I think this might be a bug because it happened with my previous PC as well.
I currently have a Dell XPS8940 and 2x Dell monitors, both connected to the PC via DisplayPort cables. Running Win10 Pro 22H2 and DOpus 12.30.1 but the behaviour has been happening since I bought my previous Windows 10 PC in early 2019 and using whatever version of DOpus was current at that time.
I can have DOpus open on either monitor, full screen or not, or even spread across the 2. After a period of non-use, e.g. using another app on the other screen or just leaving the PC to get a cuppa, when I try to use DOpus once again and although DOpus is there on screen the computer reacts as if it's not (there).
Nothing I do will make the DOpus window active again. In fact, if there's another window behind DOpus it comes to the front and becomes active if I happen to click inside where it is. Even though I can't see it. It's as if DOpus has become invisible to the computer.
The only thing I can do is right click on the taskbar and "Close window" or "Close all windows"
The behaviour I've described here also occurred with my previous PC, a Dell XPS8930 and 2 different Dell monitors that were connected via HDMI. I just never got 'round to asking about it previously.
That sounds like a problem outside of Opus, as even if Opus had completed frozen, its windows would still block mouse clicks on windows underneath them.
(We have also been using Opus on multi-monitor systems for around 20 years without ever seeing anything like this.)
Make sure the proper display drivers are installed and up to date.
If you’re using any tools that change how other programs’ windows look or behave, try uninstalling them temporarily to see if they are the cause. Same with any tools which move windows around or make them on-top or transparent, or which add multi-monitor or multi/virtual desktop functions.
With my previous PC I half wondered if something I'd installed was causing the problem. But with this current PC - fresh out of the box just a week ago - I've not yet installed anything. Apart from DOpus that is. Just the Windows updates that were automatically installed soon after I fired it up for the first time, and then some driver updates from Dell, one of which were NVidia drivers.
But I can't see these current NVidia drivers being the problem (happy to be proved wrong though) as the previous PC also used NVidia drivers going back to 2019.
I have no tools of any kind as suggested in your last paragraph.
I forgot to mention in my original post, the DOpus windows don't become invisible if I remember to minimise them before I stop using them.
This just might have to remain one of life's little mysteries eh?
I've always been using NVidia cards/drivers as well, and never seen anything like you describe with Opus or any other software.
The drivers from Dell are not always complete or up to date. I would get the ones from NVidia themselves if it's a desktop graphics card. (Laptops sometimes need special drivers but desktop cards shouldn't.)
It sounds like the window manager or GPU drivers are going wrong, to be honest. They're putting/leaving a window on the screen but ignoring it in terms of mouse clicks.
Thanks for that suggestion. I updated my graphics drivers direct from NVidia - installed version prior to updating was 516.94, after the update 527.56.
Sadly, no change at all in the semi-invisible DOpus windows.
It's got me beat!
Interestingly, if I power off one monitor, DOpus behaves perfectly on the one remaining. So it's only when I have 2 monitors running this misbehaviour occurs.
My last message made me think of trying an experiment. What happens if I have a "dead" window and I turn off that monitor?
And this is what happens: Computer takes a few seconds to think about it, then forces everything on to the one remaining active screen. And the DOpus windows are once again usable. I can then turn the "off" screen back on and move the reanimated DOpus window back to it.
It might be worth turning off Preferences / Display / Transition Animations / Enable transition animations to see if that helps. Those animations will place a fake copy of the window on-screen while the animation happens, which might be confusing some part of the OS or drivers.
If moving the window by turning off the monitor fixes things, it seems the OS is confused about where the window is vs where it's displaying the window. Things like dragging the window via its titlebar are handled by the OS itself, so if even that doesn't work it implies the OS itself is confused somehow.
Selecting the window via the taskbar and then using the Win+Left Arrow or Right Arrow hotkeys a few times may unstick the window without having to turn off the screen.
Hi again Leo, thanks for your help with this. I now have a resolution. Turning off the transition animations didn't help but your last suggestion of Win+Left Arrow or Right Arrow absolutely did. I can reanimate a window using just one press of those hotkeys.
My grateful thanks to you for that idea. Case closed.
Incidentally I've just realised this is my 40th year of using DOpus - having bought my first copy (V4?) at a World of Commodore show at Darling Harbour way back in 1992. It was my most used program back then, and still is today!
I did a quick search for similar issues on the web, and found a bunch of threads on Microsoft's forum which sound very similar, all from people with laptops that have NVidia chips in.
Some of them say that disabling Hybrid Sleep in Windows solves the problem for them. Hybrid Sleep is a complete bug-factory, so this would not surprise me.
Most of the threads were not very useful, but this one has some useful replies:
Hi Leo, it's been nearly a year since we discussed a problem I'd been having with DOpus windows freezing on me.
The problem never went away but the work-around you suggested has kept me happy since last December. But now, I've discovered how to eliminate the problem entirely. Upgrade to Windows 11!
I finally gave in to Microsoft's nagging and allowed my machine to upgrade in the last week of November. I soon noticed that after leaving a DOpus window open and running for hours on end, it no longer freezes.
No idea why but there you go. Thanks once more for your help last year!
