65305 - Cannot open Mozilla after Direct-X App opened

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 53952

(SeaMonkey :: UI Design, defect, P1)

Description

[Jeremiah Robertson]

Upon boot of machine, mozilla operates normally. Once a directx/direct3d
application has been opened, mozilla will not reopen. When you execute mozilla,
it will appear in the tasks list, but nothing more. You have to "End Task" on it
to get rid of it. The more you execute mozilla, the more mozilla tasks that keep
piling up in the task list. A reboot is that only thing that will allow me to
reopen mozilla again. This happens with just the standard Explorer and Systray
running. It does the same thing regardless of Directx 7 or the new 8

Comment 1

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

this is very highly interesting, we have had a lot of bugs like this, but none
that has any idea as to why until this.  we had outlook2k do this, does that use
directx?

Comment 2

[Jeremiah Robertson]

Perhaps it uses directdraw for some of its eyecandy. I am not really sure. I 
can't stand outlook 2k, so I don't have it installed, but I have furthered my 
research to make sure it was truely a directx thing. I have gone through all 
the apps on my machine one by one, closing mozilla and reopening after each 
application launch. I tested the non-directX applications first, and mozilla 
worked fine until I got into the directX applications. it seems that ANY of my 
direct x apps cause mozilla just to sit there. It might be a combination of 
DirectX and WindowsME, because I know of people who has Win2000 and use directX 
applications quite often and they have never complained to me of this problem.

Comment 3

[Jeremiah Robertson]

It would seem that this problem with directX applications doesn't exsit inside
windows2000. I have tried Mozilla with all the same directX applications on the
same machine with windows2000 and windowsME. Windows2000 has no problem opening
Mozilla after any DirectX application unlike WinME.

Comment 4

[timeless]

i'm pretty sure the problem is 9x kernel only [ie not found in nt, of which 
2000 is v5].

we've discussed this online and suspect it might actually be a sound problem.

I don't use 9x so i haven't tried solving.

all w/ 9x [me is still a 9x] please get filemon from sysinternals.com, run it 
to log 2 apps: your dx app, mozilla. highlight all *no* or errors, if you find 
anything interesting please attach your logs here.

Comment 5

[Doron Rosenberg (IBM)]

I am going to take a look at this myself. I tried running directx games while
mozilla was running, and mozilla became unresponsive and pretty much useless,
even after quiting the game.

i will get some basic directx apps today and fool around with them.

Comment 6

[timeless]

*** Bug 69194 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 7

[Calvin Spealman]

I have this problem alot, and i think i have narrowed it down more.  It may be
involving rundll32, as I found a few extra of these running when a DirectX app
crashed weird.  Mozilla would not open of course, and when I killed one of the
rundll32 instances Mozilla suddenly pops up fine.

Comment 8

[Crispin Boylan]

this is still happening for me on windows ME - no instances of rundll32 seem to
be running though when this happens so cannot try the above fix. (build 2001030704)

Comment 9

[James Green]

Upping severity to Critical since it breaks mozilla with no known reliable
workaround. Adding keyword hang since its unclear what exactly is happening to
it's state. Please update as appropriate when the situation becomes clearer.

Comment 10

[timeless]

<p class="flame">i have a reliable workaround: use NT.</p>

moving out of B-G. sorry law, this bug's for you.

Can people please try to find out if this is related to NSISound? [I can't 
reproduce, i don't use 9x, and yes, ME is 9x]

Comment 11

[Bill Law]

The initial report sounds a bit like bug 53592 but the bit about Mozilla
becoming unresponsive after already being up and running makes me think it might
be something else (either that, or two problems).

Can anybody describe a reliable means of reproducing this?

Comment 12

[Sean Chitwood]

Windows Media Player is a DirectX app. I'd download 6.4 and see if the problem
can be reproduced.

The reporter seemed to believe it was an everytime bug.

Comment 13

[Crispin Boylan]

been doing rough testing (literally just running various directX based apps)

problem may be confined to the direct 3d Hardware Acceleration Library.
running software accelerated apps (specifically Micro Machines 3 (based on 
directX 5) and Tiberian Sun (based on v6.0)) results in mozilla loading fine 
afterwards. as far as i know neither of these titles use the D3D HAL.

running Alien Vs Predator (based on dx 6.1) and V2000 (based on dx 5) result in 
the bug occuring. These are both hardware accelerated.

Comment 14

[Crispin Boylan]

furthur checking reveals this buy will NOT be reproduced when using Windows 
Media Player 6.4 or 7.0.
Windows Media Player is not a direct 3D application but a direct draw one, (see 
my earlier comments) so this will not reproduce the bug.

Comment 15

[Bill Law]

Can you clarify the issue of whether the symptom matches bug 53952?

Does Mozilla display a splash screen?

Does Mozilla "not open" all the time, or only when a second instance is launched?

Do the blocking Mozillas start OK after killing/stopping the offending app?

I'm guessing this is the same bug as 53952 but I want to try to make sure.

Comment 16

[Crispin Boylan]

this is not the same as 53952 - once the bug is present nothing can be done to
get moz to load up, short of rebooting Windows.
if the bug is activated then there is no splash screen, you get some disk
activity but the only that happens is an instance of mozilla is present in the
task list, nothing else happens.

the thing with this bug is its not an every time bug, in fact the more i try to
reproduce it the less success I have, i'm yet to find something that will
definitely reproduce the bug.

i guess that this could be related to 53952, if some part of directx is left
running and moz is waiting for that to finish?

Comment 17

[Crispin Boylan]

just tried reproducing 53952

when an app is hanging (or simply busy and therefore not responding) the
symptoms do match this bugs symptoms exactly, whether that means they are the same?

Comment 18

[Viswanath Ramachandran]

nav triage: we cannot ship beta if running Windows Media Player makes mozilla 
not start. Bill - can you reproduce and assess the severity. Steve/Anatoliy - if 
you want to take this bug, please talk to Bill and then reassign to yourself. 

Comment 19

[shrirang khanzode]

from what I read in this bug..."media player does not help in reproducing this 
bug since it is not a direct 3d app'. 

Comment 20

[Bill Law]

I'm pretty sure this is a dup of bug 53952.

Comment 21

[Steve Morrison]

oh my, I am getting so screwed by this bug! I'm so glad I found thee. This has 
happened to me consistently since adding new directx drivers a few weeks ago. I 
wasn't able to break it down to a single app or test case either.

Comment 22

[Bill Law]

Decided to close this one as a dup of 53952.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 53952 ***

Comment 23

[shrirang khanzode]

mass duplicate verifications . For filtering purposes, pls use keywd
"massdupverification"