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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Nov 25 2008 :  3:24:05 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I have the latest build of visual assist (10.4.1649.0), but for the last few builds, I have been getting black tooltips.

Restarting Visual Studio 2008 does not help. It seems as though I would have to restart my computer (Vista) in order for regular tooltips to re-appear.

The black tooltips do not appear right away - only after prolonged usage of Visual Studio. I am talking about perhaps a day of usage.

If anyone else has experienced this issue as well, please share how you managed to solve it!

Thanks!

Stephen

feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Nov 26 2008 :  09:53:17 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Can you try installing the VA 1707 beta please and see if this makes any difference? From the history of fixes page for 1707:

Fixed GDI resource leak that was exacerbated by the presence of an external clipboard manager utility. (case=20137)

I am wondering if this fix will help. It might, especially if you have an external clipboard manager running.

http://forum.wholetomato.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=8351

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Mar 02 2009 :  6:03:15 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
This still occurs. I am on 10.5.1715.0.

It seems to occur on a secondary monitor - when I move my code window to the first monitor, the issues go away. But when I move it back, it can come back.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Mar 03 2009 :  10:40:22 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Can you explain what you are doing please.

Is the IDE maximised on a single monitor?
What sort of tooltip is this? A mouse hover tooltip? A parameter info tooltip? A listbox item tooltip?
Is the secondary monitor to the left or right of the main monitor?
Does this always happen, or only sometimes?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Mar 04 2009 :  2:35:59 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> Is the IDE maximised on a single monitor?
Yes, maximized on a single secondary monitor. But, I can see the black tooltips even when the program is not maximized.

> What sort of tooltip is this? A mouse hover tooltip? A parameter info tooltip? A listbox item tooltip?
It is the tooltip that displays when typing in (C++) code, that shows function signatures.

> Is the secondary monitor to the left or right of the main monitor?
The monitor with the black tooltip is to the right. When I go into display settings, the left monitor is marked as "2" and set as the main monitor. The right monitor is marked as "1" and is not the main monitor.

> Does this always happen, or only sometimes?
This happens after prolonged use, like several hours after a restart. Restarting Visual Studio does not help - only a computer restart helps. I also found that moving the Visual Studio window to the left monitor also restores the tooltips while it stays on the left monitor. When I move it back to the right, it becomes black again.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Mar 05 2009 :  11:31:39 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
The fact that this takes several hours to show up confuses me, previous VA tooltip problems with multiple monitors have always tended to show up right away.

Once the problem shows up do changing any VA options have any effect? Specifically:

VA Options -> Advanced -> Fonts and Colors -> Apply Colouring to -> Tooltips
VA Options -> Advanced -> Display -> use tomato icons in listboxes and tooltips to mark Visual Assist X content

also does disabling VA make any difference?

Can you please post a screen shot showing the problem tooltips?

If you place the caret into a function call and press CTRL-SHIFT-SPACE to trigger the tooltip do you still see this problem?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Mar 06 2009 :  2:13:23 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> The fact that this takes several hours to show up confuses me, previous VA tooltip problems
> with multiple monitors have always tended to show up right away.
Basically, something triggers it but during my usage I cannot determine what it is. The fact that the tooltip can be restored on the primary monitor - can it be trying to draw the tooltip on the wrong screen?

> Once the problem shows up do changing any VA options have any effect? Specifically:
>
> VA Options -> Advanced -> Fonts and Colors -> Apply Colouring to -> Tooltips
> VA Options -> Advanced -> Display -> use tomato icons in listboxes and tooltips to mark Visual Assist X content
The above options do not appear to do anything when I select/deselect them (I used Ctrl+Shift+Space to test).

> also does disabling VA make any difference?
Still black afterwards.

> Can you please post a screen shot showing the problem tooltips?
I posted it to http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=gx1LgaeS but not sure how long it lasts. If you cannot see the image, please let me know.

