New versions of LB don't allow you to regain focus/click

[duerra]

I have a dual-monitor setup on Windows.  When I turn my monitors off at night, sometimes Windows seems to recognize one of them as getting disconnected.  When this happens, all my windows from that monitor get moved to my other monitor, where they are all placed when I turn my monitors back on.  I reposition these windows back to their rightful positions.  For the last 2 versions of LaunchBox, when this happens, I am unable to focus LaunchBox again, causing me to have to go into the task manager and issue an End Task signal against it and relaunch the software. 

Are there any known workarounds, short of restoring to an older version of LaunchBox?  I saw in the changelog that a seemingly related issue was fixed in the latest version, but that has not been my experience - and my hardware isn't a touchscreen scenario.

Edit: to clarify that in retrospect it doesn't appear to be related to my dual-monitor setup.

Edited June 21 by duerra

[duerra]

I really seem to be struggling with losing and not being able to regain focus, or otherwise having the app seize without fully crashing on me with the last 2 releases and the only recovery killing the process in the task manager.

Occasionally I also see an error about a missing index or key.  I'll try and capture it next time it happens.

[duerra]

Still having this issue in December.  It's not actually related to my dual-monitor setup though, I don't think.  LaunchBox just seems to get into a state where I can't actually get it to regain focus unless I kill it from the task manager and restart it.  I don't know how to actively reproduce it, but it has been happening for a number of months now. 

[Headrush69]

On 12/22/2023 at 2:44 PM, duerra said:

Still having this issue in December.  It's not actually related to my dual-monitor setup though, I don't think.  LaunchBox just seems to get into a state where I can't actually get it to regain focus unless I kill it from the task manager and restart it.  I don't know how to actively reproduce it, but it has been happening for a number of months now. 

I haven't had time to really investigate but since a couple versions ago I have the same consistent issues.

It seems the GUI stalls yet everything is functioning otherwise. If I click around the screen, I can hear LB playing the preview video for whatever game I may be clicking on. The GUI elements don't highlight. The only way to fix is to close LB and restart.

Edit: Ypu should ask a mod to move this to the troubleshooting forum where it will likely get more attention. This one is for website/forum problems.

Edited April 6 by Headrush69

[duerra]

This is still happening on the latest version of LaunchBox for me.  It always seems to show up after having played a game.  If I just launch LaunchBox and don't start a game, the problem does not seem to arise.  It also doesn't happen every time.  I still haven't been able to pinpoint when/why it happens.

[duerra]

@Lordmonkus can you please move this to the troubleshooting forum?

[Lordmonkus]

Moved.

[duerra]

Still continue to have this issue.  This morning, I've had to task kill LB 3 separate times due to issues with being able to restore interaction capabilities with the LaunchBox app.  I really am at a loss as to better helping identify why this is happening.  It cannot obviously be reproduced, but it happens to me multiple times a week, if not multiple times a day.

[AstroBob]

Hi @duerra sorry to hear you're still experiencing this, I realise this thread has been open for a while so I hope it's okay to take a step back and reconfirm some info here in case things have changed

1) What is the specific LaunchBox version you are running?
2) Can you reconfirm specifically what the issue is and the steps to reproduce it? The reason I ask is that it seemed to start out with an issue where after one of your monitors would disconnect, LaunchBox would lose focus and couldn't be brought back, but seems to have since turned into an issue where after closing a game, you're unable to regain focus on the app and need to force quit it. 

I realise it's tricky to consistently reproduce it, but when it does happen are you able to grab a screen recording so we can see the issue in action? Feel free to DM me a recording if you don't want to share it here.

Keep me posted and we'll try to get you an answer as to why this is happening

[Sbaby]

20 minutes ago, AstroBob said:

 @duerra

I'm sorry to chime in again and say it like this, but unfortunately I'm also almost resigned to this issue. I've been experiencing it for several versions now, and I too frequently have to force close LaunchBox because it completely freezes with no chance of recovery. It's really frustrating. Additionally, I wouldn't even know how to replicate the problem, as it happens unpredictably and, unfortunately, occurs quite often.

[AstroBob]

15 hours ago, Sbaby said:

I'm sorry to chime in again and say it like this, but unfortunately I'm also almost resigned to this issue. I've been experiencing it for several versions now, and I too frequently have to force close LaunchBox because it completely freezes with no chance of recovery. It's really frustrating. Additionally, I wouldn't even know how to replicate the problem, as it happens unpredictably and, unfortunately, occurs quite often.

@Sbaby sorry to hear you're having these issues. I'd be happy to try and help get you sorted but I just want to ensure we're talking about the same issue here. The original poster's issue appears to be related to LaunchBox losing focus after closing a game, which results in them having to force quit LaunchBox.

This issue you describe appears to relate to LaunchBox randomly freezing and needing to be force quit, rather than losing focus on the app (which results in needing to force quit). Apologies if I've misunderstood there, if you're having the same issue as the original poster then no worries, but if it's different let me know and we can break this out into a separate thread and try and get you sorted.

[Sbaby]

9 hours ago, AstroBob said:

@Sbaby sorry to hear you're having these issues. I'd be happy to try and help get you sorted but I just want to ensure we're talking about the same issue here. The original poster's issue appears to be related to LaunchBox losing focus after closing a game, which results in them having to force quit LaunchBox.

This issue you describe appears to relate to LaunchBox randomly freezing and needing to be force quit, rather than losing focus on the app (which results in needing to force quit). Apologies if I've misunderstood there, if you're having the same issue as the original poster then no worries, but if it's different let me know and we can break this out into a separate thread and try and get you sorted.

