M
    Sound Card
    -
    Monitor(s) Displays
    -
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    320 Gb 5400 RPM
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