> If you place the caret into a function call and press CTRL-SHIFT-SPACE to trigger the tooltip do you still see this problem?
Yes, still black.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Mar 09 2009 :  11:55:08 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
The screen shot works, thank you for that. It almost sounds like some form of resource leak, but if so, I don't understand why it only effects one monitor.

Do you still have to restart the computer to fix this?

If so next time this happens can you please the IDE's Add-in manager to stop VA from loading, as explained in this FAQ entry:

http://docs.wholetomato.com?W306

then restart VS2008 and see if you still get blank tooltips?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Mar 09 2009 :  4:32:25 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> The screen shot works, thank you for that. It almost sounds like some form of resource leak, but if so, I don't
> understand why it only effects one monitor.
I moved the IDE to the other monitor just to see if it would fix the tooltips. This does not work all the time - I have seen the black tooltips on the primary monitor.

> Do you still have to restart the computer to fix this?
Sometimes, I can manage without the tooltips. In some occasions the regular tooltips can start to reappear again, but I'm not sure what triggers this.

> If so next time this happens can you please the IDE's Add-in manager to stop VA from loading, as explained in
> this FAQ entry: http://docs.wholetomato.com?W306, then restart VS2008 and see if you
> still get blank tooltips?
I will try closing VS2008, changing the registry key to stop loading VA, and restart VS2008.
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Mar 16 2009 :  2:41:14 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> If so next time this happens can you please the IDE's Add-in manager to stop VA from loading, as explained in this FAQ entry:
> http://docs.wholetomato.com?W306
> then restart VS2008 and see if you still get blank tooltips?
After seeing black tooltips, I restarted VS2008 with VA not loaded using the registry modification. I don't see any tooltips at all. I should note that I do not use the standard Intellisense and have disabled it using the macros described on the VCBlog page:
http://blogs.msdn.com/vcblog/archive/2007/11/19/controlling-intellisense-through-macros.aspx
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Mar 17 2009 :  1:48:31 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
*ah* yes, you will not get any tooltips with VA disabled if you have disabled the IDE's intellisense.

Next time you get the black tooltips can you please try hovering the mouse over toolbar buttons in the IDE. Do you get black tooltips here, or correct tooltips?

If this is some form of resource leak then it might effect other tooltips.

If you show VA Outline and place keyboard focus into the outline, and then hover the mouse over the lines, do you get readable tooltips, or black tooltips?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Mar 18 2009 :  4:54:04 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> Next time you get the black tooltips can you please try hovering the mouse over toolbar buttons in the IDE.
> Do you get black tooltips here, or correct tooltips?
I do not get black tooltips when I move my mouse over the toolbar buttons. Actually, these tooltips look a little bit different than the ones that go black - they are rounded, slightly whiter, and have shadows.

> If you show VA Outline and place keyboard focus into the outline, and then hover the mouse over the lines,
> do you get readable tooltips, or black tooltips?
Tooltips are not black when I use VA Outline. These appear to be the whiter, rounded, shadowed tooltips, as describe above.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Mar 19 2009 :  10:46:30 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
There is some good news here. Since other tooltips work correctly this is probably not a serious resource leak.

Next time the problem shows up can you please turn on VA logging, then get VA to show tooltips on both monitors. So some tooltips should work and some should be blank.

Can you then close the IDE, to stop the log files from getting to large, and send me the log files. Hopefully they will offer some clues to this problem.

Please see this FAQ for details of turning on VA's logging, and sending us the log files

http://docs.wholetomato.com?W305

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Mar 19 2009 :  3:26:42 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> Can you then close the IDE, to stop the log files from getting to large, and send me the log files. Hopefully
> they will offer some clues to this problem.
I have done this using the support form - please let me know when you receive them.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Mar 19 2009 :  6:18:18 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I have the log files, thank you for these:

case=25244

I have asked our developers if they have any ideas, and if the log files offer any clues.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Apr 14 2009 :  8:59:29 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
quote:
Originally posted by feline

I have the log files, thank you for these:

case=25244

I have asked our developers if they have any ideas, and if the log files offer any clues.