You are absolutely right, I did not read the original post carefully and I apologize for the confusion. Actually, I am experiencing both problems: sometimes LaunchBox loses focus after closing a game and sometimes it randomly crashes, forcing me to exit. So, unfortunately, I am dealing with both situations. If you'd rather split the discussion to handle them separately, that's perfectly fine, as you prefer. Thank you for your willingness to help!

[AstroBob]

No worries, thanks for confirming. In that case, let's keep this thread focused on LaunchBox losing focus, if you want to open a new one for your specific crashes we'll be happy to follow up there.

For this one though, to try and start narrowing things down we need a way to accurately reproduce this. For anyone experiencing this can you please confirm:

• How many monitors are you running in your setup
• What version of LaunchBox are you running
• Can you describe (to as best you can) the steps to reproduce this issue?
• If it seems to happen after closing a game, what kind of game (i.e Steam, an Emulator, etc)
• Does it appear to happen for all games, certain types of games (i.e only Steam), or it appears to happen randomly?
• I realise its hard due to the random nature of this, but if anyone can supply a screen recording of the issue in action, that would greatly help

Let us know and we'll do our best to try and reproduce this on our side

[duerra]

To be clear, I mentioned dual monitors in case it helped in identifying the root cause.  I don't necessarily believe dual monitors to be the issue, however.  I thought maybe after recovering from idle monitor power down, but that is definitely not the case, either.  It doesn't always happen after closing a game, I don't think, though that definitely does happen.  It's not the LaunchBox freezes as in the typical app hanging freeze.  It's that I can't actually click into LaunchBox and navigate around in anything any longer.  You can't even properly select the window from the task bar.  If you have it behind another window, for instance, it won't be returned to the foreground when clicking the task bar.  You can alt-tab to LaunchBox, but you are still unable to interact with it.  The only way to address the issue is to task kill it from the task manager and launch it again.

As for the version, it has been happening for well over a year now, across all versions of LaunchBox since before I reported it in July 2023.  I update regularly.

[Sbaby]

On 10/17/2024 at 2:59 AM, AstroBob said:

Let us know and we'll do our best to try and reproduce this on our side

I am experiencing the same situation described by @duerra

it is not easy to answer your questions for each point because I cannot find a version, a game, or a moment to blame

For the video, I don't believe it's necessary to show an image of Launchbox when it becomes unresponsive (non-clickable). This can happen whether the window is open or minimized to the taskbar, as it stops responding to any input

I also wanted to remind you that I’m experiencing this issue as well, which I believe might be related. I’ve previously described it in detail here, along with a video, and it has been getting worse lately:

https://forums.launchbox-app.com/topic/86733-launchbox-1317-beta-thread/page/3/#comment-478028

I would suggest that there might be a conflict in the app’s startup options that interferes with other Launchbox functions during launch, possibly related to a timing or delay issue.

thank you for your patience 😔

[AstroBob]

Hi @duerra thanks for elaborating there.

We've been continuing to discuss this internally and while this isn’t a super common problem, we think it may be related to some hardware-specific factors, such as your video card, driver setup, or even how some games handle fullscreen mode (especially if the game is running in exclusive fullscreen and changes resolution). We’ve seen similar problems in the past caused by specific Nvidia drivers or pre-installed software (like audio programs) on some systems that don’t play well with .NET or WPF applications like LaunchBox.

I can't say for certain if this will help, but a few things that might be good to try, but if you’re using an Nvidia card, make sure you’re on the latest driver version. We’ve had issues in the past with certain Nvidia drivers causing LaunchBox to crash after exiting games, but these were later fixed in driver updates. Outside of this, could you elaborate on your specific hardware setup, (especially GPU, driver version, and any display-related software).

We're scratching our heads a little bit since we're unable to replicate this after trying extensively, so trying to get a better picture of your specific setup might help us in our investigation

[duerra]

Hi @AstroBob - yes, I have an NVIDIA 4090 on the latest 566.05 driver version with Windows 10.  I update it regularly, so it's not likely version-specific.  I do use DisplayFusion, which has functions integral to my workflow (such as a separate task bar for my second [vertical] monitor).  I do use full-screen settings typically in games, though this has shown up even for games I play regularly and do not consistently see this issue.  It can sometimes happen within minutes of loading LaunchBox, and other times it could be days between issues.  It never happened until it did, and since then I have had the problem across all versions of LaunchBox and GPU driver.  I also used DisplayFusion and my physical monitor setup prior to this issue starting.  I may have upgraded my second monitor to an DisplayPort input from a DVI input in August 2023, which was just after I first reported this issue.  The issue began beginning a couple of versions before the original post date.  My main monitor is G-SYNC, and my secondary monitor is FreeSync (but the old secondary monitor did not have VRR).

Edited October 25 by duerra

[duerra]

Please see the attached video.

[Sbaby]

1 hour ago, duerra said:

Please see the attached video.

The exact same thing happens to me as well

[duerra]

2 hours ago, Sbaby said:

The exact same thing happens to me as well

@Sbaby let's do a little recon here to see if we can help out the team.

• Do you have any software installed which may interact with the Windows environment or task bar in any way, such as my situation with DisplayFusion?
• Do you have any non-default settings in your LaunchBox install as it pertains to games - for example, I have the Launch Screen disabled in my settings.  Other things might include (but not in my case), AHK scripts or other software which may get invoked when launching a game.