Hi feline, any updates from the devs about this? There are two other threads with similar issues nows (topic 8630 and topic 5473), with no solution thus far. It appears it could be a video card issue, but users who update their drivers seem to eventually get the issue again.

Thanks!
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Apr 15 2009 :  12:34:49 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Nothing solid yet. Part of the problem is that we have not found the cause / trigger.

It almost looks like some form of resource leak in one of the running processes. IF this is true, we still need to find the problem process. Just because it shows up in the IDE does not mean the IDE or VA is causing the problem *sigh*

Next time you encounter this problem can you please try the following test:

* load Task Manager
* kill the process "explorer.exe"
* In Task Manager use File menu -> Run to launch a new instance of "explorer.exe"

Does this make any difference?
What about restarting the IDE after killing and restarting explorer.exe?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Apr 16 2009 :  2:32:23 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> Does this make any difference?
> What about restarting the IDE after killing and restarting explorer.exe?

I have tried both, and still the black boxes remain.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Apr 16 2009 :  4:59:53 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Thank you for trying, its one more piece of information.

Can you try running Process Explorer from Sysinternals:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

and right click on the column headers and go into "select columns". On the Process Memory tab can you please turn on "GDI Objects" and "USER Objects" and then look for any processes that are using a lot of either. Anything over 2000 to 3000 is a lot.

If you have any process that is using a lot, does closing it make any difference?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Apr 17 2009 :  1:13:23 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> If you have any process that is using a lot, does closing it make any difference?

For me, devenv.exe (VS IDE) have the most USER/GDI objects at 680/860, followed by explorer.exe (374/790). There isn't anything that is in the thousands.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Apr 20 2009 :  10:41:37 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
These are low numbers. I often see VMware workstation achieve over 2000 GDI objects, when several virtual machines are running, without causing any problems.

How are you moving the IDE from one monitor to the other monitor?

If you are using a program like UltraMon it has a command to move a specific window to the next monitor, which can be triggered via a custom button it places onto the window title bar. Some utilities that come with graphics drivers offer similar features.

Or are you simply manually dragging a non maximised window to the other monitor with the mouse?

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Apr 20 2009 :  2:50:35 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> How are you moving the IDE from one monitor to the other monitor?
>
> If you are using a program like UltraMon it has a command to move a specific window to the next
> monitor, which can be triggered via a custom button it places onto the window title bar. Some
> utilities that come with graphics drivers offer similar features.
>
> Or are you simply manually dragging a non maximised window to the other monitor with the mouse?

I do use UltraMon, yes. I don't have the buttons but I usually drag a maximized window onto the other screen. I believe this is a feature of UltraMon as well (performs the same function as the additional button). When its on my primary monitor the tooltips appear. On my secondary monitor, the tooltips are gone.

I did a test and made my Visual Studio window non-maximized. I then brought it between the two screens, with the majority of the window on one screen, and moved it closer to the other monitor, and at each step checking the tooltip. At one point about halfway, where the Visual Studio window is split between the two monitors the tooltips become black. Not sure if this is useful, but just describing the symptoms.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Apr 21 2009 :  1:01:37 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Next time this happens can you please close the IDE, then exit UltraMon, then re-load the IDE and see if you can still reproduce the problem?

I doubt UltraMon is a factor, but it would be good to eliminate it as a possible factor.

The IDE half way between the two screens... that is really odd. My first reaction is a graphics driver problem, but that does not make sense, since this problem takes a while to show up.

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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Apr 21 2009 :  1:57:59 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> Next time this happens can you please close the IDE, then exit
> UltraMon, then re-load the IDE and see if you can still reproduce
> the problem?

The black tooltips still exist after an Ultramon restart ... :(
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Apr 22 2009 :  10:21:05 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Do you still get black tooltips while UltraMon is closed, so it is not running at all?

While UltraMon is closed, if you move the IDE between the two monitors do the tooltips work and break, depending on which monitor the tooltips are on?

Do you have a single graphics card in your machine with dual outputs or two graphics cards?
The effect of positioning the IDE across both monitors reminds me of something I saw years ago on a machine with two graphics cards, the monitor on the secondary monitor behaved differently to the monitor on the primary graphics card.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Apr 22 2009 :  2:30:03 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> Do you still get black tooltips while UltraMon is closed, so it is not running at all?
Yes, I tried closing UltraMon and restarting the IDE - it still gave black tooltips. I also tried restarting the IDE after restarting UltraMon, and it still had black tooltips.

> While UltraMon is closed, if you move the IDE between the two monitors do the tooltips work and break, depending
> on which monitor the tooltips are on?
Yes, it still exhibits this behaviour.

> Do you have a single graphics card in your machine with dual outputs or two graphics cards?
I only have one video card with two DVI ports. I tried swapping the two DVI plugs, keeping the monitors in the same position on my desk. This means that the #1 monitor, originally on my right, is now on my left. Even with this change, the black tooltips still reappeared.

Thanks feline for all the work in this investigation so far... getting closer to the cause...
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Apr 23 2009 :  1:13:09 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Next test, can you make a new default C++ application please and see if you get the black tooltips in this new test project.

If you do can you please Enable IDE intellisense in this test application. Since the test application will be tiny this will be very fast. I want to know if the black tooltips only effect VA tooltips, or if it also effects IDE tooltips from default intellisense inside the code.

The best way to check this will be to disable VA and then show / trigger some tooltips and see what happens.

I am also interested in the effect, if any, of the option:

VA Options -> Advanced -> Fonts and Colors -> Apply Colouring to -> Tooltips


It is also possible that VA tooltips will work correctly in this tiny project, even with IDE intellisense disabled.

zen is the art of being at one with the two'ness
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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - Apr 23 2009 :  6:25:07 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
> Next test, can you make a new default C++ application please and see if you get the black
> tooltips in this new test project.
>
> If you do can you please Enable IDE intellisense in this test application. Since the test
> application will be tiny this will be very fast. I want to know if the black tooltips only
> effect VA tooltips, or if it also effects IDE tooltips from default intellisense inside the
> code.
>
> The best way to check this will be to disable VA and then show / trigger some tooltips and
> see what happens.

The intellisense tooltips are not black, while the visual assist ones are. Here are the two screenshots:
1. No visual assist (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV3xQEA) - the intellisense tooltips are working normally.
2. With visual assist (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV3yozA) - the visual assist tooltips are still black.

> I am also interested in the effect, if any, of the option:
>
> VA Options -> Advanced -> Fonts and Colors -> Apply Colouring to -> Tooltips

They're off, but with them on I still see black.

> It is also possible that VA tooltips will work correctly in this tiny project, even with IDE intellisense disabled.

Unfortunately they don't. Well, I only started a new IDE when I already have black tooltips in another IDE.
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feline
Whole Tomato Software

United Kingdom
19021 Posts

Posted - Apr 25 2009 :  2:04:36 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I have asked our developers to see if they have any ideas, I am not sure what to make of all of this:

case=25244

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swongu
Junior Member

23 Posts

Posted - May 13 2009 :  3:21:46 PM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
Attached is another screenshot that is a little bit different from the previous cases.

(http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1zpaXi)

In this one, Visual Assist was working and it looks like it's starting to "break down" on the tooltips.

The size of the tooltip is correct - the tooltip is supposed to say:

static QString tr(const char* sourceText, const char * = 0){...}
Accept with: <TAB> or <ENTER>

But the tooltip displayed displays content that is irrelevant to the content where the cursor is. In fact the content ("FilterType type") is something I pointed to previously. Since the content is smaller than expected, the rest of the tooltip is black.
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mackeyar
New Member

Sweden
8 Posts

Posted - May 14 2009 :  03:21:23 AM  Show Profile  Reply with Quote
I got the same with 1715 and upgrading to 1724 didn't help.

VS2008, Vista 32-bit Professional.

I've seen this before (1-2 years ago), but I don't remember what I did to fix it then. :(

Cheers
/Marcus
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